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COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 5, 2013

Perseverance an effective weapon for activists in Japan

As in other developed countries, there are many cases of steady and long-enduring social activism in Japan, but they have remained largely unknown until recently.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2013

Washington isn't working, so why not move it?

Dispersing the headquarters of Washington's bureaucratic agencies throughout America's hinterland might well reduce people's feelings of alienation and hence lead to better government.
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
Nov 3, 2013

Trading house exec stakes claim for women

Japan Inc. is still dominated by men, especially its trading houses, but Itochu's bold promotion of Mitsuru Claire Chino to executive officer has put her in a position to do something about it.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 2, 2013

Hankyu Hanshin scandal is a by-product of the media's food fetishization

As with every food mislabeling furor, the point in the Hankyu Hanshin scandal isn't necessarily that people are eating bad-tasting or unsafe food, but that their pretensions have been exposed.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Nov 1, 2013

Writer, translator, yoga instructor finds inspiration in 'the voices that history silences'

Leza Lowitz has shared the worlds of kamikaze pilots and their last letters to their families, published lesbian writings by contemporary Japanese poets, specifically sought out Ainu writers, and journeyed into the mind of Japan's foremost modernist poet, Nobuo Ayukawa.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2013

Lawmaker under fire for letter to Emperor

The repercussions continued Friday after independent Upper House lawmaker Taro Yamamoto the previous evening handed an apparently politically inspired letter to Emperor Akihito.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 1, 2013

Nothing new in NSA scandal

The surprising thing about the scandal of Washington spying on its friends is that people are surprised. Reports of an Australian decoding operation against the Japanese date back to 1976.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2013

McDonald's store pulls, apologizes for homeless sign

The McDonald's fast-food chain apologizes for a sign at one of its outlets in western Tokyo barring homeless people from entering.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2013

Pros and cons of continuing the money ride for the rich

It is time for the Fed to understand that the U.S., too, is part of the global economy and to consider whether it should continue running its money ride for the rich — aka quantitative easing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 31, 2013

The blessing and the curse of being Steve Jobs

Filmmaker Joshua Michael Stern has the distinction of directing "Jobs," the first big-budget movie biopic on one of the world's most important entrepreneurs: Steve Jobs. The film was bound to come under extreme scrutiny from avid Apple fans, of whom there are many, and so Stern takes a cautious approach,...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 29, 2013

Blame liberals for illegal drone war

Critics of the George W. Bush administration didn't realize that condemning quasi-lawless detention at Guantanamo Bay would lead a Democratic president to break new ground with drones.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 29, 2013

Damo Suzuki sees promise in young artists

"I don't like to make music, I like to make energy. Music is just a way to get energy, so why not just make energy?"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Oct 28, 2013

Copyright extension opponents ready for new fight

For most of history, a great character or story or song has passed from its original creator into the public domain. Shakespeare and Charles Dickens and Beethoven are long dead, but Macbeth and Oliver Twist and the Fifth Symphony are part of our shared cultural heritage, free to be used or reinvented...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 28, 2013

Exposing IAEA to a dose of reality

Contrasting the International Atomic Energy Agency's findings with the reality in Fukushima, one is left wondering whether the IAEA mission got lost in a Potemkin village during their trip.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Oct 28, 2013

Al-Qaida affiliate shakes Iraq with surge of violence

Nearly two years after the U.S. troop withdrawal, Iraq is in the midst of a deepening security crisis as an al-Qaida affiliate wages a relentless campaign of attacks, sending the death toll soaring to its highest level since 2008.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Oct 26, 2013

Twitter users find out the hard way that anonymity is just fleeting

In the ego-driven game of Twitter, Jofi Joseph was, for a while, one of the winners.
BUSINESS
Oct 25, 2013

Farmers to focus on fighting fat in face of tariff cuts

From rice for controlling blood glucose levels to soybeans that reduce fatty acids, the government is seeking new ways to make money from agriculture as pressure mounts to cut the tariffs that farmers rely on to make a living.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 25, 2013

Eagles upbeat before Japan Series opener against Giants

Rain kept the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles indoors on Friday, but hasn't dampened the enthusiasm ahead of their first Japan Series appearance, which comes against the storied Yomiuri Giants.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 25, 2013

Say goodbye to plentiful, affordable shrimp

Due to poor production at Asian fish farms, shrimp stocks are shrinking.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / HOTEL SPECIAL 2013
Oct 24, 2013

Oasis of peace in Tokyo

In the middle of the downtown Tokyo district of Ebisu, there is a green oasis where people can forget about the hustle and bustle of city life. The new garden at The Westin Tokyo in Yebisu Garden Place is called The Westin Garden and was opened this April to let guests enjoy a refreshing time in the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 24, 2013

Trading identity for compassion in the Middle East

Filmmaker Lorraine Lévy likes to tread lightly wherever she goes. Her aversion to intrusiveness affects the way she looks at the world, and defines her approach to filmmaking. It's certainly a significant part of "Le Fils de l'Autre (The Other Son)," Lévy's latest film (and arguably her most successful),...
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Oct 24, 2013

Uruguay stoked to legalize marijuana production

Uruguay is about to go where no country has gone before by legalizing the cultivation and distribution of marijuana, with the left-of-center government regulating all facets of the trade.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Oct 23, 2013

Japan: no safe country for foreign women

When I first moved to Japan, I tolerated the staring, following and the persistent pickup artists, but after being assaulted twice in public, they have taken on darker undertones.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Oct 23, 2013

Tokyo: Do you feel safe while out and about in Japan?

Women in the capital give their views on the safety — or otherwise — of Japan's streets.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 22, 2013

ACA website to New Yorker: drop dead for now

The not-typically-quotable U.S. House Speaker John Boehner does have a point when he asks how we can we tax people for not buying Obamacare from a website that doesn't work.

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