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Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 4, 2015

Some Japanese teens welcome move to reduce voting age, others apathetic

For high school student Aine Suzuki, the Lower House's move on Thursday to pass legislation that would reduce the voting age to 18 from the current 20 was akin to a dream come true.
EDITORIALS
Jun 4, 2015

Russia cracks down again on NGOs

Russian President Vladimir Putin's latest crackdown on NGOs is just one more attempt to silence any opposition to his rule.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 4, 2015

Success of Doraemon film in China reflects thaw in ties with Japan: expert

The success of a Japanese animation film recently released in China reflects a thaw in relations between the two nations as Beijing opens up to cultural exchanges, according to a Japan-based expert on the communist country.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jun 3, 2015

Here's hoping the ikumen fad fades as Japan ages like fine sake

When the Japanese media started to harp on about the fatigue emerging among ikumen — men who help their wives with child-rearing and other domestic duties — I just had to laugh. Being a Japanese sake brewer's husband, I was confident that I was streets ahead of these trendy men bragging about their...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 2, 2015

An alliance of hope must include Okinawans

The disproportionate presence of American forces on Okinawa is at least in part the continuation of Tokyo's low regard for the island and its people.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2015

Tayyipism strikes a chord with Turkish voters

President Recep Erdogan's new Turkey is more religious, more conservative, more rooted in the Middle East and less bound to the West.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 1, 2015

The AIIB key to Beijing's new economic order

China's approach to creating an infrastructure bank that will knit Asia into a Sino-centric economic order could prove to be a nightmare.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues
May 31, 2015

U.S. greenlights Japan's march back to militarism

As I've often written, I'm a big proponent of the historical record — if for no other reason, so we can look back at the past and learn from our mistakes.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 31, 2015

Islam takes center stage as Turkish election campaign enters final week

Evoking the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople and vowing the Muslim call to prayer would forever ring out, President Tayyip Erdogan put religion at center stage on Saturday as campaigning for Turkey's parliamentary election entered its final week.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 30, 2015

The geopolitics of coping with a rising China

Last week I examined the logic and consequences of the "Abe Doctrine," whereby Japan has beefed up its alliance with the United States by agreeing to expand what it is prepared to do militarily in support of U.S. global security operations. This is not a settled issue domestically as few Japanese support...
Japan Times
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 29, 2015

Arsenal favored to give Wenger sixth F.A. Cup victory

Arsenal has already suffered one setback ahead of Saturday's F.A. Cup final against Aston Villa.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 29, 2015

Expressive emoji win over Merriam-Webster's wordsmiths

From tsunami to head honcho, English boasts no end to Japanese loan words. Artsy chefs now talk of umami and revelers belt out karaoke, so it is no surprise to see the Merriam-Webster dictionary honoring another new arrival: emoji, familiar to mobile users worldwide.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / They're Playing Our Song
May 29, 2015

The tune that allowed Japan to lament

The sympathy of Michiko Namiki's "Ringo no Uta," the first pop music hit after World War II finished, endeared it to a battered nation. Four months later in May of 1946, however, a very different tune became a No. 1 hit. Noboru Kirishima's "Reijin no Uta" ("Song of a Beautiful Woman") played up lament...
BUSINESS
May 29, 2015

Obama-sought fast-track trade bill, with caveats, looks poised to clear House vote

Republican and Democratic supporters of a fast-track trade bill are confident the U.S. House will pass the measure, sending it to President Barack Obama's desk, two House aides said.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 29, 2015

Reflation foes warn Kuroda, 'Abenomics' heading nation toward debt meltdown

Two years after unleashing record monetary stimulus, Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda and his allies are confronting increasingly vocal opposition from the opponents of reflation who once dominated the policy debate.
JAPAN
May 27, 2015

Nuclear regulator clears two Sendai reactors for restart

Japan cleared the way on Wednesday for a resumption of nuclear power, four years after the world's worst atomic disaster in more than two decades led to the shutdown of all the country's reactors and fueled public opposition to the industry.
JAPAN
May 26, 2015

Government defies foes over Henoko, stays set on landfill for new base

The central government will press ahead with construction of the Futenma replacement base even if Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga revokes existing permission for landfill work at the site, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga says.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 26, 2015

Unpopular but defiant, Myanmar's ruling party unfazed about poll prospects

Myanmar's ruling party is led by former members of a military junta, evolved from an organization that democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi once compared to a Nazi militia, and took office through electoral fraud.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 26, 2015

Europe's center-left parties face existential dilemma after string of losses

A crushing election defeat for Britain's Labour party has laid bare the dilemma facing Europe's center-left.
COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2015

Could Palmya be a turning point for Assad?

Syrian President Bashar Assad may have allowed Islamic State to take the World Heritage site of Palmyra, hoping an atrocity there would bring the international community to his side.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 24, 2015

Curtain falls on atomic feud with Kepco

They're nothing but a bunch of overpaid, arrogant jerks who should have been fired long ago for their managerial incompetence, while he's a just another crude loudmouth who has no idea what he's talking about.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 23, 2015

The 'Abe Doctrine' transforms security policy

The ink was barely dry on the new Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation, which were unveiled during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to Washington last month, when Sen. John McCain, chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, issued a wake-up call to the Japanese people. He said he...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
May 21, 2015

Japan-U.S. alliance remains as a bulwark against China

The more belligerent Beijing behaves, the more important the Japan-U.S. alliance becomes.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
May 21, 2015

Mother seeks a groom for her son in India's first gay marriage ad

A 57-year-old mother has placed India's first gay matrimonial advertisement, seeking a groom for her son in a country where homosexuality is illegal.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 21, 2015

Documents seized in bin Laden raid aired, show plots against U.S., al-Qaida job application

The U.S. released a trove of documents seized when special forces stormed Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan in 2011 that include references to unfulfilled plots such as an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
May 19, 2015

'Coach Crusher' likes Hamamatsu's chances going into Final Four

The Japan Times features periodic interviews with personalities in the bj- league. Coach Tomoya Higashino of the Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix is the subject of this week's profile.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 19, 2015

Experience was not the mother of wisdom

It's something of a truism that the life of an artist heavily influences his or her work. No exhibition makes this clearer than "Utrillo & Valadon" at the Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Museum of Art, which pairs the art of Maurice Utrillo, the famous painter of Parisian cityscapes, and his...

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