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COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 13, 2015

Delivering on the promise of 'Abenomics'

If politicians themselves participate in the taxpayer identification system, bureaucrats forgo some of the power that excessive regulation affords them and businesses give up some of their special tax benefits, the Abe government may yet fulfill its promise and build a thriving economy.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jan 12, 2015

Tokyo: Why did you come to see the sumo today?

Mark Buckton talked to foreign visitors to the Ryokoku Kokugikan on Sunday as Hakuho began his quest to win a 33rd basho and become the most successful wrestler ever.
EDITORIALS
Jan 12, 2015

Local initiatives key in revitalization

This will be an important year for local governments across Japan as the Abe administration pushes the revitalization of the nation's regional economies. Given the dire demographic situation, it's not clear when local government leaders will get another chance to realize this goal.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 11, 2015

Xi a keen student of U.S. power

Xi Jinping is being called China's first U.S.-style president because of how he has cultivated a distinctly presidential approach abroad, overseen loans and trade deals with strategic partners and used the 'bully pulpit' at home to advocate a clear policy direction.
EDITORIALS
Jan 11, 2015

Ending worker exploitation

As part of its effort to stamp out abusive practices against workers, Japan's labor ministry plans to set up a system under which public employment security offices may decline to accept notices of job availability from so-called black companies.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 11, 2015

Break the embargo with medical exchanges

President Barack Obama should begin the normalization of U.S. relations with Cuba after a half-century by allowing medical communication between American and Cuban doctors.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 10, 2015

Cataloging the creatures of the unknown

"Yokai dwell in the contact zone between fact and fiction, between belief and doubt ... Yokai begin where language ends," says Michael Dylan Foster in the introduction to "The Book of Yokai," summing up what words often fail to conjure. His book takes readers on a journey into the inexplicable, mysterious,...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 10, 2015

Charges against Petraeus eyed after lover allegedly received classified data

The FBI and Justice Department prosecutors have recommended bringing criminal charges against former CIA chief David Petraeus for improperly providing classified information to a female U.S. Army Reserve officer with whom he was having an affair, the New York Times reported Friday.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 10, 2015

French police kill Charlie Hebdo massacre suspects; four hostages die in separate siege

Two brothers wanted for a bloody attack on the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo were killed on Friday when anti-terrorist police stormed their hideout, while a second siege ended with the deaths of four hostages.
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Jan 9, 2015

Will Murakami ever realize full potential?

It remains one of the great mysteries of Japanese skating.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 9, 2015

Abe pays respects to victims at French Embassy

Expressing solidarity with the people of France, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday signed a book of condolences at the French Embassy's residency building in Tokyo as police near Paris hunted the gunmen behind a massacre at Charlie Hebdo magazine.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2015

We are all Charlie, too late

The hope must be that the assassinations of cartoonists and journalists at the weekly Charlie Hebdo will waken political and media leaders to understand that press freedoms have been badly eroded worldwide.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2015

It's time for Hong Kong's government to talk

For Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters, 2015 is off to a dismal start. Now that Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has cleared the streets, he seems to have lost interest in talking.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2015

Br'er Rabbit and Br'er Fox

Today's crisis in Islamic society dates from its loss of unity in the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in World War I. Foreigners will never achieve peace and unity for them.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 8, 2015

Sony hackers 'got sloppy' and posted from North Korea addresses: FBI

FBI Director James Comey said on Wednesday that hackers behind the cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment provided key clues to their identity by sometimes posting material from IP addresses used exclusively by the North Korean government.
EDITORIALS
Jan 7, 2015

More tax help for the well-heeled

The tax reforms for fiscal 2015 appear aimed at making the parties that have benefited the most from 'Abenomics' more profitable and richer.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jan 7, 2015

Japan may shun 'Unbroken' just because it's old hat

If the Japanese opt to skip Angelina Jolie's 'Unbroken,' let's not blame wholesale refusal to face the past.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2015

The Sony hacking scandal and the blame game

The biggest problem with blaming North Korea for the recent hack of Sony Pictures is that Kim Jong Un's dictatorship gained nothing from the hack.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2015

Palestinian Authority still doesn't want a state

Last week's failed attempt by the Palestinian Authority to obtain recognition from the U.N. Security Council has mostly disappeared from the world's front pages. Indications are that PA President Mahmoud Abbas did not want the resolution to pass.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jan 5, 2015

Tokyo: Which New Year's resolutions have you ever kept, and which have you broken?

People in the capital discuss their past performance when it comes to those perennial pledges.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 5, 2015

Middle East dos and don'ts

A long-time columnist on Mideast affairs, Ramzy Baroud, shares 'dos' and 'don'ts' with writers and reporters on how to approach the subject of the Middle East.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 1, 2015

The Vancouver Asahi: Angels are not in the outfield for immigrants

Of making baseball films there is no end. The sport provides an endless supply of ready-made narratives: from a fight to win the pennant ("Damn Yankees") or to simply win ("Major League"), to a player's struggle with illness ("Pride of the Yankees"), or an oversized ego ("Mr. Baseball").
WORLD
Jan 1, 2015

Puppy heads home after 3,800-km U.S. road trip

A puppy called Penny could soon be reunited with her worry-stricken U.S. owners after she went on a nearly 2,400-mile (3,860-km) road trip that took her to an Iowa truck stop and a Pennsylvania pet hospital, her family says.
WORLD
Jan 1, 2015

Palestinians join war crimes court after U.N. rejection

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed on to 20 international agreements on Wednesday, including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), a day after a bid for independence by 2017 failed at the United Nations Security Council.
JAPAN / 70 YEARS OF PEACE AND PROSPERITY
Dec 31, 2014

Year ahead may mark turning point for SDF

The 70th year since the end of World War II may be a watershed for the Self-Defense Forces if they undergo the historic changes planned by the Cabinet.
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 31, 2014

Ebola wrecks years of aid work in worst-hit countries

Ebola is wrecking years of health and education work in Sierra Leone and Liberia following their civil wars, forcing many charity groups to suspend operations or re-direct them to fighting the epidemic.
EDITORIALS
Dec 30, 2014

End of the STAP dream

At the very least, the education ministry, Riken research institute officials and others must determine what went wrong with the dream of STAP cell research and push for drastic change in Japan's research environment.
EDITORIALS
Dec 30, 2014

Bad feelings toward the neighbors

An overwhelming majority of people in Japan harbor negative sentiments toward Asian neighbors that the government calls 'partners responsible for the peace and prosperity of the region.' What is Prime Minister Shinzo Abe going to do about that?

Longform

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