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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.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2015

Crowdfunding helps revive quake-hit small businesses in Japan

When an 18-meter tsunami demolished his soy sauce factories in 2011 and killed an employee, Michihiro Kono despaired about the future of the company his family founded two centuries ago.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2015

Hostage crisis puts work of aid groups on nation's public agenda

Groups with a stake in the Islamic State hostage crisis include aid teams who at times have struggled to keep the Syrian refugee crisis on the agenda back home.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jan 26, 2015

Nous ne sommes pas Charlie: Voices that mock authority in Japan muzzled

Why is there no equivalent of Charlie Hebdo, 'The Daily Show' or 'Monty Python' in Japan?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jan 26, 2015

Japan's media grapple with free speech, faith and immigration after Charlie Hebdo attack

What does the Japanese media have to say about the recent events in France? The weeklies have got something for everyone.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jan 26, 2015

Tokyo: Should Japan be negotiating with Islamic State for the release of Kenji Goto?

After the apparent killing of hostage Haruna Yukawa, Mark Buckton asked people in Tokyo whether the government should be talking to the terrorists holding journalist Kenji Goto.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 26, 2015

Survivor detailed camp life in his book

In a little leather book, the kind some men used to use to list lovers, Holocaust survivor Hy Abrams keeps the names that still haunt him: Auschwitz, Plaszow, Mauthausen, Melk and Ebensee.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2015

Health care pressures grow

Expect the state of siege under which the National Health Service has labored recently to be the biggest political issue at the next election in Britain, due in May.
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Jan 25, 2015

Kansai spearheads campaign against hate speech

On Feb. 24, 2013, Osaka's Tsuruhashi district, home to one of Japan's largest concentrations of ethnic Koreans and in recent years a major tourist destination, was the scene of a shocking incident.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 24, 2015

Smoke signals: Can Tokyo ever go smoke-free?

Japan has long held a reputation of being something of a paradise for smokers. Tobacco is, at least by Western standards, relatively cheap and people can still light up in many of the country's restaurants and bars. In fact, before the turn of the century smokers could pretty much puff away on a cigarette...
Reader Mail
Jan 24, 2015

Ties with West to be renewed

Regarding Harsh V. Pant's Jan. 19 article, "Even with a change of regime in Colombo, China's sway will continue to grow in Sri Lanka": Pant is vaguely accurate in most of his analysis of Sri Lanka's recent history, but his description of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa's 2010 post-civil war election...
EDITORIALS
Jan 23, 2015

A wake-up call for Japan

The hostage crisis with the Islamic State group should not deter Japan from contributing to the global fight against terrorism in its own, nonmilitary ways.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 23, 2015

Abe briefing paper rules out strike on Islamic State

The prime minister's office explored the idea of conducting a military strike against the Islamic State group in Syria as the ransom deadline approached.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2015

Japanese officials silent as hostage clock ticks

As Tokyo insists it has not 'received any contact' from the Islamic State group, the nation wonders what will happen to the two men it has taken hostage.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Jan 21, 2015

Forty years after Zainichi labor case victory, is Japan turning back the clock?

Efforts against nationality-based discrimination in Japan have made zero progress in the four decades since a landmark court case against Hitachi.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 21, 2015

Mount Fuji is 'brown hill,' A-Bomb Dome is 'depressing': Whiners diss Japan's wonders

Let's explore what some disgruntled travelers have to say about Japan's most impressive World Heritage Sites.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 21, 2015

Obama's State of the Union speech shows populism has gone mainstream in U.S. politics

President Barack Obama reached into his party's progressive past to deliver a robust endorsement of higher taxes for the wealthy, government intervention in the economy and an array of new benefits for lower- and middle-income Americans.
Japan Times
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2015
Jan 21, 2015

Forging better Japan through 'quiet revolution'

Entrepreneur Yoshito Hori has a strong sense of mission to guide Japan to become a better place as it undergoes what he calls a "quiet revolution," and he thinks his role is outside of politics.
Japan Times
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2015
Jan 21, 2015

Japanese architects making mark on Swiss design landscape

As part of the events commemorating 150 years of diplomatic relations between Switzerland and Japan, an exhibition titled "JP-CH 2014: Building in Context" was held in Tokyo last October featuring five recent projects in Switzerland by four eminent Japanese architects.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2015

Islamic State threatens to kill two Japanese hostages

In an online video, the Islamic State group threatens to kill two Japanese citizens unless Tokyo pays a ransom of $200 million within 72 hours.
COMMENTARY
Jan 20, 2015

Why the U.S. president can't say 'radical Islam'

Don't expect the U.S. to publicly speak of a war against radical Islam, even as it continues to kill radical Muslims throughout the Islamic world.

Longform

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How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan