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BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 26, 2013

Abe begins collecting feedback on tax hike before decision

A government panel kicked off a seven-day discussion Monday on whether the sales tax should be hiked next April amid concerns it could derail Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's radical efforts to end decades of deflation.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2013

Chinese democracy gets help

Despite the 'Great Firewall,' that requires anti-block software to cross, the Internet has already facilitated a certain level of democratic development in China.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2013

Reform plan no remedy for health care

Japan has been resorting to patchwork reforms over the past decade to prevent the health care system from collapsing as a rapidly graying society demands more funds from an ever-shrinking pool of tax revenue.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 22, 2013

Aichi Triennale's best works deal with disaster

Since the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, a lot of art here has dealt with disaster. Not all the pieces in the second installment of the Aichi Triennale are on this theme — but the best ones are.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Aug 19, 2013

The world's a stage, but you don't have to play along

On the night of April 18, three days after the Boston Marathon bombing, a side-drama to that story unfolded between three men as they criss-crossed the city, a performance staged partly in the theater of culture.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 18, 2013

A drone of your own in the near future?

Kevin Good thought there was an 80 percent chance he could successfully deliver his brother's wedding rings with a drone.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Aug 13, 2013

Otakon celebrates 20 years of anime fandom in the U.S.

The American anime convention, Otakon ("Otaku Convention"), begins with a costume parade before it officially opens. Last week I had a bird's-eye view of the spectacle from my 14th-floor hotel room in Baltimore, Maryland. An endless army of imaginary characters trudged across the elevated concourse and...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Aug 5, 2013

Ol' blue eyes isn't back: Tsurunen's tale offers lessons in microcosm for DPJ

Spare a thought for Marutei Tsurunen, Japan's first European-born naturalized immigrant parliamentarian, who was voted out in last month's House of Councilors election.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Aug 4, 2013

NSA leaks allow Wyden chance at privacy debate

It was one of the strangest personal crusades on Capitol Hill: For years, Sen. Ron Wyden said he was worried that intelligence agencies were violating Americans' privacy.
EDITORIALS
Aug 3, 2013

Mr. Aso embarrasses Japan again

Remarks like those of Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso indicating that Nazis knew how to revise a sticky constitution risk creating a weird international image for Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2013

New America-Japan Society chief looks to expand

It has a well-recognized name and more than a century of history. Many prominent figures from Japan and the United States have been involved in its efforts to nurture friendly ties between the two nations.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2013

Southern Thai separatists touch trust milestone

Peace talks between the Thai government and Muslim separatist groups have reached a milestone as both sides discussed ways to rebuild mutual trust.
Reader Mail
Jul 24, 2013

Myth of the 'virtuous' worker

Professor Dipak Basu is a shining example of someone who expresses his views on a variety of topics seemingly from his soul, and I respect him for that. He brings his faith into his arguments while casting the odd aspersion on "Western Christianity." He does so again in his July 18 letter, "Western work...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2013

Streets worldwide showing the failings of democracy

Historians examining our era will marvel at the proliferation of street protests defining the appeal of political community in old and new democracies.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2013

Indonesia's cautious confidence

How does Indonesia leverage its newly acquired strength to confront the challenges facing it and its regional partners, while avoiding foreign policy recklessness
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WEEK 3
Jul 20, 2013

On the trail of bear hunters' heritage

Takashi Yoshikawa is no easy man to figure out. Trim and well tanned, the 63-year-old owns a small ryokan (traditional inn) nestled in the foothills of the beautiful Shirakami Mountains which straddle 130,000 hectares of Aomori and Akita prefectures, and whose 17,000 hectares of beech forests were listed...
Reader Mail
Jul 17, 2013

Western work ethic is wanting

In his July 11 letter, "Abnormal way to run a workday," Grant Piper raises a philosophical doctrine that is very Western: We live not to work, but we work to live. Indeed, this supports the utilitarian theories of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, two British philosophers of capitalism who promoted...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2013

Of spies and whistleblowers

Edward Snowden, a former contractor to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, has been trapped in the transit lounge of Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow for the past two weeks, while the United States government strives mightily to get him back in its clutches. Recently it even arranged for the plane flying...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 14, 2013

Somali-American is caught up in U.S. counterpropaganda campaign

Two days after he became a U.S. citizen, Abdiwali Warsame embraced the First Amendment by creating a raucous website about his native Somalia. Packed with news and controversial opinions, it rapidly became a magnet for Somalis dispersed around the world, including tens of thousands in Minnesota.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 3, 2013

Fed approves rules requiring banks to set aside more capital

The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday ordered banks to set aside more capital as a cushion against losses, bringing the United States in line with developing international standards and opening the door for a set of tougher rules for the nation's biggest financial institutions.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jul 2, 2013

The LDP constitution, article by article: a preview of things to come?

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing for constitutional change. Yet he is playing the political huckster by proposing to first only fiddle with the amendment procedure in Article 96, lowering the threshold for the process to move forward from the approval of two-thirds of both houses of the Diet, as...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2013

Understanding China's maritime aspirations

China's declaration that it wants to be a sea power and focus on this interest is not sudden. China has long dreamed of becoming a 'maritime civilization.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 30, 2013

Charting U.S. decline, without anger

One of the odd things about American news programs is how little American news they feature. Typhoons and hurricanes, crazies and lone gunmen, Barack Obama staging a press conference, 10 seconds about the Middle East, a famous actor doing something scandalous, back to the weather: All this giddy fragmentation...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
Jun 26, 2013

Drumming helps those with dementia reconnect

Standing in a room full of lined faces, Alan Yellowitz held up an orange drum shaped like a wineglass. "This one's called a djembe," he said. "It's from Ghana."
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 26, 2013

A mother helps son in his struggle with schizophrenia

The mother drives her son everywhere because he is not well enough to drive. He sits next to her, and at the red lights she looks over and studies him: how quiet he is, how stiffly he sits, hands in his lap, fingers fidgeting slightly, a tic that occasionally blooms into a full fluttering motion he makes...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2013

Rowhani victory buys time for Iran

Hassan Rowhani's presidential election win has exposed a rift among Iran's democratic forces, yet has bought Tehran time on the nuclear issue.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 23, 2013

NHK discusses gender with a fresh openness

Two weeks ago, the nightly series "Heart Net TV," which is broadcast on NHK's educational channel, repeated a program about a 35-year-old Japanese man who married a 70-year-old Dutch man in the Netherlands. The series dedicates several programs a month to sexual minorities, and there was a sidelight...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 22, 2013

Old school potter goes native in the wilds of southeast Okinawa

It took a devil of a time before finally managing to locate the home of potter Paul Lorimer, the building tucked into a rural lane on the fringes of the Sashiki community on Okinawa Island's southeast coast.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat