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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2016

Trump may hand China economic leadership

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says he wants to make America great again. But his economic policies are likely to have the opposite effect
SPORTS
Dec 30, 2016

The top sports stories of 2016

The Japan Times newsroom selected these sports stories as the most important of 2016.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 28, 2016

Abe offers 'everlasting condolences' at Pearl Harbor as Obama praises partnership in peace

Abe's historic visit to Hawaii wraps up with addresses from himself and U.S. President Barack Obama.
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Dec 25, 2016

Train, casino, reactor woes to grab Kansai headlines in '17

A casino, an expo, tourists, trains, and old nuclear power plants. These are just some of the major issues the Kansai region faces in 2017.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 25, 2016

PISA confirms excellence of a handful of nations

The obsession with rankings on international student assessment tests may be counterproductive.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 25, 2016

Love 'em or hate 'em, the end of SMAP marks the end of an era

The Olympics have always been popular in Japan, and this year's games in Rio de Janeiro were no exception. While NHK was broadcasting the games in the early hours of Aug. 14, a breaking news message flashed across the screen: "SMAP to disband Dec. 31."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 24, 2016

A realistic view of Japan's island dispute

In the past month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has snuggled up to two of the world's most distrusted national leaders in an attempt to prove his diplomatic mettle and boost support rates ahead of a rumored snap election next year. Abe was the first country head to gain an audience with President-elect...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 23, 2016

Japan's image and culture

Japans' language, culture and democratic image are assets of vital importance. They should be carefully nurtured.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2016

Terrorism: a small threat designed to look big

The sensible response to terrorist attacks is prevention: good intelligence-gathering and smarter security measures, not mass arrests and foreign wars.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 21, 2016

A new wave of Japanese filmmakers matches the old

Nearly two decades after the Japanese New Wave of the 1990s, the directors who led it, including Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Hirokazu Koreeda and Naomi Kawase, are still the local industry's most prominent faces abroad. But this year a new generation of filmmakers has finally started to make itself heard, with...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Dec 21, 2016

Quotes of 2016, from 'Die, Japan' to 'Trump shock'

Some of the good, bad and ugly of what various people said or shouted out loud in 2016.
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2016

U.S. return of Okinawa training area faces harsh criticism from local residents

U.S. Forces Japan announces the return of more than half the Northern Training Area amid the growing anger of local residents.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 21, 2016

Spiral of xenophobic fear and violence further imperils Western societies, experts say

The rise of far-right politics across the world may hit already scant foreign aid, increase tensions between communities and countries, and lead to more people fleeing conflict, warn Nobel laureates, leaders and experts.
Japan Times
PRESS / Publications
Dec 21, 2016

Revised Edition to a Long-running Bestseller

Tokyo, December 21, 2016 - The Japan Times, Ltd. has released a revised edition to its bestselling fun-and-easy kana practice book, "Kana Can Be Easy [Revised Edition]."
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 2016

How climate action can make America great

Trump already wants to invest in energy and infrastructure. If he does so in a climate-friendly way, the U.S. will reap enormous benefits — and so will the rest of the world.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2016

Trump must prepare for a showdown with Beijing

An increasingly assertive China poses the most vexing and far-reaching challenges for American prosperity and security.
JAPAN / JAPANESE IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Dec 19, 2016

Playing a leading role in fostering peace and diplomacy

On Dec. 18, 1956, on a freezing winter's day, the ceremony for Japan's admission into the U.N. was held at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Witnessing the ceremony, I felt the sincerity and warmth of other nations in remarks made by representatives of the countries that welcomed Japan's return...
Japan Times
JAPAN / JAPANESE IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Dec 19, 2016

Getting more students to go global

What is essential for students to be competent global players?
Japan Times
JAPAN / JAPANESE IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Dec 19, 2016

Focus on future through U.N. activities

The sixth edition of the Sophia University United Nations Weeks event was held in the university's Yotsuya Campus in Tokyo from Oct. 17 to 28. Inaugurated in 2014, the event has been organized under the concept of "considering our future and the world through U.N. activities."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 18, 2016

Japan's pop music scene saw a power struggle in 2016

Media, both domestic and overseas, spent a lot of time focused on the streaming services arriving in Japan in 2016. Months of "Can these platforms thrive in CD-loving Japan?" speculation reached a climax in September, when global market leader Spotify finally debuted here. There was a big press conference,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 17, 2016

Western culture and the end of Japanese 'harmony'

Japan grew up with wa (harmony). Conflict and competition are the creative engines of Western civilization; Japan traveled a different route to the tumultuous present.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 17, 2016

Love, obsession and perverted desires in Japan's age of steam

Japan began to open its doors to the West in the 1850s, after centuries of remaining closed. In the following decade, foreigners' "concessions" were established in port cities such as Yokohama and Kobe to cope with the new visitors. The Japanese, with their characteristic desire to extend guests every...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 17, 2016

Trump builds team of bosses and big egos to shake up Washington

With more than 20 nominees now selected, Donald Trump's Cabinet appears much like the president-elect himself: mostly older, white males, many of them wealthy, who see themselves as risk-takers and deal-makers and prize action over deliberation.
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 16, 2016

U.K. OKs three-parent IVF treatment to prevent disease but critics fear birth of 'designer babies'

Britain on Thursday became the first country to formally license an in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment designed to create babies from three people.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 15, 2016

Japan's Southeast Asia offensive in retrospective

The effects of Japan's seizure of Southeast Asia that began to unfold 75 years ago this week still reverberate today.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 15, 2016

Nintendo jumps on app bandwagon with release of 'Super Mario Run' for iPhone

After almost two years of waiting, the big day is finally here for Nintendo Co. and its first game for smartphones, "Super Mario Run."
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2016

Understanding the geopolitics of populism

What unites supporters of Donald Trump and the U.K.'s 'leave' campaign is not anger at being excluded from the benefits of globalization, but rather a shared sense of unease that they no longer control their own destinies.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2016

How the European left lost the working class

If left-wing parties can't appeal to the working class, what's their use?

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