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Reader Mail
Apr 2, 2014

Right response to soccer banner

Kudos to the Urawa Reds soccer team for taking action against the "Japanese Only" banner displayed at the team's first game played at home this season.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Apr 2, 2014

Knowing your rights can protect against fake cops

Safeguard yourself against an unwarranted public shakedown
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 2, 2014

Opening-night thrills with the NNTB

Although ballet-goers in Japan tend to prefer narrative works, the trio of edgy and abstract pieces from the 20th century to the present showcased last week by the New National Theatre Ballet (NNTB) may well have some revising their preferences.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2014

The bitcoin rhapsody to continue

Attempts to save on remittance fees by using bitcoins could lead to an addiction, which in turn risks the loss of one's savings.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 31, 2014

The Fukushima disaster: Three years on, who's fooling whom?

Japan's new Basic Energy Plan sees nuclear power as an important base load energy source. But whatever 'base load' means politically, the public is lulled — fooled — into a sense that, despite Fukushima, nuclear will remain a logistically viable long-term option.
LIFE / Language / COMMUNICATION CUES
Mar 30, 2014

Third anniversary of 3/11 disaster

On March 11, Japan marked the third anniversary of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake with prayers for the more than 18,000 people who died or remain missing.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2014

Suicide kills more Americans than gun violence

Being poor doesn't bum people out. Being poorer than other people — people whose relative wealth you personally witness — does.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Mar 28, 2014

Residents of Nagoya get disaster info maps

Officials in Nagoya are distributing seismic and tsunami hazard maps based on the damage the city is projected to take from an earthquake in the Nankai Trough.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 27, 2014

Abe's pace on two right legs

The current Abe administration finds itself with two right legs — one composed of traditional conservative forces that favor strong ties with the U.S. and another that takes anti-U.S. postures. Both jockey for influence within Abe' Liberal Democratic Party.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 26, 2014

Chasing a Phantom of success

Based on "Le Fantôme de l'Opéra," a 1911 novel by the French author of detective fiction, Gaston Leroux, and transformed into a musical composed, co-written and produced by Englishman Andrew Lloyd Webber (now Baron Lloyd-Webber), "The Phantom of the Opera" was first produced in London in 1986 and went...
Reader Mail
Mar 26, 2014

A gap that is destroying the U.S.

I was fascinated to read Andrew Sheldon's March 23 letter, "Let's celebrate the progress of the few wealthy." His theory that we would all be better off without government is so absurd that I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Reader Mail
Mar 26, 2014

Employ foreigners as educators

Regarding the March 22 article "Break 'passive' English effort": Perry Akins, chairman of Boston Educational Services, is reported to have cited the teaching of only material to be tested as the main problem hindering English communication and efforts to foster global talent among Japanese youth. In...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 25, 2014

Yamatoism is coming back

Although 'Abenomics' is at a standstill and its eventual success uncertain, the prime minister rushes to push a right-leaning agenda against the advice of close associates.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 24, 2014

The abduction drama game

Clearly there are people in Japan who do not want any rapprochement with Pyongyang — who are using the abduction drama to continue the image of a Japan threatened by enemies and needing strong military forces for defense.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 24, 2014

China no longer takes guff from U.S. about rebalancing

Just as China should be reducing savings and boosting domestic demand, it's equally important for the U.S. to be retooling its unbalanced economy. The big worry is denial in Washington.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 23, 2014

Gravitational waves carry clues on big bang

The sighting came from a small telescope on the roof of a laboratory sitting on the ice sheet three-quarters of a mile (1.3 kilometers) from the geographic South Pole.
LIFE / Language / COMMUNICATION CUES
Mar 23, 2014

"12 Years a Slave" wins top Oscar

Hollywood named the historical drama '12 Years a Slave' best picture at the 86th annual A cademy A wards on March 2.
EDITORIALS
Mar 23, 2014

Education ministry's heavy hand

Two weeks before school starts, Japan's education minister tells the town of Taketomi, Okinawa Prefecture, that it may not use the junior high school civics textbook it adopted in place of the 'conservative' textbook selected by an area-wide council.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2014

Nuclear peril should galvanize Asian leadership

This week leaders from around the world gather in the Netherlands at the third Nuclear Security Summit to discuss and agree on actions that should be taken to reduce nuclear risks in Asia and elsewhere.
COMMENTARY
Mar 22, 2014

Norway shines for Japanese, Korean women

According to OECD data, women in Norway have more leisure time than women in any other OECD country: 367 minutes a day. Norwegian men's helpfulness are the reason.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Mar 21, 2014

Kagome turns to Tohoku to grow its tomatoes

Nagoya company Kagome Co. is promoting tomato cultivation in areas affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / OBITUARY
Mar 21, 2014

Obituary: Facing illness and dismissal, teacher Grainger saw a chance to educate other expats

Neil Grainger 'was a great cook, a big drinker, an even bigger queen, a film and football lover, a naughty smoker, a good teacher, hard worker and caring friend.'
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2014

There's a conspiracy theory wherever you look

Whether it's Ukraine, the National Security Agency, assassinations of national leaders, recent economic crises, the authorship of Shakespeare's plays — some people jump at the chance to connect a bunch of dots to support a relevant conspiracy theory. Why is that?
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.
Reader Mail
Mar 21, 2014

DNA test on ashes often unreliable

The March 17 front-page article "Yokota's parents, child meet" states that DNA tests conducted in Japan on cremated remains from North Korea in 2004 "disproved" that the remains were of Megumi Yokota (abducted by North Korean agents in 1977).
EDITORIALS
Mar 20, 2014

Putin's Crimean prize

Even if Russia does not send its military into any other parts of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin retains the threat of future action, if only 'reluctantly,' and will be able to keep Ukraine, and the rest of central Europe, on the defensive.
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Mar 19, 2014

Shinshu's Gibson brings valuable March Madness experience to playoff contender

The Japan Times features periodic interviews with players in the bj-league. Xavier Gibson of the Shinshu Brave Warriors is the subject of this week's profile.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 19, 2014

Deep feelings at high altitudes

The photographs, taken by artist Naoya Hatakeyama, hint at both the beauty and dangers of a mountain, as reflected in the shades of light and darkness alongside textures of soft-edged snow and sharply lined rocks.

Longform

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