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EDITORIALS
Dec 15, 2015

The consumption tax mess

It's questionable whether the government's plan to introduce a lower tax rate on food products is the best way to help lower-income households.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 15, 2015

Japan and India get serious

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to India highlighted the two countries' growing economic and security ties.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 14, 2015

Textbook publishers must be above reproach

Recent scandals highlight the fine line between legitimate business practices and shady dealings in the textbook industry.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Dec 14, 2015

Boy who pushed for hospital high school education passes away

An 18-year-old boy from Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture, who had called for hospital schooling for sick high school students and helped establish a teacher dispatch system, passed away last month.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 12, 2015

Food for thought: A traditional Okinawan diet may help prolong life

The view that, if there is a Garden of Eternal Life, it is likely located in Okinawa, may be a touch exaggerated but few places offer better models for the correlation between food, health and longevity than Japan's southern islands.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 12, 2015

Investors see big returns as Airbnb takes off in Japan

While many see Airbnb as a possible fix for two seious problems in Japan — the shortage of hotel rooms and a steady increase in vacant buildings — others see an investment opportunity.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 12, 2015

Top IT executives pour $1 billion into artificial intelligence startup

Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and other prominent tech executives are pouring $1 billion into a nonprofit aimed at creating artificial intelligence that augments humans' capabilities, rather than making them obsolete.
JAPAN / History
Dec 11, 2015

Fifty Japanese scholars attack McGraw-Hill, U.S. academics on 'comfort women' issue

The “comfort women” dispute heats up as 50 Japanese scholars chide the author of a U.S. textbook and his backers for “errors” they claim no Japanese scholar would support.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2015

Bangladeshi seeking asylum deported after working for years in Japan

Abu Said Shekh was awakened in his cell at an immigration detention center in Tokyo one recent morning and told he was leaving for the airport. After nine years of seeking political asylum in Japan, he was being deported to Bangladesh.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 10, 2015

'Taiko' pioneer Eitetsu Hayashi to mark 45 years of drumming to his own beat

It's the image that comes to most people when they think of a traditional taiko (Japanese drum) performance: A man standing in front of a giant drum, back to the crowd and furiously banging away to create a powerful rhythm.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2015

How not to combat terror

The U.S. must get Saudi Arabia to halt its sponsorship of radical Islam if it is going to successfully prosecute the war on terror.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 9, 2015

The upside to Donald Trump's latest bad idea

Donald Trump's proposal to ban all Muslims from immigrating to the U.S. is a lousy idea, but it's worth thinking through what's wrong with it.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 9, 2015

Domestic film industry focuses inwards at its own peril

The Japanese film industry released 615 films last year, according to the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan. That figure may include glorified student productions and dressed-up pornography, but is still substantial by any measure. Relatively few of those films, however, are sold abroad....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 9, 2015

Ryusuke Hamaguchi's study of human love, loss and trust

One Asian film reviewer of my acquaintance writes “(J-film title) could be cut by (number of minutes)” so often that he's probably made it into a keyboard shortcut.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2015

Japan to ground hobbyist drones in urban areas, impose sweeping restrictions elsewhere

New regulations on the flights of drones and other unmanned aircraft will take effect on Thursday, despite concerns over the impact on hobbyists and fears that restrictions may hamper innovation in the emerging sector.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 9, 2015

Nobel prizes, unlocking universe's mysteries just another day's work at Hamamatsu Photonics

When employees at Hamamatsu Photonics KK found out their high-precision light sensors had helped win this year's Nobel Prize in physics, they treated it just like any other day at the office.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 9, 2015

U.S. House votes overwhelmingly to end visa waivers for travelers to Syria, Iraq

The House overwhelmingly voted Tuesday to bar people who have visited Iraq and Syria in the past five years from a program that allows visa-free entry to the U.S.
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Dec 8, 2015

Hanyu, Mao look to make history at Grand Prix Final

Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu and three-time world champ Mao Asada will be looking to add to their already illustrious resumes at the Grand Prix Final this week in Barcelona, Spain.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 8, 2015

'Tadanori Yokoo: Complete Drawings for Genka (Fantasy Flowers) by Jakucho Setouchi'

Dec. 12-March 27
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 8, 2015

Lessons of Pearl Harbor: fear itself, then and now

As anti-Muslim sentiment rises in the U.S. in the wake of the San Bernadino shootings, Americans would do well to recall the shameful policy mistakes that happened when fear and anger gripped the nation following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2015

China overtakes Japan as Asia's top technology exporter

China has brought to an end Japan's dominance of Asia's high-technology exports, according to the Asian Development Bank.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 7, 2015

China tells military officers not to whine about reforms

High-ranking officers in the Chinese army must hold their tongues about concerns over military reform and lead from the front to ensure the rank and file are on board, the People's Liberation Army said on Monday.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 7, 2015

In wake of Paris attack, India risks missing lessons from Mumbai massacre

Last month, during an exercise to test India's readiness for a militant attack, teams of coast guards approached Mumbai and surrounding areas by sea, just as assailants did before deadly strikes in 2008. Several teams slipped through undetected.
WORLD
Dec 7, 2015

Turkey says it won't send more troops to Iraq unless Baghdad gives its OK

Turkey shelved military plans to send more troops to support allies in northern Iraq, after the government in Baghdad said it may appeal to the United Nations to secure the withdrawal of Turkish soldiers deployed recently to the country.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Dec 6, 2015

A penny for your thoughts: a dog named Jerry

Jerry is something of an introvert, an intelligent dog and an incredibly quick study. But he's no stick-in-the-mud.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 5, 2015

Hunter and hunted: Where are they now?

The mutilations are frightful — dog, cat, rabbit and pigeon corpses missing heads, tails, limbs, ears. Weekly Playboy magazine reports nearly 40 sightings in the past four months in the Kanto region alone. Who's out there doing these things? With what thoughts in mind?
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Dec 5, 2015

All set for our woods' own horse power

Over the past three years, the C.W. Nicol Afan Woodland Trust has been bringing down people and horses from Tono and Morioka in Iwate Prefecture to help us take out trees we've been thinning from our woods here in northern Nagano Prefecture — and lately, too, from the adjoining national forest we've...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Dec 5, 2015

A quick lesson on sexual harassment in schools

When you find criticism of your country disturbing, the best way to dismiss it is to find a flaw in the critique and use it to justify dismissing the rest of the evidence as well. Sometimes it works, but only if people don't really do their homework.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 5, 2015

China's Xi cheers African leaders with pledge of $60 billion for development

Chinese President Xi Jinping told African leaders on Friday his country would pump $60 billion into development projects, cancel some debt and boost agriculture under a three-year plan that will extend Beijing's influence in the continent.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear