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EDITORIALS
Jul 25, 2014

Plug leaks in privacy protection law

The massive theft of customer data from education service provider Benesse Corp. underscores the value of such data for marketing purposes, and the need to close legal loopholes that allow private information to proliferate so easily.
EDITORIALS
Mar 13, 2014

State secrets law fatally flawed

Japan should hold off on putting the state secrets law into effect until it addresses the need for an oversight mechanism for how secrets are designated as well as a means to protect whistleblowers.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 12, 2014

Jaczko recalls chaos of Fukushima early days

The central government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. fell into chaos when the triple meltdown crisis started at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission also faced a tough crisis-management situation characterized by limited information and mounting pressure to act,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Mar 9, 2014

Clarify your role, prepare before a disaster strikes

When she first arrived in Japan from Ireland in 2008, Sarah Hickey was mostly concerned with adjusting to her new life in Fukushima Prefecture. The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme placed her in Iwaki, which is itself a large city, but she found herself near the coast in less metropolitan...
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2013

Ruling camp fends off rewrite of secrets bill

The ruling bloc keeps its contentious state secrets bill intact though it gives the appearance of compromising with Nippon Ishin no Kai to attach minor requirements on government bodies seeking to classify information.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 19, 2013

Ruling bloc may yield a bit on state secrets bill

The Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc is wooing the opposition camp this week to reach common ground on the contentious state secrets bill that the administration hopes the Lower House passed by Friday.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 15, 2013

NSA said collecting millions of email address books, 'buddy lists' daily

The U.S. National Security Agency is harvesting hundreds of millions of contact lists from personal email and instant messaging accounts around the world, many of them belonging to Americans, according to senior intelligence officials and top secret documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2013

Obama no friend of free press

Barack Obama's tendency to bypass the press for social media and friendly bloggers amounts to the White House reporting on itself, thus avoiding tough questions.
Japan Times
Events
Jan 29, 2013

Preparing the foreign community for Japan's next big natural disaster

For newcomers to Japan, especially those who come from countries that don't experience frequent earthquakes, preparing for natural disasters like the megaquake and tsunami that hit the Tohoku region on March 11, 2011, may not come so easily.
EDITORIALS
Dec 23, 2012

Facedown over privacy

In and around Tokyo, face-recognition cameras have started to take photos of passersby at various locations. Supermarket chains, shopping malls and vending machines inside JR East stations all have been using face-recognition software to identify the sex and age of individuals who come within line of...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
May 15, 2012

Readers vent over 'Bread and becquerels'

Some readers' responses to the April 17 Zeit Gist column by Gianni Simone, "Bread and becquerels: a year of living dangerously":
COMMUNITY
Nov 6, 2010

Canadian loves keeping Fukuoka informed

Nick Szasz, a native of Toronto, has published the free bilingual magazine Fukuoka Now since 1998. He says he launched the publication out of love for the biggest city in Kyushu and his sense of mission to provide information for non-Japanese living in the area.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 20, 2010

Immigration procedures face huge shakeup

As of July 1, there are big changes afoot for the laws governing foreign residency in Japan. Not since 1990, when the categories of residence increased from 18 to 27, has the Ministry of Justice's Immigration Bureau undergone such a wholesale reordering of its operations.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Mar 5, 2010

Springtime special hotel offers

Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal. In Japan, spring means the coming of a new year — in schools, at companies, fiscally. During this season, hotels offer a wide variety of events for you to refresh and relax in style. Like the cherry blossoms that dominate the imagery of spring, these offers...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 27, 2009

File-sharing: Handle Winny at your own risk

More than a decade since the heyday of Napster shareware, peer-to-peer file distribution remains a key tool for Internet users exchanging music and movie files online. The leading program in Japan is Winny, an application distributed free of charge since May 2002 by former University of Tokyo researcher...
Reader Mail
Sep 20, 2009

False promise of more intelligence

It has been commented on before that the personal computer revolution did not herald the dawn of a great Information Age so much as a new Dark Age. I mean, more information is being lost faster than ever before in history with the push of the DELETE button, aggravated by the ease of pushing it. In addition...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CONTROLS ON FOREIGNERS
Jun 30, 2009

Activist sees holes in bills to snare illegals

Third in a series
Japan Times
JAPAN / CONTROLS ON FOREIGNERS
Jun 27, 2009

Drawing a bead on illegal residents

With bills to revise the immigration law expected to clear the current Diet session, the Immigration Bureau aims to get a clearer picture of the facts surrounding foreigners who overstay their visas, a bureau official said.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
May 20, 2007

Citizen journalists aim to serve all

For Kenichiro Masuyama, who lives in Matsumoto City in central Japan's scenic Nagano Prefecture, news that more foreign visitors than ever before are now coming to savor the region's delights is hardly a surprise.
EDITORIALS
Aug 21, 2006

Internet dangers abound

This year's annual National Police Agency white paper, titled "Toward Building a Safe Internet Society," focuses on the dark side of the Internet, including its negative influences on children and its use in cyber-crime. It correctly points out that as Internet-related information and communication networks...
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2006

Visit Japan, sure, but info centers closing

Ah, the friendly tourist information center -- often the first place travelers visit when trying to acquaint themselves with an unfamiliar city.
BUSINESS
Dec 31, 2003

Automakers turn to 'telematics' to get tech lovers' attention

In the fight for a bigger share of the domestic car market, Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. have shifted to a new battlefield -- "telematics" informational network systems
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2002

List-keeping officer faces punishment under SDF law

A Maritime Self-Defense Force lieutenant commander who allegedly compiled personal data on people requesting disclosure of agency information may be punished for violating the SDF law, Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani said Friday.
COMMUNITY
Dec 30, 2001

Getting out to see the new year in

So you want to be there to join in a great mass countdown to 2002 -- or you are determined to be one of the early birds catching sight of the Sun's first New Year rays? With so many venues vying for your bleary presence on New Year's Eve/New Year's Day, some observatories are opening their doors before...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 14, 2001

Easing the way for U and I

For rural areas suffering from depopulation, it can only be good news if city-folk want to move to the country.
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Jul 3, 2001

Time for Japan to take a lesson from Seoul

"Are you from Japan?"
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 16, 2000

The Net surviving in China

CAMBRIDGE, England -- China is in the process of establishing the rule of law. Not common law as in England or civil law as in most other countries, but socialist law. The basic difference between socialist law and other forms of law, it seems from recent practice, is that only the Chinese Communist...
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2000

Police officer arrested for leaking secret data

A 52-year-old Tokyo policeman has been arrested for allegedly leaking confidential information, including criminal records, to a private detective agency run by a former high-ranking police officer.

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake