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Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2014

Military risks China's wrath with first step west in 40 years

Japan on Saturday began its first military expansion at the western end of its island chain in more than 40 years, breaking ground on a radar station on a tropical island off Taiwan.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Apr 20, 2014

A collection of contradictions, east Ukraine's pro-Russian militants dig in

It is part Soviet theme park, part wacky anti-Western wonderland. Stuck to the barricades outside the "Donetsk People's Republic" are several caricatures of U.S. President Barack Obama.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 20, 2014

Why not teach students what's going on now?

Who do textbook publishers think it's smart to start a fourth-grade history textbook with prehistoric humans who lived 10,000 years ago? Why not begin by teaching students what's going on now?
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Apr 20, 2014

Shimekiri-ni maniau yō-ni, minna-de ganbarimashō

Today we introduce some uses of the verb u304cu3093u3070u308b that can be used in various situations.
Reader Mail
Apr 19, 2014

Cultural rhetoric clouds policies

Regarding the April 16 article "Diet members dine on whale meat in defiance of ICJ ruling": Symbolizing the blatant bare-faced aggressiveness of the government, the report that Liberal Democratic Party members fed on their own hostility leaves a bitter aftertaste in the mouth.
Reader Mail
Apr 19, 2014

Does Japan think it has 'friends'?

It's small wonder that in the family of nations there are few countries today that would sincerely call Japan a "friend." Trade partner maybe, friend never.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 18, 2014

GSDF to militarize remote Yonaguni

The government is sending 100 Ground Self-Defense Force members and radar to its western-most outpost, a tropical island off Taiwan, in a deployment that risks angering China with ties between Asia's biggest economies already hurt by a dispute over nearby islets they both claim.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Apr 17, 2014

Putin warns against force in Ukraine, says trust with U.S. shattered

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine's leaders on Thursday of committing a "grave crime" by using the army to try to quell unrest in the east of the country, and did not rule out sending in Russian troops.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2014

Confronting unending lies

Perhaps what is most amazing and regretful about the situation in Russia is the nearly complete absence of truth and objectivity in the mass media covering Ukrainian events.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 12, 2014

Gloves off as India's BJP woos Hindu vote

India's main opposition party, tipped to form the next government, appears to be returning to its Hindu nationalist roots at the start of a five-week general election, raking up divisive issues and using strong language in an area hit by religious riots.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 10, 2014

In Iran, many of 1979 U.S. hostage takers mellow, now favor evolution to revolution

Three decades after hard-line students occupied the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took diplomats hostage for 444 days, many of the now middle-aged revolutionaries are among the most vocal critics of Iran's conservative establishment, officials and analysts said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices
Apr 9, 2014

Post-Fukushima reform throws up a few surprises

The magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011, devastated the northeast, killing more than 15,000 people and causing level 7 meltdowns at three reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Observers believed the sheer size of the catastrophe and its subsequent effects...
EDITORIALS
Apr 7, 2014

Taiwan's 'sunflowers' bloom

A student-led occupation of the Taiwanese government's legislature to protest a cross-strait trade agreement — which is the centerpiece of President Ma Ying-jeou's political and economic agenda — enters its third week.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2014

Pope and Xi Jinping should be sharing notes

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pope Francis would seem like natural enemies. Yet, these world leaders should really be sharing notes as their tasks of late are surprisingly similar.
JAPAN
Apr 6, 2014

Bumpy road ahead to Aussie FTA

Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb said substantive issues remained in trade negotiations with Japan as the two nations rushed to conclude a free trade agreement before their prime ministers meet on Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2014

Don't let Cold War warriors reboot their dated thinking

The hundred think tanks that bloomed, and the thousands of mediocre academics and pseudo-experts who found easy employment in the universities and the media, feel obliged to make themselves relevant and important again after Russian President Vladimir Putin's land grab. Don't let them reboot the Cold War.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Apr 5, 2014

Some local governments think health checkups save money, and some don't

Conventional wisdom says when it comes to health care you have to spend money to save it.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 5, 2014

North Korea envoy tells world 'wait and see' on new nuclear test

North Korea said Friday that the world will have to "wait and see" when asked for details of "a new form" of nuclear test it threatened to carry out after the United Nations Security Council condemned Pyongyang's recent ballistic missile launch.
COMMENTARY
Apr 4, 2014

Wary West caught off guard by Putin's wild ways

At this point, the West has no idea what Russia is willing to do to restore its influence, but Russia knows exactly what the West will — and, more important, will not — do. This has created a dangerous asymmetry.
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Apr 2, 2014

Big Bull Peppers proud to be underdog

The Japan Times features periodic interviews with players in the bj-league. Josh Peppers of the Iwate Big Bulls is the subject of this week's profile.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 1, 2014

Brutal crackdown on China chemical plant protests stokes anger

Protests against a proposed chemical plant in southern China spread to the provincial capital of Guangzhou on Tuesday, even as authorities signaled they may back down on their construction plans in an attempt to head off more unrest.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2014

The cost of corporate kowtowing to Beijing

American general interest family magazine, Reader's Digest, is alleged to have censored stories for its worldwide English edition to maintain a cheap printing deal in China.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2014

The Affordable Care Act isn't Obama's 'Iraq'

The new signup numbers — 6 million and counting — on the U.S. Affordable Care Act exchanges make it clear that the roll-out of the bungled federal website didn't destroy the law and probably didn't cost President Barack Obama much in lasting public opinion.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 31, 2014

The Fukushima disaster: Three years on, who's fooling whom?

Japan's new Basic Energy Plan sees nuclear power as an important base load energy source. But whatever 'base load' means politically, the public is lulled — fooled — into a sense that, despite Fukushima, nuclear will remain a logistically viable long-term option.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2014

How Spain can avoid a nasty split like Crimea

There is no case for forcibly keeping territories under a country's rule if the majority doesn't want it.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat