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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Mar 28, 2014

TV personality Haruka Christine wants youth to get politically savvy

Regular viewers of Japanese TV may remember young Haruka Christine's first appearances on the variety-show circuit in early 2010, when she had her fellow entertainers and audiences in stitches.
Figure Skating
Mar 26, 2014

Machida off to strong start at worlds; Hanyu third

Tatsuki Machida seized the lead in the men's short program with a sublime performance at the world championships on Wednesday night at Saitama Super Arena.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 25, 2014

Yamatoism is coming back

Although 'Abenomics' is at a standstill and its eventual success uncertain, the prime minister rushes to push a right-leaning agenda against the advice of close associates.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Mar 22, 2014

With sanctions, Putin looks east

When President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty last week annexing Crimea, to great fanfare in the Kremlin and anger in the West, a trusted lieutenant was making his way to Asia to shore up ties with Russia's eastern allies.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2014

Putin's speech as benevolent czar

Russian President Vladimir Putin's truly regal speech to Parliament heralded Russia's unabashed resurgence as an unscrupulous, unpredictable player in a world where lies and raw might trump any kind of legal framework.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 19, 2014

Deep feelings at high altitudes

The photographs, taken by artist Naoya Hatakeyama, hint at both the beauty and dangers of a mountain, as reflected in the shades of light and darkness alongside textures of soft-edged snow and sharply lined rocks.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2014

Economic stakes for Putin

Regardless of the West's response to the Crimean crisis, the economic damage to Russia will be vast. First, there are the direct costs of military operations and of supporting the Crimean regime. Then there are the costs related to the impact of sanctions on trade and investment.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 16, 2014

Did climate — or man — kill off megafauna?

They were some of the strangest animals to walk the Earth: wombats as big as hippos, sloths larger than bears, four-tusked elephants and an armadillo that would have dwarfed a VW Beetle. They flourished for millions of years, then vanished from our planet just as humans emerged from their African homeland....
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2014

Foreign policy piled on the wreckage for India

As one surveys the landscape of Indian foreign and security policy at the end of the UPA government's 10 years in office, it appears strewn with wreckage on all sides.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 15, 2014

1866 and all that: the untold early history of rugby in Japan

The history of rugby in Japan is arguably longer than that of every major rugby-playing country in the world outside of the British Isles and Australia. Very sorry France, New Zealand and South Africa! Regarding early documented rugby history, Japan wins. Until the recent discovery of an 1864 article...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 14, 2014

Culture of safety can make or break nuclear power plants

On the third anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and its devastating impact on Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima nuclear power plants, we need to understand why Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s Onagawa Nuclear Power Station — which was even closer to the quake epicenter — had a drastically different fate.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Mar 12, 2014

J. League and media must show red card to racism

On Saturday, during their J. League match against Sagan Tosu at Saitama Stadium, some Urawa Reds fans hung a 'Japanese only' banner over an entrance to the stands.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2014

The charge of the lightweight brigade

Would America's late right-wing hero and former President Ronald Reagan have confronted a heavily nuclear-armed Russia's move to retake Crimea — 'gifted' to Ukraine by Nikita Khrushchev in 1954 — any differently than U.S. President Barack Obama? Not a chance.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2014

Obama gambles by slashing defense spending

The Obama administration's 2015 military budget cuts may embolden potential adversaries and abet miscalculation.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 6, 2014

Japan's top chefs grapple with sustainable eating

After the Asia's 50 Best Restaurants awards ceremony in Singapore last month, chef Yoshihiro Narisawa was in high spirits, despite the late hour and the tropical February heat. His Tokyo restaurant, the eponymous Narisawa in the Aoyama district, had been named Best Restaurant in Japan for the second...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 6, 2014

East Asia should build resilience through disaster-relief cooperation

The president of Soka Gakkai International urges Japan, China and South Korea to take the initiative in building a model of cooperation that will serve to mutually strengthen regional resilience to extreme-weather events and other disasters.
Japan Times
SOCCER
Mar 6, 2014

Kagawa invigorated by performance against New Zealand

Shinji Kagawa believes he can rescue his Manchester United career after starring in Japan's 4-2 friendly win over New Zealand on Wednesday night.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Mar 1, 2014

Japan finds bitcoins can bite back, too

Tokyo has once again become the center of a world-wobbling virtual financial crisis. Let me emphasize the word virtual. That's because the world's best-known and perhaps largest exchange of the virtual currency known as bitcoin — Mt. Gox, located in Tokyo's Shibuya district — appeared to have all...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2014

How long can Putin bask in the glow of Sochi?

Reading all the positive foreign reactions to the Olympics prompts one to try to imagine how a flunky of Russian President Vladimir Putin would put together a selection of quotes to please the boss.
LIFE / Digital
Feb 27, 2014

Don't be taken in by Amazon's friendly face

When corporate types gather to schmooze at expensive watering holes they talk about competition as an unalloyed public good. It's seen in Darwinian terms: companies engaged in a ceaseless battle for survival, with only the fittest emerging triumphant. But generally the discussion is couched in agreeably...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2014

Sands czar bets he will win Japan casino race

Billionaire Sheldon Adelson is willing to bet $10 billion that his Las Vegas Sands will become the leader in casino gambling in Japan, an offer he says his competitors can't match.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2014

China, eyeing Japan, seeks WWII focus for Xi during Germany visit

China wants to make World War II a key part of a trip by President Xi Jinping to Germany next month, much to Berlin's discomfort, diplomatic sources said, as Beijing tries to use German atonement for its wartime past to embarrass Japan.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 22, 2014

Japanese social issues await 'new dawn'

Japan is on the way up. That much is obvious from improved business confidence, its successful bid for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the early economic successes of "Abenomics," with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proclaiming to the world the arrival of "a new dawn."
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 20, 2014

Cracking the code of computer education

Last week, my inbox began to fill up with angry emails. Had I seen the dreadful/unbelievable/disgraceful/hilarious (delete as appropriate) "Newsnight" interview with Lottie Dexter? I hadn't, and as I'd never heard of Ms. Dexter, I wasn't unduly bothered. After all, life is too short to watch every edition...
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / ICE TIME
Feb 19, 2014

Kim primed for shot at second gold

Yuna Kim went through another seemingly effortless practice on Tuesday afternoon at the training rink next to the Iceberg Skating Palace.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 17, 2014

Knights vs. samurai: It's the ultimate crossing of swords

Is the samurai blade swift enough to outsmart the knight's sturdier sword? Japan's first Armored Battle is about to find out.
Japan Times
JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Feb 16, 2014

Local startup SoftBank on course to become global player

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son's 2010 speech about his new 30-year plan has proven to be more than a grandiose spiel as it barges into the global telecommunications market.
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 15, 2014

Euthanasia: the dilemma of choice

Euthanasia is an emotionally charged issue for people on both sides of the debate. Proponents of euthanasia argue that a person suffering from terminal illness should be given the freedom to choose how and when they die. Such discourse is given weight by the Japanese term for the practice — anrakushi,...

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear