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EDITORIALS
Jun 27, 2015

University autonomy under fire

Education minister Hakubun Shimomura and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are moving dangerously close to trampling on the academic independence of universities.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2015

Chinese companies with no heir apparent

Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group and China's richest man, has just one child, 27-year-old Wang Sicong. That would seem to make the question of succession at the privately held Wanda a simple matter.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 27, 2015

Mexicans bash pinata of Trump, calling him an imbecile

Few presidents of Mexico have managed to unite the country in the way Donald Trump did after he launched his U.S. presidential bid a week ago with a string of broadsides against America's southern neighbor.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2015

U.S. rights report slams Japan on child abuse, prison conditions, asylum system

The U.S. State Department's annual human rights report highlights serious problems in the way Japan deals with refugees and notes that domestic abuse and sexual harassment remain rife.
EDITORIALS
Jun 26, 2015

Pope Francis as environmentalist

Pope Francis has issued a powerful call on mankind to protect the environment, achieving an important alignment of science and religion.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 25, 2015

If Rachel Dolezal is a crazy liar, what is Obama?

What do Rachel Dolezal and Barack Obama have in common? Both of them identify themselves as blacker than they are genetically.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jun 23, 2015

South Carolina governor poised to have Confederate flag removed from capitol

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is expected to call on Monday for the Confederate battle flag to be taken down from the state capitol grounds, five days after a white gunman allegedly shot dead nine black worshipers at a historic Charleston church.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 22, 2015

China's answer to Europe's needs

Europe would do well to remember that China's investments are a cumulative means to a geopolitical end — one at odds with some of the West's own principles.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 21, 2015

Time for the European Union to let Greece go

The world, which owes much to ancient Athens' legacy, including the idea of democracy, is indebted to today's Athens for the reminder that reality does not respect a democracy's delusions.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Jun 21, 2015

Governance guru pushes Japan Inc. to open up and diversify

Former trailblazing dean Christina Ahmadjian finds her balance between the classroom and boardroom.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 21, 2015

Residents of South Carolina town once home to Charleston shooting suspect say they are not like him

At Dooley's Bait shop in Lexington, South Carolina, the talk around the worm bins and minnow tanks was dominated by one subject: Dylann Roof, a previously unremarkable local young man now accused of one of most shocking murders in state history.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 20, 2015

A final indignity for those who built Japan

The first time I visited the Sanya district in Tokyo's Taito Ward, I saw a lot of men drunk and passed out in the street and assumed they were all homeless, but as it turned out most worked and rented rooms in the area.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jun 20, 2015

Jomon life 'remained pretty much unchanged'

Jomon Japan is fantastic. It ought to be preserved in stone. It was preserved in stone. For 10,000 years, this New Stone Age culture flourished. It is one of the longest-running single traditions in the world. A man, woman or child dying in, say, 10,000 B.C. and coming back to life circa 400 B.C. would...
EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 2015

Tokyo — world's most livable city?

Tokyo has a lot going for it, but saying it's the world's most livable city risks ignoring a multitude of problems, many of which stem from the city's overwhelming size.
EDITORIALS
Jun 19, 2015

Rethink Olympic stadium design

Olympic competition should be limited to sports, not the construction of stadiums.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2015

Waterloo shows why the Brits need Europe

Just as Napoleon Bonaparte learned at Waterloo, the British may not want to risk being on their own, outside a resentful Europe that unites against it.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Jun 18, 2015

A festival for every weekend of your summer

Festivals (matsuri) of all kinds are a staple of Japanese culture and summer is the premier season to experience them. In recent years, the country has seen a bit of a boom in cultural festivals, to the point that it's possible to book every weekend of your summer around them. We're here to help by highlighting...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2015

Tourism body to poll spas on no-tattoo policy amid influx of foreign visitors with body art

The Japan Tourism Agency has begun surveying hot springs nationwide on their no-tattoo policies, as Japan sees more foreign visitors sporting body art.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 16, 2015

Unfortunately, corporate Japan thinks it's 1985

Japan's biggest companies are greeting reforms aimed at improving corporate governance with a halfhearted shrug.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 16, 2015

Turning Japan's universities into genuine global players

If Japan wants to raise its own profile in the world, along with its universities, it must place greater emphasis on group discussion, debate and public presentation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 16, 2015

'Bordeaux, Port de la Lune'

June 23-Sept. 23
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 15, 2015

Will Japan repeat past errors?

A repetition of events in the 1930s is inconceivable but there is much about politics in Tokyo to cause alarm.
LIFE / Language / MORNING ENGLISH
Jun 15, 2015

Let's discuss voting age limits in the news

The move to lower the voting age will give an estimated 2.4 million people aged 18 and 19 suffrage.
Japan Times
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Jun 15, 2015

Osaka's assault on ethnic invective stalls

With last week's decision by the Osaka Municipal Assembly to delay a decision on what would have been Japan's first city ordinance to combat hate speech and to issue a nonbinding statement instead, local legal efforts to crack down on racist rhetoric have slowed.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Jun 15, 2015

Schools reopen as South Korea seeks normality in MERS outbreak

Thousands of South Korean schools that were shut by worries over Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) reopened Monday as the country sought to return to normal, nearly four weeks into an outbreak that showed signs of slowing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 13, 2015

Cultural historian James Vardaman reflects on his journey into Japanese publishing

Between two sips of coffee, Waseda University professor James M. Vardaman comes clean to me about his decades of addiction.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / OLYMPIC NOTEBOOK
Jun 13, 2015

Carr starred at Tokyo Games

Henry Carr didn't have the longevity of Olympic track legends like hurdler Edwin Moses or sprinter/long jumper Carl Lewis. But to those who witnessed and remembered what he accomplished at the Tokyo Olympics in October 1964, his greatness as a runner left an indelible impression.

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