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EDITORIALS
Oct 2, 2013

Consumption tax raise misdirected

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe confirms that the government will raise the sales tax from 5 to 8 percent beginning in April. But will the tax hike lead to an economic downturn
Reader Mail
Oct 2, 2013

Mindset trumps English ability

In his Sept. 23 article, "The communication skills for vying in the world," Sadaaki Numata expressed concern about Japan's ability to hold its own in international forums and negotiations.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 2, 2013

Koizumi takes up post for Tohoku reconstruction

Shinjiro Koizumi's appointment Monday as parliamentary secretary in charge of Tohoku's recovery has generated much attention amid mounting criticism of the government for failing to speed up reconstruction efforts or end the radioactive water spill into the sea at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 2, 2013

IT startup barters its way into niche

At around noon on a recent weekday, the Roppongi branch of Shamrock by Abbot Choice, a Tokyo-based Irish-style pub chain, had a bustling lunchtime crowd.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2013

Flaws in Britain's health care

A number of recent scandals suggest that there are weaknesses and flaws in Britain's national health care system.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2013

The chance to underscore political self-dealing

By forcing Democrats to dramatize their perverse priorities in order to halt a government shutdown, U.S. Republicans can turn to completing the neutering of the Obama presidency.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 1, 2013

April to see sales tax hike, Abe confirms

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe goes ahead with raising the consumption tax while also offering a ¥5 trillion stimulus package to offset the negative impact on consumer spending.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Sep 30, 2013

The build-up to get that housing loan

Several years ago, we went to a bank in Tokyo that was advertising housing loans with easy terms. Though we weren't shopping for a loan at the time we wanted to see what was needed in order to apply for one. The bank's approval criteria seemed simple enough: If you made at least ¥3 million a year, you...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / OUR MAN IN TOKYO
Sep 30, 2013

Beninese ambassador brings TV star power to diplomacy

Beninese Ambassador Zomahoun Rufin says — half-jokingly — his dream is “to become the next Japanese prime minister.”
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 30, 2013

Slow start expected for system

The White House is downplaying expectations for the first day of the Affordable Care Act's insurance marketplaces.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Sep 30, 2013

Russia anti-gay law casts shadow over Sochi Olympics

Let other mayors fret about potholes, taxes and sewers. This is an Olympic city, and here is the jeans-clad mayor striding into his office on a recent afternoon, fresh from a landslide, and not the electoral kind. When Sochi won the 2014 Games, life went epic.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 29, 2013

Bringing farmers markets to the urban poor

he Crossroads Farmers Market in Maryland is not your typical farmers market. It was founded to offer a friendly environment for low-income people to buy fresh produce.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Sep 29, 2013

Nontraditional college students juggle work, kids, bills with coursework

When President Barack Obama talks about the cost of higher education, his mentions of "college students" might often evoke images of teenagers who spent their senior years of high school searching for the four-year institution that best matched their personalities, then enrolled and moved into the dorms...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Sep 29, 2013

Politics and pride drive Putin's anti-U.S. shift

First, Vladimir Putin accused Hillary Rodham Clinton of inciting protests against him at the end of 2011. The next fall, the Russian president threw the U.S. Agency for International Development out of his country. Then he decided civic groups that get U.S. financing must be foreign agents.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 28, 2013

Two studies explore the Tudors, Scotland's crown and a nonchalant union

The unhurried fashion in which James VI of Scotland ambled south toward London to claim his crown in 1603, stopping off to hunt along the way and arriving six weeks after Elizabeth I died, suggests there was nothing terribly dramatic about the event. The man who would be James I of England, the first...
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 27, 2013

Nippon Ishin's future seen riding on Sakai mayor race

Sunday's mayoral contest in Sakai, one of Japan's most independent-minded cities, is expected to decide not only the fate of a plan to merge Osaka prefectural cities into a single administrative entity, but also the fate of national-level efforts to create a new opposition party.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Sep 25, 2013

Harvard grad Gordon hoping to make impact for Frontiers

Fujitsu Frontiers running back Gino Gordon earned a chance to play in Japan and really cherishes the opportunity.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan