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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 10, 2013

Military is key to emerging democracy

After five decades under military rule, Myanmar faces many challenges in building a robust democracy. The election of Aung San Suu Kyi and 41 other members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in parliamentary by-elections last April has stoked a degree of euphoria tempered by grim realities still...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 10, 2013

Future leaders stress 'politics of the daily'

In 2015, Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar's current president, Thein Sein, will both turn 70, so a great deal depends on future leaders. On a recent visit I caught up with two promising aspirants who focus on the "politics of the daily."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Feb 8, 2013

Founder of TIS makes creativity cornerstone of school's curriculum

Patrick Newell, 47, founder of Tokyo International School, calls himself a “learning activist,” a zealot on the frontlines of learning.
EDITORIALS
Feb 8, 2013

China's dangerous conduct

It is deplorable that Chinese warships recently locked their fire-control radar on an MSDF destroyer and an MSDF helicopter in the East China Sea.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 8, 2013

Japanese attorneys throw their nets farther out

Big city lawyers are moving to the sticks to drum up business.
EDITORIALS
Feb 8, 2013

Mr. Kerry's challenges

Mr. John Kerry has been confirmed as the United States secretary of state and has officially taken office. Although his predecessor, Ms. Hillary Clinton, left a big legacy to live up to, the five-term senator from Massachusetts is well suited for the job. Mr. Kerry's new post caps a distinguished political...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2013

Breaking past the tired old plot with Pyongyang

Stop me if you've heard this one before. North Korea decides, for whatever reason, that it is time to once again challenge the international community by conducting missile and nuclear tests. It announces a "satellite launch" and proceeds, despite international condemnation and warnings of dire consequences,...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 8, 2013

Lantern festival to put spotlight on Nagasaki's Chinese neighborhood

Recent diplomatic squabbles between Japan and China have dampened enthusiasm around many bilateral events, but it seems nothing can dull the glow of the Nagasaki Lantern Festival, which will be held as always during the Chinese New Year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 7, 2013

Tadasu Takamine's not so 'Cool Japan'

In May 2011, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry promoted the idea of "Cool Japan," presenting Japanese culture as a product amid the confusing circumstances after the Great East Japan Earthquake. As Japan continues to suffer a declining population and weak economy, it was a government attempt...
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 7, 2013

Abe presses ahead on collective self-defense

Japanese corporate executives doing business with China as well as diplomats stationed in Japan and neighboring countries are probably breathing a sigh of relief now that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has dialed down his hawkish stance from the campaign trail in December and has instead focused on stimulus...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2013

Time for a reboot with North Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong Eun should break the cycle of getting hit with additional sanctions over his behavior by talking directly with the U.S.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices
Feb 4, 2013

Tokyo: Are you better or worse off than this time last year?

Dan Lewis
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Feb 4, 2013

Navigating the Tokyo high school minefield: a foreign parent's tale

Not too long ago, I heard from a foreign resident of Tokyo looking for a high school for her daughter, a 14-year-old who will begin her final year of junior high in April. Both parent and child were extremely excited about recently discovering a nearby public school featuring a cosmopolitan atmosphere...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2013

Ending the international war against women

According to the United Nations, one in three women worldwide will be raped or beaten in her lifetime.
COMMENTARY / Japan / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Feb 4, 2013

Abe's 15-month reversal budget fudges cost of swapping people and butter for concrete and guns

The government of Shinzo Abe has just unveiled its budget for fiscal 2013 starting in April. Abe's stated intention was to “radically reset” spending priorities.
Reader Mail
Feb 3, 2013

Abe's willpower for core values

Some Japan Times staff writers, at the expense of their journalistic integrity, seem to have a penchant for the same old partisan cliche in reporting on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as we see in the Jan. 29 front-page article "Abe opens Diet, skips hawkish rhetoric," and in previous articles that either...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 3, 2013

Citizens' lack of resolve leaves nuclear door wide open for next disaster

Second of two parts
CULTURE / Books
Feb 3, 2013

Japan's medical system skewed toward men in treating depression

DEPRESSION IN JAPAN: Psychiatric Cures for a Society in Distress, by Junko Kitanaka. Princeton University Press, 2011, 264 pp., $29.95 (paperback) Twenty-first century Japan is in the throes of a depression epidemic. Until the late 1990s, mental depression was not widely diagnosed or treated in Japan,...
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 2, 2013

Somali pirate trial lay judges felt global duty

The lay judges who sentenced two Somali pirates to 10 years in prison Friday said that while they had initial qualms about a case they considered foreign, they came to believe it was their duty as part of the international community to try the defendants.
Events / KANSAI: WHO & WHAT
Feb 2, 2013

Check out 'cake shrine' for Valentine's Day

Around 80 students from a cooking school in Osaka will demonstrate their final procedure to complete a shrine made of 500 "dorayaki" pancakes, 40 kg of chocolate and 400 cookies from Wednesday through Friday to pray for good luck on Valentine's Day.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 31, 2013

February: My Bloody Valentine returns

January featured a ton of great concerts across Japan, but February might be even better — hope your wallet isn't too thin this month.
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2013

Mr. Abe's strategy

A s the 150-day ordinary Diet session kicked off Monday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivered his first policy speech since becoming prime minister following the Liberal Democratic Party's victory in the Dec. 16 Lower House election. He said Japan is facing crises with regard to the economy, damage from...
Japan Times
Events
Jan 29, 2013

Preparing the foreign community for Japan's next big natural disaster

For newcomers to Japan, especially those who come from countries that don't experience frequent earthquakes, preparing for natural disasters like the megaquake and tsunami that hit the Tohoku region on March 11, 2011, may not come so easily.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jan 28, 2013

Tokyo: Do you think teachers should be allowed to dish out corporal punishment?

'I don't see any benefit in corporal punishment, whether at the hands of teachers or parents.'
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jan 28, 2013

Blame it on the hara: harassment vocabulary makes us all victims

Japan has a new hara. No, the nice couple down the hall didn't just have a baby; according to recent news, yet another form of harassment is supposedly becoming a social problem.

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