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March 28, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 29, 2014

Unpersuasive logic for death penalty in Japan

The death penalty in Japan is imposed in cases of murder, and robbery and/or rape leading to death. In such cases, capital punishment is not mandatory and is usually only imposed in cases of multiple killings, though since 2006 this criteria has not been strictly observed.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 12, 2010

China struggles with Internet reality

The Internet plays an increasingly vital role as a forum of public opinion in China as other forms of media remain under tight Communist Party control, though government restrictions on the Web will likely intensify, experts said at a recent symposium held in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2003

Koizumi turns on majority opposing war

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, after relying heavily on public support for his political power base, is now turning against the majority of Japanese, who oppose a war against Iraq.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

85% of Americans support security treaty: annual survey

Eighty-five percent of Americans support the Japan-U.S. security treaty, while Japan's closed markets topped the list of reasons a trade imbalance exists between the two countries, according to an annual poll released Friday.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 27, 2023

Russian public appears to be souring on war, analysis shows

U.S. officials say that although Russian public opinion has been difficult to accurately track, they believe cracks in support have begun to show in recent months.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2022

U.S. Supreme Court has taken control of climate policy

The top court's EPA decision upends precedent and, in effect, embraces a new doctrine of law.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Dec 21, 2021

Buying influence: How China manipulates Facebook and Twitter

Swarms of accounts are amplifying Beijing's brash new messaging as the country tries to shape the global narrative about the coronavirus and much else.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2020

China's information warfare is failing again

Beijing may have failed in its international effort to pin the COVID-19 outbreak on the U.S., but don't underestimate its ability to control information domestically.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 12, 2019

Fake news is stoking violence and anger in Hong Kong's continuing protests

Soon after Alex Chow Tsz-Lok fell off the edge of a parking garage in Hong Kong, the allegations began spreading online.
Reader Mail
May 24, 2019

Vaccination issue deserves better

I was shocked to read "Japan struggles to ditch its 'vaccine backwater' image" in the May 11 edition. Not so much that Japan has struggled with government-supported vaccination programs, of which I am aware, but because The Japan Times seems to equivocate the opinion of an ex-official with a fringe opinion...
WORLD / Politics
May 28, 2017

British leader May's lead narrows ahead of election

British Prime Minister Theresa May's lead over the opposition Labour Party has narrowed sharply, according to five opinion polls published since the Manchester attack, suggesting she might not win the landslide predicted just a month ago.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / ANALYSIS
Dec 18, 2015

Japan hangs prisoners days after lawyers' call for death penalty review

The executions of two death row inmates on Friday was a blow to the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, which only last week reiterated a call for a moratorium on hangings and for a national debate on the matter.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2015

Risks to democrats who nod to blurred truth

Democratic societies are faced with the temptation to close one's eyes and ears to inconvenient truths. For example, we do not want to admit that Russian President Vladimir Putin has long since crossed the line into war with regard to Ukraine.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jan 11, 2015

We need to talk about Japan — in English

What commentators who write about Japan in English are doing is not necessarily criticism and could instead be a genuine attempt to understand.
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2014

Supremes answer town's prayers

The upshot of the May 5 U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold prayer before a town council meeting is that as long as no one is coerced, nonsectarian prayer is a political virtue but not a constitutional requirement.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 19, 2013

Israel prepares for next act in the great moving right show

Dalya Steinberger's journey across Israel's political landscape began more than 20 years ago when she cast a vote for Labor, one of almost a million people who helped propel Yitzhak Rabin to the leadership of the Jewish state. A year later, in 1993, Rabin signed the historic Oslo Accords, shaking hands...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
May 15, 2012

Readers vent over 'Bread and becquerels'

Some readers' responses to the April 17 Zeit Gist column by Gianni Simone, "Bread and becquerels: a year of living dangerously":
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Feb 21, 2012

Focus on 'exceptions' waters down abduction pact

For the attention of the Japanese government:
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2010

Trial by crisis for future growth

WARSAW — Episodes like the current financial crisis seriously disrupt economic growth. But the question that we should be asking concerns such episodes' impact on longer-term development. And that question has attracted surprisingly little interest.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 15, 2008

Human rights — strictly personal, strictly Japanese?

Go figure. Just a few weeks after I wrote about how Japanese courts try to avoid doing anything dramatic, on June 4 the Supreme Court ruled that a section of the Nationality Law was unconstitutional. Such rulings being so rare, I steeled myself for a big helping of highfalutin' Japanese legalese and...
COMMENTARY
Sep 4, 2006

Declining sources of pride

The 9/11 terrorist attacks five years ago added a new page to world history, posing a new threat to global security. Following the attacks, the Bush administration in the United States demanded that the international community choose between democracy and dictatorship, between good and evil. Calling...
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2006

Voting for next prime minister will be an all-LDP affair

The year's biggest political event -- the race to pick the next Liberal Democratic Party president and thus the successor to Prime Minis ter Junichiro Koizumi -- officially kicks off Sept. 8 for a Sept. 20 vote. Here are some questions and answers:
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 16, 2006

Concern grows in Japan over Asian ties

SINGAPORE -- From a Southeast Asian perspective, recent developments underscore an internal angst in Japan over the growing "China threat" and how Japan will come to terms with its military aggression of the 1930s and '40s. Meanwhile, debate continues in Japan on revising its "pacifist" Constitution...
COMMENTARY
Jun 23, 2003

Diet group takes uneasy steps toward abolishing death penalty

Among major industrial countries, only Japan and the United States retain capital punishment. In Japan, however, there is a growing abolition movement. The Diet Members' League for Abolition of the Death Penalty, a suprapartisan group headed by Shizuka Kamei of the governing Liberal Democratic Party,...
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2003

Public weight to balance scales of justice?

Unlike Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administrative and economic reform initiatives, which have seen slow going, his efforts to overhaul the judiciary have made steady progress.
Taiwan People's Party chairman Ko Wen-je arrives for a news conference in New Taipei City on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 19, 2023

Taiwan opposition talks deadlocked with no signs of compromise

The issue of China, which views Taiwan as its territory, looms over the Jan. 13 parliamentary and presidential elections.
While this year will be a year of elections, with voting scheduled in more than 70 countries around the world, all eyes with be on who moves into the White House after November's U.S. presidential election.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Feb 8, 2024

Why the eyes of the world will be on the U.S. presidential election

The future of politics in the U.S., the world’s biggest military and economic power, could cast a giant shadow over international order.
Protesters hold a Palestinian flag as they gather outside the International Court of Justice as judges rule on emergency measures against Israel following accusations by South Africa that the Israeli military operation in Gaza is a state-led genocide, in The Hague on Jan 24.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 19, 2024

U.N. court to weigh consequences of Israel occupation

Nations including the United States, Russia and China will address judges in a weeklong session at the Peace Palace in The Hague.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Colorado's attempt to keep Donald Trump off the ballot with an obscure and almost discarded provision that could have determined the outcome of the presidential election.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 5, 2024

Supreme Court buries the fantasy of keeping Trump off the ballot

An obscure, almost discarded provision of the U.S. Constitution shouldn’t have the potential to determine the outcome of a presidential election.
Yellow sand blankets cities across Japan
The Meteorological Agency forecast the yellow sand to move away from eastern Honshu by 6 p.m. on Wednesday. But it will continue to cover parts of western Honshu and Shikoku until Thursday morning, it said.
Japan considers all possible options as Trump threatens new auto tariffs
Subaru cars awaiting export at a port in Yokohama on Thursday.
JR's 'futuristic' Takanawa Gateway complex set to open in Tokyo
The Gateway Park at Takanawa Gateway City on Tuesday
Hanami season to have record ¥1.39 trillion economic impact on Japan
Cherry blossoms along a road in Tokyo on Tuesday. The 2025 cherry blossom season is expected to have an economic impact of around ¥1.39 trillion on Japan.
Trump says he’ll hit auto imports with 25% tariff in trade fight
Stocks slid Wednesday following an initial report that Trump planned to make an auto tariff announcement.
Recent spate of wildfires in Japan and South Korea linked to climate change
Smoke and flames rise from a wildfire in Andong, South Korea, on Tuesday.
Hanami season to have record ¥1.39 trillion economic impact on Japan
Cherry blossoms along a road in Tokyo on Tuesday. The 2025 cherry blossom season is expected to have an economic impact of around ¥1.39 trillion on Japan.
Tokyo Series proves to be big business for MLB — and Japanese companies
An advertisement featuring Shohei Ohtani in Tokyo.
New SDF command will be key for contingency planning, Australian commander says
A Maritime Self-Defense Force SH-60K "Super Auk" from JS Shiranui prepares to land on HMAS Brisbane during Exercise Malabar 2023 while off the coast of New South Wales, Australia.
Japanese wages likely to rise more than 5% again this year
Wages are set for another big increase this year as annual negotiations secure generous agreements.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

The sun shines from behind a waving Philippine flag at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.
Eighty years after the Battle of Manila, old foes forge new ties
By Anton L. Delgado

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Supporting women’s social participation is Cartier’s commitment
Supporting women’s social participation is Cartier’s commitment

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