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JAPAN
Jun 30, 2014

Most Japanese voters oppose security shift

Half of Japanese voters oppose dropping a ban that has kept the military from fighting abroad since World War II, a survey showed on Monday, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe readied a landmark shift in security policy that would ease the constraints of the pacifist constitution on the armed forces. A third...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Jun 29, 2014

Comic books champion debate on Fukushima disaster

Farmers in Fukushima try to convince skeptical visitors that their crops are safe from radiation. Blood trickles from the nose of a reporter who visits the area.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 28, 2014

Tooling up for war: Can Japan benefit from lifting the arms export ban?

The Paris-based Eurosatory is one of the world's biggest defense and security industry trade shows, drawing specialists from nearly 90 countries to view the latest in military hardware. Among the tanks, drones, military helicopters and police riot vehicles that were exhibited last month, 13 Japanese...
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 28, 2014

Abe's nuclear renaissance ignores stiff opposition

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's nuclear renaissance involves downplaying risks, restarting reactors, building new ones, and exporting reactor technology and equipment. A number of hurdles remain before he can rev up the reactors, but the summer of 2014 will probably be Japan's last nuclear-free one for decades...
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 27, 2014

Collective defense deal near

The ruling coalition closes in on three new standards that would let the Japanese military use force in cases other than when Japan is under attack.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 25, 2014

Casino legislation? Abe says you bet

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his ruling party will seek to pass a law in the next Diet session to legalize casinos as part of a plan to boost tourism before the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 25, 2014

Expanding roles for working women

The situation on gender issues may not be exactly the same in Germany and Japan, but the two countries have similar agendas; men and women must change their mentality to increase the number of female leaders, eight experts on gender issues from the two countries concluded.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 25, 2014

Shiga governor race to hinge on public works, reactors

The race for the July 13 Shiga gubernatorial election will kick off Thursday with three candidates vying to replace Yukiko Kada, with the campaign expected to focus on public works spending and how to cope with nuclear reactors in neighboring Fukui Prefecture.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 24, 2014

Tokyo lawmaker calls for change as Your Party asks for voice analysis

A Tokyo assemblywoman subjected to sexist taunts by male colleagues last week said Tuesday the capital's legislative body needs to be reformed so that the voices of women can be heard.
BUSINESS
Jun 24, 2014

Exec pay continues to reach new heights

While Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn was raking in around ¥1 billion last year, executives at other listed companies in Japan were also making more money than ever amid the economic recovery.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2014

America's addiction to war

Somewhere out there in an alternative universe, we should expect a more rational reaction to Barack Obama's announcement that he plans to re-invade Iraq. Perhaps a half-dozen Cabinet members would rush into the Oval Office and bundle the president off to an institution that can give him the treatment he seems to require. Why are American politicians addicted to war?
EDITORIALS
Jun 24, 2014

Funding the corporate tax cut

The Abe administration's decision to cut corporate taxes as a key feature of its economic growth strategy doesn't indicate how a fiscally weak government will make up the lost tax revenue even as households face another consumption tax hike next year.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 23, 2014

Abe looks to put his stamp on foreign aid

Next up for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe? Figuring out how to put official development assistance (ODA) to "strategic" use so the international aid program can help Japan make a more "proactive contribution" to world peace, one of Abe's pet policy goals.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 23, 2014

War history lessons ignored

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is ignoring history as he tries to have the Constitution reintrepreted to enable Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2014

Population woes crowd Japan

Holding Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's demographic red line will be difficult unless Japan opens the door to immigration, a step policymakers have no intention of taking.
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 21, 2014

Abe hijacks democracy, undermines Constitution

By short-circuiting the democratic process, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is abusing the trust put in him by the people. His initiative to reinterpret Article 9 of the Constitution to lift constraints on the Japanese military and permit collective self-defense is the most recent example of how Abe is trampling...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 20, 2014

'Patriotic wives' few in number — but loud

One by one, women take the microphone near the crowded Hachiko crossing in Tokyo's Shibuya shopping district on a hot and humid weekday, denouncing the pacifist Constitution, blasting China's "recklessness" and mocking the South Korean flag.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 19, 2014

S. Korea plans live-fire drill near Takeshima

Seoul tells Tokyo that a maritime 'firing drill' will be held near two disputed rocks it controls even though the firing zone overlaps an area claimed by Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jun 18, 2014

Japan's 'no immigration principle' looking as solid as ever

In contrast to Hidenori Sakanaka's unbridled optimism, I argue that Japan has little prospect of becoming a 'migrant nation' anytime soon.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 16, 2014

Japan's gambit in WWI set stage for a dark future

One hundred years ago, on June 28, 1914, Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo. It was the spark that led, one month later, to the beginning of World War I, which originally was expected to be confined to Europe and end in weeks. By the time it ended on Nov. 11, 1918, an estimated...
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2014

LDP primes farm sector for ventures

The Liberal Democratic Party wants to increase corporate participation in agriculture to boost the competitiveness of Japanese farms as pressure increases to cut import tariffs.
EDITORIALS
Jun 16, 2014

Work-hour 'reform' ripe for abuse

The Abe administration is pushing to exempt certain kinds of workers from labor standards as part of his economic growth strategy without soliciting the views of labor organizations concerned about the fate of overtime pay.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan