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WORLD
Aug 6, 2016

Thaw could release Cold War-era U.S. toxic waste buried under Greenland's ice

Global warming could release radioactive waste stored in an abandoned Cold War-era U.S. military camp deep under Greenland's ice caps, scientists said on Friday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / EARLY START
Aug 5, 2016

Start your morning with a serving of tradition at these breakfast joints

The Japanese breakfast provides a healthy start to the day. It's rich in vegetables — from both land and sea — often includes fermented foods such as miso soup and pickles, and is rounded out with rice and grilled seafood. Though, it hasn't always been this way.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2016

Australia's China policy adrift

Australia's joining with the U.S. and Japan to oppose China's efforts in the South China Sea has incurred the wrath of Beijing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 3, 2016

'High-Rise': J.C. Ballard adaptation topples on screen

In 1955, the city of St. Louis finished construction on the Pruitt-Igoe housing estate, designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki (who would later build New York City's Twin Towers). A raw-concrete sprawl of 33 tower blocks, it was meant to halt the spread of slums by building up, and to give residents parks,...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 2, 2016

Khizr Khan and the triumph of Democratic militarism

The Democrats turned Donald Trump's tactless words into a scandal, deflecting attention from the real issue: Hillary Clinton's support for the illegal war that killed Humayun Khan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 1, 2016

A Japanese guide to dealing with gentlemen callers and unruly dogs

Bookworms often have a rare jewel in their collection that they are unable to throw out — despite efforts to こんまり (Konmari, tidy in the method of Marie Kondo by getting rid of clutter) around the house. For me, this book is the 1965 エチケット事典 (Echiketto Jiten, Etiquette Dictionary)....
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Aug 1, 2016

Savvy campaign helped Koike's election as Tokyo's first female governor

Yuriko Koike's focus must turn now to how she can get along with the metropolitan assembly.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2016

Extravagant gamble of Rio's mayor

The Olympic Games could make or break the career of Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2016

If Clinton is likable, show it

If there is any way to bring out the private, likable Hillary Clinton before a larger, public audience, then her campaign needs to find it quick.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 31, 2016

Will 'Pokemon Go' power up Japan's 'Cool Economy'?

'Pokemon Go' may be a huge success, but without major structural reforms, Japan's creative economy won't take flight.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jul 30, 2016

Inky points of interest in Tabata

Under glowering clouds, I decide to explore the area around Tabata Station in Tokyo. Though recently renovated, the station is one of Tokyo's oldest depots, dating from 1896. The station offers nifty spots for watching shinkansen trains bullet by, but I take the north exit to find the Tabata Bunshi Mura...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 30, 2016

Sayaka Murata and the art of neutrality

When 36-year-old Sayaka Murata recently won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for literature, the media latched onto the author's background rather than the novel itself. Murata continues to work part-time as a convenience store clerk, and gains inspiration for characters and plots from her work environment....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 30, 2016

Bushido: Soseki, 'Star Wars' and the samurai

In September 1912, Gen. Maresuke Nogi — a hero of the Russo-Japanese War — committed ritual suicide. His sensational death took place on the day of Emperor Meiji's funeral, making it an act of junshi (following one's lord in death) and a high-water mark for the samurai code in the modern era.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 30, 2016

Russia has motive, capability for U.S. email hack but players remain unclear

The Kremlin says it had zero involvement in the hacking of the Democratic Party's email system while U.S. officials say the hack originated in Russia. We may never know who is right, but one thing is for sure — Russia had motive, capability and form.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Jul 29, 2016

July 30, 2016

Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 29, 2016

A brutal majority in Kashmir and elsewhere

The rise of a rabid majoritarianism is part of a larger rejection of politics based on reason and dialogue.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2016

How Trump could start a war with Russia

In his determination to 'make America great again,' Donald Trump should not turn away decisively from the things that have made America great in the past, including steady and unwavering support for its allies.
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2016

Tokyo court rules against conservative group suing Asahi over 'comfort women' articles

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday dismissed two lawsuits over articles published decades ago by the daily newspaper and retracted in 2014.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 27, 2016

'Trumpetings' mean trouble for Japan and Asia

The last thing this region needs is more tension and conflict, which is what would come with a Trump presidency.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Jul 27, 2016

What to expect when applying for college overseas

In a few weeks, my daughter, an American-Japanese dual national born, raised and mostly educated in Japanese in Japan, will begin her first year of higher learning at her dream school — Middlebury College, one of America's oldest liberal arts institutes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 27, 2016

'A Walk in the Woods': Trekking up the path to friendship

Everyone needs to go for a walk — if only to clear their minds and get their circulation going. Reese Witherspoon walked 1,610 kilometers on the Pacific Crest Trail in "Wild" because her character (real-life author Cheryl Strayed) needed to clean her head of the mess that had become her life. In "A...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2016

U.S. Democrats should learn from Scandinavia

Scandinavian-style social welfare could breathe new life into the fading American Dream.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 26, 2016

The Kabukiza's special August season of short plays looks set to be a scorcher

Kabuki never used to be performed in August at the Kabukiza Theatre in Tokyo, but in 1990 two of its late, great actors, Nakamura Kanzaburo XVIII and Bando Mitsugoro X, instigated the staging of short programs during that sweltering month to help expand the audience.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2016

Mirage of a rules-based order

As demonstrated by China's response to The Hague's South China Sea decision, international law is powerful against the powerless, but powerless against the powerful.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2016

Why the U.S. should move nukes out of Turkey

The U.S. should move its nuclear missiles in southern Turkey to more secure European locations.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 25, 2016

Imperial abdication talk poses question of Japan's next era

As the news reverberated throughout Japan earlier this month that Emperor Akihito intended to relinquish his throne while alive — in the first such move in about 200 years — the nation was struck by one of the biggest implications of his exit: the arrival of a new era.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 23, 2016

A dark age dawns for politics in Japan

"Historic," that much-overused word, seems almost acceptable as a description of the Upper House elections earlier this month that gave Japan — for the first time in its postwar history — a government strong enough to get serious about rewriting the Constitution.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 23, 2016

Bushido: The samurai code goes to war

In a scene from the 1957 film "The Bridge on the River Kwai," a haughty British Col. in a prisoner-of-war camp confronts the camp's Japanese commandant. Citing the Geneva Convention as justification, he argues that his officers should not be forced into manual labor, which makes the commandant furious...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years