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Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Nov 18, 2013

Doris Lessing, Nobel-winning writer, dies at 94

Doris Lessing, a Nobel Prize-winning novelist and essayist whose deeply autobiographical books and piercing social commentary made her one of the most significant and wide-ranging writers since World War II, died Sunday at her home in London. She was 94.
LIFE
Nov 16, 2013

Fifty years later, conspiracy theories live on

"Any concerted plan that placed Lee Harvey Oswald in the gunner's seat," wrote Norman Mailer in "Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery," "would have had to have been built on the calculation that he would miss." Yet Mailer, whose research took him back to the city of Minsk, where Oswald had lived under...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 15, 2013

Hodgson short on matches to select World Cup squad

Roy Hodgson has three games in which to finalize his England squad for the World Cup finals.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 14, 2013

Echoes of an old debate on feminism and individualism

A century ago 'individualism' was a byword for Japan's reforming intelligentsia. To the extent that it served the goals of modernizing the Japanese state, it was acceptable.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 14, 2013

Turkey explores options for friends beyond U.S.

Turkey began feeling alone when the U.S. did not deliver the firepower to oust the Assad regime in Syria. So, it is out to gather as many friends as it can line up in the Middle East.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Nov 13, 2013

The irritating gaijin: testing police patience from Belfast to Oimachi

In Oimachi, there was clear 3G connectivity. For anyone questioned by the RUC in Northern Ireland in the 1980s, broadband penetration probably meant something quite different.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Nov 13, 2013

Tokyo: What does Japan do better than anywhere else?

Everyone here in Japan, or in Tokyo at least, is so disciplined and always punctual. The Japanese people I have met stick by their comments and the promises they make, and in my experience excuses are not accepted as much as they might be elsewhere.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 12, 2013

Where is the global leadership?

Where are the clear thinkers who can dream of a plan to fix a broken global economic system, and where are the practical politicians who dare to try to shape a new world
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2013

Myanmar-North Korea link

With investments by Japanese, American and European companies on the rise, it is worth asking how much the once-pariah state of Burma has really changed since the days of military rule.
COMMENTARY
Nov 11, 2013

Discredited theory grips EU

Last week the notorious "troika" representing the three major lenders to severely indebted European Union nations — officials from the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank — once again descended upon Athens to consider new Greek proposals for dealing...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 11, 2013

Ethanol from cellulose falls short of expectations

In Emmetsburg, Iowa, America's largest maker of ethanol for motor fuel is putting the final touches on a manufacturing plant that will rely not on corn, but on the stalks and cobs left behind.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2013

Weakness in intelligence rankles Germans

Germany's exposure to the NSA's prying eyes is a blunt reminder of its past aggression and humiliation long after the country has cleaned up its act. And this rankles Germans.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 7, 2013

Franz Ferdinand gets it right on latest album

When I speak to Paul Thomson, drummer with Scottish art-poppers Franz Ferdinand, it is just over 36 hours since James Blake's second album, "Overgrown," was announced as the surprise winner of this year's Mercury Prize, the award for the best record to come out of the U.K. and Ireland in the past year....
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 4, 2013

High-flying Eagles reign supreme after eight-year rise to top

To say simply that Senichi Hoshino put Masahiro Tanaka in the game during the ninth inning of the Japan Series finale somehow does the moment a disservice.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Nov 2, 2013

Hybrid furniture and the working horse

Right from the outset when we started planning what is now our magnificent Afan Nature Centre that opened three years ago here in the Nagano Prefecture hills outside Kurohime, I insisted it should be built in wood — and that all the wood must be Japanese.
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Nov 2, 2013

Can Japanese really be such cold sushi in the sack?

Sex in Japan is a knotty issue — even if you're not a fan of tying up your lover with rope, also known as shibari. No matter how you write about it, it raises ire. If you point out that Japan has a vibrant sex industry in which every sexual act other than vaginal penetration can be legally bought and...
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Nov 1, 2013

Reysol's Cleo seeking Nabisco Cup final tonic after ACL exit

Kashiwa Reysol may have missed out on Asian Champions League glory this season, but on-loan striker Cleo is confident of redemption in Saturday's Nabisco Cup final against Urawa Reds.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 29, 2013

SDP woos Koizumi to lend clout to anti-nuclear drive

Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi raises hopes he will stage a comeback as an anti-nuclear crusader.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / NOTES ON A SCORECARD
Oct 29, 2013

Controversy over Washington Redskins leading analysts to hypocrisy

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Notes On A Scorecard.
EDITORIALS
Oct 28, 2013

Pushing for nuclear disarmament

For the first time Japan has joined other nations in signing a U.N. statement calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons, despite Japan's reliance on the U.S. nuclear umbrella.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2013

Turkey navigates a less exciting path to reform

Throughout his tenure, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been condemned parties for pursuing too much reform, and by Turkey's minorities for doing too little.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 27, 2013

The method behind the brashness

Osaka
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 26, 2013

Get Koizumi: Nuclear village goes on offensive

This is a first for Japan: A political figure who not only undergoes a change of mind in public, but tries to make a difference after giving up the political power to do so.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 24, 2013

U.S. keeps Pakistani officials in loop on drone strikes

Despite repeatedly denouncing the CIA's drone campaign, top officials in Pakistan's government have for years secretly endorsed the program and routinely received classified briefings on strikes and casualty counts, according to top-secret CIA documents and Pakistani diplomatic memos obtained by The...
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 24, 2013

German leader calls Obama about alleged cellphone tapping

Furious German officials said Wednesday that U.S. intelligence agencies may have been monitoring German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone, creating a fresh diplomatic headache for President Barack Obama after a week in which other close allies condemned his administration over allegations of other...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Oct 23, 2013

Japan: no safe country for foreign women

When I first moved to Japan, I tolerated the staring, following and the persistent pickup artists, but after being assaulted twice in public, they have taken on darker undertones.
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2013

Abe's quest for a nuclear base

Surely the headline for the Oct. 19 article "Fukushima 2020: Will Japan be able to keep the nuclear situation under control?" is rhetorical, as the instigator of the nuclear coverup, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is about to pass his "Whatever-I-Feel-Like-Making-Secret-Is-Secret Act," for which he will...
Japan Times
TENNIS / MATCH POINT
Oct 23, 2013

Laver considers Federer best player ever

Australian tennis legend Rod Laver was a special guest at the recent Shanghai Rolex Masters tournament. Making his first trip to China, the only man to win the Grand Slam — which he did twice — spoke to a select group of reporters during the event.

Longform

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