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Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 3, 2020

Japan's convenience stores are told to stop pushing 24-hour schedules

The firms' business models have been criticized for putting profit ahead of the needs of franchise owners.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 3, 2020

Ant’s huge IPO sets up Jack Ma to escalate war with Tencent

Ant Group’s late-summer IPO filing drove home why the business — backed by 711 million active users that spent $17 trillion through its platform — is headed for potentially the world’s largest stock debut. Yet investors may do well to focus on the long-term threat to its core businesses from...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Sep 3, 2020

Warren Buffett seen liberating his successor with not-so-Buffett moves

By showing he's willing to move beyond some of his long-held practices, the billionaire investor is removing those handcuffs from his next-in-line.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 3, 2020

In a changed Kashmir, moderates feel betrayed by India

For more than two decades, Peerzada Lateef Shah risked his life in a high-wire political process to bring peace to Kashmir, the mountainous, predominantly Muslim region that has long chafed under India’s rule.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 3, 2020

Toyooka Theater Festival brings French flair to Japan’s theater scene

Dramatist Oriza Hirata's dream of holding Japan's version of the Avignon Festival is becoming a reality with a two-week arts fete starting on Sept. 9.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Sep 3, 2020

Pentagon's latest salvo against China's growing might: Cold War bombers

The U.S. has been intensifying its challenge to China and its sweeping territorial claims over one of the world's most important strategic waterways.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 3, 2020

‘The Brightest Roof in the Universe’: Looks nice, lacks sparkle

Michihito Fujii changes pace but can't quite find the right tempo on this lightweight follow-up to gritty award winner “The Journalist.”
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 3, 2020

‘Reiwa Uprising’: Political passions make for a compelling watch

Kazuo Hara's documentary about the Reiwa Shinsengumi political party's 2019 campaign is worth sitting through even though it's just over four hours long.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Sep 2, 2020

Episode 63: The end of Shinzo Abe: What happened and who's next?

This is part one of a two part look at the end of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's time in office.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 2, 2020

Who succeeds Abe’s foreign policy?

Under his diplomatic doctrine, Abe dramatically improved relations with the United States while outstanding issues with Russia and North Korea remained unsolved.
Japan Times
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Sep 2, 2020

Let's address the elephant in the sumo ring

Weight loss is common after leaving the raised ring, but a lack of support from stables leaves wrestlers vulnerable against obesity and other serious health issues.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 2, 2020

U.S. and China should seek a truce in tech cold war

In the absence of shared global norms on how data flows should be governed, domestic policymakers everywhere are developing their own 'patches” to regulate data and protect national security and their citizens' privacy.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 2, 2020

SoftBank Corp. climbs on news it will join parent on Nikkei 225

Shares of companies such as Kakaku.com Inc. and Zozo Inc. that had been touted as possible Nikkei additions fell.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 2, 2020

U.S. expats can’t renounce their citizenship fast enough

The swearing in of new citizens often makes news in the U.S., especially if it happens in unusual circumstances such as one party’s national convention. Much less reported are the many citizenship renunciations by Americans, and the travails leading up to these life decisions. Almost all those giving...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Sep 2, 2020

Vaccine front-runner held back by China’s spat with Canada

One of the world’s fastest-moving efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine is falling behind rivals, its advance appearing to be stymied by political tensions between China and Canada and concerns its shot may not work as well as others.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 2, 2020

Kirin revives Australian unit sale after China Mengniu fallout

Japan's second-largest brewer has started re-engaging with suitors who had previously expressed interest in Lion Dairy & Drinks Pty.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 2, 2020

One of the world’s richest petro states is running out of cash

When Kuwait’s then-Finance Minister Anas Al-Saleh warned in 2016 that it was time to cut spending and prepare for life after oil, he was ridiculed by a population raised on a seemingly endless flow of petrodollars. Four years on, one of the world’s richest countries is struggling to make ends meet...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 2, 2020

Xi doubles down on domestic focus as U.S. relations fray

China’s top leaders next month will lay out their economic strategy for the next five years that will include a new ambition to ramp up domestic consumption and make more critical technology at home in a bid to insulate the world’s second-largest economy from swirling geopolitical tensions.
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 2, 2020

‘Widow maker’ bets in play as Japan's superlong bond yields peak

Waning demand from key buyers plus less central bank support could set the stage for bonds to extend losses.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 2, 2020

As guns are drawn at U.S. protest sites, demonstrators fear a volatile new phase

For months, Reese Monson, who helps organize security for the hundreds of protesters who gather in downtown Portland, Oregon, every night, has advised them to use shields made of plywood, pool noodles and 55-gallon drums — tools to deflect the riot-control measures used by the police.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 2, 2020

Trump visits Wisconsin, not to urge racial healing but to back police

U.S. President Donald Trump defied requests to stay away and visited Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, not to urge racial healing after a white officer shot a Black man in the back but to express support for law enforcement in a city rocked by civil unrest.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY
Sep 1, 2020

‘Debt trap' diplomacy is a card China seldom plays in Belt and Road initiative

It’s taken as a given that the Belt and Road initiative (BRI), China’s effort to close the world’s multitrillion-dollar infrastructure gap, is an attempt to extend Beijing’s influence throughout the world by means fair and foul. One of the most incendiary charges is that China uses BRI funds...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2020

Our weird pandemic spending ways could change soon

There's been a lot of talk about the U.S. experiencing a K-shaped recovery, with large companies and the rich recovering while smaller companies and lower-paid service workers struggle. But this divide also shows up in the way Americans are shopping.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Sep 1, 2020

How to reopen national borders

As the coronavirus pandemic rumbles on, countries are now looking at how to allow travel in a bid to help their economies recover.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2020

China alone: Will the prospect of isolation thwarts Beijing's imperialist ambitions?

In his most recent New Year’s speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared that 2020 would be “a milestone.” Xi was right, but not in the way he expected. Far from having “friends in every corner of the world,” as he boasted in his speech, China has severely damaged its international reputation,...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2020

The big China disaster that you're missing

Climate change is bringing more frequent and intense deluges that threaten the economic heartland, and previous infrastructure defenses can't keep up. There's very little time to prepare for what's coming.

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers