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COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2015

Singapore's iron patriarch

Lee Kuan Yew cut his teeth on politics, but his ruthlessness in ensuring the dominance of his People's Action Party removed political contenders who might one day take over. It's the age-old problem when a great philosopher-king departs.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 30, 2015

Taiwanese writer Chou Chin-bo as war victim

Recently I was asked to translate into English a short story that the Taiwanese writer Chou Chin-bo wrote in Japanese back in 1941. I was happy with this request. I was born in Taipei in 1942, but ever since my family was forced out of the island upon Japan's defeat in the war, in 1945, I have never...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Mar 29, 2015

Hell of war reaffirmed joys of the simple life for Okinawan, 102

For a man who once narrowly escaped execution after being forced to dig his own grave, 102-year-old Okinawan Shoko Nagamine is doing remarkably well.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 28, 2015

China's Xi preaches peace in keynote address

Chinese President Xi Jinping said Saturday that turmoil at home or abroad were not in the country's interests as its bitter past has shown, pledging that Beijing will never stray from its proclaimed path of peaceful development.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 27, 2015

$50 media player making waves in changing North Korea

A $50 portable media player is providing many North Koreans a window to the outside world despite the government's efforts to keep its people isolated, a symbol of change in one of the world's most repressed societies.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 27, 2015

Building collapses, engulfed in flames in New York's East Village

A residential apartment building collapsed and was engulfed in flames on Thursday in New York City's East Village neighborhood, critically injuring at least one person, authorities said.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 26, 2015

Where political 'fox' LKY stands in Singapore history

The late Lee Kuan Yew showed the world that economic self-improvement in Singapore had to have public policies grounded in best-practice pragmatisms rather than in ideological schematics.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2015

Noodle-maker revolutionizes ramen culture in the U.S.

At the huge, brightly lit factory in Teterboro, New Jersey, machines from Japan gently mix eggs and flour and turn them into sheets of yellow dough that are then cut into thin wavy ramen.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 25, 2015

Otsuka Kagu familial feud nears climax

A battle between the founder of Otsuka Kagu Ltd. and its current president, who also happen to be father and daughter, is expected to turn into a proxy fight at the company's annual shareholders' meeting scheduled for Friday, with the result deciding the fate of the struggling furniture giant.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 25, 2015

Summit spotlights school dramatists

"Diversity is the outstanding attraction of high school drama, so I'm always appreciating afresh theater's myriad charms," the prominent director Keisuke Tanaka said with a beaming smile during a recent interview ahead of the fifth annual High School Drama Summit at Tokyo's leading Agora Theater.
BASEBALL / SPORTS SCOPE
Mar 24, 2015

Why did Matsui pick Yankees over Giants?

Former Yomiuri Giants star Hideki Matsui made news earlier this month with his decision to take a job with the New York Yankees. The move was seen as a curious one here for several reasons.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Mar 24, 2015

Single mother with disability vying for seat in Tokyo's Kita Ward

The packed room quieted down as Rie Saito took the stage. Instead of picking up the microphone, however, she smiled and silently pointed to the big screen next to her. This was the beginning of her speech — at a political rally on March 15 — which she based around a Power Point presentation.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2015

Netanyahu girds Israel for isolation

The way that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finagled his decisive electoral victory will have serious political and diplomatic consequences for Israel.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues
Mar 22, 2015

University teachers in Japan work under the shadow of a falling ax

For most teachers, their job is more than an economic exchange of time for money — it is a vocation. Concern for students' educational development is genuine, as is a deep belief in the value and importance of education, and a regard for the institution's reputation and welfare.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 22, 2015

Attacks on Islamic State militants highlight bubbling anger with group

Almost two years since Islamic State militants started taking territory to form their so-called caliphate, residents of a Syrian town are showing how people are now fighting back.
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2015

Security blanket: Should Japan beef up its anti-terrorism measures?

On Nov. 27, 2005, an unidentified terrorist group attacked the Mihama nuclear power plant on the Japan Sea in Fukui Prefecture, damaging the facility and creating fears of a radiation leak.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 21, 2015

Sexual identity isn't as simple as it once was

All societies are repressive — some brutally, others benignly, more or less. No society allows us to fully express our true selves. Some societies squash our true selves. Even those that don't will at least keep them in check to some degree. Society could hardly function otherwise.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 21, 2015

Media caught up in festive PR atmosphere of new Hokuriku bullet train

A friend who often goes to Ishikawa Prefecture for family reasons mentioned on Facebook last week that he took the overnight bus from Tokyo and arrived at Kanazawa Station at about the same time of the Hokuriku Shinkansen's inaugural run. When I asked why he hadn't taken the new train, he said it was...
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2015

Pope pays tribute to Japan's 'hidden' Christians, rediscovered 150 years ago

At the Vatican, Pope Francis pays tribute to the generations of Japan's 'hidden Christians.'
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 21, 2015

Retreating Boko Haram leaves mass of throat-slit corpses near Nigerian town

Soldiers from Niger and Chad who liberated the Nigerian town of Damasak from Boko Haram militants have discovered the bodies of at least 70 people, many with their throats slit, scattered under a bridge, a witness said.
EDITORIALS
Mar 20, 2015

Aum's crimes still raise questions

Twenty years on, people are still trying to fathom why so many people — including youths from elite backgrounds — were drawn to a doomsday cult that carried out a deadly sarin gas attack in downtown Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Mar 18, 2015

More chances of false charges?

The Diet should scrutinize whether the proposed revision to the criminal procedure law contributes to eliminating false charges and wrongful convictions.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 18, 2015

Psycho-drama mystery tests Tani's 'pop' principles

"Probably nobody ever got involved with theater the way I did," Kenichi Tani said with a laugh, explaining that because his teachers at school were "really boring" he set his sights on becoming an interesting teacher in the future.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 18, 2015

Food concerns mount in Vanuatu after monster cyclone

International aid agencies ramped up appeals for cyclone-hit Vanuatu on Wednesday, warning that the powerful storm that affected more than two-thirds of the South Pacific island nation had wiped out crops and destroyed fishing fleets, raising the risk of hunger and disease.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 17, 2015

Monitor says Syrian army killed six in toxic gas attack; military denies it

A group monitoring the Syrian civil war said Tuesday government forces carried out a poison gas attack that killed six people in the northwest, and medics posted videos of children suffering what they said was suffocation.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2015

Should we worry about robots taking away jobs?

The fear of technological job loss to robots is real, but probably exaggerated.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 17, 2015

BOJ must adopt pay goal as deflation looms, price professor says

The Bank of Japan must take the unusual step of preventing a return to deflation, according to a professor at the University of Tokyo who tracks prices.

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers