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Japan Times
LIFE / Language / NEWS IN NIHONGO
Jun 24, 2019

1 in 4 aged 80 and over still drives: government survey

Read an article on elderly drivers and answer questions on major challenges that are being tackled.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jun 23, 2019

Johnson and Hunt on the campaign trail: How the two Tory rivals reckon they can fix Brexit

Boris Johnson will face his successor as foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, in the final Conservative Party showdown to determine who takes over from Prime Minister Theresa May.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / Regional voices: Chubu
Jun 23, 2019

Schools urged to modify lunches for religious needs as foreign population grows

With foreign residents on the rise in Japan, schools and day care facilities are being called on to give more consideration to the dietary restrictions faced by people with different religious backgrounds.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 22, 2019

2020 Tokyo Olympics puts spotlight on animal welfare

The International Olympic Committee sets procurement standards for materials used in conjunction with the games. One of these standards is sustainability, which was first established for the 2012 London Olympics. In terms of meals supplied to athletes and others, ingredients must be produced and harvested...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 22, 2019

Japan's print media ponder wealth, poverty and pensions

One of my recollections from the bubble economy of the 1980s was a passage in a 1987 book titled "Hokokuron" ("The Theory of National Wealth"). Its author, the late economist Taiichi Sakaiya, stood out as one of the bubble era's most fervent cheerleaders.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 22, 2019

NATO aims to make space a new frontier in defense

NATO aims to recognize space as a domain of warfare this year, four senior diplomats said, partly to show U.S. President Donald Trump that the alliance is relevant and adapting to new threats after he signed off on the creation of a U.S. Space Force.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 21, 2019

Pottery island: A three-day tour through Kyushu's ceramics villages

Kyushu is a dream destination for pottery lovers, with famous pottery villages including Arita, Onta and Koishiwara, and museums dedicated to the history of the artform.
Reader Mail
Jun 21, 2019

Time to stop playing the fool

Regarding the June 19 article “Don’t blame Trump for Iran’s aggression”: I am a cranky old man and a slow reader, and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the Iran nuclear agreement) was always a tough go for me. When it was being negotiated, I had the distinct impression that the P5+1 was...
Reader Mail
Jun 21, 2019

Researchers face a bleak future in Japan

Regarding the June 19 article “Flat level of research funding triggers alarm among Japan’s top scientists”: The various reasons behind the decline in Japan’s research performance, and in its university ranking have been discussed in several Japan Times articles. I want to stress a reason that...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 21, 2019

How Japan turned against 'bazooka'-wielding central bank chief Haruhiko Kuroda

In late January 2016, the lights were on well past midnight on the seventh floor of the Bank of Japan's headquarters. Inside, a handful of bureaucrats were working on a shock plan.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 20, 2019

Look at the SOFA pool of labor

An overlooked pool of potential workers is the dependent population of U.S. military personnel assigned to Japan.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Jun 19, 2019

Episode 17: Hikikomori — Japan's missing million

Over 1 million people are thought to be hikikomori in Japan. Andrew McKirdy, who interviewed several recovering hikikomori, joins Oscar Boyd to discuss the issue.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 19, 2019

Mike Pompeo snubs his experts and blocks inclusion of Saudis on U.S. child soldiers list, say sources

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has blocked the inclusion of Saudi Arabia on a U.S. list of countries that recruit child soldiers, dismissing his experts' findings that a Saudi-led coalition has been using under-age fighters in Yemen's civil war, according to four people familiar with the matter.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Jun 17, 2019

A year after stabbing, Japan's shinkansen wrestle with balance between safety and convenience

A year after a knife attack on a bullet train left one passenger dead and two wounded, authorities and railways are trying to take steps — especially visible ones — to prevent similar crimes.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / Sac Bunts
Jun 16, 2019

Hitting for cycle no common occurrence for NPB players

Let's talk about the cycle for a minute.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jun 16, 2019

At Fukushima's ground zero, a town slowly comes back to life

Shigeru Niitsuma moved back into Okuma's Ogawara district on June 1 — the first day residents were allowed to move into disaster-relief housing since the triple core meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant forced them to leave town in 2011.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 15, 2019

Combating an unfounded fear of Japan's recluses

Although the term "hikikomori," which describes people who shun social contact and seek extreme degrees of isolation, has been in common use for several decades, it has taken on a more sinister cast recently as the media has come to view it as a social problem. In the wake of two incidents that have...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jun 15, 2019

Examining the morbid fascination with violence on social media in Japan

Twenty-one-year-old Yuka Takaoka stabbed a man in an apartment in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district in late May, leaving him in a critical condition.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 15, 2019

Wall Street learns hard lesson on why not to say 'pig' in China

Wall Street is getting a costly language lesson.
Reader Mail
Jun 14, 2019

Refusing overtime should be a choice

The Media Mix column headlined “Missing an opportunity to tackle workplace woes” in the May 19 issue brought me back to my dismal career as a worker.
Reader Mail
Jun 14, 2019

What it means to be hāfu 
in Japan

The article “Portrait book explores identity from eyes of mixed-race Japanese” in the April 9 edition, about Japanese Belgian photographer Tetsuro Miyazaki’s ongoing project Hāfu2Hāfu, gave me a chance to think again about diversity in Japan and myself, because I am hāfu (half) — in my case,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Jun 12, 2019

Farmers in Hiroshima Prefecture struggle to recover after 2018 flooding wrecked rice paddies

As the rice-planting season wraps up, Higashihiroshima, known as a rice-producing city, is still reeling from last summer's devastating floods.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 11, 2019

Press freedom: 'No one is above the law' is a slogan, not a policy

Blowing the whistle on state crimes is not a threat to national security; only to the reputation of ministers and generals.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional voices: Chubu
Jun 11, 2019

Nagoya-based firm develops tech to let autonomous cars know if driver is holding the wheel

Sumitomo Riko Co., a Nagoya-based auto parts maker, has developed a system that can determine whether a driver is holding the steering wheel, a piece of technology that could prove to be indispensable for semi-automated cars.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / NEWS IN NIHONGO
Jun 10, 2019

Teenage pitcher Carter Stewart excited to start career in Japan

American pitcher Carter Stewart (19), who decided to join SoftBank's pro baseball team despite being a high draft pick during the U.S. Major League draft last June, attended a press conference in Newport Beach, California, on the 30th.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Jun 10, 2019

Tohoku residents try to keep memory of 3/11 quake and tsunami alive through VR and wreckage

Conveying the fear of when a massive earthquake and tsunami strike is no easy feat.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 8, 2019

Japan's convenience stores work hard to stay relevant

Ride the Seibu Shinjuku Line to Iriso Station in the city of Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, and you can enjoy shopping at Japan's oldest franchise convenience store, a Family Mart that opened in September 1973. The following May, the nation's first 7-Eleven outlet was opened in Toyosu, Koto Ward — not...

Longform

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