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COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Mar 5, 2013

Child's quibble with U.S. 'poverty superpower' propaganda unravels a sobering story about insular Japan

Last November, a reader in Hokkaido named Stephanie sent me an article read in Japan's elementary schools. Featured in a sixth-grader magazine called Chagurin (from "child agricultural green") dated December 2012, it was titled "Children of America, the Poverty Superpower" (hinkon taikoku Amerika no...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Mar 4, 2013

Mrs. Obama's Oscar cameo raises questions about first lady's role

Is this what Michelle Obama looks like untethered to the pressure of a campaign? Is she free to follow her whims without worries about political backlash?
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 27, 2013

Five myths about picking a pope

Misconceptions abound about how 117 cardinals, gathering from across the globe inside the Vatican's Sistine Chapel, will elect a new pope next month.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Feb 26, 2013

Everything you wanted to know about Western women (but were afraid to ask): No-holds-barred guide targets Japanese men

Here's an open secret: Japanese men have a bad international reputation on the romance front.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / EVERYMAN EATS
Feb 22, 2013

Foodie Media 101: Eat all about it

Every Monday night at 7, Japanese TV viewers are treated to the sight of comedians being locked inside a fast-food restaurant. Formica tables take the place of iron bars, and instead of three square meals a day the cast is fed a steady diet of the shop's specialties — tonkatsu breaded pork cutlets,...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 21, 2013

Proposed inheritance tax exemption isn't really about inheritance taxes

Will old folks encouraged to think of their grandkids' education loosen their grip on unproductive savings?
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2013

Five myths about manufacturing jobs

Despite claims of lost jobs, the U.S. is still a world leader in manufacturing, a sector that will remain essential to its economic and technological future.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 8, 2013

'Warning shot': 50-meter asteroid is about to buzz Earth

A close encounter of the rocky kind is set for Feb. 16, when an asteroid the size of an office building will speed past the Earth faster than a bullet.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2013

Five myths about America's immigration 'line'

The 'line' of people seeking citizenship or legal status has become an integral part of the U.S. immigration debate. But there's more than one line.
Reader Mail
Feb 3, 2013

Questions about contamination

The Jan. 29 Kyodo article "Fukushima kids' thyroids said safe" indicates that radiation levels in the thyroids of 1-year-old kids living near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant are "estimated to be less than 30 millisieverts in most cases," based on medical exams of 1,000 children. The story goes...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Jan 27, 2013

You read about them here first

Ever since 1897 The Japan Times has reported daily in English on people, places and goings-on in and beyond this country. During those 116 years, our articles have often included information that never made it into the Japanese-language press — as in 1934, when the Society Page carried an interview...
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 24, 2013

Smokers who quit by about age 40 can stave off early death, study finds

Smokers who quit by around age 40 can stave off an early death, according to a landmark study that fills key gaps in our knowledge of smoking-related health ills.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2013

Ban talks about Japan in the world in exclusive interview

In a series of seven two-hour sessions that included informal get-togethers with his wife Soon Taek, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, the well-regarded former South Korean foreign minister, shares his insights exclusively with American journalist Tom Plate. The following excerpts from Plate's...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2013

Five myths about the next defense secretary

1. Chuck Hagel is anti-Israel.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jan 19, 2013

Kyoto gardens give up all their secrets during intimate guided tours

How do you appreciate a Japanese garden? The typical temple visit — where you ponder a seemingly random assemblage of rocks and raked gravel or push your way through a throng of tourists jostling for camera angles — can leave one confused and underwhelmed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 17, 2013

Patti Smith hopes 2013 is about rebuilding

By the time you read this, Patti Smith will have been in Japan for nearly a week. The iconic poet, author, painter and "Godmother of Punk" hasn't yet played a gig with her band; that will come later. First, Smith is reconnecting with a country with which her affinity runs deep.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2013

A chance to talk about U.S. drones and torture

The nomination of John Brennan as CIA director is getting lost in the controversy over the Chuck Hagel nomination for defense secretary. Brennan's reported support for Bush-era torture programs — which he has denied — and his oversight of President Barack Obama's drone program are causing ripples,...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2012

Five myths about U.S. gun control

After the horrific mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on Dec. 14, a nation long resistant to gun control seems ready to act — or at least talk about acting.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 18, 2012

Stop thinking — the test is about to start

JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 11, 2012

Nippon Ishin leaders send mixed signals about postelection mergers

Confusion continues about what Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) will do after Sunday's Lower House election, with top leaders making contradictory statements over whether they would join forces with the Liberal Democratic Party to possibly form a two-thirds majority in both Diet chambers....
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 9, 2012

World still waits for Japan to stop being apathetic about whaling

It was hardly the result the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) hoped for, or expected.
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 4, 2012

Okinawa: What should be done about the recent incidents involving off-duty U.S. servicemen in Okinawa?

Eva Wyatt
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 4, 2012

Okinawa: What should be done about the recent incidents involving off-duty U.S. servicemen in Okinawa?

Eva Wyatt

Longform

Passengers that were on a morning train attacked by members of the Aum Shinrikyo group wait for medical assistance outside Kasumigaseki Station on March 20,1995.
The day a religious cult brought terror to Tokyo