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Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 24, 2014

Suga again denies revisionism

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga denies speculation that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering a key aide's proposal to issue a new government statement on the 'comfort women' issue.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Mar 21, 2014

Cracks in the ruling coalition

The exercise of Japan's right to collective self-defense has become Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's political creed, but ruling coalition partner New Komeito wants Abe to slow his approach, and others close to Abe have grown apprehensive about the rise of anti-American conservatism within Abe's Liberal Democratic Party. The ruling coalition is showing cracks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 18, 2014

Vegan metalheads go to the Extreme

A little-known part of the music scene will be celebrated next week at Tokyo's Asakusa Kurawood venue, far from the candy-pop quirk of Harajuku. Obscene Extreme Festival (OEF) promises to be confrontational and dark and — yes, the capital letters are insisted upon — "UNLEASH HELL."
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 16, 2013

Japan pins hopes on Kennedy

With a controversial base relocation in Okinawa and other high-stakes issues testing the resilience of ties with the United States, people in Japan are looking to new U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy for not just her celebrity status, but also her potential to become a new bridge between the two allies....
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
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 18, 2013

Democracy, interrupted: How local voices were silenced in Tokyo's first referendum

On Sunday, May 26, something quite remarkable happened in Kodaira city, western Tokyo: Over 50,000 citizens voted in Tokyo's very first local referendum (jūmin tōhyō) on the issue of whether a 50-year-old plan to construct a road should be reviewed or not.
JAPAN / Politics
May 23, 2013

Pyongyang aid hinged to abductees; report hints Noda was told of survivors

Tokyo will never provide economic aid to North Korea unless Pyongyang safely returns all the Japanese nationals its agents abducted to North Korea, the Cabinet minister in charge of the issue said in a written statement Wednesday released after a report surfaced suggesting some victims may still be alive....
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2013

Graft: a cancer on society

Some British companies fear that adhering to the international convention against bribery and corruption puts them at a competitive disadvantage.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 13, 2013

In Abe's future, a nationalist rewrite of the past?

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has kept a diplomatically low profile, particularly over historical issues, focusing instead on economic and other domestic matters ahead of the July Upper House election.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 11, 2013

Toxic management erodes safety at 'world's safest' nuclear plant

On Jan. 30, 2012, Byron Nuclear Generating Station lost operability to all of its safety-related equipment. At the time, Jim Hazen was the nuclear station operator responsible for the affected reactor, one of two at the Exelon-owned nuclear plant in Byron, Illinois.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 13, 2013

Japan as a normal country

The U.S. should reject the notion of preparing for war in the Pacific, and let Japan and its neighbors cooperate to counter Beijing's geopolitical ambitions.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2013

Ban talks about Japan in the world in exclusive interview

In a series of seven two-hour sessions that included informal get-togethers with his wife Soon Taek, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, the well-regarded former South Korean foreign minister, shares his insights exclusively with American journalist Tom Plate. The following excerpts from Plate's...
Reader Mail
Jan 3, 2013

Chongryon students as scapegoats

Comments in the Dec. 29 Kyodo article "Pro-North (Korea) schools to lose tuition waiver" are biased. Contrary to the picture painted in the media, the Chongryon schools are far more accessible than we are led to believe. Most Chongryon schools hold open days and joint events with local Japanese schools...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 17, 2012

Sino-Indian border deadlock raises tensions; ambiguity of past accords hinders settlement

Indian national security adviser Shivshankar Menon went to Beijing the week before last to have his last formal meeting with his Chinese counterpart, State Councilor Dai Bingguo, who will be retiring in March next year.
EDITORIALS
Sep 22, 2012

Troubling elections in Hong Kong

When Hong Kong voters went to the polls to select a new Legislative Council (LegCo) on Sept. 9, prodemocracy parties appeared to have the momentum. When the votes were tallied, however, the pro-Beijing parties maintained their dominance in the legislature.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 5, 2012

Steamy, sleepless nights grind down the nation

Sleeping-goods manufacturer Nishikawa Sangyo Co. Ltd., founded in Omi Province (modern-day Shiga Prefecture) in 1566, got its start in business selling mosquito netting. The company's Tokyo retail outlet, on the opposite side of the Nihonbashi Bridge from the Mitsukoshi department store, has been in...
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2012

In rare case of bipartisanship, Diet cuts bureaucrats' pay

A bill to slash national civil servant salaries by an average of 7.8 percent for two years was enacted Wednesday after clearing the opposition-controlled Upper House.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Sep 13, 2011

The loneliness — or otherwise — of the long-distance foreigner

The Japan Times received a large number of readers' emails in response to Debito Arudou's Just Be Cause column published Aug. 2, headlined "The loneliness of the long-distance foreigner." Here, belatedly, are a selection.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 12, 2011

Heights of survival

When the March 11 tsunami hit the village of Yoshihama in Iwate Prefecture, the water overran a seawall, smashed through a coastal pine forest, poured over a large embankment and then surged up a long, low-lying valley. It was a scenario almost identical to that being played out at dozens of settlements...
Features
May 22, 2011

Collector's 'labor of love' is a wonder to behold

From the outside it's just another concrete building rising up nine or 10 stories on a downtown Tokyo street. Inside, it's no more impressive — until Shinichiro Tatsumi opens the well-secured door to his own, private Bob Dylan heaven.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 15, 2011

Kicking up a stink over ink in Kobe

You might want to avoid Suma Beach this summer if you are inked or have even a temporary sticker tattoo. The powers that be in Kobe City are considering ways to ban the display of tattoos on the beach.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2011

Ozawa ally quits farm post, fanning fears of DPJ meltdown

A Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker close to Ichiro Ozawa tendered his resignation Thursday as parliamentary secretary of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, adding to Prime Minister Naoto Kan's woes.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Feb 1, 2011

Barred from Japan for a teenage pot conviction

Dear Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, Justice Minister Satsuki Eda and Prime Minister Naoto Kan: I am a 32-year-old student who was supposed to study for a semester at a Japanese university. I am a very good student; I have been a teaching assistant in my department for a year, and I have many professors...
EDITORIALS
Jan 3, 2011

Problematic prosecution report

The Supreme Public Prosecutors Office on Dec. 24 made public a report of an internal probe of how the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation squad handled the case in which a former welfare ministry bureau chief allegedly fabricated an official document to help an organization...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 30, 2010

Bothered by night flight racket from Futenma air base

Reader M.A. lives next to U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa and is bothered by the noise from the airport.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?