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BUSINESS
Jul 5, 2013

Bankers' group to ratchet up oversight of Tibor

The Japanese Bankers Association will step up oversight of the country's benchmark interbank lending rates as part of global efforts to tighten supervision in the wake of the Libor rate-rigging scandal.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2013

Finds raise toxic chemical suspicions at ex-Kadena site

The Okinawa Defense Bureau and the city of Okinawa uncover seven more barrels at a former U.S. base site that may have been used to hold toxic chemicals during the Vietnam War.
Reader Mail
Jul 3, 2013

Christian mentality showing

It's only necessary to look at the personal, seemingly malevolent sarcasm of Frank O'Brien's June 23 letter, "Right to express religious views," and Jennifer Kim's June 23 letter, "Mild wisecrack in comparison," to see what is wrong with the Christian mentality.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2013

Rights activists demand end to exploitative trainee program

Japan has long drawn criticism from global watchdogs for failing to curb human trafficking, perhaps most conspicuously when it comes to foreign women brought in to work in the sex trade.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 1, 2013

Japan envoys among U.S. 'spy targets'

Tokyo will 'strongly demand' an explanation from Washington about reports that Japanese diplomats in the U.S. were 'targets' of American spying, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga says.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2013

Abe wants to gut public protections: expert

If the Liberal Democratic Party succeeds in rewriting the Constitution, it would severely scale back fundamental human rights and strip the public of various civil liberties, a prominent constitutional scholar warns.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jun 29, 2013

Global protest grows as citizens lose faith in politics

The demonstrations in Brazil began after a small rise in bus fares triggered mass protests. Within days this had become a nationwide movement whose concerns had spread far beyond fares: more than a million people were on the streets shouting about everything from corruption to the cost of living to the...
Reader Mail
Jun 27, 2013

Basically a case of bad manners

Allow me to express my weariness with Drusilla de Lanor, who in her June 13 letter, "No offense taken to 'that guy,'" called my view bigoted. A careful reading of my June 9 letter, "An offensive religious reference," will show that I do not claim to be a Christian.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jun 24, 2013

Abe's rhetoric reveals a growth strategy aimed at global conquest

The greatly hyped "third arrow" of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic plans has fallen spectacularly by the wayside. The stock prices on which Abe & Co. had staked their all began falling even as he was explaining his economic strategy in a speech.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 24, 2013

Furigana — for when you need a little help with kanji

While watching a variety program on NTV over lunch a few weeks ago, I happened to see the word 儚い (hakanai) flash up on the screen.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 24, 2013

White House, NASA want help in asteroid hunt

The White House and NASA are asking the public for help finding asteroids that potentially could slam into the Earth with catastrophic consequences.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 21, 2013

How top lowbrow U.S. humor translates in Japan

Somewhere in the history of American cinema, someone (maybe John Waters?) decided that gross and profane and funny could all sit on the same park bench and start up a friendship. That was way back in the 1970s.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 18, 2013

The 'Sunny' side of Taiyo Matsumoto

The Toronto Comics Arts Festival, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, has of late made its name bringing over cutting-edge Japanese artists for signings, live drawing sessions and speaking events. The atmosphere at this year's event, held in May, in many ways like an independent film festival,...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 15, 2013

Clinton re-enters limelight, plans charitable work — for now

In her first major public appearance since stepping down as secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton embraced key pillars of President Barack Obama's domestic agenda Thursday and said she will strive to act as an envoy between businesses, nonprofit entities and the federal government.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2013

Okinawa pitches Futenma 'dispersal'

Okinawa contacted the office of the U.S. secretary of defense earlier this week with proposals to relocate the contingent at U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to other parts of Japan outside the prefecture, saying there are 35 commercial airports and military facilities, from Kyushu to Hokkaido,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 13, 2013

The trouble within Islam

There is a problematic strain within Islam, and we have to be honest about it. At its heart is a view of religion that is not compatible with pluralistic societies.
Reader Mail
Jun 13, 2013

No offense taken to 'that guy'

When I spotted the June 9 letter titled "An offensive religious reference" and noticed that Amy Chavez's June 1 column, "Everyone's own path to enlightenment," was mentioned, I wondered if I had slipped into another dimension.
COMMENTARY / World / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 9, 2013

Everything under heaven: Big China rattles region

China's neighbors may have half-believed Beijing's previous "smile diplomacy" and frequent reassurances that its rise posed no threat to regional peace and stability — but now everyone understands what hegemonic aspirations look like.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 9, 2013

T.S. Eliot's life in letters

In this fourth volume of collected letters, the limitations of the project show up clearly. T.S. Eliot's correspondence documents his life but rarely expresses it.
Reader Mail
Jun 9, 2013

An offensive religious reference

Regarding Amy Chavez's June 1 column, "Everyone's own path to enlightenment": Chavez should be ashamed of herself.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 6, 2013

Mono no aware: subtleties of understanding

The essence of the 'Mono no aware and Japanese Beauty' exhibition, currently at the Suntory Museum of Art, is the appreciation of things in the shadow of their future absence.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 31, 2013

Widow in farmer suicide sues Tepco

A Filipino woman whose Japanese husband committed suicide after his dairy farming business was decimated by the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster is suing Tokyo Electric Power Co. for about ¥126 million.
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2013

Harder battle over Benghazi

Many conservatives suspect that the U.S. State Department, with the White House in a supporting role, deceived the public about the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans. This conspiratorial narrative is, in all probability, false.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 29, 2013

Four core 2008 Clinton staffers would pass on a 2016 bid

Howard Wolfson, the 2008 communications director for Hillary Rodham Clinton, has said he will not return for a 2016 presidential campaign. Neither, for that matter, will Neera Tanden, the campaign's policy director. Ditto for Mark Penn, the chief strategist, and Patti Solis Doyle, the embattled campaign...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
May 28, 2013

Sandy's legacy: better hurricane forecasting

With hurricane season just a week away and a very active season predicted by meteorologists, thoughts are on what happened last year, when a tropical cyclone named Sandy raced north from the Caribbean, hung a sharp left off the mid-Atlantic coast and smashed into New Jersey and New York, killing 147...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 27, 2013

Bond vigilantes wake investors from voodoo 'Abenomics' trance

The bond vigilantes are getting antsy about Shinzo Abe's shock-therapy program, dubbed "Abenomics."

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?