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COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jul 21, 2013

Hesitating on sales tax hike?

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is said to be considering delaying the increase in the consumption tax rate currently scheduled to take effect in April 2014.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 20, 2013

Building a case for birds

Many people would consider Stonehenge in southwest England or the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt — which both date from around 4,600 years ago — among the crowning glories of human achievement.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 20, 2013

Paying a price in Japan for showing up authority

After Japan's defeat in World II, its art world fell into the same flux as the rest of the society, as the rules and values that had governed it for decades suddenly vanished. Styles and movements once censored and banned, from Soviet-style socialist realism to surrealism, were now permitted and even...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 20, 2013

Misconceptions about how Wal-Mart operates

Wal-Mart's supporters laud its low prices while its opponents charge that it exploits workers and pollutes the environment. The truth is more complex.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 2013

Federal trial of Zimmerman is not a good idea

The trouble with bringng federal charges against recently acquitted George Zimmerman is that another failed prosecution might make race relations in America worse.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2013

Do unto Exxon as you would do unto yourself

Last week's resolution on climate change by the General Synod of the United Church of Christ has garnered mostly admiring attention from the news media. But I must admit to a degree of perplexity and sorrow over the document, which seems to place the blame for our heavy use of fossil fuels on the companies...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2013

ElBaradei's democracy: How Egypt's revolution was betrayed

The military overthrew Egypt's democratically elected president, but the revolution was killed in an agonizingly slow death with the murders too many to count.
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...

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan