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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 2, 2022

Rishi Sunak must detoxify Brexit to save himself

A thaw in U.K.-EU relations is the U.K. prime minister's best hope of political survival.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 2, 2022

Japan asks if it’s better to flip burgers than work at a megabank

The weak yen makes the wages of Japan's long-suffering workers seem absurdly low.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 2, 2022

Amid dearth of candidates, Japanese towns adopt system to fund candidates' campaigns

The wider scope of public financing was aimed at making campaigns less costly for candidates and providing equal opportunities for people to run for public office.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 1, 2022

Halloween tragedy is a test for a deeply unpopular leader

President Yoon Suk-yeol's political future greatly depends on how he deals with the Halloween tragedy that left over 150 people dead after a crowd surge over the weekend.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2022

Better cancer screenings are coming. Can we afford them?

Regular cancer tests are an important tool for catching tumors early, but the financial incentives of hospitals and patients aren't always aligned.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Oct 31, 2022

Fukushima firms work to address low rate of fathers taking paternity leave

The reluctance of fathers to use paternity leave is said to be attributable to the absence of working environments where it is seen favorably and the difficulty of securing staff for cover.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2022

Democrats were smart to meddle in GOP primaries

Democrats' meddlingu00a0in GOP primaries is aimed at helping extremist Republican candidates advance in order to improve the general election chances of Democrats.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 30, 2022

Obama tries to rescue Democrats from U.S. midterm losses

Recent opinion polls offered the Democratic Party hope of retaining control of the Senate while losing control of the House of Representatives to the Republicans.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2022

Just one case of polio is a global threat

The polio outbreak in New York demonstrates the importance of sustained eradication efforts.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 29, 2022

Matsuo Basho's lost travelogue finds its way to Kyoto

A new joint exhibition at two museums complement the poet's travel manuscript, which went missing for half a century, with paintings by Yosa Buson and Ito Jakuchu.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2022

Rishi Sunak is a new and old-fashioned Tory

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the first Hindu to lead the country, is a fascinating combination of the new and the old in the world of the ruling Conservative Party.
A poster bearing a photo of Israeli hostage Noga Weiss is displayed during a gathering called Balloons of Hope in Sydney on Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2023

Israelis weren't the only victims of Hamas' attack

All nations should send a clear message to Hamas and its supporters that all the hostages must be immediately released.
Climate activists demand that the World Bank stop fossil fuel financing on the first day of the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Marrakech, Morocco, on Oct. 9.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2023

Telling countries not to be poor is bad climate advice

As developing nations bear the brunt of the costs of climate change; the world's richer states need to pay up.
A U.S. Air Force B-52 strategic bomber is escorted by South Korean F-35s during a joint military exercise over the Korean Peninsula that also involved Japan's Air-Self Defense Force.
EDITORIALS
Oct 27, 2023

Japan, U.S. and South Korea patrol the skies together

The three countries have historically engaged in bilateral exercises with the United States, but this trilateral exercise in the air is a notable first.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 29, 2023

LDP to create new team on imperial succession

Prince Hisahito, Crown Prince Akishino's 17-year-old son, is the only member of his generation currently eligible.
A health care worker administers the COVID-19 vaccine to a child in Rio de Janeiro in January 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2023

How we got COVID’s risk right but the response wrong

It was not the initial consensus on the fatality rate that drove the response but rather the way the risks of COVID-19 were balanced with the costs.
Shibuya's local government has mounted a campaign to dissuade revelers from visiting the neighborhood for Halloween celebrations and has banned drinking in the streets.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 30, 2023

Shibuya wants to cancel Halloween. That's a mistake.

This year, Shibuya isn't dressing up for Halloween. The neighborhood is turning revelers away, ignoring its role as a youth culture hub.
Trendy buzzwords tend to be most at risk of dying out as they often reflect ideas and trends that are fleeting.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 31, 2023

A foray into the realm of Japanese ‘dead words’

Old slang and problematic terms are prime candidates when it comes to slipping out of usage and disappearing from the Japanese lexicon.
A graphic pro-Israel advert was displayed within mobile phone video games in Britain, France, Austria, Germany and Holland.
WORLD
Oct 31, 2023

Graphic pro-Israel ads displayed in children’s mobile phone games

Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the video was a government-promoted ad but said they had "no idea" how it ended up inside games.
Then-Chinese Premier Li Keqiang takes the oath after he was re-elected for a second term during the sixth-plenary session of the National People's Congress in Beijing in March 2018.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2023

Remembering Li Keqiang, who retired with a broken heart

He is best known outside of China for the Li Keqiang Index, created by The Economist to measure the nation’s economic growth.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attends an extraordinary session at the Lower House of parliament in Tokyo on Oct. 23.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 31, 2023

Prime Minister Kishida and a month of misery

The challenges Fumio Kishida faces are eroding confidence in his leadership and are likely to influence policy decision-making.
More and more children are producing content as online influencers and generating lots of money.
COMMENTARY
Oct 31, 2023

Kidfluencers are today’s version of chimney sweeps

Protecting children from labor exploitation is difficult in the age of social media.
Reporters take cover upon hearing sirens warning of an incoming rocket attack from Gaza, in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, on Oct. 23
WORLD / Politics
Oct 31, 2023

Media reporting on Israel-Hamas war face singular challenges

Lack of access to Gaza, with both the Israeli and Egyptian access points closed, is creating difficulties journalists say they have rarely seen before.
Jesse Ehrenfeld, the board chairman of the American Medical Association, in Chicago in 2019. The F.D.A. has approved many new programs that use artificial intelligence, but doctors are skeptical that the tools really improve care or are backed by solid research.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 1, 2023

Doctors wrestle with AI in patient care, citing lax oversight

Are AI programs likely to identify something a doctor would miss?
An Israeli man attends a day of prayer in the Old City of Jerusalem on Oct. 19 where attendees called for the safe return of hostages taken by Hamas militants earlier in the month. 
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2023

Israel’s own 9/11 moment

Israel needs to prepare now for when the fighting stops. Will it look to the Palestinian Authority to administer Gaza? What role will the U.N. play?
A ceremony marking the opening of the carbon credit market at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo on Oct. 11
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2023

Why all carbon credits aren’t created equal

Because the carbon credit market is unregulated and completely voluntary, it’s been able to get away with a lack of scrutiny.
Every time Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda has made an announcement since taking up his post, that information has appeared initially not in the public domain, but in the pages of the fourth estate.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 2, 2023

Bank of Japan leaks are making an awful mess

Central bank decisions can move billions of dollars and with the BOJ, the closely watched outlier that it is, its conclusions have more impact than most.
The front page of The Japan Times from Nov. 13, 1948, heralds the verdicts given to Japan's war criminals.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Nov 3, 2023

Japan Times 1948: Tojo and 6 others are sentenced to hang

As sentences are handed down in 1948, two other eras deal with fallout from an earthquake and an oil shock.
Occupy Wall Street protesters hold a rally in front of the U.S. Federal Reserve bank in downtown Denver in November 2011.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2023

When minority rule by neoliberals fails

Left-leaning movements and progressive ideas and policies have gained ground in the United States, altering the perception of free markets.
Motorists drive past a giant billboard depicting Muslim people walking with their national flags toward the Dome of the Rock shrine in Jerusalem, in central Tehran's Valiasr Square on Oct. 25.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 4, 2023

In a worldwide war of words, Russia, China and Iran back Hamas

Officials and researchers say the deluge of online propaganda and disinformation is larger than anything seen before.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes