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COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 11, 2015

Secrets law, one year later

The controversial state secret law that took effect last year has already had a chilling effect on the media: no one is even talking about it anymore.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 5, 2015

Done right, moral education could be a good thing

The Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is enacting another one of the conservatives' long-standing policy desires by reintroducing moral education in secondary schools from 2018.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 23, 2015

Abe's growing China problem

Abe talks big on reform but hasn't delivered the radical change needed to adapt to 6 percent growth in China.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 19, 2015

Takashi Murakami's reluctant homecoming

Ebisu Yokocho has never looked so fabulous. It's the night before Halloween and costumed women with talon-like nails and feathered eyelashes snake their way through a boisterous crowd crammed into this narrow alley of food stalls and bars. The smell of booze and grilled meat mingles with the scent of...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2015

Could South Korea be turning Japanese?

South Korea's economy has grown by leaps and bounds, like Japan's once did, but now it risks falling into the same kind of malaise as well.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 18, 2015

Okinawa's base conundrum

The Okinawa base issue goes beyond the tangible impact of the U.S. military bases. More than anything, it's the attitude of the Japanese central government toward the issue that irks Okinawans.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 1, 2015

Medecins du Monde brings health care to Tohoku, Tokyo and the world

Now marking its 20th year in Japan, MdM works with local partners to develop medical practices with the aim of providing universal access to health care.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Oct 28, 2015

OVERSEAs Japanese show solidarity with activists back home

OVERSEAs is a loose collective that aims to unite Japanese-speaking people who want to support specific domestic causes from outside the country.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 26, 2015

Abe's magic doesn't work

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants Japan to believe there are magic solutions to the complex problems facing society, to the detriment of the nation.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 16, 2015

Security legislation promises more than it can deliver

Japan's new security legislation will do little to deter China or North Korea, and the SDF is not large or strong enough to turn the tides of war in international peacekeeping and possible U.S.-led war efforts.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 15, 2015

The Abe government versus the Emperor on history issues

Shinzo Abe and the Foreign Ministry have been mincing words when it comes to Japan's war responsibility, in stark contrast with Emperor Akihito's forthright statements of remorse and apology.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 10, 2015

It's a small world, with no respect for islands

To what extent are your problems my problems? To what extent are Syria's troubles Japan's?
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 4, 2015

In lieu of taking in refugees, Abe opens up checkbook

While Japan has not been open to accepting refugees amid the current world crisis, it has at least increased its financial contributions to addressing the problem.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 19, 2015

Money matters when it comes to security

Media coverage of the Liberal Democratic Party's plans to bolster Japan's military position in the world has largely focused on the constitutionality of the two bills that allow the Self-Defense Forces to come to the aid of allies overseas. Those who oppose these bills have used this constitutional question...
EDITORIALS
Sep 16, 2015

Security questions go unanswered

Many of the questions and doubts about the legislation that remained from the Lower House deliberations were also never answered in the Upper House.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 4, 2015

The veiled cause of Abe's legislative predicament

The national debate over the security bills as been limited to constitutional issues but it should also focus on Japan's significantly enhanced responsibilities in the U.S. defense guidelines.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Aug 22, 2015

Surviving the postwar Soviet detention camps

Japan's surrender on Aug. 15, 1945, marked the end of the most devastating global conflict in history.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 18, 2015

Shinzo Abe's sorry apology

Critics of Shinzo Abe have to concede that he used the right buzzwords in his address marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the war. But did he really mean them?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 15, 2015

Abe statement was vague in all the wrong places

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a hash of his long-anticipated statement on Friday commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Aug 15, 2015

AKB48 turns to an American studio

AKB48’s  commercial success in Japan is often derided as a sign of the culture’s patriarchal infantilization of women, and the girl group’s inability to appeal to Western audiences a sign of Japan’s increasingly isolated ideas about femininity, sexuality and pop music. Put simply: outside of...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Aug 14, 2015

Full text of Abe's declaration on 70th anniversary of the end of WWII

On the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, we must calmly reflect upon the road to war, the path we have taken since it ended, and the era of the 20th century. We must learn from the lessons of history the wisdom for our future.
JAPAN / History / 70 YEARS AFTER THE WAR'S END
Aug 10, 2015

A legacy of WWII, Korean residents test nation's ability to accommodate non-Japanese

World War II had, and continues to have, a profound impact on the Korean community in Japan.
JAPAN / History
Aug 8, 2015

Truth hurts: censorship in the media

"Truth, it has been said, is the first casualty of war." — Philip Snowden, July 1916
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Aug 6, 2015

Hibakusha of 'Korea's Hiroshima' still press for redress

The nuclear bomb detonated as a 16-year-old girl sat in a shanty town cradling her baby, waiting for her mother to return from selling candy.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Aug 5, 2015

Mount Koya sites exemplify 'parallel universe' where war criminals are martyrs

Japanese leaders who continue to condone the country's wartime actions inhabit a 'parallel universe' whose version of WWII history is at odds with the rest of the world's.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Aug 5, 2015

Abe, offer a WWII apology alluding to the shame the West should share

The prime minister should explain to the world that he is sorry for the implications of Japan's warmongering past but rather glad that Japan avoided the fate of its neighbors by treading the imperial path.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 4, 2015

Abe losing to his demons

On the 70th anniversary of Japan's defeat and surrender, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has a wonderful opportunity to set a new path for Japan, for Asia and the world. But will he take it?

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami