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Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2015

Japan must improve intel so firms can prosper: NSA official-turned-CEO

A former U.S. National Security Agency official says Japan needs a better intelligence-gathering apparatus not just to respond to terrorism but to protect Japanese companies as well.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2015

Discerning threats in the fog of disorder

Leaders and analysts gathering at the 51st Munich Security Conference will try to discern the next emerging global threats following a horrendous year for international peace and security.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2015

Limiting the Security Council's veto power

In the lead-up to the commemoration of this year's 70th anniversary of the U.N., the French government is again pursuing the idea of getting the five permanent members of the Security Council to agree to refrain from using their veto power when dealing with mass-atrocity crimes.
EDITORIALS
Feb 5, 2015

Better life for dementia sufferers

The government, which recently adopted a new strategy for measures against dementia, needs to follow through on the idea of ensuring a better quality of life for patients by heeding the wishes of sufferers and their families.
WORLD
Feb 5, 2015

Russia said to be leading U.N. effort to curb Islamic State's cash flow

Russia has drafted a United Nations Security Council resolution intended to increase pressure on governments to cut off cash flowing to the Islamic State group, according to a Russian diplomat and three other U.N. diplomats.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Feb 4, 2015

At age 50, seeing the writing on the wall

At half a century old, I only look forward — to see how much time is left before my clock runs out.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Feb 4, 2015

Multivitamins may help ward off common cold

Vitamin and mineral supplements are big business in Japan, but are they really any use?
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Feb 4, 2015

Readers' letters: bursting bubbles on gaijin life and the Hague child-abduction treaty

A couple of readers' mails in response to recent Just Be Cause columns by Debito Arudou.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 3, 2015

Government did not beef up response team until video emerged

The government did not dispatch additional personnel to the embassy in Jordan until the first video showing two Japanese held at knife-point appeared two weeks ago, even though Tokyo knew the pair had been taken captive much earlier, Foreign Minister Fuu00admio Kiu00adshiu00adda says.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 3, 2015

Liberia begins clinical trial for Ebola vaccines as outbreak ebbs

Liberia began a trial of experimental Ebola vaccines on Monday, involving thousands of volunteers as part of an effort to slow the spread of the deadly fever and prevent future outbreaks.
COMMUNITY / Voices
Feb 2, 2015

Tokyo: Does anyone else share responsibility for the death of Kenji Goto?

After the killing of a second Japanese hostage, Kenji Goto, by the Islamic State group, Mark Buckton asked people whether others share some culpability in his death. Some interviewees declined to have their pictures and surnames published.
EDITORIALS
Feb 2, 2015

Japan must remain undeterred

We repeat our condemnation of the acts of the Islamic State extremist group, which claims to have killed both of the two Japanese they took hostage, Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa. Its attempt to justify their killings by accusing Japan of taking part in the war against it does not make sense, and its...
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2015

Goto beheaded by Islamic State militants

Despite an unusual lull that had raised hopes hostage Kenji Goto might be freed, many in Japan were shocked Sunday to learn the Islamic State group had apparently executed him.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 31, 2015

Dendera

Though there's still plenty of debate about whether it was ever common for Japan's rural communities to deal with elderly relatives by leaving them to die on a mountain, it makes for a great story. Depicted in Keisuke Kinoshita's 1958 period drama, "Narayama Bushiko" ("The Ballad of Narayama") — remade...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 31, 2015

Ground Zero, Nagasaki

Ground Zero, Nagasaki, by Seirai Yuichi, Translated by Paul Warham.Colombia University Press, Fiction.
Japan Times
SPORTS / NOTES ON A SCORECARD
Jan 30, 2015

No reason for fans to despair over Nishikori's defeat

What a difference three years makes.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2015

Eroding language of austerity

After years of trudging through an economic slough of austerity, guarded by German warders, that left southern European states near to despair, the EU can see a ribbon of the light of dawn upon the horizon.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 30, 2015

Japan's fertile architectural evolution

Today, Japanese contemporary architecture enjoys an outstanding international reputation, but the story of its emergence to a position of such accomplishment and acclaim has not yet been told comprehensively. A pair of exhibitions at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa presents a postwar...
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jan 30, 2015

In less than a year, Tonko House earns an Oscar nomination

They had plum jobs at one of the best companies in the world. Their successes were the envy of their peers. But last summer, two peak-career professionals quit their lucrative day jobs to found a start-up. With no income or investment, they built their own studio, mostly by hand, and started working...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jan 30, 2015

In Alpine skiing, Asian nations face long run to become competitive

China and South Korea have produced world-class athletes in several winter sports, but alpine skiing events are notable exceptions.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2015

Japanese at higher risk of kidnap, analyst says

As the latest Islamic State deadline ticked closer on Thursday, one analyst said the Abe administration's response to the hostage crisis may leave other Japanese at risk of being kidnapped as political extremists and profiteers now see them as easy prey.
EDITORIALS
Jan 29, 2015

Tinkering with the war apology

For his statement at next summer's 70-year commemoration of the end of World War II, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he wants to avoid 'nitpicking' words that were already used in Japan's 1995 apology for its wartime aggression in Asia. Will the new statment keep the spirit of the 1995 apology intact?
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 29, 2015

Abe pledges to 'correct' the record on wartime sex slaves

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged Thursday to increase efforts to alter views abroad on Japan's actions in World War II by disseminating the "correct" view, as he put it.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jan 28, 2015

Kawabuchi to help lead task force charged with solving Japan's basketball impasse

FIBA, basketball's world governing body, on Wednesday announced the formation of a task force to lay a new foundation for the sport in Japan, and former J. League chairman Saburo Kawabuchi was appointed co-chairman.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 28, 2015

Say goodnight to the bad guy: The cost of making enemies in the age of globalized cinema

In the summer of 2010, Hollywood studio MGM had the film "Red Dawn" in the bag and ready for release. There was one little problem, though: The movie — a remake of the 1984 film of the same name, a Cold War paranoid-fantasy about a Soviet invasion of America — had rebooted itself by imagining a more...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 28, 2015

Arab envoys in Japan condemn Islamic State killing of hostage Haruna Yukawa

Arab ambassadors to Japan released a joint statement condemning the murder of Haruna Yukawa by Islamic State militants and urging the immediate release of the group's other Japanese hostage, Kenji Goto.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 27, 2015

An opportunity for East Asia in plunging oil prices

Plunging oil prices present a significant opportunity for most of the region's developing countries to strengthen the competitiveness of their economies and take advantage of the ongoing global recovery.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb