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JAPAN
Nov 1, 2013

Mizuho execs face Diet grilling

Lawmakers plan to question Mizuho Financial Group Inc. officials this month on its loans to yakuza, ramping up political pressure on the top executives of the nation's third-biggest bank by market value.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 1, 2013

U.S. evaluates blowback from revelations it spied on allies

Weeks before he was sworn in, President-elect Barack Obama was given an extensive briefing on the secret operations of U.S. spy agencies, as well as a warning: "You need to give up your BlackBerry," Obama was told, according to former officials familiar with the meeting. "If you use that phone, you are...
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 31, 2013

Wages slide for 16th month despite Abe's pleas

Salaries extend their longest slide since 2010, even as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urges companies to raise wages as part of his bid to reflate the world's third-largest economy.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Oct 30, 2013

A message from tsunami-hit Rikuzentakata: Make the trip

Your generosity in making the trip up to Tohoku will be forever remembered by those you talk with. Take the time. Make the trip.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 30, 2013

'Total abandon' for two landmark duos

Ballet audiences in Japan are widely acknowledged to be among the best in the world, but there's still a lot to be learned here about contemporary dance. However, those seeing a show in a short tour of works by French choreographers Mathilde Monnier and Jean-Francois Duroure can be sure of enjoying a...
Reader Mail
Oct 30, 2013

A liberal arts model in Japan

In reply to Victoria Miroshnik's Oct. 24 letter, "Future of liberal arts education," generally her observations are correct, although a further comment is required. As a tutor in liberal arts studies with 20-plus years as such, I should state that yes, sometimes, when pressed for time or wishing to get...
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 30, 2013

U.S. spying on friends prompts look at 'adversarial' international system

A week now after the initial revelation that the United States may have monitored the cellphone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, there's little doubt that the story has been damaging for this country and for the National Security Agency, which earned the wrath of even longtime defender Sen. Dianne...
BASKETBALL
Oct 29, 2013

bj-league bans JT access

In an unprecedented move, the professional basketball bj-league has issued a ban on media access by The Japan Times for the entire 2013-14 season. The directive has been relayed to teams around the country by the league office, the newspaper has learned.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Oct 28, 2013

Getting published is easy; getting noticed is trickier

How can writers make themselves heard in the age of blog and self-publishing saturation? Japan-based authors offer a diverse range of views
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: ARCHITECTURE
Oct 28, 2013

Tokyo's new National Stadium faces opposition

Now that the celebrations surrounding the announcement that Tokyo will host the 2020 Summer Olympics have died down, attention is turning to the physical transformations that this will bring the city, for better or for worse.
LIFE / Language / COMMUNICATION CUES
Oct 27, 2013

How young people view the future

Ima-no seikatsu-ni manzoku, demo Nihon-no mirai-wa keizaiteki-ni fuan... Wakamono-no ōku-ga sonna ishiki-wo motte-iru koto-ga Kōseirōdōshō-no chōsa-de wakari-mashita. 3-gatsu-ni 15-sai-kara 39-sai-wo taishō-ni ishiki-chōsa-o okonai, 3-zen-nin-amari-kara kaitō-wo emashita. Ima-no seikatsu-ni 'manzoku'-to kotaeta-nowa, zentai-no yaku 63-pāsento-de, manzoku-no saidai-no riyū-wa 'kazoku, koibito, yūjin-nado-ga iru,' 'shumi-ga aru,' nado, seishintekina juujitsu-ga yaku 83-pāsento-wo shime, 'keizaiteki-ni yutaka'-no yaku 6-pāsento-wo ōkiku uwamawarimashita. 'Nihon-no mirai-wa akarui-ka'-no toi-niwa,'sō omō'-no yaku 19-pāsento-ni-taishi, 'omowanai'-wa yaku 45-pāsento. 'Omowanai' riyū-de ōkatta-nowa 'zaisei-akka-de iryō, nenkin-no kyūfu-ga sagari, zeikin-ya shakai-hokenryō-no futan-ga fueru'-deshita.
Japan Times
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Oct 27, 2013

Hashimoto's relevancy beginning to fade

When the candidate backed by Osaka Mayor and Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) co-leader Toru Hashimoto was defeated in September by Sakai Mayor Osami Takeyama, a staunch Hashimoto foe, it marked what is widely seen as the beginning of the end of the whole Hashimoto-Nippon Ishin movement,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 27, 2013

The method behind the brashness

Osaka
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 26, 2013

Manga: Gekiga capture the underbelly of ’70s Japan

'I don't know much about manga but I know what I like' could well be the title of this review. Despite the urgings of enthusiastic friends ever since the 1970s, I sedulously avoided reading works in this genre.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 25, 2013

Pro-Japan Australia vs. China

Australia's foreign policies are a puzzle. It depends on China to take 35 percent of its exports. Yet its government now wants to cooperate with Japan and U.S. in their anti-China policies.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 25, 2013

What to do with banks that are 'too big to fail'?

The travails of JPMorgan Chase have reopened the debate about what to do with American and European banks that are 'too big to fail.' The result so far is an uneven playing field.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 25, 2013

A better way to end Syria's civil war

The political path to peace in Syria should give intimidated third-party groups a voice by bringing the many segments of society together, regardless of which side of the conflict they are on.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 25, 2013

Pro-Japan Australia vs. China

Australia's foreign policies are a puzzle. It depends on China to take 35 percent of its exports. Yet its government now wants to cooperate with Japan and U.S. in their anti-China policies.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2013

Hotelier lays food scam to staff ignorant of law

Hankyu Hanshin Hotels Co. has been misrepresenting items on its menus for seven years at eateries in at least four prefectures, possibly scamming some 79,000 patrons in the process, and management is blaming the misdeeds on employees ignorant about the law.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 25, 2013

Ferguson open for criticism after revelations in book

It is difficult to judge which produced the bigger laugh in "Sir Alex Ferguson — My Autobiography," launched this week in a manner that makes Hollywood premieres seem like a quiet evening in.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 25, 2013

Say goodbye to plentiful, affordable shrimp

Due to poor production at Asian fish farms, shrimp stocks are shrinking.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 24, 2013

Opposition disparity: No end in sight

The opposition camp is rife with disunity and unable to exert any political say against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party-led government, now that the LDP controls about 60 percent of the Diet.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 24, 2013

German leader calls Obama about alleged cellphone tapping

Furious German officials said Wednesday that U.S. intelligence agencies may have been monitoring German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone, creating a fresh diplomatic headache for President Barack Obama after a week in which other close allies condemned his administration over allegations of other...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 23, 2013

The importance of being Yokoyama

Big exhibitions of famous Japanese artists are usually held on important anniversaries of their birth or death. The Taikan Yokoyama exhibition now on at the Yokohama Museum of Art, however, breaks with this convention. Rather than marking the 150th, 100th or 50th anniversary of the birth or death of...
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2013

Perpetual threat to our survival

Regarding Robert Spalding Oct. 9 article, "Nuclear arms also serve as instruments of peace": Spalding's argument that the possession of nuclear weapons actually helps to maintain peace among states may convince some people, but what he seems to miss is that such deterrence works only in an interstate...
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 23, 2013

Balloon to offer luxury, $75,000 ride to edge of space

There's a new player in the bustling world of "commercial space," although the "space" part is a matter of definition.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 23, 2013

Amid thaw, Iranians debate usefulness of anti-Americanism

Recent moves by the United States to engage the new Iranian government headed by a moderate president has triggered a public debate in the Islamic republic over its national interests, forcing hard-line conservatives to defend Tehran's 34-year-old enmity with Washington.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat