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JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 22, 2014

North Korea dashes hopes of Japanese parents over abductees' fate

Three times a day, 88-year-old Kayoko Arimoto makes a ritual offering of food to the daughter she hasn't seen for 31 years. On her birthday, it's rice with red beans followed by cake.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 17, 2014

Pakistani militants allege India is deliberately opening its upstream dams as a 'water bomb' creating floods

Hafiz Saeed, widely considered one of South Asia's most dangerous militants, has no doubt who is to blame for devastating floods that have submerged swaths of Pakistani countryside and claimed hundreds of lives.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2014

Gov. Masuzoe outlines grand tourism plan for Tokyo

Tokyo Gov. Yoichi Masuzoe sketches out his 'long-term vision' for the capital and lays out some of the steps needed to turn it into a tourism magnet.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Sep 11, 2014

Scotch whisky makers say single malt is best in a single country

At the Kilchoman Distillery Co. Ltd. on Islay, a windswept island two hours by ferry from the west coast of Scotland, a banner nailed to a weathered barn proclaims "Better Together," the rallying cry of the group opposing Scottish independence.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 8, 2014

New sanctions on Iran to hurt peace prospects

New U.S. sanctions recently announced against Iran are aimed at making life difficult for Mahan Air and other entities. But the limitations are unlikely to move Iran to freeze its nuclear program and will instead damage prospects for peace.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 5, 2014

IAEA sees signs North Korea reactor may be operating

The U.N. nuclear watchdog said it has seen releases of steam and water indicating that North Korea may be operating a reactor, in the latest update on a plant that experts say could make plutonium for atomic bombs.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Sep 3, 2014

Visible minorities are being caught in police dragnet

Around noon on Aug. 13, in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, a local apartment manager notified the police that a "suspicious foreigner" was hanging around the nearby JR train station.
COMMENTARY / World / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 1, 2014

U.S. media coverage reveals a pro-Israel bias

Imagine Boston, including its coast, hemmed in by a relentlessly hostile superior power ready to attack it anytime from air, land and sea. Boston is about a third of the Gaza Strip in land area, but the same in population density.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 1, 2014

Zuma summons Lesotho leaders for emergency talks after army attempts coup

Lesotho's political leaders were summoned by South African President Jacob Zuma for emergency talks after the military in the landlocked kingdom carried out an attempted coup.
WORLD
Aug 28, 2014

Iran says it tested new nuclear enrichment machine

Iran has conducted "mechanical" tests on a new, advanced machine to refine uranium, a senior official was quoted as saying on Wednesday, a disclosure that may annoy Western states pushing Tehran to scale back its nuclear program.
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2014

Japan to help fight Ebola outbreak if requested

If requested, the government will provide to the World Health Organization and other parties an unapproved medicine that might help combat the deadly Ebola virus, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga says.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 23, 2014

U.S. protests 'unprofessional,' 'unsafe' intercept of patrol jet by Chinese warplane

The United States charged on Friday that a Chinese fighter pilot conducted a dangerous intercept of a U.S. Navy patrol plane in international airspace on Tuesday, flying a few meters from the U.S. jet and performing acrobatic maneuvers around it.
WORLD
Aug 20, 2014

Scene of fighting, grandiose Mosul Dam always beset with problems, threat of collapse

The Mosul Dam was always meant to be a symbol of Iraq's grandiose ambition to escape poverty and underdevelopment.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 17, 2014

Ukraine rebels gearing up for eastern counterstrike

Pro-Russian separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine are receiving new armored vehicles and fighters trained in Russia, and plan to launch a major counteroffensive against government forces, a rebel leader said in a video released on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 15, 2014

Chinese police open fire on Tibetan protesters, rights group says

Chinese police have opened fire on Tibetan demonstrators in southwestern China, wounding 10 people, after the Tibetans protested against the detention of a respected village leader, a Tibetan rights group said.
WORLD
Aug 14, 2014

U.S. military team lands on Iraq's Mount Sinjar where Yazidis are trapped

A team of U.S. military and humanitarian aid personnel landed on Iraq's Mount Sinjar early on Wednesday to assess how to evacuate thousands of civilians under siege from Islamic State fighters, a U.S. official said.
WORLD
Aug 13, 2014

U.K. says it will suspend some Israel arms exports if Gaza truce fails

Britain said on Tuesday it would suspend 12 licences to export military items to Israel, including tank, aircraft and radar parts, if hostilities with Hamas in Gaza resumed, citing concerns the exports may be used to breach international laws.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2014

Barren rocks fuel South Korean passions in islet spat with Japan

Holding a notepad full of questions, 15-year-old Ko Yu-jeong rushes up to a South Korean diplomat after his speech, asking how she can better argue the case for her country's control of a set of islets also claimed by Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2014

More to Africa than Ebola, there's also optimism

The outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa is making headlines, yet many of the African leaders attending a summit in Washington this week want to talk about their home not as a continent in crisis but as one of opportunity.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 8, 2014

Women armed with chain saws head to the hills under Abe's growth plan

Junko Otsuka quit her job in Tokyo and headed for the woods, swapping a computer for a bush cutter and her air-conditioned office for the side of a mountain.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 8, 2014

Cockpit voice recorder in crashed Air Algerie jet unintelligible

Cockpit voice recordings from an Air Algerie jet that crashed last month in northern Mali are unintelligible, investigators said on Thursday, depriving them of vital clues on what sent it into a sudden plunge that killed all 116 passengers and crew.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 7, 2014

Why ASEAN has not condemned Thailand

It is not a given that ASEAN won't condemn Thailand's recent military coup. At present, though, most neighbors regard the events as an internal matter while more than two-thirds of Thais surveyed report being happier now than before the intervention.
EDITORIALS
Jul 28, 2014

Weak state secrets oversight

An expert panel's proposal to create at least two oversight bodies staffed by Japanese bureaucrats falls far short of what's needed to prevent the arbitrary designation of government information as state secrets.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan