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JAPAN / FOCUS
Jun 4, 2014

Atop Pacific 'Ring of Fire,' debate flares over volcanic risk to Japan's nuclear plants

In the three years since the Fukushima disaster, Japan's utilities have pledged $15 billion to harden their nuclear plants against earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes and terrorist attacks.
EDITORIALS
Jun 4, 2014

Aging public facilities

Aging public facilities present a growing problem for cash-strapped local and prefectural governments.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2014

China wields history as weapon, except on June 4

For China, history is a weapon to use against other countries, but it keeps a curtain of silence drawn around the events that transpired in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 3, 2014

Once near defeat, Assad reasserts himself

It was not so long ago that Bashar Assad's enemies thought he was finished.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2014

The Tank Man's defiance

Chinese Communist authorities largely spared the student protesters of Tiananmen Square 25 years ago, though many leaders went to prison. It was ordinary citizens like the famous man who stood down the tank — along the streets to the square — who suffered the most.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 2, 2014

Japan urged to make its cosmetics 'cruelty-free'

While Japanese consumers clamor for items that will make their skin smoother or their hair shinier, relatively few people are aware of the horror behind the products in their cosmetics cases.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 1, 2014

Bright smiles: Laser light coaxes stem cells to grow new teeth

Scientists have come up with a bright idea to repair teeth And they say their concept — using laser light to entice the body's own stem cells into action — may offer enormous promise beyond just dentistry in the field of regenerative medicine.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
May 31, 2014

Anti-stalking laws 'are a dead end'

On May 8, the National Police Agency gathered police officers from all over the country to declare a war on stalking. This gathering was even held before members of the all-girl pop group AKB48 were attacked by a man with a saw at a handshaking event. (It's still unclear whether the assailant was stalking...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 31, 2014

AKB48's business model is likely to survive media attacks

The universe shifted on the afternoon of Sunday, May 25, when a young, unemployed man attacked two members of the all-female idol collective AKB48 and a male security staffer with a folding saw during a fan event in the city of Takizawa, Iwate Prefecture. Or, at least, that's how the media reacted. Some...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
May 31, 2014

When industry works in step with nature

It was about 15 years ago when an old friend, Yoshito Umezaki, invited me to dinner in Tokyo to meet a friend of his named Masayoshi "Mike" Ushikubo — "a really great guy who loves mountains, travels all over the world and is a company president who has a little problem."
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 30, 2014

'Option B': the blueprint for Thailand's coup

On Dec. 27 last year, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, Thailand's powerful army chief, stood before a crowded news conference and stunned the beleaguered government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra by saying he would not rule out military intervention to resolve a deteriorating political crisis.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 30, 2014

Tsukiji traders fish for new export markets

Businesses operating at Japan's largest fish market are increasingly trying to boost exports, sensing demand overseas for such fare as octopus, abalone and stonefish sold with the renowned Tsukiji brand.
COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2014

Why Google's self-driving car terrifies Detroit

Perhaps the U.S. auto industry's biggest problem right now is that the usually slavish press is going crazy for the Google self-driving car prototype in ways that the carmakers haven't been able to inspire in a long time.
COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2014

Russia's hand in east Ukraine violence is exposed

After the fighting in Donetsk this week, there's no doubt Russia is working to destabilize Ukraine. Countries participating in Russia's South Stream natural gas pipeline project should pull out.
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2014

The ideology of those who kidnap schoolgirls

Until we clean the education soil in which the plants producing the poisonous ideologies enforced by Boko Haram and other extremist groups take root, the life chances of millions of young people around the world will be jeopardized.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
May 28, 2014

Foreign labor key to Olympic gold

At a construction site in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, worker Fan Xiuyu says he's too busy to miss the wife and 6-year-old child he left behind in China.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 28, 2014

Talking Pinter with Leveaux; an 'authorized' interaction

When we met last weekend, the world-renowned English theater director David Leveaux was relaxing with a cigarette "in the lovely sunshine" outside a rehearsal studio by Tokyo Bay. He was there for an intensive afternoon's work with the three Japanese actors who form the cast of his upcoming production...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 28, 2014

Nicolas Buffe's show is a dream come true

Being swallowed by an enormous anime canine is the kind of experience you are only likely to have in a dream — perhaps after eating too much cheese before bedtime — and this is the theme of Nicolas Buffe's exhibition, a surreal dream that provides the perfect licence for the artist to unpack his creative impulses.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
May 27, 2014

Forget drugs, monotony is the real threat to Japan's music industry

Japan has a drug problem. Everywhere you look — from the creepy, teen-host-club pop of Sexy Zone to the soft-rock balladry of Ikimono Gakari — children are being exposed to music that has been made with no obvious influence from drugs whatsoever.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 27, 2014

Nationalistic sentiment keeps Abe's popularity ratings high

The Abe Cabinet continues to enjoy an approval rating of more than 50 percent, according to a recent survey, because of the knock-on effect of 'Abenomics,' the dearth of other viable leaders and, like it or not, nationalist sentiment.
COMMENTARY / World
May 27, 2014

Will India's Modi resist the lure of nationalism?

If newly elected Narendra Modi runs into trouble as Indian prime minister, will he be the prime minister for all Indians, as he has promised, or will he revert to his divisive roots?
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 27, 2014

EU official says Ukraine-Russia gas row talks make some progress

Europe's energy commissioner said Monday Ukraine and Russia have made further progress in a dispute over gas prices and his proposal that Ukraine pay $2 billion of back debt by Thursday could pave the way for further talks Friday.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 26, 2014

Set to rule a polarized Egypt, el-Sissi faces his biggest challenge

Along a busy Cairo roundabout, a poster portrays presidential front-runner Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi as a teacher, engineer, doctor and judge, reassuring supporters who see him as Egypt's savior.
JAPAN
May 24, 2014

Japan Times chairman paid hefty back taxes

Nifco Inc. Chairman Toshiaki Ogasawara paid more than ¥100 million in back taxes in 2012 after failing to declare ¥1 billion in income, his tax accountant says.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 24, 2014

Will Japan be a country that welcomes all?

"A nation of immigrants." Japan? The leading proponent of that vision has been Hidenori Sakanaka, former head of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau, current executive director of the private think tank he founded in 2007, the Japan Immigration Policy Institute.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
May 24, 2014

One Man's Justice

To borrow historian John Dower's expression, the conflict in World War II between Japanese and American forces was a "war without mercy." The atrocities committed by Japanese forces are well documented, those by American military personnel less so.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 24, 2014

The Reason I Jump

The No. 1 best-seller "The Reason I Jump" is now available in paperback. Written by Naoki Higashida, an autistic Japanese boy in his early teens, this incredible book gives readers a glimpse into what it's like to be autistic, and along the way shatters many preconceptions people may have regarding those...
BUSINESS / FOCUS
May 24, 2014

Business as usual in Thailand

Many of the wealthy Thais who come to investment manager Charles Blocker have a question for the generals who seized control of the country in a military coup last week: What took you so long?
EDITORIALS
May 24, 2014

Stop the bullying of LGBT students

A recent survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the Kanto area finds that 70 percent were bullied during their school years. Learning respect and tolerance for individual differences should start earlier.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 24, 2014

U.K.'s anti-EU party makes big gains in local elections

Britain's Euroskeptic UKIP party has made its strongest ever gains in local elections, harnessing discontent with immigration and established politicians to grab support from Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives and the opposition Labour party.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years