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EDITORIALS
Jun 24, 2013

A moderate wins in Tehran

Hassan Rowhani's victory in Iran's presidential election was a surprise, but don't expect this 'moderate' to radically alter the country's course.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2013

Asia's developing frontier with Latin America

As the U.S. economy struggles, trade within the Forum for East Asia and Latin American Cooperation has grown 20% on average in a decade.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 23, 2013

North Korea occupies Fukuoka in Murakami's alternate world

Not to be confused with another famous Japanese novelist who has the same surname, Ryu Murakami is known for being an overtly political, even subversive, writer. "From the Fatherland, With Love," his latest novel to be translated into English, cements that reputation. Taking place in an alternate world...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 23, 2013

Happiness: Abenomics falls short

What makes people happy? The global trend toward quantifying happiness certainly got a big boost from Bhutan, the tiny Himalayan kingdom that has championed and made a cottage industry out of the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH).
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 22, 2013

Vienna embraces the culture of the bicycle

On the Praterstern, where cars, buses and trams converge from several busy streets on a road that loops around Vienna's central train station, a new digital counter stands under the eye of the Riesenrad Ferris wheel.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 22, 2013

Black Cubans still struggle against discrimination

An independent movement for racial equality in Cuba is a refutation of the idea that, after a half-century in power, communism has delivered equality.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 21, 2013

In electronic snooping, level of oversight is key

Americans are learning what electronics whizzes and hackers have known all along — that computers and smartphones, which make our lives more productive and entertaining, have at the same time ended privacy as most of us have understood it.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 21, 2013

'Gone'

The conceit of this movie is that an entire community and police force refuse to believe the gorgeous Amanda Seyfried when she tells them an abductor and killer of women is in their midst. What is wrong with them? Maybe Seyfried is just too gorgeous to take seriously, what with her perfectly streaked...
EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 2013

Global warming danger zone

The Japanese general public's interest in the global warming issue has been sagging of late, and few LDP government leaders appear ready to try to prop it up.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / IN THE RECORD
Jun 20, 2013

In the record bag: Mark Birtles

Born in Nottingham, England, Mark Birtles began DJing in Leeds before coming to Japan in 2008. He is one half of the Tokyo Indie events team, which has hosted DJ gigs with touring bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Metronomy, Mystery Jets and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He let us have a look in his record bag and...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / ABE'S PROMISES
Jun 19, 2013

Lofty educational ideal: Ability to prevail on global stage

Universities are starting to try out all sorts of new and innovative ways for Japan to develop human resources capable of 'prevailing on the world stage.'
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Jun 19, 2013

Private money pours into Syrian conflict as donors pick sides

Syrian tanks were closing in on the rebel-held town of Qusair last month when a Kuwaiti sheik named Hajjaj al-Ajmi and his money machine roared into action. In a series of urgent messages on his Twitter account, al-Ajmi appealed for cash to help save the town's defenders.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / ABE'S PROMISES
Jun 18, 2013

Yokohama day care centers scramble to keep kids off waiting lists

In the shadow of an imposing highway bypass in Yokohama, laughter and excited voices mingle in the small playground of a day care center attended by 52 children no older than 5.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 18, 2013

Chatting about Japan with Snowden, the NSA whistle-blower

Edward Snowden, the fugitive former CIA employee and NSA contractor who leaked secrets about America's spying operations, often hung out online with foreigners in Japan who shared his interests in anime, video games, martial arts, the stock market and the expat lifestyle.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 18, 2013

Democracy, interrupted: How local voices were silenced in Tokyo's first referendum

On Sunday, May 26, something quite remarkable happened in Kodaira city, western Tokyo: Over 50,000 citizens voted in Tokyo's very first local referendum (jūmin tōhyō) on the issue of whether a 50-year-old plan to construct a road should be reviewed or not.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Jun 18, 2013

Why workers can no longer wear their demands on their sleeves

Dear reader, where are you from? To what era do you belong? I was born in 1971 in Japan and grew up here, too, but I've never — in all my years visiting hotels, restaurants, shops or government offices — seen workers wearing vests, armbands, badges, ribbons or bandanas with political messages. I've...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 17, 2013

After Newtown shooting, mourning parents enter into the lonely quiet

They had promised to try everything, so Mark Barden went down into the basement to begin another project in memory of Daniel. The families of Sandy Hook Elementary were collaborating on a Mother's Day card, which would be produced by a marketing firm and mailed to hundreds of politicians across the country....
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 16, 2013

Family-crest master fears he's one of a dying breed

Dressed in a black kimono and wearing a pair of eye-catching black, triple-framed spectacles, Shoryu Hatoba straightens his back as he sits on the tatami floor of his quaint studio in Ueno, central Tokyo, holding a pair of bamboo compasses fitted with a brush dipped in ink in place of a pencil.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 16, 2013

Humble true tales of a 'good man'

The journals of Kenjiro Setoue, a doctor at a clinic on a small Kyushu island, chronicle a life that is, as the doctor himself notes, for the most part, unexciting. It is difficult to believe that a version of this life has been retold — and, one has to believe, embellished — in an ongoing series...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WEEK 3
Jun 16, 2013

Insecticides pit trees against bees

"That's where they're going to spray."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2013

Snowden Web manga profile still online

Edward Snowden has become the world's hot-button item since divulging that the U.S. National Security Agency has engaged in a massive spying effort targeting Americans and individuals overseas, touching off one of the country's most explosive intelligence scandals of recent years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jun 15, 2013

Actor Ethan Hawke: still playing all the angles

Ethan Hawke is out and about in New York, the city he's lived in for 30 years, a place where famous faces slide past every day. He's wearing a baseball cap, a hoodie and a pair of cords. It's an outfit you might think he chose especially to look nondescript, but in reality it's because he likes corduroy...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 15, 2013

Clinton re-enters limelight, plans charitable work — for now

In her first major public appearance since stepping down as secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton embraced key pillars of President Barack Obama's domestic agenda Thursday and said she will strive to act as an envoy between businesses, nonprofit entities and the federal government.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 14, 2013

The economics of men's cosmetics; top six meaty menus; CM of the week: Toyota

Though everyone is fretting about Japan's economic future, the young people who are destined to become tomorrow's leaders have had little opportunity to share their own ideas on the topic. NHK's new information program, "Oikonomia" (NHK-E, Tues., 11:30 p.m.), a madeup term based on the English word "economics,"...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 14, 2013

Parolee in 1963 Saitama girl's slaying hits authorities for lying, forcing confessions

Investigators will lie, grill for hours on end and withhold exonerating evidence — in effect do anything — to extract a confession from a suspect they have pegged for a crime, a 1994 parolee seeking a retrial to clear his name in the 1963 kidnap-murder of a Saitama Prefecture girl said Thursday in...
WORLD
Jun 13, 2013

U.S. quietly sabotages al-Qaida's flashy online magazine

U.S. intelligence operatives covertly sabotaged a prominent al-Qaida online magazine last month in an apparent attempt to sow confusion among the group's followers, according to officials.
Reader Mail
Jun 13, 2013

Principled bargaining over islets

As someone who has been a guest in Japan for a relatively short time, I find some of the culture unfamiliar, as doubtless many a Japanese citizen would find it so in my country — especially the likely method of handling the dispute over the Senkaku Islands.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji