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COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2014

President Obama’s magic words and numbers

President Barack Obama's critics should reconsider their assumption that he is cynical. It is his belief in magic words and numbers that is scary.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Feb 9, 2014

Globally focused International Baccalaureate diploma needs local-level support

The education think tanks were busy in 2013. As the Year of the Snake slithered to a close, the education ministry made headlines by announcing bolstered English education plans — again — in an attempt to better prepare Japanese students for an increasingly connected world.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2014

China's credit boom raises flags on risk levels

The growth of credit in China at a breakneck pace, including the spike in local-government debt by 70 percent since 2009, is raising serious concerns about the level of risk in China's financial system.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 9, 2014

Water shortages leaving world high and dry

On Jan. 17, scientists downloaded fresh data from a pair of NASA satellites and distributed the findings among the small group of researchers who track the world's water reserves. At the University of California, Irvine, hydrologist James Famiglietti looked over the data from the gravity-sensing Grace...
WORLD
Feb 9, 2014

A glance at the world's major drought hot spots

1. California: The state's water resources are at critically low levels and a drought emergency has been declared. The health department says 17 rural areas are dangerously parched.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Feb 8, 2014

Jonah Hill: 'I like to understand people's lives'

I'm excited that 'Wolf' is a film that is as aggressive and unapologetic as it is, and is being received as well as it is.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 8, 2014

Promises of 'taboo' topics rarely live up to the billing

When you see the word 'tabu016b' in a headline, it's probably not really a taboo, mainly because self-censorship ensures that topics that really are taboo are treated with commensurate caution. Thus, an article claiming to expose some taboo might titillate, but probably won't reveal enough to invite litigation.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 7, 2014

DPJ exec's denial of Nanjing stands

The Democratic Party Of Japan's Diet Affairs Chief, Declines To Retract His Remarks Almost Seven Years Ago Insisting That There Was No Nanjing Massacre.
Reader Mail
Feb 5, 2014

Let's not ban the fun at Zushi

Regarding the Jan. 30 front-page article "Zushi looks to tame its unruly summer beach": The people of Zushi and city officials point out that young beachgoers are too wild and out of control. Huh?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 5, 2014

Amendment not needed for collective defense: Abe

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reiterates his administration's position that the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution on its own gives Japan the right to collective self-defense.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2014

Tokyo election goes nuclear

Ignoring the powers that be, nuclear power takes center stage during an online debate involving the four major candidates for the Tokyo gubernatorial election — with three firmly against.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 2, 2014

Cooling down the history wars

To protect the integrity of history teaching, historians and teachers should insist, forcefully, that there are many spaces where patriotism can be cultivated in a modern democratic society but that the history classroom is not one of them.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 2, 2014

Should we be scared by the rise of Zuck?

On Tuesday, Facebook will turn 10 years old. It has 1.23 billion users. Ponder those two facts for a moment. A company that did not exist 10 years ago now has as many users as India has people.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 1, 2014

Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Survival

The title of "Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Survival" refers to an old Japanese proverb about making the best of a bad situation or transforming crisis into opportunity. Japan is no stranger to crisis, or to monumental "bending," but will the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011 serve...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jan 31, 2014

Japan's cops: keeping the nation safe, in their Keystone kind of way

Most Japanese have a good cop/bad cop view of their law-enforcement services. They see a sinister side — one of smoky back rooms, coerced confessions and trumped-up charges — and they see a soft side: those helpful cops-in-the-box dotted throughout the land.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jan 31, 2014

Hida lacquer artisans seek successors to preserve technique

Hida Shunkei lacquer work, a traditional craft based in Hida, Gifu Prefecture, is at risk of fading away because its masters are having serious difficulty finding successors to keep it alive amid weak sales.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jan 29, 2014

The confounding case of Japan's creativity crisis

The smartphone demands the attention and occupies the mind of its owner, crowding out the random impressions that — were they observed — might just lead to insights, ideas and novel solutions to seemingly intractable questions.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 28, 2014

Marijuana's sobering lessons from Prohibition

Like alcohol after the repeal of Prohibition, legal marijuana will be a profitable business kept on a tight leash. And we should expect the public health consequences tol be mixed, though hardly a disaster.
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2014

Japanese firms mostly unaware of benefits of hiring from JET ranks: poll

Japanese companies are less aware than their foreign counterparts of the government-sponsored Japan Exchange and Teaching Program and are thus missing out on an opportunity to hire foreigners who have the skills they need, a recent survey by a major business lobby showed.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jan 26, 2014

No time for free reading? You can make it up at university

I hope 2014 has started well for all our readers. Lifelines kicks off the Year of the Horse with an email from overseas reader Hannah, who has several questions about the Japanese education system:
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 26, 2014

Religious differences to fuel this century's bloody wars

The last weeks have seen a ghastly roll call of terrorist attacks in the obvious places: Syria, Libya, Iraq and Lebanon, as well as Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia and Pakistan. Also suffering are places where we have only in recent years seen such violence: Nigeria, and in many parts of central Africa, in Russia...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 25, 2014

Is altruism our hope, and growth a curse?

My day job is at Chuo University in western Tokyo, and January at Japanese universities is chaotic, what with final classes, reports and grading as our second term comes to an end and the academic year winds down toward its conclusion in March. Among the words that come to mind, "happiness" is not usually...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jan 25, 2014

The Tale of Genji

Recognized as the world's first novel, Murasaki Shikibu's "The Tale of Genji" is a spiraling epic that encompasses a beautifully complex portrayal of 11th-century Japanese Imperial Court life.
Japan Times
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2014
Jan 23, 2014

YGL program inspires, educates

Oisix Inc. President Kohey Takashima's ambition has transformed his online food retail startup into the leading player in the industry in just over a decade, but his nomination as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum has awoken in him another mission: to contribute to society.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat