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PRESS / Publications
Mar 2, 2015

『シンプルな英語で話す日本史』『シンプルな英語で話すアメリカ史』同時発売

COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2015

The not-ready-for-prime-time Republicans

In their first couple of months dominating the U.S. Congress, Republicans have passed no major legislation, taken largely negative positions and may be about to impede the operation of a crucial government department. In short, they're not where national leaders hoped they would be.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2015

FBI's attack on encryption

When the FBI tries to sabotage the efforts of consumers and businesses to secure their data through encryption, the agency is essentially attacking the security foundations of the online world created over the past 20 years.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2015

Don't expect Twitter feeds to tame terrorism

The Obama administration should stop the gaseous rhetoric about countering terrorism by elevating digital footprints. Twitter feeds from the State Department won't tame terrorism.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 1, 2015

West's call to rebuild Ukraine faces reality check

Western powers are preparing what they say may be their most potent weapon against Moscow's interference in Ukraine — a multibillion dollar aid package to rebuild a near-bankrupt state and realize the European dream cherished by many Ukrainians.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 28, 2015

Local Politics: Heading for extinction?

"All politics is local."— former U.S. House Speaker Thomas "Tip" O'Neill
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2015

Immorality of ceding the high ground to coal

As the idea that greenhouse-gas emissions be reduced to zero by 2050 gains wider acceptance, the coal industry stands apart in its determination to fight for profits at the expense of the environment.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 27, 2015

Two more Cabinet ministers ensnared in money scandals

The Abe administration's money scandals snowball as two more Cabinet ministers admit their chapters accepted donations in 2013 from a company that was set to receive state subsides.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 27, 2015

Video artist Duncan Campbell sees between the lines

When Irish artist Duncan Campbell won the Turner Prize last December, it was met with both high praise and criticism, as often happens with the notoriously controversial event. But perhaps such a difference in perception is appropriate.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 27, 2015

Hard lessons for the Ukrainian school of war

Russian President Vladimir Putin remains involved in Ukraine largely for pedagogical reasons. His message to the sanctimonious West is that Russia will not tolerate meddling in its backyard.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 27, 2015

Netanyahu tars Europe for anti-Semitism of terrorists

As he beats the drum for his Likud's Party re-election in mid-March, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu falsely asserts that anti-Semitism is responsible for growing European and American hostility toward Israel.
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Feb 26, 2015

Suite offer from New Otani; InterContinental celebrates Hokuriku; Capitol Tokyu strawberry fair

The Hotel New Otani is offering an accommodation plan especially for groups of women through March 15.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 26, 2015

NASA investigating helmet water leak after spacewalk

Two U.S. astronauts finished a 6½-hour spacewalk on Wednesday to prepare parking spots for new commercial space taxis, and then discovered water had leaked into a spacesuit helmet, a problem that led to the near-drowning of another astronaut in 2013, officials said.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 26, 2015

Beijing drops U.S. tech brands from state procurement list

China has dropped some of the world's leading technology brands from its approved state purchase lists, while approving thousands more locally made products, in what some say is a response to revelations of widespread Western cybersurveillance.
MULTIMEDIA
Feb 26, 2015

[VIDEO] Pepper App Challenge 2015

Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 25, 2015

Monetary policy is underrated

The belief that monetary policy does not matter is exceedingly hazardous to any economy. Europe faces enough serious risks already; it should not needlessly add to them.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 24, 2015

Opposition assails Abe over Nishikawa resignation

Opposition parties refused Tuesday to convene a scheduled session of the Lower House Budget Committee and instead unleashed a salvo of taunts over the surprise resignation of farm minister Koya Nishikawa the day before.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 24, 2015

Japan Inc. shops abroad to duck bleak domestic prospects

With shrinking prospects at home and the threat of further yen weakness, Japanese companies are rushing to buy overseas and seem willing to pay top dollar, as shown by Japan Post's $5 billion bid for Australia's Toll Holdings.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 23, 2015

Will Japan become Asia's next autocracy?

The LDP's draft constitution contains elements that would move Japan toward illiberalism and autocracy if it was adopted.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 23, 2015

Any attempt to scale Japan's mountain of rules is doomed

In England of the distant past, the word "doom" was a legal term, referring to a judgment imposing a punishment. Some etymological sources suggest it has common roots with the Sanskrit "dharma," a deeply complex word that can refer to customary social duties or divine law, depending upon the religious...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2015

Europe needs a stronger security architecture

The Euro-Atlantic region's existing security architecture is not up to the task of resolving the current crisis in Ukraine and increasing cooperation and stability in the region.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 23, 2015

Blackstone draws Tokyo junk investors amid warnings of froth

Blackstone Group LP filled a Tokyo ballroom earlier this month with locals seeking riskier U.S. loans as regulators in New York try and avert a credit bubble.
EDITORIALS
Feb 21, 2015

Value of new shinkansen services

The government needs to clearly explain how and whether its plan to move up the schedules for completing unfinished sections of shinkansen networks in Hokkaido, Kyushu and Hokuriku regions will bring benefits that outweigh the additional expenses to taxpayers.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2015

A central bank needn't sweat its balance sheet

Around the world, central banks' balance sheets are becoming an increasingly serious concern. Yet, balance-sheet considerations rank, at best, a distant fourth on the list of worthy monetary-policy goals.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2015

This is no time to abandon Yemen

To ensure that the recent overthrow of its government by the Shiite Houthi rebel movement does not deal Yemen the lethal blow that it has avoided so far, the international community must not abandon the country in what may be its hour of greatest need.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2015

New tech isn't paying off as much as before

We are not getting our money's worth from the 'creative destruction' process that the economist Joseph Schumpeter trumpeted. For example, the technology that makes social networking possible monetizes activities that used to be outside the market's purview, while leaving us open to criminal and governmental cyber assaults.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2015

Uses, and abuses, of history in the Middle East conflict

There remains in the U.S. an incorrigible conviction that it is the 'indispensable' nation, and that it alone can bring peace to nations. And that's done by more intervention and war, splitting nations in civil, tribal and sectarian battles in which the U.S. chooses sides and nominates the leaders.
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 2015

Japanese support for the AEC

Japan should throw its support behind the regional plan to establish the ASEAN Economic Community by yearend, thus creating a single market and production base of more than 600 million people.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person