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LIFE / Language / MORNING ENGLISH
May 18, 2015

Let's discuss inbound tourism in the news

Japan came ninth on the World Economic Forum's list of the most tourist-friendly countries for 2015, rising from 14th place in the previous 2013 rankings, the WEF said Wednesday.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
May 18, 2015

China tells its road-rage motorists to cool it

The horrific incident shocked the nation when it went viral in China earlier this month: a woman dragged from her car, thrown to the ground and kicked repeatedly in the face and head in a case of road rage in Sichuan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
May 17, 2015

Nearer to thee: a dog named Scamper

Quiet, smart and eager to please, Scamper is quite the looker as well.
Japan Times
JAPAN / FUKUSHIMA FILE
May 17, 2015

Despite rumors, Fukushima food safety concerns ease inside prefecture

Some 78.1 percent of Fukushima residents bought local food goods in fiscal 2014 rather than produce harvested in other prefectures, up about 10 percentage points from the year before, a survey conducted by the prefectural consumers' group association shows.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 16, 2015

'Kantei Santa' makes himself heard over the din of the election vans

Is crime justified in the service of good?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 16, 2015

JCP gains ground, but not column inches

Years ago a Japanese acquaintance applied for a green card when her American husband decided to move back to the United States. Someone told her she should not say she once voted for the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) during her interview, otherwise U.S. Immigration would reject it. As far as I know,...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 16, 2015

Are forces of darkness gathering in Japan?

Certainly it's worse in China, South Korean security recently beat demonstrators and Spain faces a blanket gag rule, but are concerns about the anti-democratic forces of darkness in Japan unduly alarmist? How bad can it be if protestors in Hibiya Park can carry placards depicting Prime Minister Shinzo...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 16, 2015

Japan's runners need a change of pace

In "The Way of the Runner," Adharanand Finn has written an entertaining account of Japan's obsession with long-distance running (and training). However, the problem is when he veers off the running track into the land of cliche. Consider this: Finn writes that bread only comes in packets of three slices,...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
May 16, 2015

Boston Marathon bomber's death sentence seen more as symbolic judgment

Boston Marathon bomber Dzhohkar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death Friday. But his execution may not happen for decades — if ever.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 15, 2015

The 3-D world of NHK yx Koyxen's abstract techno

Kohei Matsunaga does not see things like you and I see things. Take the 3-D glasses that he is rarely photographed without, for instance. Throwaway red-and-blue anaglyph paper frames from cinema's distant past, they have become an apt visual trademark for the Osaka-based artist, who delights in operating...
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2015

Man who brought down Barings warns on China

Convicted rogue trader Nick Leeson warns that stock trading in China is rife for manipulation.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 14, 2015

Branding Japan beyond Abe

The people of Japan need to be reminded of their value beyond Tokyo's central government, its dominant party, the LDP, and its main leader, Shinzo Abe.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 14, 2015

Maya Inoue makes a play to refine her father's theatrical legacy

Hisashi Inoue's death at the age of 75 on April 9, 2010, at his home in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, was a major event in the postwar Japanese theater world. It moved many dramatists to stage works by the great author and playwright who combined comedy and searing social and political commentary into...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 14, 2015

The new office politics of funding the boss's causes

It wasn't long ago that politics, like religious orientation or sexual preference, was a taboo topic in the American workplace. Political beliefs were considered a private affair — off limits to the boss.
WORLD
May 14, 2015

Prince Charles' letters — the 'black-spider memos' — reveal concern for both troops and toothfish

Prince Charles wrote to ministers on issues ranging from resources for British troops in Iraq to the fate of the Patagonian Toothfish, according to private letters published on Wednesday against government wishes.
JAPAN
May 13, 2015

Japan zoo body polls members on use of Taiji dolphins

The Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums is asking zoos and aquariums across the country to vote on the continued procurement of dolphins from the town of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, whose dolphin hunts and annual culls have riled activists worldwide.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 13, 2015

Japan's first international defense show opens in Yokohama

Japan's first-ever international defense trade show kicked off in Yokohama on Wednesday, attracting more than 100 exhibitors as the country aims to ramp up its global security role.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
May 13, 2015

Filmmakers Ash and Kamanaka discuss radiation, secrets and lives

Two filmmakers who have tackled the Fukushima issue — American and Japanese, storyteller and activist — discuss their work and their films, and consider the notion of 'being a 'foreign' filmmaker.'
EDITORIALS
May 13, 2015

No need for haste on TPP deal

The government must resist the temptation to make concessions that won't benefit Japan in its effort to conclude TPP negotiations with the U.S.
JAPAN
May 13, 2015

Residents upset by move to base Ospreys at Yokota, municipalities cite broken promises

Some residents and municipalities near the Yokota Air Base are upset the U.S. military plans to deploy Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft to the facility in western Tokyo.
WORLD
May 13, 2015

U.S. will 'work tirelessly' to find journalist abducted in Syria in 2012

The United States vowed on Tuesday to "work tirelessly" to bring home missing American journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in Syria in 2012, and appealed to his captors to free him.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 12, 2015

Hundreds of Russian soldiers killed in east Ukraine, opposition says

Moscow spent more than 53 billion rubles ($1.04 billion) supplying a separatist rebellion in east Ukraine and at least 220 Russian soldiers have been killed there, a report by Russian opposition activists said Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 12, 2015

U.S. to station Ospreys at Yokota Air Base starting in 2017

The government formally announces that the U.S. Air Force will deploy a squadron of tilt-rotor CV-22 Osprey aircraft at Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in 2017.
Japan Times
WORLD / EU SPECIAL 2015
May 12, 2015

Unity in policy making, peacekeeping

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan