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WORLD
Aug 3, 2014

After defeating Kurds, Islamic State rebels seize Iraqi towns, oil field

Islamic State insurgents have captured two northern Iraqi towns and an oil field in their first major victory over Kurdish fighters, witnesses said Sunday.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Aug 1, 2014

After Iraqi army crumbles, Maliki turns to state TV for help

State television is working overtime to persuade Iraqis to help Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki confront an al-Qaida offshoot that has seized wide tracts of the country, but its unifying call has been blunted by his sectarian reputation.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 1, 2014

Skymark fears doom over Airbus A380 cancellation penalty

Skymark Airlines Inc., Japan's third-largest carrier, said it's at risk of going out of business should it have to pay Airbus Group NV a penalty after the planned purchase of six A380 superjumbos fell through.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 29, 2014

Russia will pay a steep price for Putin victories

Russians may not yet understand that they are going to have to pay for Vladimir Putin's confiscations and annexations, starting perhaps with the $50 billion that the Permanent Court of Arbitration has just ordered Russia to pay to shareholders of the dismantled oil company Yukos.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2014

Putin might have just killed Russia's brand

Has the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 put Russia on its way to taking on the Soviet Union's one-time status as an object of fear and hatred?
WORLD
Jul 25, 2014

Wreckage of missing Algerian airliner found in Mali

The wreckage of an Air Algerie plane missing since early Thursday with 116 people on board has been found in Mali near the Burkina Faso border, an army coordinator in Burkina Faso and the French presidency said.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 25, 2014

Islamic State crushes, coerces opposition

Using its own version of soft and hard power, the Islamic State is crushing resistance across northern Iraq so successfully that its promise to march on Baghdad may no longer be unrealistic bravado.
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Jul 24, 2014

Rise and shine to tai chi at Roppongi Hills

Tokyo's night-life area of Roppongi is probably one of the last places you would expect to find people exercising early in the morning, but on weekends from July 26 to Aug. 10, the Roppongi Hills shopping complex welcomes anyone, whether they are hungover or not, to free T'ai Chi sessions.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 23, 2014

Attila Marcel

French animation director Sylvain Chomet debuted in 2003 with "The Triplets of Belleville," a five-course meal of a film, rich with a surreal visual style and Gallic wit, and followed it up with "The Illusionist," a gorgeous adaptation of a Jacques Tati film. Now Chomet brings us the whimsical "Attila...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2014

Geopolitics trumps economics

Western countries' insensitivity toward others' voices, values and interests lies behind the creation and evolution of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), whose New Development Bank will give priority to loans for developing countries to finance infrastructure projects and industrialization.
LIFE / Travel / TRAVEL INSIDER
Jul 22, 2014

Cathay grabs record win; easier connections; Air India joins alliance

Cathay grabs record win
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jul 20, 2014

Malaysia Airlines may face global legal claims

Malaysia Airlines may need to convince judges from several countries that it was not negligent to send a plane over war-torn eastern Ukraine if the airline hopes to avoid an outsize legal exposure for the downing of Flight MH17, aviation lawyers said.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2014

World needs to right Israel's wrongs

The Israeli bombardment of the Palestinians has proven a policy failure, demonstrated by the Israeli government's resumption of bombing. The Israelis tried to give up, but failed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 16, 2014

The man who lives for the art of dying

Interviewing Seizo Fukumoto, the star of Ken Ochiai's backstage drama "Uzumasa Limelight," I wished I had brought a video camera, instead of my voice recorder and notepad. As he talks, this veteran kirare-yaku — an actor whose forte is being cut down with a sword in jidaigeki (samurai period dramas)...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 16, 2014

Suitcase 'Macbeth' packs a punch

Cultures collide on the small square stage of Mansai Nomura's pared-down "Macbeth," in which the actor/director draws on the restrained aesthetics of noh and the agility and wit of kyōgen traditional comic theater as he transplants his version of Shakespeare's blood-soaked Scottish play to medieval...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health / FOCUS
Jul 16, 2014

Chinese town trades lead poison test results for milk

After a test showed farmer Zhao Heping's toddler grandson had high levels of lead in his blood two years ago, local officials in China's Hunan province offered the child medicine, he says — and milk. In return, Zhao says, officials asked that he hand over his grandson's blood test results.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 15, 2014

Abe looking at permanent law allowing dispatch of SDF overseas

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration will consider creating a permanent law allowing dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces overseas, a comment that could lead to a further rift between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, New Komeito.
EDITORIALS
Jul 14, 2014

South Sudan self-destructing

The major importers of oil from South Sudan — including the U.S. and China — should help the youngest country on the African continent achieve a national reconciliation, to pre-empt a full-blown civil war.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2014

Polio's comeback laid to immunization ruses

Owing to spurious immunization programs for political purposes, people in several countries are rejecting immunization against polio, a disease that by now should have been a fact of history.
BASKETBALL
Jul 11, 2014

Retired Shiga Lakestars big man Gomez begins new career in coaching

Veteran forward Dionisio Gomez announced his retirement last week, ending a pro basketball career that began in 2003 in the USBL.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 11, 2014

Germany's triumph in Brazil was no surprise

Everything about the 7-1 German victory over Brazil in a World Cup semifinal was logical and even overdue. The entire German soccer system has been working toward this moment since 2001.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 9, 2014

Lessons of suicidal Cowra breakout remain unlearned

At around 2 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 5, 1944, 1,104 Japanese soldiers and sailors armed only with knives, forks and a few baseball bats poured out of their huts at the Cowra prisoner-of-war camp 300 km west of Sydney in the Australian state of New South Wales. Charging through a hail of machine-gun fire,...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 9, 2014

Yokohama hosts its largest dance festival

Dance in Japan has a long, rich history, dating back to ancient times when it was used as a form of prayer to the gods. Celebrating that varied background, Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse is this Sunday hosting what it boasts is one of Japan's largest dance events — the first Yokohama Dance Festival....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 8, 2014

Daymare puts its bands through a hardcore filter for Leave Them All Behind event

"There are people who like aggressive music the way they like sports, but I think 'hardcore' is about being self-aware of what you're doing, about how to create your own space," says Tadashi Hamada, manager of independent music label Daymare Recordings. "That's my first requirement for bands. So hardcore...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2014

Whitewashing the Iraq war

As Iraq stands on the verge of a complete breakdown into sectarian states, a former leading Iraq war advocate is popping up in the U.S. media, and he's in no mood to accept any responsibility for the protracted tragedy.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2014

Shevardnadze's lessons for the West

Eduard Shevardnadze, the former Soviet foreign minister and Georgian president who died Monday at 86, was not an effective leader, but if Western leaders had paid closer attention to what he said when he was alive, they would have been better prepared for today's crisis in Ukraine.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Jul 7, 2014

BayStars' Gourriel could be in line for rare honor

The Yokohama BayStars don't look like they're going to do much winning this season. The team can, however, be associated with at least one historic victory at the conclusion of the season.

Longform

Ayumi Matsuki, a priestess at Yoshiwara Shrine, shows off some "o-mamori" charms. She says visitors to the shrine have increased since the NHK drama “Unbound” began airing this month.
Tracing Tsutaya Juzaburo, Edo’s media maverick