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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2013

Dear Dennis Rodman: consider a few facts of life

An escaped political prisoner from North Korea asks retired American basketball player Dennis Rodman to use his friendship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to help Kim understand that he has the power to rebuild the country's economy so that everyone can afford to eat.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2013

'Crossing' Beijing has lasting consequences

The sad irony is that, since the early 1990s, people like Liu Binyan, Su Xiaokang, Chen Yizi, Su Shaozhi and others who know the elite communist culture well, who have lived in the United States and remain willing to cross the dangerous line into complete truth-telling, have never had much of a hearing in Washington.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 22, 2013

Danish PM's 'selfie' snapshot of her credibility crisis

When Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt took a "selfie" on her smartphone on Dec. 14 — like millions of people do every day — she doubtless had little idea of the commotion that would ensue. In the photograph, taken at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela, the most admired political...
BASKETBALL
Dec 21, 2013

FIBA warns JBA about problems

FIBA secretary general Patrick Baumann has advised the Japan Basketball Association to resolve issues that exist inside the nation's basketball circles or face greater problems in the future, according to Japanese media reports.
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Dec 20, 2013

Odds on Ando making Olympic team for Sochi very long

"Do you believe in miracles?"
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 20, 2013

Putin to pardon tycoon Khodorkovsky ahead of Olympics

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he intends to pardon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, his country's most famous political prisoner, in a broad amnesty that comes just weeks before the opening of the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Dec 19, 2013

Rift growing between allies

The gut feeling of American military leaderes is that if only to prevent war between the U.S. and China, they don't want Japan's Self-Defense Forces to possess offensive-strike capabilities.
COMMUNITY / Issues
Dec 18, 2013

A secrets law for whom? Look who gets a free pass

Ancient Confucian scholars regarded law as a necessary evil, something used on lower orders of people who lacked the moral refinement to act righteously without prompting. Yet this just states a basic truth about law: It is something we do to other people. You and I know how to act properly, right? It's...
WORLD
Dec 15, 2013

Family turmoil puts legacy at risk of being besmirched

When Nelson Mandela is finally laid to rest, it will be on the same windswept hillside in Qunu, his childhood village in South Africa's Eastern Cape, where three of his children already lie.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2013

Curbing Tehran's ambitions

A sober second look at the deal on Iran's nuclear program signed in Geneva on Nov. 24 suggests that it is neither a historic breakthrough nor a historic mistake. It is welcome, though, because it suspends Iran's march toward weapons and the West's march to another war.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 13, 2013

Ex-FBI agent who disappeared in Iran was on rogue mission for CIA

An American man who disappeared in Iran more than six years ago had been working for the CIA in what U.S. intelligence officials describe as a rogue operation that led to a major shake-up in the spy agency.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 12, 2013

'Seki Seki Ren Ren (Deep Red Love)'

Japan's suicide rate is nearly twice that of the U.S. and three times that of the U.K., with the number of people taking their own lives each year only recently dipping below 30,000. It is also the leading cause of death among Japanese in their teens and 20s. Why this should be so in a society so orderly,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 11, 2013

Japanese makers play catch-up in smartphone market

In 2013, Japan's smartphone industry faced the shocking news that NEC Corp. and Panasonic Corp. were withdrawing from making those handsets for consumers.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Dec 11, 2013

Jones, Shimizu helping to keep Oita in contention early

The Oita HeatDevils were 7-1 to open the 2012-13 season before the team's financial crisis broke up the nucleus of the roster, sending Matt Lottich, Wendell White, Taj Finger, Cyrus Tate, Kazuya "J." Hatano and Naoto Takushi packing as massive cost-cutting measures took place and new players arrived....
LIFE / Digital
Dec 10, 2013

Startups now have it easy thanks to 'incubators.'

One of my favourite books is John Kenneth Galbraith's "The Great Crash, 1929," which, with John Maynard Keynes' "The Economic Consequences of the Peace," is a great example of how an expert can write elegantly about something that is intrinsically complex. Galbraith wrote the (short) book as a diversion...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Dec 9, 2013

Korean volunteers put the K into kizuna

One volunteer group, based at Tokyo's Meiji University, is called Kizuna International; the other, at Kyoto University, is Kizuna From Kyoto. The coincidences do not end there: Both groups' leaders share the same surname and both are ethnic Koreans.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 7, 2013

Inequality threatens Mandela legacy

Nelson Mandela emerged from 27 years in apartheid jails in 1990 pledging to seize South Africa's mines and banks. Four years later, his government slashed spending and courted foreign investors, paving the way for the longest period of growth in the country's history.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Dec 7, 2013

Akita making run for title

The stars have aligned for a special basketball season in Akita.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 6, 2013

Right renews its war on democracy in Thailand

In most democracies, government spending on free health care and anti-poverty programs would be seen as part of the normal political process, but in Thailand, it is regarded by many rich opponents of the current 'Thaksin' administration as a form of bribery.
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Dec 6, 2013

Marinos, Sanfrecce to play starring roles in season's final act

The J. League title race has gone down to the wire in all but two seasons since the single-league format was introduced in 2005, so it should come as no surprise that the destination of the trophy is still undecided going into the final day of the 2013 campaign.
WORLD
Dec 6, 2013

Nelson Mandela, ex-president of South Africa, dead at 95

Nelson Mandela, the former political prisoner who became the first president of a post-apartheid South Africa and whose heroic life and towering moral stature made him one of history's most influential statesmen, died Dec. 5, the government announced. He was 95.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2013

Silent cinema takes a Grimm turn in 'Blancanieves'

A wise man once told me that however original and unique you may think your great new idea is, you'd better act on it quickly, because somewhere in the world someone else is having the exact same idea at the exact same time.

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?