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JAPAN
Apr 20, 2014

Military risks China's wrath with first step west in 40 years

Japan on Saturday began its first military expansion at the western end of its island chain in more than 40 years, breaking ground on a radar station on a tropical island off Taiwan.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 19, 2014

Cannabis: the healing of the nation

Every summer in Hokkaido and northern Honshu, platoons of police and public servants scour the countryside for cannabis.
JAPAN / History
Apr 19, 2014

Taking a maiden stab at expansionism in Taiwan

Taiwan is Japan's forgotten colony.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Apr 19, 2014

Nakama set to retire

Never a superstar, but always a hard-working, team-first player, shooting guard Jumpei Nakama has enjoyed popularity and the respect of his peers since the bj-league's inception in 2005. He's been a fan favorite throughout the country as the league has grown nonstop for nearly a decade.
EDITORIALS
Apr 19, 2014

Kids wasting too much time online

A Cabinet Office survey finds that the amount of time that Japanese youngsters spend on the Internet with mobile or smartphones has increased 50 percent from a 2010 survey.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2014

Raise corporate profile of women, confab urges

A two-day international conference aiming to empower women kicked off Friday in Tokyo with a call for companies and the government to foster more female executives — an area of gender equality where Japan greatly lags behind the global norm.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 18, 2014

GSDF to militarize remote Yonaguni

The government is sending 100 Ground Self-Defense Force members and radar to its western-most outpost, a tropical island off Taiwan, in a deployment that risks angering China with ties between Asia's biggest economies already hurt by a dispute over nearby islets they both claim.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 18, 2014

History beckons as Japan and Australia bolster ties

History was made this month when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shook hands with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Japan's first free trade deal with a major agricultural exporter.
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2014

Tourism authorities eye travelers' tweets to fine-tune promotions

Japan is thinking of using Twitter, cellphone and GPS data to scope out tourists' wants and needs ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 17, 2014

Casual pot use among young alters brain's motivation region: study

Young, casual marijuana smokers experience potentially harmful changes to their brains, with the drug altering regions of the mind related to motivation and emotion, researchers have found.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 17, 2014

Japan misses chance as Abe looks backward

For Abenomics bulls who still hold out hope that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe intends to make good on his pledges to revitalize Japan, the past week must have been at least a little disconcerting.
EDITORIALS
Apr 17, 2014

Tread carefully on corporate tax cut

As the Abe administration considers cuts to corporate taxes as part of its growth strategy, it must ensure that it doesn't end up plugging the revenue hole by adding tax burdens to the household sector, already bearing the brunt of the April 1 consumption tax hike and rising prices.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 17, 2014

Tortured POW meets his Japanese tormentor

"He is most interested in having contact with you for he has lived with many unanswered questions all these years, questions to which perhaps only you can help him to find the answers." So wrote Patricia Lomax in a letter sent from her home in England to Takashi Nagase, who at the time lived in Okayama...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 17, 2014

'Thermae Romae II'

Hideki Takeuchi's "Thermae Romae" — literally "Roman Bath" — was 2012's surprise box office smash in Japan, earning nearly ¥6 billion, the second-highest that year.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 17, 2014

Hundreds still missing in deadly Korea ferry sinking

South Korean coast guard and navy divers resumed searching on Thursday for about 290 people still missing, many of them students from the same high school, after a ferry capsized in sight of land.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 16, 2014

Toyota tweaks Camry as Sonata makes gains

Toyota Motor Corp. is making rare styling changes in the Camry sedan just halfway into the car's usual design cycle, a sign the automaker is eager to stem gains made by Hyundai Motor Co.'s Sonata, which also is being reworked for 2015.
BUSINESS
Apr 16, 2014

Koto Ward mulls Olympic cable car

A study is underway for the possible construction of a cable car linking 2020 Tokyo Olympic venues with a business area near the Ginza shopping district, a municipal government official has said.
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 16, 2014

Could England's lead cultural agency offer a long-term template for Japan as a whole?

Arts Council England, generally referred to as the Arts Council, is a national agency which, in its own words, "champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people's lives."
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 15, 2014

Park apologizes for latest scandal to rock South Korea's spy agency

South Korean President Park Geun-hye apologized Tuesday for the latest scandal to rock the intelligence service. Three officials have been charged in a conspiracy to fabricate evidence against a man accused of spying for North Korea.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’