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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
May 28, 2013

Want more out of Japan but face doesn't fit? Be TOFITR

I recently served as a "private sector representative" in a panel discussion before an audience of foreign graduate students at the University of Tokyo. Many of the students will soon be seeking employment in Japan; because I have spent 25 years living in or traveling to Japan, the last 10 or so running...
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2013

Contradictions live in Iran-India's tangled web

Natural parks in the Tohoku-Pacific coastal region devastated by the 3/11 disasters are being reorganized into the new Sanriku Restoration National Park.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 27, 2013

Oyaji gyagu, more than just cheesy puns

Stop me if you've heard this one. Two men aged around 50 enter a sushi restaurant. One orders a raincoat, the other a garage. What looks like the beginning of a "Monty Python" sketch is in fact the stuff of a most typical oyaji gyagu (おやじギャグ), or old man's joke/gag. Such jokes normally center...
COMMENTARY / World
May 27, 2013

The irresponsible part of the debt-growth row

Stanford economist calls rival economist Paul Krugman's notion that the U.S. can wait 10 to 15 years to start dealing with deficits and debt 'beyond irresponsible.'
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 26, 2013

Kan Yasuda's tactile art brings new life to Bibai

Kan Yasuda's art somehow draws in the landscape, and entices in people, so that it is natural to explore the view through his structures and keyholes, to sit awhile atop a sculpture or to pose within their frames.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 26, 2013

Mr. Abe: Bag the nukes and heed the Keeling Curve

Dear Prime Minister Abe,
Japan Times
WORLD
May 25, 2013

Driverless cars, pilotless planes ... will there be jobs left for us?

Suddenly a robotized, automated economic reality is moving off the science fiction pages and into daily life. The growing use of unmanned battlefield drones is encouraging the growth of pilotless commercial aircraft — the first ever flew in British airspace last month. Google's driverless car is completing...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 25, 2013

English education and English sheepdogs

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe aims to globalize Japan's workforce and says that Japan must become more competitive in the English language. This has touched off a debate among native English teachers, Japanese who teach English, Japanese speakers who don't speak English, and English sheepdogs owned by both...
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2013

Why U.K. exit from EU may now be a real possibility

The realization hits a recent visitor to the U.K. that Britain might actually leave the EU. Attitudes are hardening well ahead of a promised referendum on membership.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 25, 2013

Africa's Lincoln or a tyrant exploiting Rwanda's tragic story?

Paul Kagame is angrier than I've ever seen him. Rwanda's president is famously direct with his critics. His contempt for governments he's crossed swords with, led by the French, is only marginally less vitriolic than his view of human-rights groups daring to lecture him, the rebel leader whose army put...
Japan Times
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
May 23, 2013

Kagawa can become United star despite frustrating first season

Shinji Kagawa's debut season at Manchester United was a quiet one, but if luck goes his way the forward can play a major role for the Premier League champions next term.
Reader Mail
May 23, 2013

Perfect material for bullying

Regarding Kaori Shoji's May 13 article, "It ain't easy being a bilingual girl": I agree that bilingual Japanese face obstacles today as they did 30 years ago.
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2013

Why China's developmental state says no to liberalism

Modern history is the story of how liberal democracy, originating in Britain and America, spread around the world. This may sound like an absurd fantasy. In actuality, this Whiggish narrative of progress underpins most newspaper editorials, political commentary and speeches in the West, and frames larger...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 22, 2013

Osaka takes plunge with canal pool

If an Osaka company has its way, getting roaring drunk and jumping, or falling, into Dotonbori Canal after either a Hanshin Tigers victory or a wild night out in neighboring Shinsaibashi will be less risky, healthwise, but it will no longer be free.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 22, 2013

Yahoo's Tumblr deal carries risks, rewards

Yahoo has concluded that Tumblr, the social blogging service, is worth a whopping $1.1 billion. Will the bet prove a good one?
SPORTS / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
May 22, 2013

Costas lamer than the young Astros

It must irk major leaguers to no end when a media twerp like MLB-TV's Bob Costas ? the type who has never worn a protective cup ? makes snarky, disparaging remarks about their playing abilities.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
May 21, 2013

Ambivalent Japan turns on its 'insular' youth

Japan's decision to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade negotiations shows that at least some in government have accepted the fact that 'opening up' Japan is in the nation's best long-term interests.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
May 21, 2013

Abe continues to be steadying force for Giants

The Yomiuri Giants have won the last 37 times Shinnosuke Abe has homered at Tokyo Dome.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 21, 2013

New Delhi cracks down on foreign-funded NGOs

Amid an intensifying crackdown on nongovernmental groups that receive foreign funding, Indian activists are accusing the government of stifling their right to dissent in the world's largest democracy.
EDITORIALS
May 21, 2013

Window on China's defense policy

China's critics are usually disappointed by its annual white paper on national defense. Beijing's eighth white paper since 1998 is notable for its view of U.S. policy.
EDITORIALS
May 20, 2013

Tsuruga reactor's active fault

The identification of a geological fracture zone beneath a Tsuruga nuclear plant reactor as an active fault may force the decommissioning of the reactor in Fukui Prefecture.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2013

France must lead breakup of euro

For France and for the euro system, the best strategy is to dismantle the monetary union from the top — via the exit of Germany and the other most competitive countries.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 19, 2013

Surviving dangerous encounters

In "The Lion's Game" (2000) and "The Lion" (2010), Nelson DeMille's character NYPD Detective John Corey battles and defeats Asad Khalil, a brilliant Libyan terrorist who infiltrates the U.S. to extract revenge for the deaths of family members killed in a U.S. air raid on Tripoli.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
May 18, 2013

'Abenomics' turns Japan into global investor target

Investors are more confident in a Japanese leader than any time since at least September 2010, with optimism about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policies exceeding that for counterparts in the U.S., Europe and China.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 17, 2013

11 women in Diet decry Hashimoto

A bipartisan group of female lawmakers Thursday called for Osaka Mayor and Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) coleader Toru Hashimoto to retract and apologize for his abrasive comments justifying the sexual enslavement of females during the war and suggesting that U.S. servicemen in Okinawa...
WORLD / Politics
May 17, 2013

Tensions between Obama administration, news media reach boiling point

It was an article of faith among conservatives before Sen. Barack Obama became president, and has persisted through his re-election: America's first black president and the supposedly liberal mainstream media enjoy a veritable love fest.
EDITORIALS
May 17, 2013

'The Lion' roars again

The election of Nawaz Sharif to his third term as prime minister marks the first peaceful transition among civilian governments in Pakistan's history.

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