Search - special-issue

 
 
EDITORIALS
Dec 13, 2017

A Brexit breakthrough

Despite last week's breakthrough, Brexit remains as tentative and confused as ever.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 29, 2017

Gender equality and the mass media

Mass media in this country remains a male-dominated community and its understanding of gender equality is far too insufficient.
EDITORIALS
Nov 5, 2017

Anticipating a major Nankai Trough quake

While improving seismic observation systems is important, it is more important to assume a large earthquake can hit at any time and place.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 21, 2017

Pedal power: Bike-sharing services expand in Japan

It's a little past 7:30 a.m. at Shinagawa Station's bustling Konan Exit. The air is crisp on this beautiful autumn morning, with hundreds of people passing through the fourth busiest rail hub in Tokyo on their way to various appointments.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 26, 2017

Japan can do more for the Rohingya

The intention was to rebuild a peaceful political society in Myanmar, but the Rohingya have been left out.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 21, 2017

How Kake Gakuen's application process bucked the norm

School operator Kake Gakuen's application to open a new veterinary medicine department strayed from well established procedures.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 19, 2017

Japan grapples with its new arrivals

Given its current popularity in certain U.S. political circles, it was inevitable that the word "fake" would eventually find traction in Japan. The September issue of the monthly magazine Bungei Shunju applies it to the headline of an article by journalist Miyu Suzuki titled "'Fake refugees' being forced...
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2017

Ability to strike more of U.S. feared as North Korean ICBM test splashes down off Hokkaido

North Korea's latest missile test confirms the hermit state now has the capability to strike most of the United States with a nuclear missile of some sort.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2017

New kid on the block gets the least help in Japan's schools

Ever since 16-year-old Rabina Dangol moved from Nepal to Japan in 2014 to live with her parents, a nonprofit organization in Fussa, western Tokyo, has been a boon in helping her learn enough Japanese to survive the school system.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 15, 2017

Fundraising loopholes, a political norm

The Liberal Democratic Party lost a large number of seats to Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike's upstart Tomin First Party in the Tokyo assembly election. Media surveys reveal that the public is dismayed by recent scandals involving the LDP, in particular the one surrounding educational company Kake Gakuen, which...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 5, 2017

North Korea apparently used Chinese timber truck for to carry ICBM, evading sanctions

To transport and erect the ballistic missile launched on Tuesday, North Korea apparently used a Chinese timber-hauling truck, highlighting the challenge of enforcing sanctions to curb the North's weapons program.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 2, 2017

Koike's camp clobbers Abe's LDP in historic Tokyo assembly election

Gov. Yuriko Koike's upstart Tomin First party scored a sweeping victory Sunday in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election, dethroning the Liberal Democratic Party and damaging Shinzo Abe's prospects for winning another term as prime minister.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 24, 2017

Watch what you do and say: Broader ramifications of the new conspiracy law cause concern

"Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high with reasons why privacy should give way to national security, to law and order ... and the like." — U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Douglas, 1970
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 23, 2017

Probe Abe's ties with the media, Maekawa urges

The former education ministry official vouching for the documents behind the Kake Gakuen scandal urges closer scrutiny of Prime Minister Abe's media ties.
EDITORIALS
Jun 16, 2017

What the abdication law passed over

Like the nation's population as a whole, the Imperial family is shrinking, and the succession rules are accelerating the process.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Jun 14, 2017

Conspiracy theory becomes frightening reality for Japan

So-called conspiracy legislation massively expands the state's coercive powers, with few checks in place to prevent abuse.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 12, 2017

Kake Gakuen probe to be relaunched without third party oversight, Suga implies

The government will release the results of the reopened Kake Gakuen probe “as quickly as possible,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga says.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 6, 2017

'Press Freedom in Contemporary Japan': Persuasive and important but incomplete

May 3 marks the United Nations' World Press Freedom Day, an annual reminder of the necessity of unfettered media in the maintenance of healthy societies.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Apr 26, 2017

Time to act on insights from landmark survey of Japan's foreign residents

Government's attempt to understand the foreign experience of Japan produces valuable data despite some blind spots.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Apr 15, 2017

Asuka Takita: Veterinarian embraces life on the African plains

The king of the jungle is among the many acquaintances of Japan-born Asuka Takita since she made Kenya her home almost a decade ago.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 8, 2017

Disputatious legacies: examining the historic ties that bind Okinawa and China

Commenting on the pervasiveness of his own culture while on a trip to Indonesia, the Nobel Prize-winning poet Rabindranath Tagore wrote, "I see India everywhere." A traveler to Okinawa today from continental Asia, might well say, "I see China everywhere."
WORLD / Politics
Apr 2, 2017

Beijing cozies up to EU in wake of Trump's 'America First' policy

China has launched a charm offensive with the European Union since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, shifting its stance on trade negotiations and signaling closer cooperation on a range of other issues, European diplomats say.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 29, 2017

Trump's policies on trade, climate and the U.N. push China toward EU

China has launched a charm offensive with the European Union since U.S. President Donald Trump took office, shifting its stance on trade negotiations and signaling closer cooperation on a range of other issues, European diplomats say.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 18, 2017

False sense of security? Experts weigh the threat that terrorism poses Japan

Widely regarded as a safe place to live, Japan currently sits in ninth position on the Global Peace Index's list of the most peaceful nations on the planet. The East Asian nation is generally believed to be an orderly society that has incredibly low homicide and assault rates, and it certainly doesn't...

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell