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Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 13, 2022

U.S. battles Putin by disclosing his next possible moves

Declassified information is part of a campaign to complicate what officials say are Russia's plans to invade Ukraine.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 19, 2021

Hidden Pentagon records reveal patterns of failure in deadly U.S. airstrikes

A trove of documents lays bare how the U.S. air war has been marked by deeply flawed intelligence, rushed and often imprecise targeting and the deaths of thousands of civilians.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2020

Strength in numbers: A more open approach to tracking the virus in Japan

Like many foreign residents of Japan during the early days of the country's COVID-19 outbreak, Shane Reustle and Jiahui Zhou recall poring over websites run by the health ministry and local municipalities to try to get a clear picture of how infections were spreading in the world’s third-largest economy....
EDITORIALS
Jul 31, 2014

Privacy rights and 'big data'

The government is moving to expedite the use of massive amounts of personal data — collected online or otherwise from a variety of sources — for commercial purposes on condition that the data is processed to ensure anonymity of the information.
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Nov 24, 2013

Secrets bill raises fears among nuclear foes

In late 2005, U.S. government officials, invited by Japan, observed a counterterrorism drill at the Mihama nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture and came away worried about the security situation at the complex.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 14, 2012

Check with school, kids before posting videos of children online

Reader A writes: "I'm a junior high and elementary school teacher, and I was wondering if you'd published any articles outlining the law regarding privacy policy and children in Japan?
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2012

Will 3/11 prove social media watershed?

Massive disasters that claim thousands of lives and change communities forever sometimes also spur the development of radical new technologies, or new ways of applying existing techniques, that otherwise may have occurred more slowly, if at all.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WEEK 3
Aug 21, 2011

Three Mile Island's lessons for Japan

In the early hours of March 28, 1979, human errors and mechanical failures combined to cause a cooling system to stop working at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. One of the station's two nuclear cores overheated, thrusting the plant into a crisis that would...
Although intelligence agencies are engaging more with the public than they used to, spy-themed entertainment is still the primary source of education about espionage.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2024

James Bond and Jason Bourne ruined spies for all of us

The average person knows deep down that what they see in the movies and on TV isn’t the same as reality, but they don’t know how or how much.
A giant screen shows Chinese leader Xi Jinping next to a flag of the Communist Party of China, at the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution in Beijing in October 2022.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 21, 2024

Xi orders China’s biggest military reorganization since 2015

China will terminate the Strategic Support Force, which was created to enhance capabilities in space, cyber, political and electronic warfare.
TikTok raised eyebrows last month when it mobilized users to petition against a potential ban, demonstrating its influence on Americans.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 30, 2024

TikTok and Tesla just the start of U.S.-China clash over Big Data

Data security is again taking center stage in the intensifying rivalry between the U.S. and China.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visits a child care support facility in Hiezu, Tottori Prefecture, in July.
JAPAN / Society
May 12, 2024

Government plans nationwide database to enhance child care support

Child care support measures and ways to apply for them differ according to each municipality.
Displaced Palestinian children stand at a school as they wait to flee Rafah after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of the southern Gaza city, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
May 15, 2024

How many of Gaza’s dead are women and children? For 10,000, it’s unclear.

The absence of personal details needed to ascertain their identities leads to their exclusion from the breakdown now being cited by the U.N.
Lamposts and other signs throughout Hirogawa, Wakayama Prefecture, display warnings, evacuation routes and measurements of height above sea level. The town has been hit by eight tsunami in its recorded history.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / OUR PLANET
Jul 21, 2024

Why Japanese researchers are looking to submarine cables for faster tsunami warnings

While Japan boasts one of the world's most sophisticated earthquake and tsunami detection systems, gaps still remain.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi (right) during a meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 24, 2024

Why Japan's mysterious stash of classified funds escapes scrutiny

The funds can be used by the chief cabinet secretary with no explanation needed, fueling speculation of widespread misappropriation.
A public safety officer wipes away sweat in Times Square during high temperatures in New York on June 20.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 31, 2024

This is how we know when the world has its hottest day

These conclusions rely on a near real-time picture of the Earth’s climate for roughly every 30-square-kilometer chunk of the planet’s surface.
A tsunami advisory, shown in yellow, was issued following an earthquake in Kyushu on Tuesday afternoon.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2024

Tsunami advisory lifted after strong quake jolts Kyushu

The 7.1 magnitude quake, measuring a weak 7 on Japan's intensity scale, triggered small tsunami waves in some areas.
Health minister Keizo Takemi fields questions from reporters in March after a Cabinet meeting to deal with health problems caused by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical's beni kōji red yeast rice supplements.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 14, 2024

Health Minister Keizo Takemi on how to improve Japan's health care system

Digitalization, hiring high-skilled foreign workers and increasing wages are among the steps that Japan could take.
A banner honoring the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is displayed on a street in Tehran on Sunday.
WORLD
Sep 29, 2024

As Hezbollah threat loomed, Israel built up its spy agencies

Israel has spent the years since bolstering what was already considered one of the world’s best intelligence-gathering operations.
A damaged road in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 6, after a major earthquake struck the area on New Year's Day
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / OUR PLANET
Oct 6, 2024

Important tool or alarmism? Japan experts split on megaquake advisories.

Supporters say the advisories are about reducing risk, but critics see a system that isn’t based on science and one in which the cons outweigh the pros.
A woman mounts a flag to a stack of cinderblocks in the aftermath of flooding from Hurricane Helene in Swannanoa, North Carolina, on Oct. 6.
WORLD / Society
Oct 31, 2024

Misinformation is turning American disasters into toxic battlegrounds

Deep political polarization, weakened trust in institutions and a lack of content moderation on social media allow false claims to flourish.
A member of the U.S. National Guard patrols on top of shipping containers along the Rio Grande, in Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, on March 19.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 19, 2024

Surveillance technology could supercharge Trump's plans, rights groups say

Trump could use surveillance systems and artificial intelligence as part of his plans to carry out mass deportations and more.
Members of the Ground Self-Defense Force take part in a joint military drill involving Japan, the United States, Britain and Australia at Narashino exercise field in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, in January 2023.
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2024

Japan hosts Five Eyes group meeting for first time

The move highlights the growing cooperation between Tokyo and its allies amid shared concerns about a rapidly deteriorating security environment.
Kim Seongmin, president of Free North Korea Radio, edits content for the station at his home on Ganghwa Island, west of Seoul, on Nov. 21. Kim has cancer and was recently told that he has months to live.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 3, 2024

A North Korean voice that Kim Jong Un would like to silence

North Korean defectors have been infiltrating the North with outside media for two decades, through balloons floated across the border or radio broadcasts.
World Anti-Doping Agency Director-General Olivier Niggli speaks during the agency's symposium in Lausanne, Switzerland, in March.
OLYMPICS
Dec 4, 2024

Anti-doping agency froze out investigators who warned about China

The decision by WADA’s leaders to keep its own investigators in the dark raises new questions about WADA's response to possible doping by Chinese athletes.
"Agent" technology goes further than chatbots, not just performing parlor tricks and spitting out plausible responses to queries but actually doing the kinds of repetitive tasks that today are handled by millions of humans.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 14, 2024

Big Tech's new AI obsession: 'Agents' that do your work for you

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman calls agents "the next giant breakthrough," while Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says the shift "is really the rise of digital labor.”
Police seek information from the public on a high-profile murder case, in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, on Saturday
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 14, 2024

Tokyo police seek public's help on Setagaya family murder 24 years ago

In the high-profile homicide case, a couple and their two children were killed at their home in the ward's Kamisoshigaya district in December 2000.
International students and others participate in a disaster preparedness drill in Osaka City, where disaster information was conveyed in foreign languages.
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2024

Noto quake inspires more focus on getting disaster info to non-Japanese

The earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula on Jan. 1 highlighted the need to help foreign nationals who do not speak Japanese be more informed.
Demonstrators inside the U.S. Capitol after breaching barricades on Jan. 6, 2021
WORLD / Society
Jan 8, 2025

Violent extremism lingers online with U.S. flagging less content

Donald Trump’s return to the White House promises to cement the hands-off approach toward online behavior.
Japan’s ski resorts are popular with tourists and knowing some basic Japanese will help you navigate the slopes a lot easier.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 9, 2025

Japanese ski vocabulary: Hit the books before you hit the slopes

Knowing some basic terms will help you graduate from that linguistic bunny slope in no time.

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake