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JAPAN
Feb 28, 2013

Assemblyman's rebuke of moms seeking day care draws outrage

Mothers should remember that the responsibility of raising children lies first with each household before making "shameless" demands for more nursery schools, a Suginami Ward Assembly member wrote Feb. 21 in his blog, drawing hundreds of angry comments.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 28, 2013

The long arm of the antipiracy law

Captured half a world away, off the coast of Oman in the Indian Ocean, four Somalis are sent to Tokyo to stand trial for piracy after a failed attempt to hijack an oil tanker. Three have already been convicted by the Tokyo District Court.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 28, 2013

Possible human rights probe of North puts Seoul in bind

The U.N. human rights chief declared recently that it was time for a "long overdue" investigation into what she called unparalleled rights abuses in North Korea. The probe, unprecedented in scope, could help establish whether Pyongyang's leaders are committing crimes against humanity.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 21, 2013

Three murderers sent to the gallows

Three death-row inmates are hanged, in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, the first executions carried out under the new Liberal Democratic Party-led government.
EDITORIALS
Feb 14, 2013

Judo culture needs to change

Reverberations from the claims of violence in women's judo continue with the resignations of an All Japan Judo Federation board member and a coach.
Reader Mail
Feb 10, 2013

A homemade recipe for cruelty?

Ian Martin's Feb. 1 article, "AKB48 member's 'penance' shows flaws in idol culture," calls attention to Minami Minegishi, a member of the Japanese girl pop band AKB48. She violated the Golden Rule for idols by going out on a date. The video of her making a tearful apology after she had shaved her head...
Reader Mail
Feb 10, 2013

Crying won't clean the slate

The Feb. 1 article, "AKB48 idol begs for fans' mercy after breaking dating ban" states that Minami Minegishi willingly shaved her head to beg forgiveness for breaking one of the group's rules. AKB48 has a strict rule prohibiting relationships, but Minegishi was reported to have left an actor's house....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2013

The movie exposing the lies at the heart of U.S. capitalism

In one sense, "Inequality for All" is absolutely the film of the moment. We are living through tumultuous times. The economy has tanked. Austerity has cut a swath through our lives.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 7, 2013

Abe presses ahead on collective self-defense

Japanese corporate executives doing business with China as well as diplomats stationed in Japan and neighboring countries are probably breathing a sigh of relief now that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has dialed down his hawkish stance from the campaign trail in December and has instead focused on stimulus...
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Feb 3, 2013

Japan's suicide statistics don't tell the real story

According to the National Police Agency (NPA), Japan's annual total of suicides dipped below 30,000 people for the first time in 15 years in 2012 — to 27,766. While the fall is great news, part of me wonders: Has there really been a drop in suicides or should we look at it as a drop in homicides?
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 2, 2013

Government says all single parents not created equal

A single mother finds that she doesn't qualify for a tax exemption because she was never married.
WORLD
Jan 31, 2013

Israel first to boycott U.N. rights review

Israel on Tuesday became the first country to boycott a periodic review of its practices by the U.N. Human Rights Council, citing what it called the body's strong bias against it.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2013

Lawmaker looks at risks of populism

Shizuoka Prefecture should hold a referendum for its citizens to decide whether the Hamaoka nuclear power plant should be restarted, assembly member Takuya Abe said.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jan 28, 2013

Who'll govern the governor?

A high-ranking bureaucrat of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government had this to say about new Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose: "Although he served as vice governor, it is not known whether he has the necessary political finesse. I wonder if he is capable of moving metropolitan politics forward."
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 28, 2013

After nation's first black president, who's next?

President Barack Obama's historic election in 2008 and his re-election last year proved decisively that race is no longer an insurmountable hurdle to high political office in the U.S.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2013

Five myths about the next defense secretary

1. Chuck Hagel is anti-Israel.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Jan 14, 2013

Advising Abe on the wisdom of a nuclear restart

Readers offer some advice to the new prime minister on the contentious issue of nuclear power in post-3/11 Japan.
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Jan 13, 2013

Reform minister may target power monopolies

The government plans to set up a panel this month to review regulations that may be blocking industrial growth, especially in the fields of energy, environmental technology and medical care, said Tomomi Inada, state minister in charge of regulatory reform.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 3, 2013

Western influences on Suda's nostalgic East

The fusion of East and West is a major theme in 20th-century art, even though, in important ways, the two don't mix. What seems at one point to be their ostensible unification, appears in another as discordant. Such inconsonance lurks in the background at the retrospective of Kunitaro Suda's work at...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 23, 2012

Beware the nuclear village as it readies to rear-end docile Japan again

If you remember the Pinto, dear reader, then you may be as old as the hills — or at least as old as I am.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 17, 2012

For Tokyo, Osaka voters, election revolved around economy

The multitude of parties and issues on the table Sunday made it difficult for voters to make up their minds, according to those who spoke with The Japan Times on the streets of Tokyo and Osaka.
COMMENTARY
Dec 15, 2012

A turning point in East Asia

Political transitions in East Asia promise to mark a defining moment in the region's jittery geopolitics. After the ascension in China of Xi Jinping, regarded by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) as its own man, Japan seems set to swing to the right in its impending election — an outcome likely to...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Dec 15, 2012

'Face of election' Kawamura of Nagoya now the odd man out

After deciding not to run in this weekend's Lower House poll, Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura's status as the "face of the election" has faded and his frustration is clearly growing.

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