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Japan Times
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Jan 6, 2016

South Korean economy seen to shrug off North's nuclear test

As officials from South Korea's Finance Ministry and central bank rushed into a strategy meeting to consider the implications of North Korea's latest nuclear test, early indications suggest that Asia's fourth-largest economy is likely to shrug it off.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2016

Pacific dreaming in Moscow

Russia's government announces yet another set of impotent plans to develop its long-neglected Pacific region.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 6, 2016

Japan's CEOs: underpaid and underwhelming

Atsushi Saito says Japanese corporate heads are underpaid and shun bold decisions for fear of missing out on cushy adviser roles after they retire.
JAPAN / Society / DEMOGRAPHIC CHALLENGES
Jan 6, 2016

Government weighs immigration to maintain population, boost workforce

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in September announced administrative measures seeking to maintain a population of at least 100 million people over the next 50 years with a target of significantly raising the fertility rate to 1.8.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 6, 2016

Stephen Bosworth, former U.S. envoy to North Korea, dies at 76

Stephen Bosworth, a veteran U.S. diplomat who for many years headed Washington's engagement with North Korea, has died. He was 76.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 6, 2016

Parliament to debate petition seeking to bar Trump from U.K. over Muslim slur but no vote planned

British lawmakers are to hold a debate on a petition signed by more than half a million people calling for U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to be barred from Britain after his proposal to stop Muslims entering the United States.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 6, 2016

Mitsubishi UFJ plans division to pursue fintech endeavors

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. has set up a unit to research and develop new financial technologies, the first of its kind for a major Japanese bank, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jan 6, 2016

34 migrants, including seven children, found dead on Turkish coast; at least 12 rescued

The bodies of 34 migrants, at least seven of them children, were found at two sites along Turkey's Aegean coast on Tuesday after they apparently tried to cross to the nearby Greek island of Lesbos.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 5, 2016

Russia's isolationism is official

Russia's latest National Security Strategy provides valuable material for the study of the angst, paranoia and befuddlement now gripping the Kremlin.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 5, 2016

The difficulty of being Frank Gehry

The exhibition "Frank Gehry: I Have an Idea," currently at 21_21 Design Sight and curated by fellow architect Tsuyoshi Tane, crams in a lot, but it's not exactly a linear retrospective. Rather, it's an upward look at a man on a tightrope — a man who must balance form and function; rein in creativity...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 5, 2016

From longer hours to all-you-can drink offers, Japan's restaurants evolve in battle for customers

Change is in the air — you can smell it.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / DEMOGRAPHIC CHALLENGES
Jan 5, 2016

For many young Japanese, marriage — and sex — are low priorities

This is the fourth in a five-part series on Japan's population woes caused by its graying society and low birthrate.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 4, 2016

2016: the year of looking beyond Japan's Abenomics

After three largely squandered years, Abe must finally get serious about the reforms he's been promising.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2016

Russia and Ukraine are finally breaking up

The ongoing political and economic separation of Russia and Ukraine will likely be completed this year.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2016

Curbing growth is key to achieving food security

To ensure global food security for all, we need to recognize our limitations.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2016

Whac-a-Mole sex slavery

As the recent Islamic State fatwa demonstrates, there's no end in sight to the sexual enslavement of women.
EDITORIALS
Jan 4, 2016

Expanding tourist accommodations

A shortage of accommodations threatens to hobble the nation's booming tourist industry.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 3, 2016

Skyscraper blaze in Persian Gulf raises questions about safety

A blaze that engulfed a Dubai skyscraper on New Year's Eve — the emirate's third high-rise fire in three years — has raised fresh questions about the safety of materials used on the exteriors of tall buildings across the wealthy region.
EDITORIALS
Jan 3, 2016

2016 opens on a hopeful note

The challenges facing Japan this year will require hard work, patience and creativity.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2016

A dangerous year for China

China probably won't crash in 2016, but the odds of big financial troubles are higher than they've been in well over a decade.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 3, 2016

As water crisis deepens, India seeks mystical Saraswati river

Gagandeep Singh stands at the edge of a trench cutting through a sugarcane field in rural India. He looks down at a dozen or so men toiling in the mud in plastic flip-flops and bellows: "Dig!"
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / DEMOGRAPHIC CHALLENGES
Jan 3, 2016

Options available to mitigate dangers of living alone with dementia

At first glance, it's hard to tell what's wrong with Keiko Sawada. As casual exchanges continue, however, it becomes increasingly clear the former bar hostess has serious memory problems.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 3, 2016

Nearly 90% of companies expect economy to grow in 2016: poll

Nearly 90 percent of 101 major Japanese companies expect economic expansion in 2016, with many projecting private consumption and capital spending to recover from their 2015 doldrums, a Kyodo News poll found Saturday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 2, 2016

Still dreaming of an end to household drudgery

As amazing as technology's ability to solve our problems is its inability to solve our problems. (Its tendency to create new problems is a subject best left for another day.)
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jan 2, 2016

Teens find spicy 'udders' keep boars at bay

A couple of weeks ago, I came home in the evening and found a wild boar on the porch. It had been bled and gutted, but otherwise it was still whole and hairy. I was very busy as I had to head off to Tokyo the next morning, but that present from some kindly local hunter in the Nagano Prefecture hills...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jan 2, 2016

20 Questions: the best answers of 2015

Japan Times On Sunday contributors select the responses that made them laugh loudest this year
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 2, 2016

'15 saw Abe keep nationalism in check, reset Seoul, Beijing ties

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's diplomatic gains last year may give him momentum for the crucial Upper House election and his life-long ambition of revising the Constitution.

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