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COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2013

Obsessing over inequality threatens capitalism

It's wrong to see income gains at the top as proof of U.S. capitalism's ingrained wickedness, or to forget that clumsy intervention might affect everybody else's income.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2013

Japan bucks trend: Captive dolphin biz big

Despite an international trend taking the opposite tack, the number of aquariums in Japan is growing and sales of dolphins continue to flourish, results of an independent study have revealed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2013

Spirits linger in the trinkets of Hiroshima's dead

They say most people have one or more defining childhood incidents — something that sets the course of their adult life and molds their personality. Filmmaker Linda Hoaglund had one, and it was so striking that to this day she can still remember the flush on her face, the tingling of her skin and the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 24, 2013

Supergroup Muddy Apes get album out just in time to rock Fuji

From the beginning, rock act Muddy Apes set a lofty goal for themselves.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2013

Don't let Wal-Mart bring Southern wages north

Wal-Mart operates as if its goal is to erase the differences in U.S. wage levels between the South and North by making every store it opens 'the South.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2013

Greenpeace's Shard stunt may not help its cause

Greenpeace's staged scaling of central London's Shard skyscraper makes one wonder if the environmental organization might be even more effective if it grew up.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 20, 2013

Teams jockeying for playoff position to battle Giants, Tigers

At the All-Star break for the 2013 NPB season, the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers appear to have a lock on finishing in first and second place in the Central League pennant race. Unless there is total meltdown by one of them, we will be seeing them in the postseason Climax Series come October.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WEEK 3
Jul 20, 2013

Fuji meet wrestles with issues common to commons worldwide

Last month, just before the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization announced Mount Fuji's designation as a World Cultural Heritage Site for its religious and artistic significance, 430 learned visitors descended on its lower northern slopes.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jul 19, 2013

That's me in the picture: how 'selfies' became a global craze

It starts with a certain angle: A smartphone tilted at 45 degrees just above your eyeline is generally deemed the most forgiving. Then a light source: the flattering beam of a backlit window or a bursting supernova of flash reflected in a bathroom mirror, as preparations are under way for a night out....
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2013

High tech and the road to 'full employment'

The U.S. may not regain 'full employment' anytime soon. Companies didn't just fire workers during the Great Recession; they went on a hiring strike.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 2013

The rush toward Asia-Pacific FTAs

Whichever of three mega-trade-and-investment liberalization blocs is first to conclude a credible agreement will have a signficant impact on world trade and geopolitics.
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN WEB WATCH
Jul 16, 2013

Japanese adults spend crazy money on cellphone games

Over the last decade, people's behavior during their daily train ride has completely changed. In the past, Japanese were known to be avid readers of paperbacks (bunko) and manga magazines, and would do so even on Tokyo's notoriously crowded trains. Now, however, it is rare to spot someone on the train...
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2013

Beach-storming drill in U.S. hones SDF amphibious edge

One thousand members of the Self-Defense Forces have been learning how to recapture territory in the face of enemy fire, and while the shoreline may be California's, the skills they are building could one day be used closer to home.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 16, 2013

Declassify Yahoo data decision: FISA court

The secret surveillance court that approved the U.S. government's broad collection of millions of Americans' telephone and email records called Monday for the White House to declassify and release as much as it can of one of the court's early legal decisions sanctioning that collection.
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
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 11, 2013

What not to do at a nomihodai

One of the first phrases you should learn when you set foot in Japan, before all the trivial stuff like "excuse me" and "where's the hospital?," is "nomihōdai." The holy grail of budget boozing, it's an all-you-can-drink offer, provided in many Japanese clubs and bars, for a fixed price and period of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 10, 2013

C86 sound jangles on in the Japanese indie scene

If pop culture is primarily about escapism, one of the enduring mysteries of the music world must surely be how the sounds of cold, wet afternoons in mid-1980s Manchester came to capture the imaginations of artists around the world. From the sunny shores of California to the icy hillsides of Finland,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Jul 10, 2013

Kimo-kawaii: a chronology in 13 steps

If it's hard to look at but harder to look away, it's kimo-kawaii.
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.'
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
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).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jul 2, 2013

The LDP constitution, article by article: a preview of things to come?

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing for constitutional change. Yet he is playing the political huckster by proposing to first only fiddle with the amendment procedure in Article 96, lowering the threshold for the process to move forward from the approval of two-thirds of both houses of the Diet, as...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jul 2, 2013

Let's talk 100 percent kawaii!

Long before the mayor of Shibuya announced pop star Kyary Pamyu Pamyu as an official ambassador of kawaii culture, Sebastian Masuda, her art director, had been on a mission to spread "kawaii culture" across the world, advocating it as not only a potent source of Japan's emerging soft power, but also...
EDITORIALS
Jun 28, 2013

How will Japan's farms survive?

One hindrance to the Abe government's agricultural growth policy could be the terms of trade for Japan if it participates in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Reader Mail
Jun 27, 2013

Abe bears watching after July

I always look forward to Noriko Hama's columns as she has an adroit way of aiming her own "arrows" at the heart of any subject matter she chooses. She once again excels in her June 24 article, "Abe's rhetoric reveals a growth strategy aimed at global conquest." If any headline could cause Japan's neighbors...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 26, 2013

Golden Kings star McHenry shined as league's top player in 2012-13

As the summer begins, with the regular-season and playoff memories now neatly stored in our brains, it's time to highlight top individuals from the bj-league's eighth season.
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Jun 24, 2013

China's slump puts U.S. economy at risk

Concerns are growing about China's economy as the country's new leadership tries to get a handle on deep problems that experts say have been years in the making.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 22, 2013

Old school potter goes native in the wilds of southeast Okinawa

It took a devil of a time before finally managing to locate the home of potter Paul Lorimer, the building tucked into a rural lane on the fringes of the Sashiki community on Okinawa Island's southeast coast.

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.