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COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 31, 2014

APEC diplomacy could help thaw chilly ties

Next month's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing looks like a high-risk enterprise, as it is not even clear if Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Park Geun-hye will agree to meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for discussions aimed at lowering tensions in the region.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 31, 2014

Six ways to give 'Abenomics' a boost

While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic policies and proposed tax cuts favor companies that employ tens of thousands, they offer little for young Japanese with a laptop and a dream.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 31, 2014

Does right-wing extremism threaten Japan's democracy?

Japan's image abroad is suffering as a result of the apparently growing influence of right-wing extremists in the government. It is in Japan's national interest to discourage revisionists from propagating historical lies that might threaten the democratic processes.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2014

Western nations' mastery

A British scholar and former wartime army intelligence officer will tell you that there's nothing new about Islamic State, that it is in no way integral to the Islamic religion, and that it is a phenomenon that will pass.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2014

A failure of U.S. democracy and human rights

It is a sad day for democracy when 12 Nobel Peace laureates have to write a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama, himself a Nobel Peace laureate, urging him to end, once and for all, America's flagrant use of torture and other violations of international law.
EDITORIALS
Oct 31, 2014

Awaiting Okinawans' verdict

As the campaign kicks off for the Nov. 16 Okinawa gubernatorial election, the Abe administration maintains that it will go ahead with land reclamation off the Henoko district of Nago to build a replacement facility for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, regardless of who wins the race.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 31, 2014

Scientists call skin-eating Asian fungus a threat to amphibians

A skin-eating fungus that infiltrated Europe through the global wildlife trade is threatening to inflict massive losses on the continent's native salamanders including extinction of whole species and could do the same in North America, scientists say.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 31, 2014

National Guard heads to Hawaii town threatened by river of lava

A contingent of National Guard troops was dispatched to a Hawaii town on Thursday to provide security to the Big Island community threatened by a river of molten lava that is slowly creeping toward the town's main road, an emergency official said.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 31, 2014

Quarantined Ebola nurse takes bike ride; Maine governor vows to exert authority

Maine Gov. Paul LePage vowed on Thursday to use the full extent of his authority in response to a nurse who has treated Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, after she left her home in Maine and took a bicycle ride despite a quarantine order.
WORLD
Oct 31, 2014

Islamic State fighters vow safe passage, then execute 220 Iraqis from opposing Sunni tribe

Islamic State militants executed at least 220 Iraqis in retaliation against a tribe's opposition to their takeover of territory west of Baghdad, security sources and witnesses said.
WORLD
Oct 31, 2014

Central Costa Rica volcano erupts; ash sprinkles capital

Costa Rica's Turrialba volcano staged its most powerful eruption in years overnight, belching a plume of gas and ash that was reported to sprinkle the capital San Jose some 50 km (30 miles) away, emergency services said on Thursday.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 31, 2014

Sweden recognizes Palestinian state, hopes peace process will restart

The Swedish government officially recognized the state of Palestine on Thursday and said there were signs European Union states would follow its lead.
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2014

North Korea didn't offer delegation any new info on abductees: source

KYODO, STAFF REPORT
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 2014

Kunisaki Art Festival shows works worth the hike

To visit Antony Gormley's "Another Time" — a life-sized iron figure which looks eastward across Oita Prefecture's Sento district of Kunisaki from atop a mountain ledge — is a breathtaking experience. Not just because it's a stong piece of art or that the location offers a stunning vista of verdant...
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 30, 2014

Skymark says it may collapse if forced to pay A380 contract fine

Skymark Airlines Inc., the nation's third-largest carrier, repeated it is at risk of going out of business should it have to pay Airbus Group NV a penalty after its planned purchase of six A380 superjumbos fell through.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2014

Tepco may ask U.S. utility to inspect Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant

Tokyo Electric Power Co. is considering asking a U.S. utility to verify safety at its idled Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, a senior foreign adviser to the beleaguered utility has said.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2014

Will Hong Kong go beyond self-flagellation?

Hong Kong and mother China should be working together on ameliorating the social and economic pressures threatening to pull Hong Kong down far more dramatically and dangerously than today's governance dispute.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 30, 2014

Nintendo's first health care device will be sleep and fatigue tracker

Video game maker Nintendo Co. will develop a device to measure people's fatigue and map their sleep, Chief Executive Satoru Iwata said Thursday in announcing the first offering from the company's newly created health care division.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 30, 2014

Israel's Netanyahu rails at reported U.S. administration slur

An anonymous U.S. official's reported description of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a "chickenshit," or worthless coward, drew a sharp response Wednesday from the Israeli leader — no stranger to acrimony with the Obama administration.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 30, 2014

Vatican unveils new air, light systems to protect Sistine Chapel frescoes

The Vatican on Wednesday unveiled new high-tech, energy-saving lighting and air purification systems to protect Michelangelo's delicate Sistine Chapel frescoes from damage caused by ever-growing crowds of tourists.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 29, 2014

The antichrist, melancholia and nymphomania according to Lars von Trier

Depression is damn near impossible to understand for those not suffering from it. They'll say, "Cheer up, pull yourself together, look at all the blessings in your life," as if someone caught in a downpour will feel cheered by the fact that the sun will come out tomorrow. But what if the rain doesn't...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 29, 2014

Son of a Gun: 'Gritty prison realism replaced with impossibly glamorous molls and heavy-firepower heists'

'Son of a Gun" begins in a prison in Perth, Australia, with 19-year-old JR (Brenton Thwaites) facing his first incarceration for a minor crime. He realizes, from the sight of a terrorized and sodomized cellmate, that things are going to get ugly pretty quickly. He cuts his pretty-boy hair and keeps his...
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 29, 2014

Ministerial scandals highlight inadequate controls on political funding

The complicated and inadequate way in which political funds are declared in Japan makes it hard to unearth irregularities in how elected officials raise money and spend it.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 29, 2014

Nomura sees four years of overseas losses nearing an end

Nomura Holdings Inc. says its four years of losing money abroad may soon be over as it rebuilds businesses outside of Japan after cutting costs.

Longform

The building of new high-rise residential buildings has some alarmed that they could empty and fall into disrepair as Japan's population shrinks.
The high cost of letting Japan's condos crumble