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Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 15, 2013

Kochs use Web to slam critical reports

When environmental journalist David Sassoon began reporting about the billionaire Koch brothers' interests in the Canadian oil industry last year, he sought information from their privately held conglomerate, Koch Industries. The brothers, who have gained prominence in recent years as supporters of and...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jul 15, 2013

Mosquito coils

Dear Alice, I have lived in Japan for almost 30 years, and nothing says 'summer in Japan' to me like the sight and smell of those once-ubiquitous green mosquito coils.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2013

American Revolution bore stripes of a holy war

Americans have considered their wars sacred even when the primary objectives were political. The American Revolution bore the stripes of a holy war.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 13, 2013

Could passenger pigeons be on the brink of de-extinction?

It is often said that the passenger pigeon, once among the most abundant birds in North America, traveled in flocks so enormous that they darkened the skies for hours as they passed. The idea that the bird, which numbered in the billions, might disappear seemed as absurd as losing the cockroach. And...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 13, 2013

Effects will become more obvious as Japan's climate changes

Residents of Japan's big cities, and of Tokyo in particular, are well aware of the heat-island effect — especially now with the onset of summer.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 13, 2013

'Black' business tales cast shadow on candidate

Elections for the House of Councillors will be held a week from today. The election is being billed as historic in that candidates are permitted to appeal to voters via the Internet.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 13, 2013

Intriguing coming-of-age story masquerading as a crime thriller

'Joyland" comes with all the horror trappings for which Stephen King is known: a sinister carnival, a grisly unsolved murder, a haunted ride.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jul 12, 2013

Okinawan musician, club owner keeps folk traditions going strong

The back streets of Naha were dark, making it more difficult to find Shima-Umui, a music club run by Okinawan folk singer Misako Oshiro. The torpid air and smell of papaya rinds from a nearby bin spoke of the subtropics. A small sign, barely visible from the street, directed customers to the basement...
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jul 12, 2013

Venezuela's Maduro attempts to make his mark with Snowden affair

Fugitive Edward Snowden's diminishing possibilities of remaining free to continue releasing information about secret U.S. surveillance programs increasingly appear to hinge on Venezuela, which Monday awaited word on whether the former National Security Agency contractor would accept its offer of asylum....
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 11, 2013

Who'll stand for spied-on?

By hearing only the state side of the story, the U.S. secret surveillance courts lose the appearance of impartiality. Court disputes need to have adversaries.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 11, 2013

Egypt's new revolution endangers democracy

If the junta-led political process can somehow roll back from exclusion and media repression, Egypt may yet see a transition similar to Turkey's after 1997.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 11, 2013

Female mammals can pick sex of offspring, study finds

Mammals appear to have the ability to select the gender of their offspring for the benefit of their species, according to a new study that followed three generations of more than 2,300 animals from the San Diego Zoo.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Jul 10, 2013

Did Korean culture contribute to Asiana crash in San Francisco?

A comment Monday by the head of the National Transportation Safety Board sounded reasonable to the average ear, but for aviation crash experts there was an immediate connection to a remarkable 1999 crash of a Boeing 747 just after takeoff from London.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jul 9, 2013

Can Stevens repeat success in NBA?

We know this just isn't supposed to work, the young executive-looking Brad Stevens, the 36-year-old coach at modest Butler University in Indiana, signing an almost unprecedented six-year contract to coach one of American sports' most celebrated franchises, the Boston Celtics.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jul 9, 2013

Can METI's ¥50 billion fund unfreeze 'Cool Japan'?

Naysaying is almost always risk-free, especially if you do it online. If you're a cynic, you're usually right, and if you're wrong, you can just delete those errant tweets and posts and join the party.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 9, 2013

Russia's survivalist in the Kremlin

Given Russia's experience with militant groups, Vladimir Putin believes Russia's domestic stability requires strong Mideast leaders who can keep extremists in check.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2013

Ellsberg: Leaker Snowden made the right call

Edward Snowden made the right call in fleeing the United States after leaking classified documents about NSA surveillance. So says the 1971 leaker of the 'Pentagon Papers.'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 8, 2013

Propaganda: artifice by design

The word "propaganda" derives its modern use from the name of a 17th-century Roman Catholic institution, the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, or Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. Established during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648, a sectarian conflict that devastated Europe following...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 7, 2013

Strict rules help U.S. access data traffic on undersea cables

The U.S. government had a problem: Spying in the digital age required access to the fiber-optic cables traversing the world's oceans, carrying torrents of data at the speed of light. And one of the biggest operators of those cables was being sold to an Asian firm, which might complicate American surveillance...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2013

Long history of untruthiness by U.S. intelligence

America's chief intelligence officers have a half-century-long history of untruthiness — testifying falsely and fearlessly to provide convenient cover stories.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2013

Egyptian military coup sets back democracy and constitutionalism

You might think that replacing an unpopular Islamist leader with a secular judge is a victory for democracy in Egypt. It isn't. And don't expect elections soon.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society / FOCUS
Jul 7, 2013

'Winning' noises from slot machines spur gamblers

Whether you're in Las Vegas or the small-town casino down the street, slot machines sound more or less the same: jangly music, the whir of spinning reels, accompanied by loud beeps and chimes.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jul 6, 2013

Fugitive in limbo: It's a familiar story in music, movies, television

He fled the United States for Hong Kong, then left Hong Kong for Russia. Now he's withdrawn his request for political asylum there without having received a guarantee of safe harbor anywhere else. All of which leaves NSA leaker Edward Snowden sitting in a Moscow airport in a kind of legal limbo, with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 6, 2013

Letting opportunity slip away

So why hasn't March 11, 2011, been the game-changer that many anticipated? Richard Samuels' masterful account of Japan's policy responses to its greatest crisis since World War II explains why continuity has trumped change. But maybe, just maybe, it hasn't, as he also reminds us that the consequences are still unfolding.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Jul 6, 2013

Equal-opportunity infidelity comes to Japan

As a Japanese saying puts it: Suezen kuwanu wa otoko no haji (It is shame for a man not to eat a feast placed before him).
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2013

America's revolutionary declaration of dissent

One cause of the growing American fury in this political age is that a large, distant federal establishment is not terribly well-suited to give ear to ordinary dissent.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 6, 2013

Loss of innocence in war for a youth looking for some meaning

Koji Obata, the protagonist of Hiroyuki Agawa's novel, tends not to feel strongly about things. He is, however, convinced that this detachment is an aspect of his character that he'd like to change. Early in the novel he decides that "he [is] looking for something he could confront openly, something...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 5, 2013

Graca Machel: the impressive face of a new Africa

Shakespeare, in one of Nelson Mandela's favorite lines, now strangely apposite, says that "the valiant never taste of death but once." As the world waits for Mandela to make his final rendezvous with history, one woman — his third wife — who has been at his bedside throughout his illness, and now...

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