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COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 7, 2013

The pope of Japanese finance

As with the deliberations at the Vatican, politics — not doctrinal debate — underpins the decision-making process for the next Bank of Japan governor.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 7, 2013

Recochoku brings Japan further into the stream

Recochoku, a digital content aggregator owned by major Japanese labels, debuted a smartphone-based streaming service called RecoChoku Best on Tuesday. It's due to become available on PCs this summer.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 6, 2013

BofA surge affirms Buffett bet as Moynihan's gaffes fade

Brian Moynihan was impatient. It was August 2011, and the Bank of America Corp. chief executive officer was reviewing plans to impose a $5 monthly fee on debit-card users.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 5, 2013

Natural gas leaks may hasten global warming

Two guys in a black car cruise the streets of Washington's residential neighborhoods. The only signs of what they are up to are a gray plastic tube hanging out of the trunk and the fact that they get out of the car frequently to place a black box on manhole covers and study its readings.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 5, 2013

Juku: an unnecessary evil or vital steppingstone to success?

For the past year, Tokyo sixth-grader Manami has had dinner at home an average of four times a week. The rest of the time she has had to make do with a juku-ben, a boxed dinner prepared by her mother and consumed between classes at juku, or cram school.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 5, 2013

Putin unable to control infighting among elite

The regime established since 2000 by Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to fall apart — perhaps this year — for the same reason that the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Mar 5, 2013

Child's quibble with U.S. 'poverty superpower' propaganda unravels a sobering story about insular Japan

Last November, a reader in Hokkaido named Stephanie sent me an article read in Japan's elementary schools. Featured in a sixth-grader magazine called Chagurin (from "child agricultural green") dated December 2012, it was titled "Children of America, the Poverty Superpower" (hinkon taikoku Amerika no...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Mar 4, 2013

Mrs. Obama's Oscar cameo raises questions about first lady's role

Is this what Michelle Obama looks like untethered to the pressure of a campaign? Is she free to follow her whims without worries about political backlash?
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2013

Ownership-society ideal stymies conservatives

U.S. conservatives continue a healthy debate over how they can reconnect with voters and channel their ideals and goals into policies relevant for the 21st century. But a specter haunts these conversations — a ghost called the ownership society.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2013

Park's challenge: Advancing South by rising above father's, Lee's legacies

The life of Park Geun Hye, South Korea's just-inaugurated first female president, has so far been bookended by two larger-than-life men of debatable success.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 4, 2013

Green turns black as Europe burns up cheap U.S. coal

Green-friendly Europe has a dirty secret: It is burning a lot more coal. Europe's use of the fossil fuel spiked last year after a long decline, powered by a surge of cheap U.S. coal on global markets and by the unintended consequences of ambitious climate policies that capped emissions and reduced reliance...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2013

U.S. says Keystone pipeline won't spur climate change

The U.S. State Department released a draft environmental impact assessment of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline Friday, suggesting the project will have little impact on climate change.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 3, 2013

Solution to bullying lies in 'resetting' culprits

"The biggest problem in Japanese education is the idea that you can eliminate bullying by reforming the system."
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 2, 2013

Virtual autopsy: Does it spell the end of the scalpel?

Anyone who has spent any time in a courtroom knows how easy it is for a skilled defense lawyer to plant doubt in the mind of a jury. Even in a relatively straightforward case, such as a hit and run, jurors are frequently presented with such a confusing array of photographic and forensic evidence that...
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 2, 2013

Remembering the day Napster set music free

In the first weeks of 2000 the founders of Napster were in their office above a bank in San Mateo, California, considering dizzying numbers. Figures scrawled on a whiteboard told how many people around the world had installed their file-sharing application and were using it to download music from each...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 2, 2013

PLA hackers are just the tip of cyberwarfare risk

China is awash with nondescript new office buildings, so the 12-story tower in Shanghai's Pudong area hardly looked likely to cause global headlines. Not even propaganda posters on walls surrounding it or People's Liberation Army guards standing at the gates made the building stand out.
SOCCER / J. League / 2013 J. LEAGUE PREVIEW
Mar 2, 2013

Hiroshima, Sendai won't contend for title

Highlighting the top nine finishers from the J. League last season in the second part of this two-day preview.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 1, 2013

Inequity of slavery reaps vengeance in 'Django'

Quentin Tarantino, whose film plots are often fueled by a mania for vengeance, has struck again with the Oscar-winning “Django Unchained.”
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 1, 2013

'Su-chan Mai-chan Sawako-san'

Yonkoma manga, or four-cell gag comics, are popular here with both sexes and all ages, but they account for relatively few of the many hit live-action films made from manga. For one thing, it's not so easy to string all those gags together into a three-act story. Doable, yes. Done well? Not so often....
SUMO
Mar 1, 2013

Wrestling's fall from Olympic grace sends wake-up call to International Sumo Federation

The quest of the International Sumo Federation (IFS) to have amateur sumo accepted as a bona fide Olympic sport has long been viewed as as a pie-in-the-sky proposition by many.
SOCCER / J. League / 2013 J. LEAGUE PREVIEW
Mar 1, 2013

Tokyo, Antlers hoping to climb ladder

FC Tokyo leads a host of teams looking to improve their fortunes during the 2013 J.u2009League campaign.
Reader Mail
Feb 28, 2013

Self-defeating popularity polls

It is specious to keep conducting popularity polls within a mere two months of the return of the Liberal Democratic Party to power. The eagerness to push out these vacuous statistics is beginning to sound suspiciously more like a sponsored advertisement than a meaningful or objective evaluation.
BASKETBALL
Feb 27, 2013

Dixon, Tomori shine in Gunma triumph over Sendai

After a quiet game in the series opener, Gunma Crane Thunders point guard Jermaine Dixon lit up the scoreboard for 28 points in a 78-75 bounce-back win over the host Sendai 89ers on Tuesday night in the bj-league.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Feb 27, 2013

Interviews with 'evil personified' reveal very different men

He shuffled into the room and stopped, plexiglass and cinderblocks framing his slight figure. He looked much as I remembered him from nearly a decade earlier: big eyes in a boyish face, a thin build, long fingers, waist chains. But his eyes, once cold and flat, had mellowed into something resembling...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 27, 2013

Afghanistan's partition might be unpreventable

Is Afghanistan in store for an Iraq-style 'soft partition,' with protracted strife eventually creating a 'hard partition,' after U.S. military forces go home.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Feb 27, 2013

Glass may look geeky, but you have to applaud Google's vision

A few weeks ago, the chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, spent four days in Cambridge as the Humanitas visiting professor in the university's Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, where I work. Afterward, one of the questions I was most frequently asked by people who hadn't been...
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 27, 2013

Gillard falls behind Abbott in poll

Prime Minister Julia Gillard slipped behind opposition rival Tony Abbott as Australia's preferred leader for the first time since August after her credibility was dented when a mining tax she helped design brought in less revenue than forecast.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?