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Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / THE DOPING EPIDEMIC
Aug 7, 2015

Conte says top officials hindering fight against doping

BALCO founder Victor Conte worked on the 'dark side' when his San Francisco Bay Area company supplied performance-enhancing drugs to elite athletes, including sprinter Marion Jones and MLB home-run king Barry Bonds. That's how Conte has frequently described those years at the start of the 21st century.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Jul 8, 2015

Late marine's message lives on in Okinawa and Vietnam

U.S. Marine Allen Nelson first visited Okinawa in 1966 when the entire island was under American control and functioned as its springboard for the war in Vietnam. For two weeks, Nelson and his fellow new recruits spent their days practising guerilla warfare at Camp Hansen, central Okinawa, then in the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 18, 2015

National ruckus over security bills puts spotlight on Supreme Court

The verbal war over the national security bills is heating up now that Japan's constitutional scholars have clearly branded Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's reinterpretation of war-renouncing Article 9 and all legislation based on it as unconstitutional.
JAPAN
May 24, 2015

Curtain falls on atomic feud with Kepco

They're nothing but a bunch of overpaid, arrogant jerks who should have been fired long ago for their managerial incompetence, while he's a just another crude loudmouth who has no idea what he's talking about.
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 11, 2015

Takuboku Ishikawa: engaged observer

The society of Takuboku Ishikawa's era was in dramatic political flux, and its complex issues became his personal obsessions. After his death, Takuboku's preoccupations came to be seen as a symbol of the social and emotional upheavals of his times.
EDITORIALS
Mar 23, 2015

Netanyahu's destructive tactics

The tactics used by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the last days of the campaign alienated many Israelis and antagonized many of the country's international partners. Relations with the U.S. have been especially hard hit.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Mar 11, 2015

Why robots will be granted a license to kill, in Japan and everywhere else

As long as we feel the need to occasionally harm our fellow human beings, most of us will happily let other people — or things — do the dirty work.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2015

Joining Islamic State is stupid, but why is it illegal?

As with so many other basic legal precepts, the right of Americans to serve in a foreign army has been eroded since 9/11.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 5, 2015

Saying goodbye to steel production in China

As China's domestic economy slows and competition increases amid widespread disgust with air pollution, one surprisingly popular option for the massive, state-owned steel mills is to bid China goodbye.
LIFE
Dec 20, 2014

Public protest in Japan: Power to the people?

"Freedom of assembly and association as well as speech, press and all other forms of expression are guaranteed." — Article 21, Constitution of Japan
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2014

Asia's budding reform trinity

Three of Asia's most populous countries — China, India and Indonesia — are poised to enter a historical sweet spot, as their respective leaders build a reputation as one of his country's greatest modern reformists.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 20, 2014

India's defense sector faces the malcontents

Once again, India is being courted as a potentially lucrative market for global defense contractors, but after so many false starts in the past, the new Modi government will have some convincing to do.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 16, 2014

Fossil found of 'four-winged' feathered dinosaur

A newly discovered dinosaur was built sort of like a biplane, but probably did not fly as well — if at all.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 7, 2014

It's all a matter of character — but which one to choose?

Much has been made of the alleged difficulty of the Japanese language for non-native and even native speakers. My personal impression is that this view is most commonly cherished by two types of people: those who don't know much Japanese (or any at all), and those who only know Japanese.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN WEB WATCH
Jun 20, 2014

Well-bitten consumers shy of Japan's disappearing e-books

Although it has now been surpassed by the United States, Japan was once the world's largest market for e-books, thanks to the early success of the cellphone-content business. But in today's competitive market, e-book sellers disappear every few months, leaving consumers to wonder whether the digital...
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 5, 2014

Naha mayor, foe of Futenma plan, to run for governor

In a move that could further complicate efforts by the central government to move the U.S. Futenma base from Ginowan to Henoko in northern Okinawa, Naha Mayor Takeshi Onaga, 63, has suggested he will run for run for governor in November.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 25, 2014

Soccer's crown jewel can't hide Brazil tensions

Brazil, by both area and population, is the fifth-largest nation on Earth. Its economy is perhaps the sixth- or seventh-largest and will soon surpass those of France and Britain. Yet this great state has barely registered its presence globally. In the complex flux of globalized popular culture or the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO BAR ADVENTURE
Apr 15, 2014

A boozy round of beer pong hits the spot

Long associated with college frat parties, beer pong is now mainstream in the United States. Although the game — which requires a long table, a pair of ping pong balls and several plastic cups, each filled with an inch of beer — is difficult to talk a Japanese pub owner into replicating, there are...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2014

How we lose our marbles — and get them back

A remark by American actor George Clooney has reignited the debate over whether removing the Parthenon Marbles (aka Elgin Marbles) from the British Museum and returning them to their ancient home in Athens would be the right thing to do.
COMMENTARY
Feb 23, 2014

In praise of controls that fragment the markets

The chairman of the U.K.'s Financial Services Authority wants to be blunt: Free flows of short-term debt can result in capital misallocation and harmful instability.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 19, 2014

Time to speak up in defense of Thai democracy

Thailand, Southeast Asia's most developed and sophisticated economy, is teetering on the edge of the political abyss. Yet most of the rest of Asia appears to be averting its eyes from its anarchic unrest.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2014

Obama's Asian 'pivot' went flying off like a divot

Even in Washington-centric Washington, President Barack Obama gets the award for having the worst year in Asia. His 'pivot to Asia' looked more like a divot.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 29, 2013

Syrian civil war tests borders drawn less than a century ago in Mideast

That half of his farm lies in Syria and half in Lebanon is a source of mystery and inconvenience for Mohammed al-Jamal, whose family owned the property long before Europeans turned up and drew the lines that created the borders of the modern Middle East.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 25, 2013

Snowden declares his mission accomplished

In a candid interview, NSA leaker Edward Snowden breaks his silence on surveillance, democracy and the meaning of the top-secret documents he exposed, and says his mission is 'already accomplished.'
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 30, 2013

HIV: 'The fire across the river'

When 44-year-old Tokyo resident Isao was struck down by chronic diarrhea in June earlier this year, AIDS was the furthest thought from his mind. "I just thought I had a regular illness," said Isao, who asked for his surname to be withheld.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Oct 4, 2013

Beatlemania: 'The screamers' and other tales of fandom

The first time Scottish concert promoter Andi Lothian booked the Beatles, in the frozen January of 1963, only 15 people showed up. The next time he brought them north of the border, to Glasgow Odeon on Oct. 5, they had scored a No. 1 album and three No. 1 singles, and it was as if a hurricane had blown...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2013

'Nihon no Higeki (Japan's Tragedy)'

What is a good death? For certain Japanese Buddhist priests it was sokushinbutsu — self-mummification. As practiced by members of the Shingon sect, it was a decade-long process that culminated with the priest's descent into a stone tomb to meditate in darkness, without food or water, until the final...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2013

Gold's slumber is not the cue to stop hedging

The recent collapse of gold prices has not really changed the case for investing in it one way or the other, says a former chief economist for the IMF.
JAPAN / Politics
May 3, 2013

Amending Constitution emerges as poll issue

As it marks its 66th anniversary, the fate of Japan's Constitution is set to become the focus of a political battle both in and beyond July's Upper House election.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 25, 2012

LDP returns with all its old baggage

They're baaaack. After warming the opposition bench for more than three years, the Liberal Democratic Party has returned to power, hungrier and more eager than ever to rule.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami