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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 15, 2019

Beijing's perilous Taiwan policy

The unfolding geopolitical contest between China and the United States has been described by many as a new cold war. If it ever becomes a hot one, the flash point could be Taiwan, owing in large part to Chinese policy toward the island.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 15, 2019

America's cold warriors hold the key to handling China

The West needs a plan for China like it had against the Soviet Union.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2019

India risks becoming a Hindu Pakistan

A new law targeting Muslim migrants threatens India's identity as a land for all creeds.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 12, 2019

Brexit: A cultural morphology

How the deep forces of British history, from royalism and classism to nationalism and imperialism, combined to trigger the Brexit moment.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 11, 2019

Japan an underdeveloped country for women

Despite its rich, industrialized economy, Japan has yet to achieve much progress in equality between men and women.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 11, 2019

Ocean temperatures rising faster than thought in 'delayed response' to global warming: scientists

The world's oceans are rising in temperature faster than previously believed as they absorb most of the world's growing climate-changing emissions, scientists said Thursday.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 11, 2019

With farms atop malls, Singapore gets serious about food security

Visitors to Singapore's Orchard Road, the city's main shopping belt, will find fancy malls, trendy department stores, abundant food courts — and a small farm.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2019

With strong China focus, VW spearheads $300 billion global drive to make all cars electric

Global automakers are planning a $300 billion surge in spending on electric vehicle technology over the next five to 10 years, with nearly half of the money targeted at China, accelerating the industry's transition away from fossil fuels and shifting power to Asian suppliers of batteries and EV technology....
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2019

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, world's richest man, to divorce wife MacKenzie after 25 years

Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, and wife MacKenzie Bezos are divorcing after 25 years of marriage, the couple said in a joint statement on Twitter on Wednesday.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 9, 2019

Angry, abusive protests bring Britain's Brexit divide to Parliament's doorstep

Some protesters wrap themselves in the flag of the European Union and noisily interrupt politicians' television appearances. Others yell "Nazi" and "traitor."
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2019

America's pullout from the Middle East is overdue

Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria and reduce forces in Afghanistan has exposed the hollowness of arguments in favor of endless intervention.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jan 6, 2019

Second chance for Japan's manga museum

While official Japan may be slow to act on the appeal of its otaku mavens, the rest of the world appears keen to embrace manga and anime.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 6, 2019

Should we all be having nightcaps?

Where does the term 'nightcap' come from, and what exactly does it mean?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 5, 2019

Why people fall for fake news isn't simple

Scientists are weirdly divided over what seems like common sense.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 4, 2019

Researchers say breakthrough in plant engineering could boost productivity and feed millions more people

A new process that adjusts the way plants turn sunlight into energy could boost the yields of many staple crops by 40 percent, potentially feeding hundreds of millions more people, American researchers said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2019

'America First' puts Syria last

The Syria departure may be even more damaging than past U.S. premature declarations of victory because Trump has no idea what he is doing.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 30, 2018

Celebrating New Year's the island way

On the small island where I live in the middle of Japan's Seto Inland Sea, new year celebrations are stalwart traditional. Preparations start a week before when the holiday spirit wafts in on sea breezes tinted with chilling temperatures. The island holds a community rice-pounding event to make kagami...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2018

The year in energy — moving backward

The ugly truth is that the emissions battle will be won or lost (and at present is being lost) thanks to the energy policies of China, India, the U.S. and Russia.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2018

China at the crossroads

Deng's refusal to truly liberalize China has imposed enduring costs on the country, which increasingly bends reality to the illusions that it propagates.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 28, 2018

Invest in education and save the economy

Giving birth to dynamic companies in Japan will require nothing but education that values and nurtures extraordinary individuality.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 28, 2018

From obese to starving, nutrition crisis prompts SOS call for new approach

With billions of people either starving or obese, poor diets have become a leading cause of disease and death, prompting calls for a new approach in 2019 to how food is produced to stem rising rates of malnutrition.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2018

The market swoon isn't all about Donald Trump

It is demonstrating, though, just how poorly he will probably react when faced with real adversity.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 26, 2018

For Nigel Farage and a Brexit pollster, a world of gamblers and gambling

Behind the luxury hotels lining London's Park Lane, just across from a service entrance, Nigel Farage stood outside a squat office building streaked with soot. Britain's famous anti-European Union campaigner was flanked by a couple of minor sports celebrities and two young women in matching dresses who...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2018

Nationalism doesn't have to be a dirty word

Like any political ideology, nationalism has many faces and some are beneficial and worthy of affirmation.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2018

Apocalypse Trump may be upon us

With no one left in President Donald Trump's Cabinet who can restrain him, Americans and their allies are staring into the abyss that has been looming since the 2016 election.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2018

China would do well to remember its friends

By taking all the credit for the country's stunning economic rise, the Communist Party is threatening its continued prosperity.
JAPAN / History / Defining the Heisei Era
Dec 22, 2018

Defining the Heisei Era: When communication in Japan went mobile

The launch of a pager known as the Pocket Bell marked the birth of texting and mobile communications in Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Dec 19, 2018

For me, 2018 was the year Japan began to listen

One day next year, and the year after that, someone will ask me in the course of a conversation why I decided to stay in Japan. I know this because it ranks among the top questions I'm asked — by Japanese and non-Japanese alike — since I arrived here back in 2004. And on the day I'm asked, my answer...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 18, 2018

Wondrous extinct flying pterosaurs sported rudimentary feathers, China fossil study reveals

A microscopic examination of fossils from China has revealed that the fur-like body covering of pterosaurs, the remarkable flying reptiles that lived alongside dinosaurs, was actually made up of rudimentary feathers.

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake