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JAPAN
Mar 26, 2013

Japan, EU agree to open FTA talks in April

Prime Minister Abe and two European Union leaders agree in a teleconference to start official negotiations on a free-trade pact in April.
EDITORIALS
Mar 26, 2013

Push comes to shove on base issue

Given strong Okinawan opposition to a plan to move Futenma air station to Nago City, Tokyo should start talks with Washington to find a suitable relocation site outside Okinawa Prefecture.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 24, 2013

World faces rhino horn dilemma

Wildlife parts are valuable. A general rule of thumb is that the bigger the beast, the bigger the price. You don't get much bigger than a white rhino (3,000 kg). It is the largest grazing (i.e., purely grass-eating) animal that has ever lived. Its horn is worth, gram for gram, more than gold.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Mar 24, 2013

Being a zombie is a no-brainer for this Japanese actress

Unlike many of her prim-and-proper friends at Shirayuri College — a Catholic school in Kanda, Tokyo — 20-year-old Akane Kanbayashi doesn't recoil at the sight of splattered blood and dismembered human bodies.
EDITORIALS
Mar 21, 2013

China completes its transition

With the transition to the so-called fifth generation of leaders complete, China faces formidable environmental, economic and diplomatic problems.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2013

The West is in decline, but its values still prevail

The first ever non-European pope takes over at the Vatican, while Italy's economic ills and ungovernability foretell, it's argued, the wider decline of the West. First World Catholics enmeshed in scandal in Europe and the United States have turned to a devout Argentinian to clean up their mess.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2013

No. 1 fuel pool power to be restored: Tepco

Critical cooling systems for four pools containing thousands of nuclear fuel assemblies at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant shut down due to a loss of power overnight Monday, highlighting the vulnerability of the ad hoc equipment set up after the meltdowns two years ago.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
Mar 20, 2013

Dominicans make WBC final

Moises Sierra makes big plays in the field and at the plate as the Dominican Republic beats the Netherlands in the semifinals.
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2013

French firm hit for aiding Chinese ship choppers' ability

Tokyo voices concern to Paris after a French defense contractor sells a copter-stabilization system to China that could help it badger Japan near the Senkaku Islands.
EDITORIALS
Mar 18, 2013

No place for nuclear weapons

An international conference sponsored by Norway underscores the impossibility of rescue and relief activities after a nuclear weapon is detonated.
EDITORIALS
Mar 17, 2013

Rough seas ahead for Japan

The prime minister should not entertain the delusion that membership in the Trans-Pacific Partnership will automatically strengthen Japan's economy.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 16, 2013

The Facebook executive on a self-help mission

Sheryl Sandberg does not do things by half-measures. So when the chief operating officer of Facebook and the most high-profile businesswoman in the world publishes a book she does not sit back, give a few interviews and let the glowing reviews flow in. No, Sandberg tries to start a fully fledged social...
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2013

Universities to boost classes in English

To accelerate the internationalization of their institutions, Kyoto University and Kyushu University look to drastically boost the number of classes taught in English and educators who are foreign nationals.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 14, 2013

The diverse works of Asian women artists

I don't normally visit exhibitions in company, but this time I made an exception and press-ganged a female acquaintance to join me. The reason for this was that the show I visited, "Women In-Between: Asian Women Artists 1984-2012" at the Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Art, is an exhibition of female...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 12, 2013

Carpentry seminars help bring men out of isolation

One snowy Sunday morning in late February, elderly men were awkwardly driving nails into half-finished furniture under the instruction of skilled carpenters at a factory in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture.
EDITORIALS
Mar 12, 2013

Approach trade talks cautiously

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should carefully consider whether Japan's interests will be served in the negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement.
Japan Times
JAPAN / TOHOKU TRAPPED IN TIME
Mar 11, 2013

Residents failed by fitful rebuilding

Two years after thousands of Fukushima residents fled to escape the radiation from the No. 1 power plant meltdowns, many are gradually returning as more areas are deemed safe.
EDITORIALS
Mar 11, 2013

Problematic proposals on bullying

A government panel's recommendation that 'morals' become a regular school subject is problematic because of the ideological threat to students.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2013

To cut nuclear attack risks, take warheads off high alert

Taking nuclear warheads off high alert would strengthen deterrence by reducing the chance of armed rivals attacking each other after a rise in tension.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 11, 2013

Toxic management erodes safety at 'world's safest' nuclear plant

On Jan. 30, 2012, Byron Nuclear Generating Station lost operability to all of its safety-related equipment. At the time, Jim Hazen was the nuclear station operator responsible for the affected reactor, one of two at the Exelon-owned nuclear plant in Byron, Illinois.
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 10, 2013

Will robots end up creating jobs or end them?

At Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a management robot is learning to run a factory and give orders to artificial coworkers, and a BakeBot robot is reading recipes, whipping together butter, sugar and flour and putting the cookie mix in the oven. At the University of California at Berkeley, a robot...
EDITORIALS
Mar 10, 2013

Resuscitating Japan's fishing culture

The efforts by young fishermen engaged on fish culturing on the Uwa Sea, west of Ehime Prefecture, may offer an example of a new direction that Japan's fishing industry should take in making itself vibrant. In 2009, the Ehime Prefectural Government started a system of certifying fishermen younger than...
Japan Times
JAPAN / TOHOKU TRAPPED IN TIME
Mar 9, 2013

NRA gets strict, must prove credibility

Japan's nuclear regulator has had a major revamp in the two years since lax safety standards contributed to the catastrophic nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, discrediting it in the eyes of the public.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
Mar 9, 2013

Netherlands' success no overnight phenomenon

The calls began coming in August, and they didn't stop. Netherlands manager Hensley Meulens had a player who was excited about the upcoming World Baseball Classic, and he wanted the manager to hear all about it.
EDITORIALS
Mar 6, 2013

Italy's opera buffa

If the potential consequences of the Italian national election were not so severe, the outcome would be the stuff of great comedy. After all, one quarter of the votes were taken by a party formed by a standup comedian, while former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has again climbed to center stage and...

Longform

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