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Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Aug 4, 2013

NSA leaks allow Wyden chance at privacy debate

It was one of the strangest personal crusades on Capitol Hill: For years, Sen. Ron Wyden said he was worried that intelligence agencies were violating Americans' privacy.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Aug 3, 2013

Toyohiro Akiyama: Cautionary tales from one not afraid to risk all

In December 1990, journalist Toyohiro Akiyama made headlines the world over when he blasted off aboard a Soviet rocket to become the very first "space correspondent" in history.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Aug 3, 2013

School wins prize for paddle power in its paddies

In mid-July, together with a couple of celebrities, a reporter and some staff from Aeon Co., Ltd., Asia's biggest retailer, I took a half-hour bus ride from Nagoya Station to the city of Aisai in Aichi Prefecture to visit Saya High School there.
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Aug 3, 2013

Is new yakuza journal good news for Japan?

If you're a well-connected Japanese gangster, you now have your own newspaper to keep you abreast of underworld life. Another perk of the job.
EDITORIALS
Aug 3, 2013

Mr. Aso embarrasses Japan again

Remarks like those of Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso indicating that Nazis knew how to revise a sticky constitution risk creating a weird international image for Japan.
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Aug 2, 2013

Salesman sets out to prevent inheritance fights

As an insurance salesman in Tsushima, Aichi Prefecture, Hisao Ito, 55, has seen times when family members and relatives fight over inheritances.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 2, 2013

Could the PTA and bowling leagues breed extremists?

What if exposure to civic organizations — and not social isolation, per se — is more likely to contribute to the rise of extreme movements, including fascism?
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 2, 2013

Curiosity rover's descent to Mars — the story so far

Nestled below the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory outside Pasadena has a surprisingly low-tech feel. For more than 40 years, space missions to the planets have been controlled from its operations rooms, yet the place is still striking for its bucolic charm. Mule...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 1, 2013

Linkin Park returns to Summer Sonic

Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park always starts his trips to Tokyo the same way. Jet-lagged and unable to sleep on the first night, the band's founding member has made a ritual of hitting up the Tsukiji fish market around 4 a.m. for sushi and a beer.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 1, 2013

'Eiga: Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de (The After-Dinner Mysteries)'

Japanese love mysteries, in print and on the screen, but foreigners, by and large, don't take to Japanese mystery movies. For decades, Japanese producers were happy to concentrate on the big domestic market for local whodunit films, while making only half-hearted attempts to sell them abroad to largely...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2013

New America-Japan Society chief looks to expand

It has a well-recognized name and more than a century of history. Many prominent figures from Japan and the United States have been involved in its efforts to nurture friendly ties between the two nations.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 31, 2013

New rocket hopes to take off with launch from the skies

Start with the largest aircraft ever built, with a wingspan longer than a football field and a split fuselage fitted with six Boeing 747 jet engines — enough thrust to get 585,000 kg off the ground, about 190,000 kg more than a fully loaded 747. Sling a 36-meter, three-stage rocket below the aircraft,...
MORE SPORTS
Jul 31, 2013

Gymnastics coach Tomita fondly remembers legendary Aihara

The late Nobuyuki Aihara, a gymnastics legend, left a great impression on many individuals he met or influenced during his many decades in the sport, including Yoichi Tomita.
EDITORIALS
Jul 30, 2013

Korean War's far-reaching legacy

For North Korea, the day the United Nations Command, North Korea and China signed the armistice ending the Korean War 60 years ago is a day to celebrate.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Jul 29, 2013

Haiku brought together Polish-Japanese couple

They say that languages bring people closer together and bridge distances. So, too, does the Internet.
EDITORIALS
Jul 29, 2013

DPJ must overcome its crisis

Voters' vision of the Democratic Party of Japan has slipped to that of an also-ran and will remain as such until the DPJ can sell an alternative vision of Japan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 29, 2013

Tokio Marine targets ASEAN for expansion abroad

Tokio Marine Holdings Inc., the nation's second-largest nonlife insurer, is seeking to expand in Southeast Asia as Japan's shrinking population erodes its domestic market.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jul 28, 2013

Woman with Down syndrome pushes for her independence

It wasn't her turn to talk, but early on in a hearing that will determine the limits of her independence, Margaret Jean Hatch stood up in a Newport News, Virginia, courtroom and cut the judge off in midsentence.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2013

World watches trans-Atlantic free trade talks

The world watches as negotiations commence between the U.S. and the European Union on potentially the largest regional free trade accord in history.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2013

Taking stock of Burma, Japan and 'pivot to Asia'

Hope and change remain alive in Burma even as serious concerns continue about human rights violations and growing internal religious and ethnic tensions.
COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jul 28, 2013

Where to go to survive the day? the corbies say

The word from a longtime Tokyo resident is that the jungle crow population, the bane of garbage piles, is finally in decline. Not everyone is happy about that.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Jul 27, 2013

Examining nexus of sports, international relations

Editor's note: Whiting was a guest speaker and panelist at the inaugural gathering of the International Sports Relations Foundation in Seoul recently. This is a new organization founded by Moon Dae-sung, a Republic of Korea's National Assembly member and 2004 Athens Olympics taekwondo gold medalist,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jul 27, 2013

Log-jamming in Shin Kiba

Last month, readers of this column found me frolicking in the sawdust and lumberyards of Shin Kiba — meaning "New Wood Place" — which arose on reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay in the 1970s when the city's timber businesses were moved there from their traditional home in nearby Kiba to make way for rapid...

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past