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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 17, 2013

Silence is a virtue for Tokyo's Flau

Back when he still worked as a speech therapist and audiologist, Yasuhiko Fukuzono used to observe an interesting phenomenon. When deaf patients were fitted out with hearing aids for the first time, they complained that everything was just noise. "Even when they were at home, not doing anything, it was...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2013

Returning to Egypt's preferable state of tyranny

Former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi knows neither Thomas Jefferson's advice that "great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities" nor the description of Martin Van Buren as a politician who "rowed to his object with muffled oars." Having won just 52 percent of the vote, Morsi pursued...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jul 15, 2013

Tokyo: Which of Japan's many summer firework displays do you recommend?

I think the best fireworks display in Japan is in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture. Even though it is not the biggest in Japan, the huge round fireworks let off there are very famous and attract people from all over the place. I'm looking forward to seeing the Nagaoka fireworks this year.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2013

Bad week for a hateful televangelist

The week of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's ouster was also a bad one for the Al Jazeera television network and a hateful Sunni televangelist.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Jul 13, 2013

Media barge into royal baby's life before it's born

Outside the private Lindo Wing of St. Mary's Hospital, the global media hordes on Royal Baby Watch have marked their turf with duct tape and stepladders like so many predators. But starved for material in a world where Mother Nature and Buckingham Palace are the last two holdouts from the 24-hour news...
EDITORIALS
Jul 11, 2013

Get ready to be warned

Get ready to be warned. Beginning Aug. 30, Japan's Meteorological Agency will introduce a new 'special warning' system for saving lives during a natural disaster.
EDITORIALS
Jul 10, 2013

Japan's first 'Internet election'

Political candidates don't seem to be using the Internet effectively ahead of the July 21 Upper House polls. The messages read more like diaries than policy arguments.
Reader Mail
Jul 10, 2013

Overboard on fear and loathing

I always enjoy Robert J. Samuelson's commentary pieces, but his July 3 article, "Beware the Internet and the danger of cyberattacks," is a rare miss for an otherwise insightful journalist.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jul 8, 2013

Nagoya: What was your best holiday ever, and why?

South Korea. I have many Korean friends and I love going to Seoul. It is a wonderful city for shopping, eating and pampering yourself. Some of the food is rather like delicacies you can find in Japan, yet subtly different, such as tok, their version of our mochi (pounded rice cakes) and their chicken stew. I particularly enjoy massage, combined with being cleansed in a Korean dome-type sauna. Usually I stay five days or a week.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 7, 2013

Strict rules help U.S. access data traffic on undersea cables

The U.S. government had a problem: Spying in the digital age required access to the fiber-optic cables traversing the world's oceans, carrying torrents of data at the speed of light. And one of the biggest operators of those cables was being sold to an Asian firm, which might complicate American surveillance...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2013

Bye-bye to the Brotherhood

There are many good reasons to be grateful for the turn of events in Cairo. Women and the 10 percent of Egyptians who are Christian should be pleased.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2013

Egyptian military coup sets back democracy and constitutionalism

You might think that replacing an unpopular Islamist leader with a secular judge is a victory for democracy in Egypt. It isn't. And don't expect elections soon.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 6, 2013

Snowden assisted by WikiLeaks' 'gatekeeper'

He didn't have the space for it, but Gavin MacFadyen needed more bodies. The American running a British think tank for investigative journalism had eight employees crammed into a 4.5-by-3.5-meter office in east-central London, trying to crack a story on wrongdoing at a multinational company.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 5, 2013

Desperately seeking Snowden in Sheremetyevo: Fugitive eludes all at Moscow airport

Every year, around 25 million passengers enter Sheremetyevo airport — and usually they come out again. Not Edward Snowden. The guy who was made famous by spilling the beans about U.S. surveillance programs has managed to keep his own whereabouts strictly hush-hush.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Jul 2, 2013

Wood, paper, leather and a brolly that branches out into a leafy bough

Hang on to a brolly this summer
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2013

Five myths about the National Security Agency

One common denominator of NSA whistleblowers is that they feel ignored when attempting to bring illegal or unethical operations to the attention of higher-ups.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2013

U.S. spying aimed at citizens

The U.S. government's efforts to monitor digital communications are more dangerous to civil liberties than they are to al-Qaida and other organizations like it.
EDITORIALS
Jun 25, 2013

Safety of online drug sales

It is rather bizarre that Japan's government would treat nonprescription drug sales over the Internet as a component of its economic growth strategy.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jun 25, 2013

Tokyo: Do you think conscription — in Japan or elsewhere — is a good thing or a bad idea?

I think conscription is a bad idea because we always say people are equal and can do what they want, and I myself am all for liberty and freedom of choice. To that end, people, whoever they are, must be able to do what they want, and if they don't want to [join the military], that is quite alright.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 21, 2013

U.S. government wraps up Apple e-book antitrust trial

The Justice Department on Thursday concluded its antitrust trial against Apple over alleged price-fixing of digital books, with a federal prosecutor saying the creator of the iPhone and iPad engaged in an "old-fashioned, straightforward" conspiracy and Apple's lead attorney warning that a ruling against...
LIFE / Digital
Jun 19, 2013

The NSA has us all trapped

Watching British Foreign Secretary William Hague doing his avuncular routine in the Commons on June 10, I was reminded of the way establishment figures in the 1950s used to reassure hoi polloi that they had nothing to worry about. Everything was in order. The Right Chaps were in charge. Citizens who...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 18, 2013

Quickies on bringing in psychotropics and bags, calling Japan, buying shoes

A variety of queries from readers have arrived at Lifelines over the last few weeks, so we'll address some of them in this column.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 17, 2013

After Newtown shooting, mourning parents enter into the lonely quiet

They had promised to try everything, so Mark Barden went down into the basement to begin another project in memory of Daniel. The families of Sandy Hook Elementary were collaborating on a Mother's Day card, which would be produced by a marketing firm and mailed to hundreds of politicians across the country....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 15, 2013

A feline confessional — for those who can't resist abusive pets

You often hear about animals being rescued from abusive owners, but I wonder, is there any help for pet owners who have been abused by their pets?
LIFE / Digital
Jun 12, 2013

You're not a customer, you're just a user

A reader writes: "Dear John Naughton, As you write about the Internet, I wondered if you knew how long it takes Yahoo to get back to people. I have an iPad, but went to the library to print a document (attached to an email). Yahoo knew I wasn't on my iPad and asked me to name my favorite uncle. I replied,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 11, 2013

Sony-Microsoft console war faces tablet reality at E3

Gun-toting fighters take a back seat to Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. this week as the console makers battle to show they've got the best plan for selling pricey machines in the age of cheap play on phones and tablets.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 11, 2013

Five myths about the legalization of marijuana

With 16 U.S. states having decriminalized or legalized cannabis for non-medical use and eight more heading toward some kind of legalization, federal prohibition's days seem numbered.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 8, 2013

Esther Williams, champion swimmer and film star, dies at 91

Esther Williams, a championship swimmer and lustrous beauty who became one of the world's most popular movie stars in the 1940s and '50s by appearing in aquatic musicals featuring daredevil plunges from pedestals, trapezes and even a helicopter, died Thursday at her home in Beverly Hills, California....
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 7, 2013

Russia's homophobic curse

With the general mood in Russia's populace favoring a ban on gay culture, homophobic mobsters of all colors feel cozy under an official umbrella.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji