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BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Feb 17, 2015

Jordan blocked out coaching soap opera involving Collins, Jackson

This is the seventh installment from Hall of Fame writer Sam Smith's new book "There Is No Next: NBA Legends on the Legacy of Michael Jordan."
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 17, 2015

Japan needs a strong intellect that doesn't yield to terrorism

The murder of two Japanese citizens by Islamic State terrorists shouldn't be used as an excuse to eliminate the Constitution's restraints on the use of military force.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2015

Why Germany's growth beat expectations

Germany's unexpectly strong economic growth suggests that it was right to focus on economic competitiveness rather than fiscal stimulus.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2015

Grand theft, by U.S. law enforcement agencies

Dubious asset foreiture programs have become big business for U.S. law enforcement agencies.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2015

Great War cost Europe a century

There was absolutely nothing noble about U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's intervention in Europe during the carnage of 1917. It led to a peace of vengeful victors, triumphant nationalists and avaricious imperialists — when the war would have otherwise ended in a bedraggled peace of mutually exhausted bankruptcies and discredited war parties.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2015

Your toothpaste is destroying Asia's rainforests

You probably had some palm oil today, which is found in roughly half of the products sold in modern supermarkets. It is the cause of one of the world's biggest environmental catastrophes, the decimation of Southeast Asia's rainforests.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 14, 2015

The economics book everyone is talking about, but has anyone read it?

French economist Thomas Piketty's "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" was the surprise bestseller of 2014 in the United States, and it has also become a hit in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2015

Presidential politics: all personality, no platform

Hillary Clinton may have everything she needs to run for U.S. president in 2016: money, name recognition, staff, organization — everything except ideas at the moment.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2015

Ukraine: first arms, then what?

If the U.S. commits itself to sending arms to Ukraine, it will be signing up for more than military aid. Arms shipments alone are almost never enough to enable a weaker actor to defeat a big-time power.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2015

The U.S.-India nuclear breakthrough that wasn't

Nuclear power faces an uncertain future, with few new reactors under construction in the West. Yet India has continued to place the nuclear deal at the hub of its relationship with America.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / TYSON-DOUGLAS SHOCKER REVISITED
Feb 10, 2015

Douglas reflects on Tyson fight 25 years later

The youngest heavyweight champion in history, making his 10th title defense, entered the fight with a 37-0 record and had never been knocked down during his pro career; Douglas was the 42-1 underdog. Tyson's reign ended 28 minutes, 22 seconds into the fight, at precisely 1:22 into the 10th round.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2015

Ukrainians would be wise to heed Georgia's war lessons

Many people in Kiev worry that if Ukraine makes a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he will meddle in domestic affairs to an extent that will make meaningful reforms impossible. But Putin hasn't done that in Georgia since the 2008 war.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2015

Next U.N. secretary general

With Ban Ki-moon's second term as U.N. secretary general ending Dec. 31, 2016, there are said to be at least three candidates to replace the South Korean. And former Prime Ministers Helen Clark of New Zealand and Kevin Rudd of Australia are believed to be interested in the world's top diplomatic post.
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2015

U.S. historians slam Abe effort to change textbook dealing with 'comfort women'

Nineteen U.S.-based historians protest attempts by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his administration to suppress statements in U.S. and Japanese history textbooks about 'comfort women.'
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 6, 2015

Piketty's solution for Japan's sick economy? A fourth arrow

French economist and author Thomas Piketty has received rock-star treatment in Japan while arguing that the Bank of Japan's ultra-loose monetary policies are ginning up stocks and real estate for the wealthy.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2015

How the West's policies are losing Ukraine

Ukrainians fighting against eastern separatists and Russian forces are bitter about all the supportive Western rhetoric not materializing into weapons and reinforcements. The long-game strategies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Barack Obama could yet give rise to an anti-Western backlash.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2015

Limiting the Security Council's veto power

In the lead-up to the commemoration of this year's 70th anniversary of the U.N., the French government is again pursuing the idea of getting the five permanent members of the Security Council to agree to refrain from using their veto power when dealing with mass-atrocity crimes.
MORE SPORTS / TYSON-DOUGLAS SHOCKER REVISITED
Feb 5, 2015

Whiting says booming economy brought Tyson-Douglas bout to Tokyo

Best-selling author Robert Whiting, who penned an epic series for The Japan Times examining the legacy of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics last fall, has lived in Tokyo for decades. He is a keen observer of the ties that bind the United States and Japan, especially through the prism of sports.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 5, 2015

Paris' melancholic life of the party

The painter Jules Pascin was the epitome of the cosmopolitan, bohemian artist who came to define Paris of the 1920s. The latest exhibition at the Panasonic Shiodome Museum looks at the life and art of this painter, who was an important feature of the Parisian art scene until his suicide in 1930 at the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2015

Abe condemns Islamic State's slaying of Jordanian pilot

The apparent execution of Mu'ath al-Kaseasbeh, a Jordanian air force pilot captured by the Islamic State, is “inhumane” and “despicable,” the prime minister said.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Feb 4, 2015

At 1994 Argentina bomb site, deja vu and fading hope for justice

Anita Weinstein was on the second floor of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, when the ceiling and walls collapsed from the force of a truck bomb outside.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Feb 3, 2015

Opponents left in awe by Jordan's combination of talent, confidence

This is the sixth installment from Hall of Fame writer Sam Smith's new book "There Is No Next: NBA Legends on the Legacy of Michael Jordan."
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 3, 2015

Why is America at war with the Islamic State?

The Islamic State group doesn't pose a threat to the United States, so why is the U.S. waging a war against it?
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2015

'Selma' and the biopic perversion of history

The Ava DuVernay-directed film 'Selma' is at the center of controversy due to its semi-snubbing by the Oscars and correct observations that it plays loose with history.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 1, 2015

A dispossessed Palestinian advises a refugee from Syria

A dispossessed Palestinian writer advises Syrian refugees not to believe in promises from the international community and never to stop loving Syria.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 31, 2015

Call to arms: Hunters dwindle as animal numbers explode

Asians who crossed land bridges into today's Ryukyu Islands more than 30,000 years ago encountered plenty of game. In addition to deer and boar, they hunted elephant and steppe bison until the larger mammals were hunted to extinction in Japan about 17,000 years ago.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2015

Fanatics, charlatans and economics

National chauvinism and religious fundamentalism are here to stay, and with them the terrorism that extremists of all stripes embrace, because both phenomena are ideally suited to the age of the individual, providing imaginary answers to personal angst.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jan 30, 2015

In less than a year, Tonko House earns an Oscar nomination

They had plum jobs at one of the best companies in the world. Their successes were the envy of their peers. But last summer, two peak-career professionals quit their lucrative day jobs to found a start-up. With no income or investment, they built their own studio, mostly by hand, and started working...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jan 30, 2015

One dead in accident on Scorsese's Japan Christians movie set

One person died and two were injured on Thursday when a ceiling collapsed on the set in Taiwan of Martin Scorsese's upcoming film "Silence," a spokeswoman for the production said.

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