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Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Jun 23, 2013

ASIJ student McNeill helping to boost Tokyo 2020's bid

There are no definitive guidelines in place, no simple slogans summarizing how individuals and groups should support or oppose an Olympic bid. Of course, it's up to them.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 23, 2013

A drama involving former classmates; Upper House elections prep; CM of the week: Coca-Cola

The eight-part NHK suspense drama "Gekiryu: Watashi Oboete Imasu ka?" ("Wild Current: Do You Remember Me?"; NHK-G, Tues., 10 p.m.) is about five former classmates struggling with personal and professional problems 20 years after a friend of theirs disappeared during a junior high school field trip.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 23, 2013

Modern science needs to reject 'fairy tales,' get a grip on reality

At an interdisciplinary gathering of academics discussing the concept of time, I once heard a scientist tell the assembled humanities scholars that physics can now replace all their woolly notions of time with one that is unique, precise and true. Such scientism is rightly undermined by theoretical physicist...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 22, 2013

Syrian rebels claim to receive heavy weapons

The rebels in Syria say they are starting to receive heavy weaponry that could swing the civil war their way after a shift in U.S. policy opens the door for others to send them arms.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 20, 2013

April sales tax hike a given: Amari

Japan will answer the world's call and present a credible midterm fiscal plan by implementing the sales tax hike as planned next April, economic revitalization minister Akira Amari said Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 20, 2013

U.S. House passes bill with new limits on abortion

The House approved legislation Tuesday that would ban abortions starting at 20 weeks of pregnancy, the most sweeping abortion restriction to pass any chamber of Congress in a decade. The vote was 228-196.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 20, 2013

'Special exhibition on the 120th anniversary of Ryukyu Shimpo; 42 tumultuous years in Okinawa, as seen through the eyes of photojournalists'

Hiroaki Yamashiro, three-time winner of the Kyushu-Okinawa photojournalist association award, has been documenting Okinawa's history, its vanishing culture and rare aspects of its nature for more than 40 years.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2013

Iran's presidential election augurs better future

Hassan Rowhani's election as Iran's new president augurs well for that country and for a world tired of the senseless rhetoric from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2013

Virtuous, vicious or just circular? Loop line to wed pair

East Japan Railway Co. announced Tuesday that a lucky couple will get the chance to hold a special wedding ceremony on board its Yamanote Line later this year.
WORLD
Jun 19, 2013

Combat jobs to be open to women

Women may be able to start training as U.S. Army Rangers by mid-2015 and as U.S. Navy commandos a year later under plans set to be announced by the Pentagon that would slowly bring women into thousands of combat jobs, including those in elite special operations forces.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jun 18, 2013

Finnish diplomat pushes child-rearing for dads

For Finnish diplomat Mikko Koivumaa, being an ikumen (men who take an active role in ikuji, or child rearing) comes naturally.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 17, 2013

After Newtown shooting, mourning parents enter into the lonely quiet

They had promised to try everything, so Mark Barden went down into the basement to begin another project in memory of Daniel. The families of Sandy Hook Elementary were collaborating on a Mother's Day card, which would be produced by a marketing firm and mailed to hundreds of politicians across the country....
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2013

What political parties have to offer

Voters shouldn't let the Upper House election campaign lull them into thinking that the Liberal Democratic Party no longer cares about constitutional revision.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 17, 2013

U.S. intelligence in bed with business

Thousands of technology, finance and manufacturing companies are working closely with U.S. national security agencies, providing sensitive information and in return receiving benefits that include access to classified intelligence, four people familiar with the process said.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 16, 2013

Cycads: 'living fossils' with a deadly twist

Almost two months after revelers in most of Japan began partying beneath cherry blossoms in mid-March this year, we hardy northerners in Hokkaido were still waiting patiently for warm zephyrs to waft in with a late promise of spring.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 16, 2013

Sand, sea and stars on idyllic Akajima

Back in 1972 when I first lived on Denman Island in the Georgia Strait of British Columbia between Vancouver and Vancouver Island, I was one of about 300 residents. By the time I left 25 years later for Japan, its population had just topped 1,000, and each year sees a few more drawn to live in that beautiful...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 16, 2013

Indonesia 15 years after the New Order

In May 1998 President Suharto resigned, ending three decades in power in Indonesia and what was known as the New Order. As an army general, he had intervened against a coup attempt in 1965 that ended with the sidelining of President Sukarno and months of massacres all over the archipelago as Suharto...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 16, 2013

Real-life celebrity drama; the Akihabara idol underground; CM of the week: Asahi Soft Drinks

The Takashimas were once the first family of Japanese show business. Tadao Takashima was a popular stage musical actor in the 1960s and Hanayo Sumi a star in the Takarazuka all-female musical revue company. They married and were celebrated as a "sweet couple," producing two sons who went on to acting...
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2013

Reconstruction official canned, blasted for tweets

Disaster victims and Diet lawmakers vented their outrage Friday over disparaging comments by a senior Reconstruction Agency official via his Twitter account that got him the sack.
EDITORIALS
Jun 15, 2013

Getting U.S.-China relations right

The U.S.-Chinese summit boiled down to Beijing seeking respect as a great power and Washington wanting Beijing to take more 'responsibility' as a great power.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 14, 2013

The economics of men's cosmetics; top six meaty menus; CM of the week: Toyota

Though everyone is fretting about Japan's economic future, the young people who are destined to become tomorrow's leaders have had little opportunity to share their own ideas on the topic. NHK's new information program, "Oikonomia" (NHK-E, Tues., 11:30 p.m.), a madeup term based on the English word "economics,"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 14, 2013

Unflinching survival epic recounts tsunami horror

Director Juan Antonio Bayona came out of nowhere — well, Barcelona and the world of music videos, actually — to drop "The Orphanage" on an unsuspecting world in 2007. This chilling and intelligent reinvention of the haunted-house genre went on to become No. 1 at the Spanish box office and also did...

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan