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JAPAN / Politics / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Mar 22, 2015

Election results in Kansai will weigh on Abe's plans

In Kansai, the outcome of the national unified local elections on April 12 and 26 might change Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's budget and policy priorities.
JAPAN / Politics / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Mar 22, 2015

First wave of April elections litmus test for Osaka merger plan

For most prefectures, cities and towns, April's quadrennial unified elections will be the last opportunity for the next few years to vote on local matters.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Mar 22, 2015

Walker crafts 'regular guy' image in bid to unseat Bush as 2016 election front-runner

Republican Scott Walker is cultivating an image on the nascent U.S. 2016 campaign trail as a regular guy who met his wife at a barbecue restaurant and buys discount clothes, a man-of-the-people approach that is in contrast to the more buttoned-down Jeb Bush.
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2015

Security blanket: Should Japan beef up its anti-terrorism measures?

On Nov. 27, 2005, an unidentified terrorist group attacked the Mihama nuclear power plant on the Japan Sea in Fukui Prefecture, damaging the facility and creating fears of a radiation leak.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 21, 2015

Lizard Telepathy Fox Telepathy

After randomly reading some pieces in this esoteric collection of poems and photography by Yoshinori Henguchi one might question why they picked up the book to begin with, or even their own existence.
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Mar 20, 2015

Police who stand with big sticks

Dear Alice,
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2015

American-style shareholder capitalism on trial

Shareholder capitalism in the U.S. seems caught in a vicious circle as consumers spend less and save more to protect themselves against future economic shocks, thus prompting businesses buy back more of their stock and return the money to shareholders rather than launch major investment projects.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 20, 2015

Japan's tax agency, Hong Kong join FBI in scrutinizing casino developer

Japan's tax authorities have begun a review of how slot machine maker and casino developer Universal Entertainment accounted for $40 million in payments made in 2010 to an associate of the Philippines' top gambling regulator at that time, sources told Reuters.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 19, 2015

Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley and Graham Moore reflect on the complexities of Alan Turing

The story of Alan Turing and his role in breaking the Nazis' Enigma code in World War II has been told many times. But never has Britain's lauded mathematician been reincarnated as such a socially offensive, harsh and humorless character.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 19, 2015

LDP pushes for higher deposit cap for postal giant before IPO

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party wants to raise the deposit limit at state-owned Japan Post Holdings Co.'s lending arm before a planned initial public offering later this year, according to a lawmaker who is backing the change.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Mar 18, 2015

Former Japan women's coach Brown still going strong

In a basketball coaching career spanning almost half a century, Herb Brown has built a strong reputation and accumulated a wealth of experience in the NBA and NCAA.
EDITORIALS
Mar 18, 2015

More chances of false charges?

The Diet should scrutinize whether the proposed revision to the criminal procedure law contributes to eliminating false charges and wrongful convictions.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2015

The real lesson from the Clinton email imbroglio

The flap over Hillary Clinton's use of private email reflects the tension between the drive for transparency and the instinct for privacy.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 17, 2015

Picketty's impact on Japan

Every policy proposed by Thomas Picketty clashed head-on with the view of mainstream economists in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2015

Should we worry about robots taking away jobs?

The fear of technological job loss to robots is real, but probably exaggerated.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 17, 2015

Taxpayers shouldn't fund war on Asahi Shimbun

The Abe administration's 'kulturekampf' against Asahi Shimbun makes it look like the Chinese Communist Party in its hostility to a free press.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Mar 15, 2015

Return of Fukushima elderly gives preview of future

The nation honored its dead last week from the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Tohoku's Pacific coastline on March 11 four years ago.
JAPAN / History
Mar 14, 2015

Cult attraction: Aum Shinrikyo's power of persuasion

Ahead of the 20th anniversary of Aum Shinrikyo's deadly sarin attack in Tokyo, we talk to three people with intimate knowledge of the cult in a bid to find out how it was able to exert so much influence over its followers.
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Mar 14, 2015

A Personal Matter

In the 1960s, Kenzaburo Oe began regularly writing about a character based on his autistic son, Hikari.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 13, 2015

Is virtual art as nourishing as a set meal?

You have to admit, it's all awfully clever. At "L'art de Rosanjin," which runs at Nihonbashi Mitsui Hall until March 24, visitors can sit in a virtual tempura restaurant, and gawp as images of the chef's hands at work are projected on the counter in front of them, accompanied by the sounds of sizzling...
EDITORIALS
Mar 13, 2015

Amending for amendment's sake?

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party are moving to put amendment of the Constitution at the forefront of their agenda, with specific timetables already discussed for revising text that has remained unchanged since it took effect in 1947.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2015

India's growing crisis of democracy

An ambitious political experiment engineered by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist party in the border state of Jammu and Kashmir — the only Muslim-majority state in India — threatens to implode within just a few days of its start.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2015

Ukraine is worst of Obama's many foreign policy disasters

If U.S. President Barack Obama is to be blamed for errors with Libya, the Mideast and especially Ukraine, it is also true that his foreign policies have reflected a consensus in the U.S. governing class and popular opinion alike that America must always be 'first.'
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 13, 2015

British girls were helped into Syria by captured spy from U.S.-led coalition: Turkey

A spy who worked for a country in the U.S.-led coalition that is fighting Islamic State had helped three British girls to cross into Syria to join the militants and has been caught, the Turkish foreign minister said on Thursday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 12, 2015

Vaio Phone to offer SIM-free option in 'wide open' market

Japan Communications Inc. unveiled on Thursday a new smartphone designed in collaboration with Vaio Corp. to energize the market for SIM-free smartphones in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 12, 2015

Russia's social order today

In today's Russia, traditional forms of employment with stable wages and a more or less transparent system of social security have given way to shadow-market-style labor relations with badly documented part-time jobs and nontransparent methods of remuneration.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 12, 2015

Asian airlines are running out of trained pilots

Asia's aviation market is booming, but the supply of pilots isn't keeping pace with the demand for flights. It's time that aviation companies in the West lend Asian airlines and governments a hand.

Longform

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