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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2013

Bitcoins need to be better than real currency

Bitcoins appeal to people's libertarian side, because they challenge the control of money by governments that too often see inflation and deflation as instruments of policy. This virtual currency suggests the possibility of a future in which networks of individuals can make transactions for their own interests.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2013

Swiss voters come to their senses amid Europe's soak-the-rich mood

The sensible Swiss — by almost two-thirds — voted to stop their foray into Europe's soak-the-rich mood. Multinationals such as Nestle SA and Novartis AG can now happily stay at home rather than having to relocate.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2013

U.S. unprepared to limit swings in food prices

The U.S. is not prepared to let developing countries protect their poor from the harmful effects of world food price swings that are increasing caused by U.S. policy in the first place.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2013

Ukraine halts NATO's bulge

Russia has real grievances against the U.S., since the promise made by George H.W. Bush to Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not be expanded to incorporate the former Warsaw Pact countries was not kept.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2013

India again shows signs of irrational sanguinity

India shows no signs of facing its underlying problem of poor governance or overcoming its sense of political drift. What, then, accounts for its relentless sanguinity?
CULTURE / Books
Nov 30, 2013

Uzumaki

This 3-in-1 omnibus is the first time Junji Ito's late-'90s horror series "Uzumaki" has appeared bound together in English.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 30, 2013

Religion in Japan: Unity and Diversity

This fifth edition of the classic textbook "Religion in Japan" has been completely rewritten by author H. Byron Earhart to give greater coverage to the modern period, such as changes in marriage and death rites, and to widen the field of research into belief systems to include mainstays of modern Japanese...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2013

Why does the U.S. put up with Karzai's chutzpah?

With its guns and money, the U.S. has suspended the feuds of Afghanistan. When the Americans truly pack up their gear, the hard truth of that country will win out.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2013

Obama's risky Afghan gambit

The Obama administration's decision to conduct U.S. training and counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan through 2024 means virtually an indefinite American troop presence there.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 29, 2013

Gut feelings predict wedded bliss

The harbinger of an unhappy marriage might be your gut.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Nov 27, 2013

'Disabled' in Britain, just 'foreign' in Japan

For myself, a British citizen who has cerebral palsy living in Japan, it is the liberatory power of being a foreigner here that leaves the deepest impression on me.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Nov 27, 2013

Slow start by Knicks this season a combination of bad luck, bad decisions by management

Perhaps the larger question with the New York Knicks, who began the season a disappointing 3-10, is how could that happen given their roster that boasts the second-highest payroll in the NBA.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2013

Hezbollah suffers blowback in Beirut bombings

The Sunni jihad in Syria has come to Beirut, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his Iranian masters have to accept that this is the war they made.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2013

The unraveling of Barack Obama's presidency

When it comes to Obamacare, U.S. President Barack Obama is like someone who burns down your house. Then shows up with an empty water bucket. Then lectures you about how defective the house was.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2013

U.S. pushing new trade treaties at expense of national sovereignty

New trade treaties being pushed by the United States undermine national sovereignty.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2013

Don't blame Dallas for Kennedy assassination

John F. Kennedy was an extraordinary president at an extraordinary moment in history.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 23, 2013

Back to the future: Shinto's growing influence in politics

Immaculate and ramrod straight in a crisp, black suit, Japan's education minister, Hakubun Shimomura, speaks like a schoolteacher — slowly and deliberately.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 23, 2013

'Black' firms exploit staff, 'black' state taxes them

Burakku kigyu014d' refers to companies where management has no desire to reward workers, and where labor laws are intentionally violated. Wages tend to be low, working hours long — with unpaid overtime — and employees are often subjected to 'power harassment' at the hands of their supervisors.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 23, 2013

Precarious Japan

"Precarious Japan" is a forward-thinking commentary on the current state of Japan, detailing a progressive history from the economic collapse in 1991 to how the country functions today in a modern, post-earthquake society.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 22, 2013

Beatles' luck shows success isn't pre-ordained

The Beatles' success was anything but foreordained — and that the same can be said about countless others whose iconic status we now take for granted.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 21, 2013

Kennedy showed how U.S. can contain Iran threat

The Cold War crises that U.S. President John F. Kennedy faced hold important lessons for the nuclear impasse with Iran.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Nov 21, 2013

Demand booming for artisanal rice

Rice farmers in Japan are under siege. Heavily protected on various levels by the central government for decades, they've seen the market for their precious crop eroded by cheaper imported rice, and the administration of Shinzo Abe is proposing ending production-rationing and subsidies. It will be interesting...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2013

Who says you're lonely just because you're alone?

When "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" was published in 1999, some schools in the United States banned it from their libraries and reading lists for its depictions of graphic sexual scenes, drugs, homosexuality and teen pregnancy — the usual suspects. Of course, this only increased its street cred....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2013

'The Perks of Being a Wallflower'

It's not often you run into a film that makes you feel 16 years old again — and kinda good about it. An ode to the awkward years (or to the people who went through them) when each day was a nerve-racking ordeal involving high school hierarchies, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" softly takes your hand...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 20, 2013

Director Ogawa sublimely cracks Mamet's code

First impressions can, of course, be deceiving, but mine of 65-year-old David Mamet's play "The Cryptogram," whose world premiere was at the Ambassadors Theatre in London in 1994, was simply how unhelpful and knotty a work it was.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 18, 2013

Reform key to reversing Riyadh's fading fortunes

None of Saudia Arabia's policies address the kingdom's most fundamental challenge: the gradual erosion of its wealth.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 18, 2013

India, U.S. sup with the devil

Lost in India and the U.S.' diplomatic maneuvers with the Taliban is the age-old wisdom: He who sups with the devil should have a long spoon.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Nov 18, 2013

Doris Lessing, Nobel-winning writer, dies at 94

Doris Lessing, a Nobel Prize-winning novelist and essayist whose deeply autobiographical books and piercing social commentary made her one of the most significant and wide-ranging writers since World War II, died Sunday at her home in London. She was 94.

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