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EDITORIALS
Jul 24, 2013

TPP-ready fishing industry?

With a graying workforce and a total fish catch in decline, Japan's fishing industry will need some help before it's ready for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / BALANCING INTERESTS
Jul 24, 2013

High-end grape grower has no TPP gripe, just sees green

Grapes grown on Takanobu Watanabe's farm in Tomi, Nagano Prefecture, are still chartreuse this time of the year, as the summer heat boosts the berries' sugar content before veraison, the onset of ripening.
EDITORIALS
Jul 23, 2013

The danger zone for eels

As Japanese eels move closer to an international endangered species list, Japanese consumers had better try to curb their appetite for them.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2013

U.N. norm setters vs. takers

How long will the United Nations division of labor last in which Westerners are the norm setters and enforcers while the rest are norm takers
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 23, 2013

U.K. duchess casts traditional midwives aside for birth

Prince William's wife, Kate, cast aside British tradition when she picked the team that helped her deliver her baby on Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2013

Greenpeace's Shard stunt may not help its cause

Greenpeace's staged scaling of central London's Shard skyscraper makes one wonder if the environmental organization might be even more effective if it grew up.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2013

Indonesia's cautious confidence

How does Indonesia leverage its newly acquired strength to confront the challenges facing it and its regional partners, while avoiding foreign policy recklessness
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2013

Free study abroad prep in Kumamoto

Kumamoto Prefecture will open a free cram school Sunday for junior high and high school students who want to enroll in universities overseas.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 19, 2013

The weird and wonderful world of the naked mole rat

Doctor Chris Faulkes, who has been working with them almost every day for the last 25 years, has long since learned to love naked mole rats, but, as he concedes, since they are "pretty much blind and live underground in the dark, they are not necessarily naturally selecting on good looks."
EDITORIALS
Jul 18, 2013

Meeting the needs of young voters

Before casting their ballots Sunday, young voters should not forget to consider the various parties' promises with regard to childcare and support for young workers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 17, 2013

DJ Miso Shiru and MC Gohan raps and roasts on 'Mother's Food'

A gig doesn't double as dinner, but at DJ Miso Shiru and MC Gohan's shows there's a good chance food will be involved. Besides a hip-hop set, the audience can sometimes participate in cooking demonstrations.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 2013

Can Snowden cite rights and still applaud Putin?

It's easy to admire Edward Snowden for what he has revealed about U.S. and U.K. spying, and still feel deeply uncomfortable about his praise for Russia, of all places.
Reader Mail
Jul 17, 2013

Western work ethic is wanting

In his July 11 letter, "Abnormal way to run a workday," Grant Piper raises a philosophical doctrine that is very Western: We live not to work, but we work to live. Indeed, this supports the utilitarian theories of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, two British philosophers of capitalism who promoted...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jul 14, 2013

Japanese players show streetball flair

Masayuki Kabaya wanted Hideki Mitsui to shoot the rock. Actually, he was daring him to shoot it.
WORLD / FOCUS
Jul 14, 2013

Media outlets rethink news embargo ethics

It's said that the news never stops. But often, its timing is stage-managed.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 13, 2013

Hot weather's cold comfort for eels

In March this year, I spent a week in Taiwan as a guest of the Taiwan Fisheries Agency. My hosts had laid on a relentless daily schedule that took in a complete circuit of the island nation, visiting nearly all the major commercial fishing ports, including Taitung on the Pacific Ocean, Tainan and Kaosiung...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 13, 2013

Effects will become more obvious as Japan's climate changes

Residents of Japan's big cities, and of Tokyo in particular, are well aware of the heat-island effect — especially now with the onset of summer.
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 13, 2013

Hong Kong air pollution killed 1,600

Hong Kong's air pollution caused more than 1,600 premature deaths in the first half of the year, almost 40 times the number of fatalities attributed to the H7N9 avian flu virus, according to a study by the Clean Air Network.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 12, 2013

Global threat to food supply as water wells dry up

Wells are drying up and underwater tables falling so fast in the Middle East and parts of India, China and the United States that food supplies are seriously threatened, one of the world's leading resource analysts warned on July 7.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 12, 2013

Fracking battle lines drawn in England's countryside

For a site symbolizing a future that will either poison our countryside or bring us unlimited amounts of cheap, pollution-free energy, Elswick, in northeast England, is a distinctly underwhelming destination for a visit. The gas-power station, owned by the U.K. drilling company Cuadrilla, lies in the...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jul 12, 2013

Summer travel biz shows signs of recovery

Thanks to UNESCO, the domestic travel industry is on the mend.
EDITORIALS
Jul 11, 2013

Defense Ministry makes its case

Japan has a high-wire act cut out if, as a white paper says, it must improve its defense capabilities and maritime vigilance in the region without provoking China.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 11, 2013

Female mammals can pick sex of offspring, study finds

Mammals appear to have the ability to select the gender of their offspring for the benefit of their species, according to a new study that followed three generations of more than 2,300 animals from the San Diego Zoo.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 10, 2013

China's pivot toward North Korea

It's time for China to rebalance its traditional geostrategic interests with its role as a global leader. That calls for a policy of disciplined engagement toward North Korea.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past