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Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 12, 2013

NPO brought Tohoku's foreigners together

A teacher congratulates a Philippine student for acing a Japanese-language test at a local community hall. Her instructor, Kanae Sato, is from Taiwan, and like most of the residents of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, both saw their homes destroyed by tsunami two years ago.
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.
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.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2013

Ending the violence against women and girls

Two teenage girls, from Vietnam and Uganda, have traveled to U.N headquarters to find out what the world is doing to end violence against women.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2013

Venezuela left with good potential

Hugo Chavez changed the political psychology of Venezuela, which now has the potential to be a Saudi Arabia with democracy. That is not a bad thing.
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Mar 10, 2013

Will this be the basho in which Kisenosato claims his first yusho?

When the basho opens today, few rikishi will be as ill-prepared as the two yokozuna: Hakuho and Harumafuji.
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...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Mar 10, 2013

Two years on, Fukushima evacuees seek justice and a normal life

Living in a tiny temporary house isn't all bad.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Mar 10, 2013

Giving the children of Fukushima a place to play is not easy

The Fukushima Aiikuen orphanage sits on 7 hectares of wooded hills — that's about the area of 15 or 16 soccer pitches — on the outskirts of the city of Fukushima. There's an outdoor sports field, a campsite and plenty of lawns for the 91 children living there to play on. In the two years since the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 10, 2013

Providing lessons on nuclear policy

FALLOUT FROM FUKUSHIMA, by Richard Broinowski. Scribe Publications, 2012, 273 pp., A$27.95 (paperback)
EDITORIALS
Mar 10, 2013

Courts send the Diet a message

The Tokyo High Court on March 6 ruled that the apportionment for the Dec. 16 Lower House election was unconstitutional because of the extent of the disparity in single-seat constituency vote values between depopulated rural areas and populated urban ones.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 10, 2013

Embrace the DNA that makes you a mongrel

This month, we celebrate the mongrel, a word that means different things to different people. For some, it may bring to mind nonpedigree dogs, mutts that don't belong to a specific breed; in Japanese, the word is daken, which has the definite negative connotation of a 'skulking cur.'
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Mar 9, 2013

'Kony2012' and the fight for truth in the Internet age

A year ago, Jason Russell was a nobody. Not a nobody, precisely, but just ordinary. Normal. He was a healthy father of two, living in San Diego, and was happy in his work as a director for Invisible Children, a nonprofit organization he'd helped found.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 9, 2013

U.S. improves, renews law on sexual violence

President Barack Obama, flanked by lawmakers and sexual abuse victims, on Thursday signed an updated version of the Violence Against Women Act, a measure that backs state efforts to combat rape and domestic assault and extends new protections to gays and Native Americans.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 9, 2013

The mass slaughter of sharks is unsustainable

The authors of the study, published in the journal Marine Policy, warn that the rate of fishing for sharks, most of which grow slowly and reproduce late in life, is exceeding their ability to recover.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2013

America can't afford the Amtrak train fantasy

The fact that a program as wasteful of taxpayers' money as Amtrak has so many defenders is more evidence why the U.S. budget debates are stuck.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
Mar 8, 2013

Fighters' Yoh enjoying spotlight with Taiwan at WBC

Daikan Yoh was surrounded by a mob befitting a rock star. Most eyes had been trained on the Taiwanese outfielder during his team's practice session at Tokyo Dome on Friday, and finally they'd caught up to him.
EDITORIALS
Mar 8, 2013

Pressing tasks for China's new leaders

Xi Jinping will be elected president of China and Li Keqiang will be named premier during the National People's Congress session that has kicked off.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 7, 2013

There's no battering the Tempura Kidz spirit

The members of Tempura Kidz have danced in front of thousands of strangers at sold-out venues across Japan, including Tokyo's famed Budokan and the Summer Sonic festival. Yet on a Thursday night in a Harajuku office building, the teenage quintet is nervous.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 7, 2013

Recochoku brings Japan further into the stream

Recochoku, a digital content aggregator owned by major Japanese labels, debuted a smartphone-based streaming service called RecoChoku Best on Tuesday. It's due to become available on PCs this summer.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Mar 6, 2013

Tokyo support for 2020 Olympics now at 70 percent: IOC

Support is rising nationwide for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic bid, according to International Olympic Committee officials, and support is now at 70 percent in Tokyo, it was announced.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 6, 2013

AIDS community weighs importance of HIV 'cure'

AIDS researchers, advocacy organizations and global health officials spent Monday trying to determine whether the report that a baby girl born in Mississippi was cured of the infection is a therapeutic breakthrough or a scientific curiosity.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2013

As Abe leans toward TPP, car, insurance sacrifices possible

With Prime Minister Shinzo Abe determined to join negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade pact, the focus has now shifted to how much deregulation Tokyo would have to sacrifice to Washington in the automobile and insurance sectors in exchange for the protection of Japan's politically...
LIFE / Travel / TRAVEL INSIDER
Mar 6, 2013

Jetstar partners with JAL; China Airlines increases Osaka-Kaohsiung flights; Virgin fuel surcharge

Jetstar teams with JAL

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake