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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 17, 2014

Koreas' disputed sea border never too far from action as threat of war persists

On a clear day, residents of Yeonpyeong Island can see North Korea, 10 km away. They can also sometimes watch South Korean warships chase North Korean and Chinese fishing boats. These waters in the Yellow Sea are among the world's richest for blue crab.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2014

A requiem for technocracy

Now that science's postwar charisma has faded, politicians are debating the safety of genetically modified foods, the hazards of extracting shale oil and gas, and the impact of global warming without regard for scientific evidence — as if the issues were morality plays.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2014

Hostages' families face impossible choices

An American journalist who was kidnapped by the same Afghan Taliban faction that held Bowe Bergdahl for five years argues that the real solution to ending kidnappings for ransom is to reduce the world's pockets of ungoverned spaces.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2014

The damage done by 'moderates'

Every day the insipid overlords of America's inane corporate news media put out the same message: Extremism is extremely bad. But might the so-called moderates be worse?
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 16, 2014

Venice Biennale lays down the past

The Venice Architecture Biennale, first staged in 1980 and recurring every two years, has grown to become the world's largest and most influential gathering of architectural thought leaders. The event has come to be seen as providing a global snapshot of contemporary practice and as a weather vane of...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 15, 2014

Oh, the places we'll go in 2020 — unless, of course, we won't

In 2020 the Tokyo Olympics will be here! And all our troubles will be gone. Unless, of course, they won't. Because, sometimes, they don't.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 14, 2014

One woman's mark on the nation's Constitution

In December 2012, 89-year-old Beate Sirota Gordon knew she was dying. The women's rights advocate and tireless promoter of cross-cultural exchange in the arts was ill at home in the New York borough of Manhattan. Yet, she pulled herself out of bed one morning, dressed formally and sat in a chair to await...
BASKETBALL
Jun 14, 2014

Star guard Oga lashes out at JBA

Japan women's national team star Yuko Oga angrily pointed at a banner that hung on the wall at a practice gym while she had a conversation with reporters.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jun 13, 2014

Forget Cool Japan — cute is this summer's hot global export

Summer is always high season for fans of Japanese pop culture. School's out, weather's amenable and festivals, conventions and expos shift into top gear in Japan and across the globe.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Jun 12, 2014

Interns abused as labor crisis grows

Wednesday was a regular work day at rusting Burberry factory Kameda Co. in Ishikawa Prefecture, but for three Chinese women, it was a day of escape.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 12, 2014

The most important sci-fi film never made

Cinema is strewn with the ghosts of films unmade — projects that spent years in development, teetering on the brink of being greenlit before disappearing without a trace. And one such project became the stuff of legend: cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky's planned adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic...
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2014

Rising seas wash Japanese war dead from Pacific island graves

Rising sea levels have washed the remains of at least 26 Japanese soldiers from their World War II graves on a low-lying Pacific archipelago, according to the foreign minister of the Marshall Islands.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2014

U.S. could spare Israel a bad outcome

Until Washington stops its nonmilitary aid to Israel, ends its complicity in Israel's continuing illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and instead supports full Palestinian membership in the U.N., the Jewish state will remain locked into self-destruction.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 6, 2014

Securing the rule of law at sea

To resolve conflicting territorial claims in Southeast Asia, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe calls upon governments in the region to return to the spirit and provisions of the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 5, 2014

'Balancing Act'

It's a sad, anxious world when a hard-working dad has no choice but to sleep in his car and eat at a soup kitchen. Such is the fate of 40-year-old Giulio (Valerio Mastandrea), whose act of infidelity (sex with a colleague in the archives room of the Rome city office where he works) causes a deep, irreparable...
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Jun 5, 2014

Take time out to learn about the environment

Last weekend's heatwave was likely to have had some people concerned about climate change and other environmental issues, and just in time for World Environment Day, which took place on June 5.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 4, 2014

Roberta Marquez: a Juliet to die for

The Royal Ballet, generally considered to be the best classical company in the world, numbers some 100 dancers from teens of countries who are based at its magnificent and newly refurbished Opera House home in London.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2014

Sex and drugs to be counted in Europe's GDP

In the next few months all EU countries that do not already include illegal and gray-market businesses in their gross domestic product calculations will have to do so. After all, there is no substantive difference between the services of a prostitute and a corrupt bureaucrat.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 2, 2014

Japan urged to make its cosmetics 'cruelty-free'

While Japanese consumers clamor for items that will make their skin smoother or their hair shinier, relatively few people are aware of the horror behind the products in their cosmetics cases.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2014

Harnessing the competitive streak in China

The competition-fueled growth that propelled China's emergence as the world's second-largest economy is no longer enough. The need now is to rebalance competition to address the negative externalities of state and market activities.
Japan Times
CULTURE
May 31, 2014

Essential summer festivals 2014

A summer without festivals simply wouldn’t be a proper summer in Japan, so now that the humidity has returned, it’s time to slop on an extra layer of sunscreen and line up some outdoor activities.
Japan Times
TENNIS
May 30, 2014

Nadal storms into 3rd round

Rafael Nadal provided a claycourt lesson for one of the game's young apprentices at the French Open when he crushed rising Austrian Dominic Thiem with a masterly display to reach the third round on Thursday.
JAPAN
May 29, 2014

Tokyo, Canberra test sub fleet export waters

Japan will get the chance to pursue an unprecedented military export deal when its defense and foreign ministers meet their Australian counterparts in Tokyo next month.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 29, 2014

Short-film festival offers flicks for free

Short films are today both everywhere but nowhere, even for many who consider themselves film fans.
Japan Times
TENNIS
May 28, 2014

Li self-destructs as poor form plagues French Open seeds

Li Na, the Australian Open champion, followed her male counterpart Stanislas Wawrinka out of the French Open in the first round when she lost 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 to local favorite Kristina Mladenovic on Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 28, 2014

Godfather of J-horror escapes from genre's grip

Hideo Nakata could be called the godfather of contemporary Japanese horror, but he would probably hate the label. Regardless, this 52-year-old director of such genre classics as "Ring," "Ring 2" and "Honogurai Mizu no Soko kara (Dark Water)" has made J-horror — a combination of present-day settings...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
May 28, 2014

Japan: a haven for the psychologically troubled

For the troubled Western expat in Japan, the reality of being on another continent can collide with normalized Japanese antisocialism to form a cocktail effective in tuning out a lot of the 'just be a normal adult' voices.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 28, 2014

Talking Pinter with Leveaux; an 'authorized' interaction

When we met last weekend, the world-renowned English theater director David Leveaux was relaxing with a cigarette "in the lovely sunshine" outside a rehearsal studio by Tokyo Bay. He was there for an intensive afternoon's work with the three Japanese actors who form the cast of his upcoming production...
EDITORIALS
May 28, 2014

Managing declining fish stocks

The future survival and prosperity of Japan's fishing industry is dependent on its embrace of sustainable catch practices.

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