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EDITORIALS
Dec 28, 2013

Year of ups and downs for Japan

Japan in 2013 was besieged by problems in politics, business and society even while several key events helped to rekindle a sense of confidence in Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / YEAR IN REVIEW 2013
Dec 25, 2013

A look back at the year's top 10 Japan news stories

Japan Times editors selected the following domestic stories as the most important in 2013.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 22, 2013

Record budget unveiled as debt burden mounts

The government and the ruling coalition agreed on a record budget for the next fiscal year, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe boosts spending on social security, defense and public works while trying to contain the growth of the world's biggest debt burden.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2013

English education set to get serious

Junior high school English teachers should conduct classes exclusively in English and be periodically tested on their skills, and formal English instruction should start in the fifth grade from 2020 under education reforms.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 25, 2013

Nissan road-tests self-driving vehicle

In what it calls the world's first experiment of its kind, Nissan Motor Co. on Monday tests a self-driving vehicle on a public expressway in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a view to marketing such vehicles by 2020.
WORLD
Nov 23, 2013

Japan's yakuza woes return to the silver screen

Hollywood has long fetishized Japanese gangsters, with their full-body tattoos, missing pinkies and harems of buxom groupies. Ever since Sydney Pollack's "The Yakuza" in 1974, the colorful mafiosi have provided regular fodder for directors including Ridley Scott and Quentin Tarantino.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2013

Japan changes emissions target in setback for U.N. talks

The government has set a new target for greenhouse gas emissions that critics say will set back United Nations talks for a treaty limiting fossil fuel emissions.
EDITORIALS
Nov 3, 2013

The memory of sacrificed youth

The plan is to preserve the National Stadium monument dedicated to 100,000 college students sent off to World War II battlefields and to place it in the new Olympic stadium in 2019.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Oct 27, 2013

Nuclear regulators can't win

Criticisms of the biases and capabilities of the Nuclear Regulation Authority — from both the pro- and anti-nuclear power camps — summarize the contradictions of Japan's nuclear power policy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 24, 2013

Tokyo Designers Week uses music, art as draws

The definition of design in Japan is changing. Depending on who you speak to, what falls under its umbrella is either shrinking or expanding to include nearly all aspects of modern life.
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2013

Abe's quest for a nuclear base

Surely the headline for the Oct. 19 article "Fukushima 2020: Will Japan be able to keep the nuclear situation under control?" is rhetorical, as the instigator of the nuclear coverup, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is about to pass his "Whatever-I-Feel-Like-Making-Secret-Is-Secret Act," for which he will...
JAPAN
Oct 23, 2013

Required English from third grade eyed

The education ministry is considering moving up the starting year of obligatory English-language education in elementary schools to the third grade from the current fifth grade by around 2020.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 22, 2013

Japan's 'helplessness' crisis

The biggest crisis in Japan's democracy today is that people know the prime minister is telling lies — intentionally or not — but they've given up even imagining alternative ways of politics.
Reader Mail
Oct 19, 2013

Resilient myth robs sports of their merits

The Oct. 12 editorial "Preparing for the 2020 Olympics" shows how deeply into the popular imagination false thinking about organized sports has burrowed. It's dug in like a flea, and fleas are notoriously resilient.
Japan Times
TENNIS
Oct 12, 2013

Nadal shakes off Wawrinka to reach Shanghai Masters semis

Second seed Rafael Nadal survived an epic first set tiebreaker on the way to a 7-6 (12-10), 6-1 victory over eighth seed Stanislas Wawrinka on Friday night to advance to the semifinals of the Shanghai Rolex Masters.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2013

Students offer practical ideas to boost tourism

Creating a credit-card friendly market, providing round-the-clock public transportation and supporting travelers in multiple languages would go a long way toward increasing overseas visitors to Japan, international students advised the tourism ministry Wednesday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Sep 24, 2013

Producer gets deep inside the otaku heart

Masaaki Katabami is a content producer working in Tokyo. Besides producing manga and mascot design for clients, Katabami publishes Burgeon, a biannual free manga magazine aimed at a female otaku (geek) readership. Available at Tokyo's Comiket (Comic Market fair), the magazine is in its sixth year. In...
Reader Mail
Sep 21, 2013

Tokyo needs better accessibility

Regarding the selection of Tokyo as the host of the 2020 Olympics: A lot of Japanese rejoiced to hear that Japan was selected to host the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. While the mass media is highly likely to focus on facilities in which the games are supposed to be held, I think that a lot of...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 20, 2013

Silver linings for a golden age

Despite the massive challenges that countries like Syria, Somalia, Egypt, and Afghanistan currently face, and global challenges like food security and climate change, the world has reason to be hopeful about the future.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat