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COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2013

China to foil skeptics again

China's eagerly anticipated 'hard landing' hasn't happened yet, and recent indicators make one wonder if it ever will. Maybe China's skeptics should be viewed more skeptically.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 30, 2013

Foreign iPhone fans, be aware of Softbank's two-year visa rule

Softbank requires that you have at least two years remaining on your visa if you wish to pay for a new iPhone handset in monthly installments rather than fork out for the whole lot up front.
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 30, 2013

Slow start expected for system

The White House is downplaying expectations for the first day of the Affordable Care Act's insurance marketplaces.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Sep 30, 2013

Russia anti-gay law casts shadow over Sochi Olympics

Let other mayors fret about potholes, taxes and sewers. This is an Olympic city, and here is the jeans-clad mayor striding into his office on a recent afternoon, fresh from a landslide, and not the electoral kind. When Sochi won the 2014 Games, life went epic.
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2013

Toshiba to halve global TV workers

Toshiba Corp.will halve the number of workers in its television operations outside Japan to 3,000 as it outsources more production.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 27, 2013

Toray in deal to buy U.S. carbon fiber maker Zoltek

Toray Industries Inc., which makes the carbon fiber used in Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliner, has agreed to buy Zoltek Companies Inc. for $584 million (about ¥57.6 billion) to expand into markets including windmill blades and auto parts.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 25, 2013

Chawan: Simply, some of the hardest works of pottery to create

In the world of Japanese traditional ceramics there is not one form held in higher esteem than a chawan, a "mere" bowl used to serve whipped green tea.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 25, 2013

'Tokyo Art Meeting: Bunny Smash — Design to Touch the World'

As part of the Tokyo Culture Creation Project, this exhibition focuses on how expressions in contemporary art and design can inspire each other and society. It spotlights 21 groups of artists, designers and architects from around the globe, all of whom create works inspired by the information-saturated...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / TRAVEL INSIDER
Sep 25, 2013

Finnair's CEO on Japan

Finnair held a press conference at the Imperial Hotel Tokyo on Sept. 24 to introduce Pekka Vauramo, who became the company's new president and CEO in June.
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 2013

Monetary easing lifts land prices

It appears that the monetary easing pushed by the Abe administration through Bank of Japan's purchasing operations is gradually raising land prices in some urban areas.
WORLD
Sep 23, 2013

House panel drafts immigration bills

Republicans intensified their outreach to Latino groups last week, offering renewed pledges that the House will deal with immigration reform this year. The effort has revived hope among reform advocates that a bipartisan deal can be reached to address the fate of the nation's 11 million undocumented...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2013

Indonesian woes, ASEAN problems

Some fear Indonesia is heading for crisis as second-quarter growth dropped below 6 percent. But the recent appointments of top policymakers offer hope.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 21, 2013

Rokkasho: nuclear white elephant or yen sucking black hole?

As one approaches Rokkasho, a small town of 11,000 on the remote, windswept coast of Aomori Prefecture at the very north of Japan's main island, Honshu, one sees dozens of power-generating windmills spinning away. Aside from this ambitious renewable energy project, Rokkasho also is the site for a national...
EDITORIALS
Sep 20, 2013

Censorship by education boards

It is extremely regrettable that boards of education are actively censoring history textbooks that have been approved by the ministry of education.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 19, 2013

Syrian crisis exposes Obama's frayed ties with U.S. military

The Syrian crisis over the past few weeks has thrust President Barack Obama into a role in which at times he has seemed uneasy: that of commander in chief.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2013

New Syria agreement a big victory — for Assad

The real losers in the new Syrian agreement are the Syrian people, who will continue to be raped, tortured and slaughtered.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 17, 2013

Japan warned U.S. of blackout risk

The U.S. Department of Energy was informed by Japanese officials that the world's third-largest economy risked a catastrophic power failure as it prepared to close its last operating nuclear reactor last year.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 16, 2013

Syrian deaths rise amid talks

As negotiations to avert a U.S. strike against Syria ramped up last week, so, too, did the action on the ground. Warplanes dropped bombs over far-flung Syrian towns that hadn't seen airstrikes in weeks, government forces went on the attack in the hotly contested suburbs of Damascus, rebels launched an...
Japan Times
TENNIS
Sep 15, 2013

Japan returns to Davis Cup World Group after playoff fightback

Victories by Kei Nishikori and Go Soeda in reverse singles rallied Japan past Colombia to a 3-2 triumph in their Davis Cup World Group playoff at Ariake Colosseum on Sunday afternoon.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 15, 2013

Abe's 2020 vision challenged

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared that the Olympics would put Tokyo 'at the center of the world.' But the real question is: Will Japan use the Olympics to join the real world
EDITORIALS
Sep 15, 2013

Keep tuition exemption

The government should increase taxes on wealthy families rather than exclude their children from the high school tuition exemption and support system.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 15, 2013

2013: A space conundrum

Long ago, in a dreamier era, space stations were imagined as portals to the heavens. In the 1968 movie "2001: A Space Odyssey," the huge structure twirled in orbit, aesthetically sublime, a relaxing way station for astronauts heading to the moon. It featured a Hilton and a Howard Johnson's.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami