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COMMENTARY / World
Nov 6, 2016

Consensus rule blunts ASEAN's effectiveness

Although the requirement that all decisions be made by consensus enables disparate member states to unite while protecting their national interests, it also limits ASEAN's effectiveness in dealing with emerging security threats.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 5, 2016

Japan's war against medical marijuana

Former actress Saya Takagi was arrested in Okinawa on Oct. 25 for possession of marijuana, three months after she unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the Upper House election on a platform to legalize pot for medical purposes. She insists the contraband was not hers.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2016

Brace for the ultimate Washington gridlock

News of another FBI review of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's emails may not change the outcome of the election. But it could poison a Clinton presidency.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 2, 2016

Raising university rankings

The quality of an educational institution is determined by the skills and abilities of the teachers and their educational philosophy.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2016

Farmers have tech, but weeds have evolution

Some 12,000 years ago, humans started a war against weeds — and the weeds are still a step ahead.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 29, 2016

Are Japanese really 'docile'?: challenging an enduring myth

A common perception abroad is that Japanese society is docile. This is partly thanks to Western writers who tried to create a single profile of the Japanese in the early to mid-20th century, such as Ruth Benedict in her 1946 book "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword." Today, this dangerous myth of consensus...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Oct 25, 2016

Why gutting NAFTA is unlikely to create U.S. jobs

Both U.S. presidential candidates routinely criticize free-trade deals they blame for the loss of American jobs.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 17, 2016

Dylan surpassed Whitman as the American poet

Bob Dylan has surpassed Walt Whitman as the defining American artist, celebrating the capacity for self-invention as the highest form of freedom.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 16, 2016

Trump is most offensive but Clinton is frightening

It's time the media turned its attention away from Donald Trump's antics and instead focused on Hillary Clinton's long history of misdeeds.
EDITORIALS
Oct 15, 2016

Cost of pulling plug on reactors

The government is thinking about ways to protect major electricity suppliers from the massive costs they face to decommission their nuclear reactors.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Oct 12, 2016

Godiva chief finds modern business lessons in the ancient art of the bow

Arriving in Japan in 1985, Jerome Chouchan wasted little time enrolling in an archery dojo in Tokyo, a first step that has taken him to the elevated title of renshi and the rank of fifth dan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 9, 2016

A hive of sonic activity stirs on Kafka's Ibiki release

There's something curious happening on "Nemutte," the sophomore album by Tokyo-based instrumental trio Kafka's Ibiki. When it performs live, the group specializes in long, patiently evolving improvisations that occupy a liminal zone between jazz, ambient, minimalism and experimental rock.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2016

Seven reasons why I won't vote for Clinton

Hillary Clinton plays a Democrat on TV but liberals know she's really a Republican.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Oct 3, 2016

Higashiyama Zoo denizens have to settle for food substitutions

The Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Chikusa Ward, Nagoya, has the largest number of giant anteaters. But few know the anteaters rarely get to eat their favorite dish.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2016

Yasutaka Nakata crafts a music festival in his own digi-pop image

Yasutaka Nakata's schedule tonight is packed. He's being photographed by a Japanese magazine in a basement studio after 10 p.m. on a Friday, and it's taking a little longer than expected. After this he'll have a (very) late dinner before heading to Tokyo's east end to do an early-morning DJ set at club...
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Sep 29, 2016

Delightful and delicious Xmas treats; enjoying chestnut-flavored treats; ring in the new year in style

Delightful and delicious Xmas treats
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Sep 29, 2016

Messenger closing in on deal with Hanshin

Randy Messenger and the Hanshin Tigers are nearing a deal that will keep the right-hander with the club through 2018, his agent, Matt Sosnick, told The Japan Times on Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 28, 2016

When it comes to the Beatles, we'll never let it be

The Beatles' career as a live band came to a — literally — screeching halt in August 1966, when on their final American tour, the howling of frenzied female fans became so deafening they could no longer hear themselves play. Author Tom Wolfe, describing a San Francisco stadium gig, wrote of "great...
Reader Mail
Sep 24, 2016

Japan's war aim in China misinterpreted

In his Counterpoint column titled "Memories of Mukden Incident remain divisive" in the Sept. 18 edition, Jeff Kingston claims that Japan's drive into Southeast Asia in 1941 was initiated "in order to secure resources needed to vanquish China." This is a curious interpretation for the expansion of the...
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Sep 23, 2016

Barton cites early instruction as key to Japan's success

ISU announcer Ted Barton has seen it all during his long career in the sport.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 23, 2016

Panel formed to ease burden on Emperor Akihito but abdication issue looms

A six-member panel forms to help the Emperor through his twilight years, while the thorny political issue of allowing him to abdicate lurks in the background.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 22, 2016

Despite flaws, paperless voting machines remain widespread in U.S.

About 1 in 4 registered voters in the United States live in areas that use electronic voting machines that do not produce a paper backup despite concerns that they are vulnerable to tampering and malfunctions, according to a Reuters analysis.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Sep 21, 2016

Body image and the foreign female in Japan: survey shows frustration with one-size-fits-all thinking

Survey of nearly 600 women reveals that many feel society places pressure on them to meet narrow Japanese definition of beauty.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 18, 2016

Tokyo's safety claims for Toyosu fish market cleanup getting harder to sell

On Sept. 10, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike revealed that the people in charge of the soil remediation work for the Toyosu market, the relocation site for the famed Tsukiji fish market in Chuo Ward, ignored the recommendations of outside safety experts.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 16, 2016

Saving refugees to save the European Union

Rather than uniting to resist the populist threat they all face, EU member states have played into its hands by becoming increasingly unwilling to cooperate with one another.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 15, 2016

Hungary's refugee response just the beginning

Global refugees are more numerous today than at any other time since 1950, but in 20 years there will probably be five or 10 times as many — and the borders will be slamming shut everywhere.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 15, 2016

Hidden data: the new weapon that could beat hunger

With a single smartphone app, you can now get a pretty accurate forecast of the weather anywhere in the world. That is largely thanks to a decision by science agencies, a decade ago, to put online their satellite data and make it available for free.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.