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JAPAN
Jul 13, 2015

Japanese freelance reporter Jumpei Yasuda feared missing in Syria

A freelance reporter and close friend of Kenji Goto, the journalist executed by the Islamic State terrorist group in January, may be missing in the same country where his compatriot was beheaded.
Japan Times
TENNIS
Jul 13, 2015

Serena eyes calendar Slam

Serena Williams holds all four major tennis titles after her Wimbledon victory Saturday but she wants more.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Jul 8, 2015

Late marine's message lives on in Okinawa and Vietnam

U.S. Marine Allen Nelson first visited Okinawa in 1966 when the entire island was under American control and functioned as its springboard for the war in Vietnam. For two weeks, Nelson and his fellow new recruits spent their days practising guerilla warfare at Camp Hansen, central Okinawa, then in the...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 4, 2015

Exhuming Indonesia's horror in search for justice

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Gestapu, the murky events in Indonesia that precipitated a massacre of several hundred thousand people in 1965-66 that constitutes one of the most murderous convulsions of the 20th century.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 29, 2015

Law gets serious about cycling safety

Bicycle use is growing along with greater public awareness of health and environmental issues, with cities around the country beginning to rent them out to visitors who are eager to tour Japan on the cheap.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 3, 2015

Cyclists take to social media to voice anger about new traffic regulations

Cyclists are taking to social media to complain about the ambiguity of new traffic regulations, some of which give police leeway to call violations on a case-by-case basis.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 25, 2015

College campuses studying on borrowed time

University students are taking out massive loans to pay for their tertiary education and generally end up facing a crippling repayment timetable that is impossible to service. We examine the alarming state of student debt and what is being done to improve conditions for those who are struggling to pay it back.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Apr 18, 2015

Gunma's Ely reflects on NBA odyssey

Far from the bright lights and frenzied crowds at state-of-the-art NBA arenas, Melvin Ely plies his craft with determination and dedication half a world away.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2015

Singapore's iron patriarch

Lee Kuan Yew cut his teeth on politics, but his ruthlessness in ensuring the dominance of his People's Action Party removed political contenders who might one day take over. It's the age-old problem when a great philosopher-king departs.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 30, 2015

Tuberculosis showing a resurgence in China

China now has the second-largest tuberculosis epidemic — second only to India — with more than 1.3 million new cases of tuberculosis every year.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2015

What can Modi learn from Lee Kuan Yew

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent political stumbles with regard to reform, including his failure to get a key land-acquisition bill through Parliament, are a reminder of the unruliness of India's democracy.
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2015

Security blanket: Should Japan beef up its anti-terrorism measures?

On Nov. 27, 2005, an unidentified terrorist group attacked the Mihama nuclear power plant on the Japan Sea in Fukui Prefecture, damaging the facility and creating fears of a radiation leak.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 19, 2015

Ex-Connecticut Gov. Rowland dealt another prison term

Former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland was ordered to serve 2½ years in prison for hiding his involvement in two congressional campaigns, exactly a decade after he was jailed for illegally accepting gifts.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 21, 2015

An embattled Japan engages a hostile world

It has been an eventful year for Japan since David Pilling's "Bending Adversity" was published to critical acclaim. For many, including its reviewer in The Japan Times, the book was considered one of the year's — if not the decade's — best books about Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 4, 2015

Ninagawa still exploring in eighth take on 'Hamlet'

Yukio Ninagawa's "cherry-blossom" staging of "Macbeth" at the Edinburgh Festival in 1985, with actors in that famously Scottish play sporting kimono rather than kilts, was a sensation due to its radical reimagining of so revered a work.
WORLD
Feb 3, 2015

Al-Rishawi, female Iraqi militant held by Jordan, is heroine to jihadis

When her husband blew himself up in a luxury hotel during a wedding in Amman a decade ago, Sajida al-Rishawi was meant to die too, but her suicide bomb belt did not go off. Today, as a death-row prisoner in Jordan, she is a heroine to jihadis in the region, who may be willing to swap a Jordanian pilot...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 29, 2015

Art is long, when life can be short

Given Japan's continual seismic activity, what happened at 5:46 a.m. on Jan. 17, 1995, was unavoidable. The devastation and loss of life that occurred with the magnitude 7.3 quake in Kansai became a yardstick only now surpassed by the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011. While the aftereffects of the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 28, 2015

Say goodnight to the bad guy: The cost of making enemies in the age of globalized cinema

In the summer of 2010, Hollywood studio MGM had the film "Red Dawn" in the bag and ready for release. There was one little problem, though: The movie — a remake of the 1984 film of the same name, a Cold War paranoid-fantasy about a Soviet invasion of America — had rebooted itself by imagining a more...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 23, 2015

Hostages in limbo as deadline passes

The presumed 72-hour deadline for paying the exorbitant ransom demanded by the Islamic State group apparently expired at 2:50 p.m. Friday without any hint about what would happen to the two Japanese hostages in its grasp.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 22, 2015

On the Internet, opinion swings against hostages

As the lives of two Japanese appeared to hang in the balance Thursday, their plight touched off a range of responses on the Internet, with many sniping at them for choosing to go to a war zone and others urging understanding.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 18, 2015

Okada defeats Hosono to win DPJ presidential election

Following a close runoff against Goshi Hosono, Katsuya Okada is elected president of the Democratic Party of Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 14, 2015

More Japanese children being prescribed psychotropic drugs

A growing number of Japanese children are being prescribed psychotropic drugs to treat depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD) and schizophrenia, according to a study by government-funded medical institutes.
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 10, 2015

The people's Emperor speaks truth to power

Emperor Akihito began the new year with a statement that pointedly referred to two major controversies: war memory and nuclear energy. His thoughts on these demonstrate why he is so admired by the public and underscore the crucial role the 81-year-old monarch plays in contemporary Japan.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 3, 2015

Hillman embraces new opportunity with Astros

Happy New Year to all readers of the Baseball Bullet-In, and we will start 2015 with an update on the new job of former Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters manager Trey Hillman.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 31, 2014

Abe's goal of constitutional reform faces many challenges

This will be a tough year for the Abe administration as the calendar is full of policy goals that are unpopular with voters, observers say, particularly on defense policy.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2014

No excuse for tolerating torture

Already 'torture' is fading from the headlines. Anti-torture Americans have been way too polite the past 12 years. They should have shouted down the torturers and apologists, ridiculed them, locked them away.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 15, 2014

California city spotlights tough path to police reform

In 2000, police in the city of Oakland, California became a symbol of the worst of American law enforcement after a band of rogue officers known as "The Riders" were accused of beating suspects, planting evidence and falsifying reports.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan