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COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 2, 2014

Moot prospects for law schools in U.S., Japan

Once considered a lucrative career, the practice of law is undergoing far-reaching changes that call into question the future of all except top-tier law schools in the U.S. and Japan.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 2, 2014

Closing a bank account from outside Japan; a new way to pay NHK

Advice on closing a bank account from abroad, and how you could lump your NHK fees together with cable TV payments.
WORLD
Nov 2, 2014

J.K. Rowling reveals the inspiration for Harry Potter's enemy Umbridge

J.K. Rowling has revealed that the much-hated character Dolores Umbridge from her "Harry Potter" books is based on a teacher to whom she took an instant dislike — but whose name she has not disclosed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 1, 2014

Fuminori writes noir, but not as we know it

Fuminori Nakamura has won many of the major literary prizes in Japan and is quickly making the same kind of impact in the English-speaking world. His third novel to be translated into English, "Last Winter, We Parted," is out now. It's a tense, layered story centered around a young writer commissioned...
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Nov 1, 2014

The uncomfortable truth about 'comfort women'

Question: How did you view those people (that you infected with bubonic plague and dissected while still alive)? Didn't you have any feelings of pity?
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Nov 1, 2014

Congo crowd kills man, eats him in retaliation for militant massacres: witnesses

A crowd stoned to death a young man in northeast Congo on Friday before burning and eating his corpse, witnesses said, in apparent revenge for a series of attacks by Ugandan rebels.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 31, 2014

U.S. regulator orders Takata to release documents on its troubled air bags, testify under oath

U.S. auto safety regulators on Thursday ordered Japanese supplier Takata Corp. to provide documents and answer questions under oath related to the government's ongoing probe of potentially defective Takata air bags in millions of U.S. vehicles.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 31, 2014

APEC diplomacy could help thaw chilly ties

Next month's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing looks like a high-risk enterprise, as it is not even clear if Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Park Geun-hye will agree to meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for discussions aimed at lowering tensions in the region.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2014

Why Russian jets are testing NATO's airspace

The danger of the new Cold War is that there is complete disagreement between Russia on one side and the U.S. and EU on the other as to the dividing lines. For most Russians, the borders created by the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 aren't a given.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 31, 2014

Gray wolf reported at Grand Canyon for first time in decades

A gray wolf was recently photographed on the north rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona in what would be the first wolf sighting in the national park since the last one was killed there in the 1940s, conservation groups said on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 31, 2014

American detained in North Korea gets job back with Ohio city

An Ohio man detained in North Korea for nearly half a year got his job back with a city agency, but on condition he not travel again to a country where he could be easily detained, his attorney said on Thursday.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2014

Will Hong Kong go beyond self-flagellation?

Hong Kong and mother China should be working together on ameliorating the social and economic pressures threatening to pull Hong Kong down far more dramatically and dangerously than today's governance dispute.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Oct 29, 2014

Imminent U.S. revamp of nuclear weapons, subs and planes is too costly, some say

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel grabbed a ladder extending through the sleek black hull of the USS Tennessee at a U.S. Navy submarine base in Kings Bay and disappeared down the hatch for a close look at one of the Pentagon's most daunting budget issues.
COMMENTARY
Oct 28, 2014

Time to end American financial repression

A generation of development economists owe Ronald McKinnon, who died earlier this month, a huge intellectual debt for his insight that governments like the U.S. that engage in free-market rhetoric to channel funds toward themselves hamper financial development.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 28, 2014

Ena treads a fine line in the DJ booth

When the people at the Berlin-based Samurai Horo label asked Yu Asaeda to contribute to a compilation they were putting out, they got more than they'd bargained for.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 28, 2014

Questions remain over how Japan would handle actual Ebola cases

Health experts have said authorities were correct to intercept a Canadian journalist who subsequently tested negative for the Ebola virus and remains under observation.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2014

The antidote to poverty, disease and terrorism

To increase the chances of success for children in developing countries, educating mothers may be more important than educating fathers, as educated girls seem to develop better essential life skills, including the ability to participate effectively in society.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 27, 2014

After victory in key Iraqi town, Shiite militias take revenge

After helping government forces break the Islamic State's grip over a strategic town just south of Baghdad on Saturday, Shiite militias decided it was time for payback.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 26, 2014

Special report: why Ukraine's revolution remains unfinished

In the afternoon of Feb. 20, after the morning's dead had been cleared away, Volodymyr Melnychuk arrived outside Kiev's October palace.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 25, 2014

Blondes have more fun in NHK's morning drama

Two weeks ago I received a message from a reader who asked me to ask NHK why the public broadcaster had changed the name and the hair color of the female protagonist of its new daily 15-minute asa-dora (morning drama series) "Massan," which is based on the life of Masataka Taketsuru, the first person...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 25, 2014

Surprise €2.1 billion EU bill leaves U.K.'s Cameron in bind as Euroskeptic rivals pounce

In a vivid display of fury at European Union technocrats, British Prime Minister David Cameron refused to pay a surprise €2.1 billion bill Friday as EU leaders ordered an urgent review of the calculations used.
EDITORIALS
Oct 24, 2014

Patent law must retain incentives

As the government drafts amendments to the patent law, the question is how effective the new rules will be in ensuring fair corporate remuneration to inventors so that they keep their engineering talent in Japan to enhance the nation's industrial competitiveness.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 22, 2014

Silver City: one man's dream of growing old in English

My friend dares to dream of a whole city for aged foreigners in Japan where everyone speaks the lingo.

Longform

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