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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 27, 2017

Abe's Trumpian opportunity

Building a close and effective working relationship with the U.S. president is vital to Abe's effort to accelerate Japan's security policy reform.
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2017

Japan stays 72nd on press freedom list but falls to last in G-7

Japan ranked 72nd on a 2017 list of press freedom around the world — its same overall position from a year earlier — but fell to last among its Group of Seven peers as Italy climbed to 52nd, according to the 180-nation World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders on Wednesday....
Japan Times
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Apr 26, 2017

Emergence of new generation bodes well for Summer Basho

I was honored to be asked by The Japan Times to write a sumo column as part of the 120th anniversary revamp. This paper was probably the first place I read about sumo and was an invaluable source of news back in the days of dial-up internet, when I first came to Japan.
BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2017

Modi's push to make Indian kitchens safer sees nation overtake Japan for LPG imports

India toppled Japan as the world's second-largest importer of liquefied petroleum gas as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pledge to provide cooking gas cylinders to the poor and wean them off polluting fuels drove up consumption.
COMMENTARY / World / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Apr 21, 2017

Terrorism brouhaha, then and now

A person's definition of terrorism usually depends on what side of the fence they're on.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 19, 2017

Islamic State takes credit as gunmen kill policeman near Egypt's St. Catherine's Monastery

Gunmen attacked security forces near St. Catherine's Monastery in Egypt's south Sinai on Tuesday, killing at least one police officer and injuring four others, the Health Ministry said, just a week after two deadly church bombings killed 45.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 18, 2017

Kyotographie: from Kyoto, with love

Kyotographie — the brainchild of photographer Lucille Reyboz and lighting artist Yusuke Nakanishi — is 5 this year. Conceived and nurtured in Kyoto, it is now one of few substantial photography festivals in Japan, inarguably rivaling, even surpassing, many of the country's other calendar art events....
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 18, 2017

Putin's mouthpiece says Trump more dangerous than North Korea's Kim

Russian state television has no doubt who is unpredictable enough to bring the world to war in the North Korean crisis, and it's not the reclusive communist dictator Kim Jong Un.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2017

Why Trump is so hated by liberals

Pick a Trump outrage that's got liberals in a tizzy and you can find a similar policy they had no problem with when it was authored by Obama.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2017

Trump's Middle East supporters

Donald Trump's embrace of some Arab leaders, while leaving others alone, suits most Middle East governments quite well.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 15, 2017

U.S. 'mother of all bombs' owes origins to anti-Nazi weapons

The 11-ton "mother of all bombs" dropped by U.S. forces on Islamic State-linked fighters in Afghanistan is a highly specialized weapon with a heritage dating back to huge bombs developed for use against Nazi targets in World War II.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 15, 2017

Preparation for S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2018 contest ramps up in Tokyo

The search is on for the next generation of aspiring culinary stars. Over the next year, up-and-coming chefs around the world will be sharpening their knives and their kitchen skills in the hope of making it to the Grand Finale of the Young Chef 2018 competition in Italy.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 14, 2017

Among the monks: Dipping a toe in Zen at Shinshoji Temple

When was the last time you sat in silence, without fretting about the things you ought to be doing or gazing at a screen of any kind? When was the last time you didn't think anything at all?
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2017

Caught off guard by deadly quakes, Kumamoto still learning lessons one year on

It was just after midnight and I was dozing off at a capsule hotel in the city of Kumamoto on April 16 last year when the "Big One" hit.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 13, 2017

Trump's Tomahawks won't help

The Trump administration's proposed budget aims to slash U.S. humanitarian spending that helps save countless lives around the world.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 11, 2017

What Trump's Syria bombing really means

With one military action, the new U.S. president has managed to thoroughly confound his fiercest supporters and critics.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 11, 2017

Hard-core vinyl fans are fueling a revival in obscure Japanese music from the 1980s

Fans of Japanese vinyl have good reason to be happy. HMV recently opened a store in the Kichijoji area dedicated to selling records — the third such establishment in Tokyo — and April 22 is Record Store Day. What started in 2012 as four artists putting out special releases has evolved into a day...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 11, 2017

The beginnings of Mariah's sound

When U.S. label Palto Flats reissued Japanese band Mariah's album "Utakata no Hibi" ("Ephemeral Days") in 2015, it wasn't the first time an obscure record from the bubble era had been given new attention. However, the critical praise that followed the release triggered new interest in Japanese artists...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Apr 10, 2017

One of the healthiest parts of Australia's Great Barrier Reef damaged by Cyclone Debbie

A cyclone that left a trail of destruction in northeast Australia and New Zealand has also damaged one of the few healthy sections of the Great Barrier Reef to have escaped large-scale bleaching, scientists said Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 7, 2017

Abe backs U.S. missile strike on Syria but might draw backlash from Putin

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe praises the U.S. missile strike on Syria, but some say that could harm his chances of settling Japan's island dispute with Russia.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2017

Worrying lessons of the Syria chemical attack

The Syrian civil war appears to be reestablishing the precedent that on occasion governments may be able to use chemical weapons against their own people without suffering much in the way of consequences.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 5, 2017

Roger Ross Williams documents one young man's Disney-indebted triumphs in 'Life, Animated'

When Owen Suskind was 3 years old, he suddenly "vanished," according to his mother, Cornelia. The vivacious little boy she knew had retreated into a shell of silence from which he refused to emerge, and doctors diagnosed him with autism.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Apr 4, 2017

Gas giants share OPEC's shale pain as U.S. supply flows to Asia

OPEC isn't the only decades-old energy hegemony being turned on its head by U.S. shale.
Japan Times
JAPAN / GASTECH JAPAN 2017
Apr 4, 2017

Gastech offers various programs for energy experts

Gastech Japan 2017, which is being held at Makuhari Messe, Chiba, from Tuesday to Friday, is the 29th edition of the world's largest conference and exhibition on natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) since the first Gastech was held in London in 1972.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 4, 2017

Long-awaited 'Asian century' might not ever come

There may well be an 'Asian century' in the future, but don't hold your breath.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person