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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 11, 2015

Victims seek redress for 'unparalleled massacre' of Tokyo air raid

Why has one of the deadliest wartime events in history never been properly memorialized in Japan?
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 30, 2014

Okinawa gubernatorial election kicks off with four candidates

The Okinawa gubernatorial race kicks off with four candidates in an election that could sink Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's political fortunes and strain military ties with the United States.
OLYMPICS / ROBERT WHITING'S 1964 OLYMPICS RETROSPECTIVE
Oct 24, 2014

Negative impact of 1964 Olympics profound

The 1964 Tokyo Olympics had a profound impact on the capital city and the nation. In the final installment of a five-part series running this month, best-selling author Robert Whiting, who lived in Japan at the time, focuses on the environmental and human impact that resulted from hosting the event....
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2014

Disaffected have their say, but will Westminster listen?

The dilemma for Britain's political leaders is how to build on the public engagement generated by Scotland's referendum without rushing into ill-conceived reforms that create more problems than they solve.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 10, 2014

New Cabinet ministers' pasts coming back to haunt Abe

One week after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reshuffled his Cabinet with an eye to the future, the past is coming back to haunt him: Revelations of controversial past statements and actions by his newly appointed ministers are drawing criticism abroad.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Aug 22, 2014

Polarizing Abe learns the long game

Shinzo Abe is one of Japan's most polarizing prime ministers in decades. He may also have a good shot at becoming that rarity in Japanese politics — a long-serving leader.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 1, 2014

Critics: What defines the conditions for military force?

Japan is at a historic crossroads in amending its long-held pacifist defense posture, a move that it may never reverse, and critics charge that the Abe administration's criteria for exercising the right to collective self-defense will prove ineffective.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jun 20, 2014

Confident LDP plays up victories as Diet session comes to a close

A confident Liberal Democratic Party trumpets its achievements as the 186th Diet session winds down as laying strong foundations for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's security and political goals.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 20, 2014

'Patriotic wives' few in number — but loud

One by one, women take the microphone near the crowded Hachiko crossing in Tokyo's Shibuya shopping district on a hot and humid weekday, denouncing the pacifist Constitution, blasting China's "recklessness" and mocking the South Korean flag.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2014

What UKIP's EU election win means for Britain's top parties

UKIP's gains in local and European elections were not a political mega-quake but rather the result of public anger with established parties the past decade over economic austerity, the Iraq war and the MPs' expenses scandal.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
May 29, 2014

Farmers find a new cash crop in solar power field

The campaign to boost renewable power supplies since the Fukushima nuclear disaster is producing some unlikely winners: vegetable farmers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Mar 28, 2014

TV personality Haruka Christine wants youth to get politically savvy

Regular viewers of Japanese TV may remember young Haruka Christine's first appearances on the variety-show circuit in early 2010, when she had her fellow entertainers and audiences in stitches.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2014

Old LDP nemesis rides comeback trail to Tokyo

Morihiro Hosokawa, the former prime minister who rocked and transformed Japanese politics in the early 1990s, is back, this time as a leading candidate for Tokyo governor, running as an anti-nuclear crusader seeking the abolishment of all atomic power plants.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 20, 2013

Nation set for rare political continuity

After cycling through seven prime ministers in seven years, the Upper House election is about to see the nation break free from its most vexing political pattern: instability.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2013

Tokyo panel mulls ways to enhance high school English education

A panel of experts kicked off discussions Thursday on measures to enhance English education at Tokyo's public high schools, aiming to enable students to acquire practical communications skills and become more global-oriented.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 4, 2013

A term for Abe's ilk? Well, nonliberal

Foreign media and overseas Japan experts largely use 19th- and 20th-century labels to describe Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and current Japanese politics led by his Liberal Democratic Party — "right-wing," "hawkish," "conservative" and "nationalist."
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 29, 2013

Abenomics vs. bad economics

The good news is that the Japanese economy and stocks are recovering. The bad news is that austerity hawks still view 'Abenomics' as a mere flash in the pan.
CULTURE / Books
May 12, 2013

The boys who built a bridge between Japan and Europe

One of the most sensational events of Japan's "Christian century" was the European trip of "the four boys," described some years ago by Michael Cooper in "The Japanese Mission to Europe" (2005). The sight of these gracious princelings in the Catholic courts of Italy, Spain and Portugal moved and astonished...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 7, 2013

Processing the bitter to a durable, beautiful form

KICKING THE BLACK MAMBA: Life, Alcohol and Death, by Robert Anthony Welch. Darton, Longman and Todd, 2012, 240 pp., £12.99 (paperback)
EDITORIALS
Mar 17, 2013

New pope faces challenging times

It is hoped that Pope Francis will be successful in restoring and strengthening trust in the Catholic Church by squarely addressing problems plaguing it.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 14, 2013

Vote-value disparity issue puts cloud over Abe's ambitions

With Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Cabinet enjoying astronomically high approval ratings compared with recent leaders, the prospects of his Liberal Democratic Party winning a critical Upper House election this summer look bright.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 15, 2013

'My film remixes "The Tempest" '

A Welshman who moved to Nagoya in 1988 and has been based in Japan ever since, John Williams is the rare foreigner who has worked in the Japanese film industry in not only the usual facilitator roles, as line producer and translator, but has also directed his own well-regarded films here. His first...
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2013

Naming slain captives raises privacy issues

The victims' right to privacy was pitted against the public's right to know as the media pressed for the names of the Algerian hostage crisis victims to be disclosed while the government and JGC Corp. remained tight-lipped, but Tokyo finally caved Friday, revealing the identities of the firm's 10 slain...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 13, 2013

Americanized Buddhism

ZEN QUESTIONS: Zazen, Dogen, and the Spirit of Creative Inquiry, by Taigen Dan Leighton. Wisdom Publications, 2011, 312 pp., $17.95 (paperback) These essays and Dharma talks are meant to guide practitioners of Soto Zen meditation. The author is in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, author of "Zen Mind,...

Longform

Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?