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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 29, 2014

Business Book of the Year is timely but way off target

The economics in Thomas Piketty's 'Capital in the Twenty-First Century,' chosen the Business Book of the Year by the Financial Times, leaves a lot to be desired. But its timing was fantastic.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 29, 2014

Texas license plate challenges sensitive people

The legal skirmish over a Texas license platet implicates a burgeoning new entitlement in the U.S.: the right to pass through life without encountering any disagreeable thought.
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2014

Exploited working students starting to fight 'burakku arubaito' system

The 22-year-old university student was in his fifth day working part time at a Sukiya beef bowl outlet in Tokyo when his boss suddenly told him to run the shop from midnight to 9 a.m. all by himself.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Dec 28, 2014

The year in education: After all the talk, can Japan walk the walk in 2015?

With ideas coming in thick and fast in 2014 and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe having effective carte blanche after his landslide election victory, it's now or never for key education reforms.
EDITORIALS
Dec 27, 2014

2014: a year of conservative gains

The year 2014 was full of unexpected events, but none helped to jolt Japan's economy, politics or society out of a sense of being stalled.
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2014

'STAP cells' claimed by Obokata were likely embryonic stem cells

An investigative panel at Riken says the debunked “STAP” cells generated by one of its scientists were likely created instead from embryonic stem cells.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 26, 2014

Refugee recognition is overly slow, opaque, panel tells Justice Ministry

Japan's stringent refugee screening system should clarify the criteria used to recognize applicants and create safeguards to protect those considered vulnerable, an advisory panel tells the Justice Ministry.
EDITORIALS
Dec 26, 2014

Occupy Central's spirit endures

The Occupy Central movement that shut down the heart of Hong Kong for 79 days over the demand for greater democracy in the Special Administrative Region is over. But the impulses that drove the movement have not disspated.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2014

North Korea's nukes are much scarier than its hacks

While the world's attention focuses on North Korea's cyberwar with Sony Pictures, the Hermit Kingdom is rapidly increasing its stockpile of nuclear weapons material, with real little pushback from the U.S.
Japan Times
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 26, 2014

Allardyce coming good at West Ham

Four years ago this month, Blackburn Rovers' new owners sacked Sam Allardyce, who had led the club to a 10th-place finish the previous season and were 13th in the Premier League when the axe fell.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 24, 2014

Shinzo Abe begins new term as prime minister, launches Cabinet

The Cabinet remains unchanged except Gen Nakatani, a former first lieutenant in the Ground Self-Defense Force, replaces scandal-hit Akinori Eto as defense minister and minister in charge of security legislation.
EDITORIALS
Dec 24, 2014

Standing up to threats

A Sapporo university's decision to retain an instructor in the face of rightist threats is a victory for freedom of expression and other fundamental democratic rights.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 24, 2014

Mitani sidelined by Abe as GPIF pension fund enters new era

When Takahiro Mitani's term as head of the world's largest retirement fund finishes in March, so too will the old era of Japanese pension management.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 24, 2014

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reappointed to role, new Cabinet expected

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was re-elected to the post in the Diet on Wednesday and was set to launch his new Cabinet later in the day.
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Dec 23, 2014

Ina Bauer gone, but move lives on

A significant figure in the world of skating passed away earlier this month with nary a mention in the mainstream media. It was both sad and a reminder of how quickly history can be forgotten.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2014

High risks, rewards in Xi's reforms

Only by addressing the weakening of investment-led growth, bureacratic inefficiencies and worsening pollution, and then shifting to an innovation-based, environmentally sustainable growth model, can China continue to prosper and ultimately achieve high-income status.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2014

Obama, executive in charge

U.S. executive power waxed under the presidency of George W. Bush then waned during the first five years of the Obama administration. Now the subject is back, on issues such as the war against Islamic State, immigration reform and diplomatic relations with Cuba.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 23, 2014

Still haunted by WWII, Asia looks for Abe atonement in 2015

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's election victory means he will helm Japan into the 70th anniversary of its World War II defeat in 2015, a watershed year that will set the tone for Tokyo's fraught ties with Beijing and Seoul.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 22, 2014

Stockholm gives up football worlds

The International Federation of American Football has announced that Stockholm has given up the right to host the world championship in 2015.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 22, 2014

The annual pain and pleasure of punished comedians

Japan is a country of traditions. You take off your shoes when you go indoors. You rinse your body before entering the bath. And you sit around the house with family on Ōmisoka (大晦日, New Year's Eve) and do nothing but watch television and eat food before going to the jinja (神社, shrine) at...
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Dec 22, 2014

Rewinding some of Japan's top YouTubers

YouTube highlighted 14 of the Internet's best Japanese vloggers.
JAPAN / Politics / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Dec 21, 2014

Ishin-DPJ tieup, Kepco's greed to play key roles in April polls

In terms of domestic politics, the recent Lower House election was merely a prelude to next April's nationwide local elections.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Dec 21, 2014

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble: a gaijin's lot in Japan?

A selection of readers' responses to Debito Arudou's last column, 'Time to burst your bubble and face reality.'
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Dec 21, 2014

In no-surprise poll, parties' main players re-elected in Kinki

In an election that produced no surprises, it's little wonder the biggest political names in the six prefectures that make up the Kinki region (Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara and Wakayama) were all returned to the Diet, though one or two had a close call.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 20, 2014

Weeklies walk a fine line in scandal reporting

In her regular column in the Dec. 11 issue of Shukan Bunshun, novelist Mariko Hayashi blasted the weekly magazines, including Bunshun, for failing to follow up on a scandal that, under normal circumstances, should have been right up their alley. The daughter of the late Osaka-based singer and TV host,...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Dec 20, 2014

Little sizzle found during NPB winter

Where will Chihiro Kaneko and Takashi Toritani be playing next season?

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years