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COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2013

Can Alexei Navalny salvage Russian democracy?

Come Sept. 8, can Moscow mayoral candidate Alexei Navalny and his supporters change Russia's political culture of fear
WORLD
Sep 4, 2013

Obama strains to win over public on Syria

President Barack Obama has turned the question of whether to strike Syria into an extraordinary national sales job — seeking to convince skeptics in Congress and among the public that military action would be worth the risk.
WORLD
Sep 3, 2013

2014 elections, specter of Iraq loom over Obama's high-stakes Syria gamble

President Barack Obama's stunning reversal on Syria — deciding to ask Congress to approve the use of force just hours after he seemed set on bypassing the legislative branch — amounts to a massive gamble by the commander in chief.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Sep 3, 2013

Nukes, terrorists, intel gaps: U.S. 'black budget' shows extent of distrust toward Pakistan

The $52.6 billion U.S. intelligence arsenal is aimed mainly at unambiguous adversaries, including al-Qaida, North Korea and Iran. But top-secret budget documents reveal an equally intense focus on one purported ally: Pakistan, which appears at the top of charts listing critical U.S. intelligence gaps.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Sep 2, 2013

Mary Cheney says sister 'dead wrong' on gay marriage

Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, posted on Facebook on Friday night that her sister, who is running for the Senate in Wyoming, is "dead wrong" to oppose same-sex marriage.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 1, 2013

Nevada brothels shriveling as Net disrupts oldest trade

In a dim parlor furnished with red velvet couches and a stripper pole, Brooke Taylor is having a sale on herself. "I offer a lot more specials and discounts and incentives for people to come in to see me," said Taylor, 32, a brunette prostitute in a short, green dress at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch outside...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Sep 1, 2013

Mexican drug cartel activity in U.S. 'exaggerated'

When Sen. John McCain spoke during an Armed Services Committee hearing last year on security issues in the Western Hemisphere, he relayed a stark warning about the spread of Mexican drug cartels in the United States. "The cartels," the Arizona Republican said, "now maintain a presence in over 1,000 cities."...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2013

Tepco bolsters tank team but leak eludes

Tokyo Electric Power Co. has a plan to better monitor the 930 radioactive water tanks at Fukushima No. 1, but it is unclear whether it will be able to lock down the storage problem before the trickle turns into a flood.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 30, 2013

Organizer of annual writers' workshop helps others find artistic way

John Gribble gives a part of every day to creating. Whether it's pinpointing the perfect word for a poem or plucking out a ditty on a guitar, his life and livelihood in some way proves creative. As a poet and teacher, Gribble has spent the last 20 years in Japan organizing others to find their artistic...
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Aug 30, 2013

High hopes for victims of female genital mutilation

A nondescript suburb on the outskirts of San Francisco. A plain brick building. Seven nervous women wait in the sunlight. They are here for surgery, which perhaps has as much claim as any other to describe itself as "miraculous."
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2013

Poverty's IQ drain is 'equivalent of pulling an all-nighter'

Poverty consumes so much mental energy that people struggling to make ends meet often have little brainpower left for anything else, leaving them more susceptible to bad decisions that can perpetuate their situation, claims a new study.
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2013

'Soul Flower Train'

Dads, in Japan and elsewhere, never quite believe that their daughters are grown up and gone, do they? On a corner of their desk or in a corner of their mind is a picture of their princess at the school play or the piano recital or just making a goofy 8-year-old face. Yes, there are sternly realistic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 28, 2013

Art fiction that keeps our thinking adept

What is the connection between Kampala in Uganda, Fukushima in Japan and New Orleans in America? Tsuyoshi Ozawa links these seemingly disparate places in his ongoing series "Vegetable Weapons". The shape of a gun is formed out of local vegetables and photographed, before it's taken apart and the same...
EDITORIALS
Aug 28, 2013

A crime against humanity in Syria

The Syrian government should allow U.N. inspectors full access to the battlefield where last week's chemical-weapons attacks to place, and ensure that all their questions are answered.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 28, 2013

Syria will require more than missiles

The question before U.S. President Barack Obama is whether he will make matters worse by convincing himself that he has found a minimal solution to the Syrian problem. He will convince no one else.
Reader Mail
Aug 28, 2013

Western behavior back home

It's rather unfortunate that Chavez's message has been rather misinterpreted by some readers. The message is not "Westerners are discriminated against in Japan just like African-Americans and Muslims in the U.S." That would be a daft thing to say.
Reader Mail
Aug 28, 2013

Minority experience understood

Regarding Amy Chavez's Aug. 16 column titled "What being a minority allows us to see": Actually the fear and hurt I felt while dealing with certain bureaucratic nonsense in Japan allowed me to understand a small piece of the American minority experience.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2013

Volunteer probation officers face uphill battle

Kenjiro Osawa has spent the past 15 years inviting parolees to his Tokyo home every other week for a brief chit-chat to make sure they are managing their lives outside the walls of prison.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2013

CCP's plan for pro-democracy voices: repression

A semisecret directive from the senior members of the Chinese Communist Party tells us how President Xi Jinping plans to manage pro-democracy voices in China: by shutting them down.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2013

Outside help offered to deal with Tepco debacle

Russia repeated an offer first made two years ago to help Japan clean up its radiation-ravaged Fukushima No. 1 nuclear station, welcoming Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s decision to seek outside help.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 25, 2013

Challenges are just beginning for central banks

The global financial crisis is for all practical purposes over, but the world's top central bankers think their problems are just beginning.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 24, 2013

It only takes one 'Barefoot' step to cross the line into censorship

If you want people to pay attention to a point you're making, try to bring the subject of children into the debate. Right now, the media is discussing a decision made by the board of education of Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, to limit student access to the manga "Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen)," first published...
EDITORIALS
Aug 24, 2013

Strong oversight of Tepco needed

The discovery that about 300 tons of highly radioactive water have leaked from a tank at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant reminds us how far the nuclear crisis is from ending.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 24, 2013

Shocking exposé of Britain's police spies

Overexcitable publishers like to bandy around words such as "explosive" and "shocking" when trying to flog their books, even though generally you could substitute them for ones such as "mildly interesting."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 24, 2013

Collection of American Zen koans for quiet contemplation

American Zen Koan No. 96: A student once asked Zen teacher Steve Allen, "If you were given a wish-fulfilling jewel, what would you wish for?"
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 23, 2013

MHI jet wins U.S. backing from SkyWest, Trans States

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.'s new regional jet, Japan's first such aircraft, won fresh support from U.S. commuter carriers SkyWest Inc. and Trans States Holdings even as its debut was delayed by more than a year.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 23, 2013

After 18.7 billion km, Voyager 1 boldly goes on ... but just where in space is it?

It's 36 years since Voyager 1 was dispatched in 1977 on a mission to send back images of Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere and volcanic eruptions on one of its moons, Io. Then it was due to travel on to Saturn to examine that planet's intricate system of rings and moons. But after traveling more than 18...
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 23, 2013

Why are so many young men becoming Internet trolls?

Two thousand, three hundred and ninety-three years ago, in 380 B.C., Plato wrote the myth of the Ring of Gyges, in which the shepherd, Gyges, discovers a ring that makes him invisible at will. Gyges promptly uses the protection this offers to infiltrate the royal household, seduce the queen, assassinate...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’