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Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 30, 2017

GOP-led Congress under fire as secrecy-shrouded Trump tax overhaul seen targeting coveted deductions

President Donald Trump's plan for overhauling the U.S. tax system faced growing opposition from interest groups on Sunday, as Republicans prepare to unveil sweeping legislation that could eliminate some of the most popular tax breaks to help pay for lower taxes.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 29, 2017

Xi's new strength obscures China's internal risks

Xi Jinping's new strength and power helps obscure China's internal risks, including the fundamental challenge of how to avoid a political hard landing.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NATURE'S PANTRY
Oct 28, 2017

Missing our Thanksgiving feast in Japan, with all its bustle and chaos

A free-range turkey supplier in Ishikawa Prefecture offers nostalgic North Americans a taste of home.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 27, 2017

DP leader Seiji Maehara to resign; Atsushi Oshima emerges as candidate to run Kibo no To

Democratic Party President Seiji Maehara steps down over his failure to unite the opposition camp ahead of the general election.
EDITORIALS
Oct 26, 2017

Xi enshrined as China's leader

Xi Jinping has been elevated to a level of power unmatched by any Chinese leader since Mao Zedong. What will he do with it?
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 26, 2017

Wanted: A better defense of modern-day capitalism

Capitalism is taking on new forms in the 21st century, and the old arguments to defend it no longer have any relevance.
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Oct 26, 2017

Getting close to Ryuichi Sakamoto

Stephen Nomura Schible refrains from saying whether he and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto are friends, or even close, despite having filmed a documentary about him.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / B. League / B. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Oct 26, 2017

Taguchi's range from downtown boosts Akita

In this era of rapid-fire 3-point shooting, Shigehiro Taguchi stands out as a consummate threat.
JAPAN / History
Oct 26, 2017

On reconciliation tour, American ex-POW, 95, revisits Miyagi mine, scene of horrific memories

At the entrance of the defunct lead and zinc mine in Kurihara, Miyagi Prefecture, earlier in October, American Henry Chamberlain, 95, had to lean on his cane to ease the fatigue linked to the beatings he received from Japanese soldiers during World War II.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Oct 26, 2017

Bangladesh's news-starved Rohingya refugees tune in to 'WhatsApp radio' despite dodgy info sources

Sitting in his hillside grocery shop in a Bangladesh refugee camp, Rohingya Muslim Momtaz-ul-Hoque takes a break to listen to an audio recording on his mobile phone, while children and passers-by gather round to hear the latest news from Myanmar.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 25, 2017

Cities and prefectures get into the spirit of labor reform

Municipal and prefectural governments across the country plan to adopt their own measures to promote labor reforms for their employees, such as by consigning operations to the private sector to cut overtime and introducing flexible working hours.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 25, 2017

'Mixed Doubles': A match made in heaven falls flat

Mainstream Japanese films, goes the common lament, are now merely the last links in a corporate media chain that begins with a hit property, be it a novel, comic or a smartphone app. Original scripts are thin on the ground.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 25, 2017

'Birds Without Names': Strong acting gets us through a couple's bad romance

If you're in the mood for a pleasant love story, avoid "Birds Without Names" like the plague. On the other hand, if you're cursing the idea of another Christmas alone, revel in the hope that all relationships may be as bad as the ones in this film.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 24, 2017

'Diego Rivera and His Contemporaries'

Oct. 21-Dec. 10
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 24, 2017

Is Abe's free day care and kindergarten worth the cost?

Sunday's general election is over and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's gamble seems to have paid off. But politics never stops and Abe is now obliged to carry out what he promised during the campaign.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 24, 2017

Fallen sergeant's widow at center of Trump condolence call firestorm says he made her 'cry even worse'

The widow of a U.S. Army sergeant killed in Niger this month said on Monday that President Donald Trump had "made me cry even worse" in a condolence telephone call when he said her husband "knew what he signed up for."
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 22, 2017

The traditional kimono never goes out of style

The fusion of traditional Japanese culture with contemporary life isn't a new concept, but as trends change the results can vary greatly. On the runway, we are seeing sophisticated ideas that infuse new looks with time-honored tastes in subtle yet effective ways; while on the streets, the stylings of...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 21, 2017

Identifying the 'liberal' in Japanese politics

The current group of conservative public figures in the United States wants to return to an age when certain middle-class values were ascendant, without acknowledging that many of those values were realized because President Franklin Roosevelt implemented progressive social policies and trade unions...
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Oct 21, 2017

Viral dance crazes highlight a generational shift

Japan is certainly no stranger to viral dance videos and one doesn't have to think too far back to recall the popularity of the koi (falling in love) dance routine that took the internet by storm last year.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Oct 21, 2017

Koto player Azumi Yamano revels in space and atmosphere

'The koto is a plucked string instrument in which the sound and music really reflect the player.'
EDITORIALS
Oct 21, 2017

Slow regional revitalization

The demographic challenges confronting the nation are indeed enormous, but the regional revitalization policy of the Abe administration has so far accomplished little.
Japan Times
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 20, 2017

Man City's De Bruyne in a league of his own

To death and taxes as the only certainties in life can, for managers on Planet Football, be added a blunder in the transfer market that comes back to haunt them.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 20, 2017

Scandal-hit Aichi candidate Shiori Yamao still in the race on the strength of popular support

Before allegations of an extramarital affair surfaced less than two months ago, Shiori Yamao had been a rising star expected by many of her colleagues to reinvigorate the Democratic Party, then the main opposition force.
Reader Mail
Oct 20, 2017

Holocaust denial in America

The Great Forgetting in the U.S.A. has begun. We learn that an online retailer was offering a costume on its website that depicted Holocaust victim Anne Frank, until pressure forced the company to stop. How the hell did anyone decide to create and market an Anne Frank Halloween costume?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 19, 2017

Who has the world's No. 1 economy? Not the U.S.

The days of U.S. economic supremacy are over.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Oct 19, 2017

Kyoto's ambience is key to making KIFF special

Film festivals don't take place in isolation: An interesting city makes for a more interesting festival, unless you are the sort of movie nerd who sees six films a day and lives on convenience store sandwiches.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 19, 2017

Beck: 'I wanted to put out a giant positive wave of sound'

"It's actually surreal that it's finally out," Beck Hansen says of his 13th album, "Colors." "It's the longest time from inception to release I've ever had. It's been like a rebirth."

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past