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COMMENTARY / World
Jul 11, 2016

The roots of mistrust in Middle East societies

Reviving Islamic law would only deepen a trust deficit that is a key source of the Middle East's current economic underdevelopment and political failures.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Jul 10, 2016

Japan's discriminatory koseki registry system looks ever more outdated

Once part of a panopticon-like system in which everyone would feel that they were being monitored but could also participate in the monitoring process, the kosei is now showing its age.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 9, 2016

Cracks are appearing in Japan's 'healthy' image

Few people snack on baby carrots. Most prefer the sweet, fat, high-calorie fare colloquially known as junk food.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2016

Controlling Islamist terror

Unless concerted efforts are made to fight the ideology of jihad and drain the terrorism-breeding swamps, liberal, pluralistic states could come under siege.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2016

Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s humble nobility

Elie Wiesel set himself just one task: to become the cenotaph of his countless mates in the death camps.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2016

The sobering evidence of social science

Social science cannot tell us what to do, but it can tell us the results of what we are doing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 6, 2016

'Brooklyn': Romance is not dead, it's just dull

Given its title, you'd be forgiven for thinking that "Brooklyn" was a movie about lumbersexual hipsters, all named Zach, opening a single-origin, gluten-free artisanal mac-and-cheese shop in Fort Point, and the zany complications that arise when they realize two bathrooms are inadequate to serve the...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jul 5, 2016

Durant's decision based on best chance to win titles

Jerry West may have done it again.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2016

U.K. referendum: Just when should the majority rule?

The Brexit referendum has raised a question for many people on the losing side: How democratic do we want to be?
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2016

Clinton beating Sanders by hook and by crook

Caucus after caucus, primary after primary, the Clinton team robbed Bernie Sanders of votes that were rightfully his.
WORLD / Society
Jul 4, 2016

Some 20% of Western Australian Aboriginal kids have no birth record

Nearly 1 in 5 Aboriginal children born in Western Australia has no birth documents with most unregistered children born to teenage mothers and facing further social disadvantage later in life, research showed on Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 3, 2016

Why oil is still headed as low as $10 a barrel

The world is awash in crude, and the once-feared OPEC is pretty much finished as an effective price enforcer.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 2, 2016

Black Illumination: Zen and the poetry of death

On a winter morning in 1360, Zen master Kozan Ichikyo gathered together his pupils. Kozan, 77, told them that, upon his death, they should bury his body, perform no ceremony and hold no services in his memory. Sitting in the traditional Zen posture, he then wrote the following:
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Jul 2, 2016

Karuizawa murder; Tokyo subways vital; Beatles live at the Budokan; 'Satanic Verses' translator slain

100 YEARS AGO
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2016

'Citizens of the world'? Nice thought, but wrong

Nationalism and place still matter, and the West's elites forget this at their peril.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2016

No need to rush out of EU

Slowing down the Brexit process would maximize Britain's leverage in its negotiations with the EU.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2016

For U.K., Brexit is just the latest ugly partition

More than a few countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa have scars to show from Britain's long and haphazard withdrawal from its onetime empire.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 30, 2016

Amazon biodiversity at risk despite Brazil's forest protection law, study finds

Selective logging, road building and fires are threatening biodiversity in Brazil's Amazon despite a requirement that rural landowners maintain at least 80 percent of their forest cover in the world's largest rain forest, researchers said on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 28, 2016

Post-Brexit, Japan redefines idea of safe havens

Risk-averse investors who flocked to the yen in the aftermath of Brexit may want to consider a safer haven.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 28, 2016

Erdogan needs like-minded Putin

What's a mere apology between two dictators who can do a lot to prop each other up?
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 28, 2016

China's dog meat festival suggests larger problem

China's dog meat trade offers a vivid example of why the country's food supply problems are so persistent.
EDITORIALS
Jun 27, 2016

Britain, an island again

At their root, the forces behind Brexit are fears of loss — of autonomy and opportunity.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2016

Mass shootings are America's new normal

Congress's failure to act over the last 12 years has transformed the U.S. into a nation awash in military hardware.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2016

Which country wins the most from Brexit? China

A fractured EU will be less able to serve as a check to Beijing's growing challenge to the West's cherished institutions and ideals.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2016

Who's winning the Middle East's Cold War?

Iran and Russia can never be more than foothold powers in the Arab world, where Sunni Muslims make up 90 percent of the population.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 25, 2016

Can foreign media pressure force changes in Japan?

Former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara's first-person "biography" of late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, "Tensai" ("Genius"), remains atop best-seller lists. It is interesting to note that when Tanaka was alive Ishihara berated him as a crude opportunist. The years have obviously tempered his view, or perhaps...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 25, 2016

A confused, senile future awaits Japan

Confucius said: "When your parents are alive, serve them according to ritual. When they die, bury them according to ritual, make sacrifices to them according to ritual."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 25, 2016

'The Company and the Shogun': A different side to the Dutch East India Co.

"The Company and the Shogun" is an absorbing book about the relationship between Dutch traders in Japan and the Tokugawa Shogunate during the 17th century. Rather than providing an overview of the period, author Adam Clulow focuses on a handful of flashpoints where the Dutch East India Co. (VOC) and...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 25, 2016

With all else failing, give rate hikes a try

In most walks of life, if what you're doing isn't working, you should try something else. In central banking, however, the strategy has been to do more of what isn't working.

Longform

It's back to the classroom for some residents as municipal governments across the country conduct lessons to learn how to use new technologies.
Can aging Japan go digital without leaving anyone behind?