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COMMENTARY / World
Oct 22, 2013

Asia's (re)invitation to Obama

Mr. President, congratulations on handling the domestic crisis of the government shutdown and debt ceiling. The problem will recur, but most see you as a winner for holding your ground. Now, about that trip you canceled to Asia.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 22, 2013

Brain drain taking toll on India, China

Disillusionment with India's seemingly ineradicable corruption and inefficiency has resulted in a brain drain abroad. A similar quest for more congenial climes affects China's privileged classes.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2013

Nobel committee overlooks beguiling reality of markets

The Flat Earth Society has all but disappeared, but the Nobel Prize Committee for Economic Sciences would have us believe that the efficient-market hypothesis is alive and well.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 20, 2013

The face of journalism's savior?

By the time Pierre Omidyar was 31, he was, in his own words, not just regular rich but "ridiculous rich." With enough money to make an impact in pretty much any sphere he chooses, the eBay billionaire last week made a splash in an area that is increasingly attracting the attention of tech titans: news....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 19, 2013

Japanoise: Music at the Edge of Circulation

There are some genres of music that Japan excels in. Recently, acts here have been appropriating the dance music styles of dubstep and juke to create a sound that feels like a real contribution to the global music scene. Before all this, though, there was noise.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 19, 2013

Loco in Yokohama

I remember heading to the pub years ago, after teaching English at a high school, to swap horror stories with my peers. Baye McNeil's "Loco in Yokohama" is, in that sense, a trip down memory lane.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 18, 2013

Shōchū and the art of conflict resolution: an islander's insight

If you don't drink shochu, you're bound to have problems adjusting to island life. It's like moving to Okinawa and not partaking in awamori: It's a part of the local culture.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 15, 2013

Senate leaders nearer deal on raising federal debt limit after flurry of talks

In a long-awaited breakthrough, Senate leaders close in on a deal to raise the federal debt ceiling and end a two-week-old government shutdown as Washington scrambled to avoid the nation's first default on its debt.
Japan Times
PRESS / Events
Oct 15, 2013

"The Japan Times / International New York Times" to launch tomorrow; commemorative event scheduled for Oct.23

Starting tomorrow (October 16th), The Japan Times embarks on a new phase in its 116-year history as it commences a publishing tie-up with The New York Times. From tomorrow's issue, the newspaper will be packaged with The New York Times' international edition, to become “The Japan Times / International...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 13, 2013

Keep the government out of the Redskins' name

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office should get out of the business of determining what is and isn't offensive. There is no hope of settling on a precise standard.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 13, 2013

The chilling biology of the debt-ceiling standoff

The showdown over the U.S. debt ceiling demonstrates that human beings are systematically incapable of understanding how precarious our currently familiar condition really is.
Japan Times
LIFE
Oct 12, 2013

Kanpai! Sake through the ages

'A civilization stands or falls by the degree to which drink has entered the lives of its people, and from that point of view Japan must rank very high among the civilizations of the world.'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 12, 2013

U.S. role in aiding Pinochet

To bomb or not to bomb? That is the question that has been exercising self-proclaimed liberal interventionists over the past two decades, from Bosnia to Syria. The argument that divides public opinion across the Western world is how far military means can be used to punish dictators.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 12, 2013

Angus Deaton's 'The Great Escape' fetes growth

Angus Deaton's 'The Great Escape' celebrates growth and looks more favorably on aid directed at improving health, because that can address specific failures of market provision.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 11, 2013

A really long name — as long as the Mississippi

Small islands in the Seto Inland Sea such as mine are visited periodically by health care boats with doctors, nurses and medical equipment on board to offer health exams for islanders. The boat makes the rounds of all the small islands that belong to Okayama Prefecture, making it possible for even the...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 10, 2013

Japan's 'brand' as good as the people behind it

Japan should engage its citizens in a seven-year path of public diplomacy leading up to the 2020 Olympics — and to a worldbeating show of cultural history and hospitality.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2013

Tea party embraces a proven loser

Tea party-affiliated Republicans in the U.S. House are gearing up again, this time on a grander scale, to threaten action that will end up helping the other side.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 8, 2013

Obama's lesson in losing face

The White House is likely hoping that APEC leaders do not take President Obama's cancellation of a planned trip to Southeast Asia because of a budget impasse as a slap in the face.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 2013

Averting conflict over water

In an increasingly water-stressed world, shared water resources are becoming an instrument of power, fostering competition within and between nations and impacting ecosystems.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2013

Nairobi shows jihadist terror still poses a threat

We cannot defend every shopping mall in the world against terrorist attack. We are just going to have to live with the threat, and for some considerable time to come.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2013

Separating Jesus from the legends

There's enough biblical scholarship about the historical Jesus to raise questions about some of the myths that have formed around Him over the past 2,000 years.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 5, 2013

Sweet times on sugar-isle Kohama

In our minds, islands should be counter worlds, autarchies unsullied by continental concerns. We should arrive spellbound, leave anointed by their beauty.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2013

Gun-control advocates should listen to the NRA

U.S. gun-control advocates could find common ground with their National Rifle Association nemisis with regard to the need for mental health checks — if they would only listen.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2013

India's wealthy must open gates and fight chaos

Even well-to-do Indians, whose disengagement has made the erosion of public institutions possible, can no longer escape the extortion and lawlessness that the less lucky have always faced.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Oct 4, 2013

Tim Minchin: 'I really don't like upsetting people'

Tim Minchin walks in dressed in a close-fitting navy suit with neatly buttoned waistcoat and whips off his trilby and puts it aside. His hair hangs below his shoulders, and his eyes, minus the black eyeliner he wears on stage, have a disarming warmth. You cannot help but feel a connection on the strength...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 4, 2013

How enlightened are you? — it doesn't have to be religion

We've all heard of enlightenment: awakening to the ultimate truth of life, usually achieved by relief from suffering. With the stresses of modern life — careers, love, family, Facebook — all that mental and physical pain, who wouldn't want to suffer a little less? Who wouldn't want enlightenment?...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2013

The type who dare risk a government shutdown

Don't look for the refinement of public views in the U.S. Congress unless the most extreme members of the Republican Party feel they can risk moving out of their echo chambers.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society / ANALYSIS
Oct 3, 2013

As Xi tightens grip, hopes for China reforms vanish

After Xi Jinping took over as head of China's Communist Party in December, some liberals dared to hope that change was in store for the world's most populous nation.
Reader Mail
Oct 2, 2013

Suffering from the lack of satire

Regarding Noriko Fujita's Sept. 29 letter, "When cartoons don't go our way": Fujita seems to have absolutely no idea what satire is. This is not surprising in a country whose media habitually treat politicians with deference and where any kind of political satire is lacking. Consequently ordinary people...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years