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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Aug 17, 2014

Could the lingua franca approach to learning break Japan's English curse?

Learning English as a lingua franca (ELF) involves approaching the language as a tongue shared by non-native speakers around the world rather than as a lingo that must be mastered to native-speaker level.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Aug 15, 2014

Developing countries get lesson in basic health from Japanese schools

Developing countries are studying health measures used in Japanese schools, such as regular body measurements, lunch distribution and the use of school infirmaries, to promote the health of their own schoolchildren.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 9, 2014

Okinawa: pocket of resistance

The battle over Henoko Bay looks set to challenge the power of the archipelago's protest movement.
OLYMPICS / OLYMPIC NOTEBOOK
Aug 9, 2014

Legacy of 1984 Olympics still growing strong

What will be the legacy of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics?
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 8, 2014

U.S. Army ends questioning of ex-POW Bergdahl on capture by Taliban

The military completed its questioning of freed U.S. prisoner of war Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl on Thursday and a U.S. Army general must now recommend whether he should face charges over the circumstances that led to his capture by the Taliban.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2014

Putin's friends want to build fortress Russia

If anyone expected Western sanctions against Russia to give President Vladimir Putin pause or to damp his imperialist fervor, they hadn't counted on Russian elites acting like a hedgehog when threatened: roll into a ball and stick out quills.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 31, 2014

Indonesia gets a sprout with a new president

Having conducted an election that produced a successor president without excessive tumult or corruption, Indonesia may well be on its way to emerging as a major global player.
WORLD / Society
Jul 31, 2014

Nigeria opens battle of ideas with program to combat Boko Haram ideology

In classrooms facing a sandy courtyard in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, Maska Road Islamic School teaches a creed that condemns the violent ideology of groups like Boko Haram.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2014

Safe alternative rites to female circumcision

New rites of passage to replace the traditional practice of female genital mutilation offers hope of protecting woman from bodily harm and helping them to lead healthier, more fulfilling lives in Africa and the Middle East.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 21, 2014

Selective consumption tax weighed

It's only been three months since the consumption tax was hiked to 8 percent, but the ruling coalition is already expediting talks on another increase scheduled to come into effect in October next year.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / OLYMPIC NOTEBOOK
Jul 19, 2014

New sports center symbol of Haiti's recovery

Haiti's recovery from the 2010 earthquake that devastated the Caribbean nation is a slow, difficult process.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 19, 2014

The murky call on a hardball interview with Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga

The tabloid press plays fast and loose with the truth, so anyone who gobbled up last week's NHK story in the weekly Friday should have added a dash of salt. An unnamed employee told Friday that the prime minister's office demanded the public broadcaster apologize for questions asked in its interview...
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Jul 19, 2014

Time for legislation to prevent spread of hate speech

On July 8, the Osaka High Court ruled that, yes, standing in front of a primary school while kids are in class, shouting through a megaphone that they and their parents are not human, and then vandalizing the school's property, is legal discrimination.
WORLD
Jul 10, 2014

China plans steps to promote judicial independence, Xinhua says

China will act to promote judicial independence over the next five years with measures including specialized tribunals for environment and intellectual property cases, state media reported Wednesday.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jul 7, 2014

Letters: adoption from Japan, book bores, returnees, workers' rights and fleeing U.S. guns

Some letters in response to recent articles in the Community section about a wide range of subjects.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 5, 2014

Ongoing Obokata story seeks out scandal

The paper, titled "Stimulus-triggered fate conversion of somatic cells into pluripotency," was accepted by the British science journal Nature on Dec. 20, 2013, and published online on Jan. 29, 2014. The authors were listed as Haruko Obokata, Teruhiko Wakayama, Yoshiki Sasai, Koji Kojima, Martin P. Vacanti,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Jun 29, 2014

Comic books champion debate on Fukushima disaster

Farmers in Fukushima try to convince skeptical visitors that their crops are safe from radiation. Blood trickles from the nose of a reporter who visits the area.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 29, 2014

Indonesia candidate battles puppet image

When one of Indonesia's most powerful politicians wanted to be part of a new government, he did not approach Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, the front-runner in next week's presidential election.
EDITORIALS
Jun 27, 2014

Legal tussle over parental ties

Japan's Supreme Court next month is scheduled to hear two cases that challenge the traditional legal presumption of a father-child relationship when DNA test results deny the existence of blood ties.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 23, 2014

Time to make 'Chindia' a reality

Ten years ago, Indian economist and politician Jairam Ramesh raised the idea of China and India joining forces to cooperate as much as they compete. With both countries now in the hands of self-described reformers, could 'Chindia' finally come to fruition?
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 21, 2014

Abe hijacks democracy, undermines Constitution

By short-circuiting the democratic process, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is abusing the trust put in him by the people. His initiative to reinterpret Article 9 of the Constitution to lift constraints on the Japanese military and permit collective self-defense is the most recent example of how Abe is trampling...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 12, 2014

Al-Qaida splinter group advances in Iraq, takes Saddam's hometown

Sunni rebels from an al-Qaida splinter group overran the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Wednesday and closed in on the biggest oil refinery in the country, making further gains in their rapid military advance against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 11, 2014

Abe bulldozes over DPJ in self-defense debate

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe once again underlined the necessity of reinterpreting the war-renouncing Constitution to allow Japan to engage in collective self-defense during a debate Wednesday, while the main opposition leader failed to capitalize on the opportunity to attack Abe and roll back his influence...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2014

Kanagawa to ramp up foreign caregivers

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's offer to open Japan more to foreign medical professionals for its aging population finally has a taker: Kanagawa Prefecture.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2014

Managers in China stoking labor activism

Behind China's biggest strike in decades last month was a new player in Chinese labor activism: management.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 31, 2014

Media eyes trend-setting Sony's loss of momentum

Let's travel back 62 years. On the evening of Dec. 4, 1952, after NHK radio signed off its regular AM programming, an announcer proclaimed: "Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo and NHK now commence a joint experimental stereo broadcast."

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.