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Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Oct 22, 2015

Fuji TV announces Japan-first lesbian drama, but attracts criticism for 'outdated' portrayal

Fuji Television has announced a drama series featuring a lesbian love story as its central theme — a first for Japan.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Oct 22, 2015

Vets help get Sendai off to quick start

The Sendai 89ers have relied on the stellar contributions of several players en route to six straight wins to open the new season.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2015

Tokyo film festival ups its domestic fare

The 28th edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival, which began yesterday, is the biggest event on the Japanese film calendar. And like any such event, TIFF has had its share of critics over the years.
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2015

Employment insurance revamp

The Abe administration is looking at reforming the employment insurance scheme to get more senior citizens into the workforce, but beefing up other components of the social welfare net would be more effective.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 22, 2015

Harley-Davidson sees TPP as boon for expansion into emerging economies

Harley-Davidson Inc., which is facing steep discounts from Japanese competitors taking advantage of a weak yen, is stepping up as an unlikely supporter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 22, 2015

Pakistan to tell U.S. it won't accept limits on tactical nuclear arms

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will tell U.S. President Barack Obama that Islamabad will not accept limits on its use of small tactical nuclear weapons, Pakistani officials said Wednesday.
SOCCER / J. League / J. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Oct 21, 2015

Internal mistakes behind S-Pulse's fall from J1 ranks

Shimizu S-Pulse's proud uninterrupted record as a J. League first-division team came to an end last weekend, but after years of muddled leadership, the club has no one to blame but itself.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 21, 2015

Syrian leader Assad meets Putin in surprise visit to Moscow

Syrian President Bashar Assad flew to Moscow on Tuesday evening to personally thank Russia's Vladimir Putin for his military support, in a surprise visit that underlined how Russia has become a major player in the Middle East.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 21, 2015

Female fears at the dead center of J-horror

Japan is a scary place. It has inspired masters of horror over three centuries, from Akinari Ueda in the 1700s ("Ugetsu Monogatari") to Lafcadio Hearn ("Kwaidan") in the late 1800s, all the way to the 1990s, when Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Cure" and Hideo Nakata's "Ringu" were released, spawning a new homgreown...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 21, 2015

Androids and the avant-garde: The best Japanese films screening at TIFF

The Tokyo International Film Festival offers a once-a-year chance to see Japanese movies, both new and classic, with English subtitles. Getting tickets, however, especially for the films in the Competition and Special Screenings sections, may not be easy. With that caveat, here are my personal picks...
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Oct 21, 2015

Indonesia to use chemical castration to punish pedophiles

Indonesia's president will soon sign a decree authorizing the use of chemical castration to punish pedophiles, the attorney general said, following a string of headline-grabbing child sex crimes.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2015

Putin fires a shot across Obama's bow

Barack Obama insists that Vladimir Putin's intervention in Syria is a sign of weakness, but the Russian Navy's recent cruise missile launch showed rising strength.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 20, 2015

Japan Post's IPO might just shake up lagging regional lenders

The nation's regional banks need a little shaking up: There are far too many of them, profits from loans are shrinking, and their customers are disappearing. The enormous privatization of Japan Post, coming up next month, may just help spur them into action.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 19, 2015

EU needs a policy solution, not more razor wire

Creating institutions to enhance border security and resettle refugees will require Europe to take another step toward deeper political integration, with decisions made at the EU, not the national, level.
Japan Times
SOCCER
Oct 19, 2015

Wijnaldum lifts Newcastle to victory

Newcastle United's Dutchman Georginio Wijnaldum scored four times as the club won its first Premier League match this season at the ninth attempt by thrashing Norwich City 6-2 to climb off the bottom of the table on Sunday.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Oct 19, 2015

Antelopes' new approach revolutionizing women's hoops

Veteran bench boss Don Beck intends to play a transition game around solid defense for the Toyota Antelopes of the Women's Japan Basketball League in his first season in charge, like he did while coaching the Toyota Alvark men's team from 2010-15.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Oct 19, 2015

Hara leaves big shoes for next Giants manager to fill

Other than the timing, the news of Tatsunori Hara's decision to step down as manager of the Yomiuri Giants didn't exactly come out of left field.
JAPAN
Oct 19, 2015

Online survey targets problems faced by foreign workers in Japan

A team of international students is conducting an online survey to collect input from foreign workers in Japan and urge changes in tradition-bound Japanese companies, the group said Monday.
JAPAN / Explainer
Oct 19, 2015

The Fukushima nuclear cleanup, four years on

Tokyo Electric Power Co. is scheduled to complete a seaside wall at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station at the end of the month.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 19, 2015

As winter looms, Germany struggles to find warm homes for refugees

At a sprawling camp in the German town of Celle, refugees wearing thick sweaters sit around a heater smoking cigarettes as rain beats down on the cramped white tent that has become their home. Some of them are ill and worried it will snow.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 18, 2015

Radio personality Peter Barakan brings the world to Tokyo for Live Magic!

'I'm going off track again. Wait a minute." Midway through a lengthy digression about an "amazing" New Orleans band named Boukou Groove, Peter Barakan pauses, ever so briefly, to check the conversational signposts.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2015

South China Sea: what 12 nautical miles really means

If the U.S. government goes forward with its plans to conduct freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, it should be prepared for its intentions to be misread or distorted.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 18, 2015

Sri Lanka will consider visits by Chinese naval ships again, minister says

Sri Lanka will consider allowing Chinese naval ships to visit again but no request has been received yet, Defense Minister Karunasena Hettiarachchi said Sunday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 18, 2015

China's Xi lauds Britain for 'visionary' openness, prods others to emulate

Chinese President Xi Jinping heaped praise on Britain for what he called a "visionary and strategic choice" to strengthen commercial ties with China, as he prepared for a state visit to the United Kingdom that's expected to be richer in pomp and considerably warmer in tone than his recent trip to the...
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 18, 2015

Egypt's most feared: terrorist former special forces officer

As a special forces officer in the Egyptian Army, Hisham al-Ashmawy trained in the desert, learning camouflage, survival techniques and how to hunt the enemy in rough terrain. Now he has turned militant and uses that training to help fellow jihadis fight the government.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 18, 2015

Beijing's lighthouses in South China Sea buttress maritime claims

The next time the United States sends warships by China's man-made islands in the disputed South China, officers aboard will have to decide how, if at all, they will engage with a pair of giant lighthouses that Beijing lit up there this month.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 17, 2015

'Base Nation' reveals the destructive tentacles of U.S. hegemony

People are often only aware of what is in their own backyard: the intrusiveness of a radar tower here, an ammunition dump there. David Vine's new book, "Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World," succeeds in shaking us out of our provincialism.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Oct 17, 2015

True Edo spirit can be found while soaking in a public bath

"Public baths are the shortest route there is to moral and spiritual enlightenment. Careful reflection shows this."

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