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COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Dec 19, 2013

Rift growing between allies

The gut feeling of American military leaderes is that if only to prevent war between the U.S. and China, they don't want Japan's Self-Defense Forces to possess offensive-strike capabilities.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues
Dec 18, 2013

A secrets law for whom? Look who gets a free pass

Ancient Confucian scholars regarded law as a necessary evil, something used on lower orders of people who lacked the moral refinement to act righteously without prompting. Yet this just states a basic truth about law: It is something we do to other people. You and I know how to act properly, right? It's...
EDITORIALS
Dec 18, 2013

WTO breakthrough in Bali

Meeting with trade ministers in Bali, Indonesia, the World Trade Organization has concluded its first trade reform agreement despite last-minute threats from Cuba and India. It is a moment to savor, but it is just a start.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 18, 2013

Tokyo: If you could be prime minister for a day, what would you do?

Top concerns for would-be PMs around the metropolis: Fukushima, demographics, women in the workplace, the consumption tax, education, energy, English — and beer.
Reader Mail
Dec 18, 2013

Space to join research networks

Jeremy Rappleye's Dec. 13 article, "Higher-education stimulus would be sure bet for Japan," is right to point out that "internationalization" cannot just mean importing foreign faces onto Japanese campuses. It must involve expanding the scope for all Japan-based faculty and students to operate internationally....
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 17, 2013

Pope misunderstands the power of free markets

Pope Francis, unlike his more diplomatic predecessors, is said to engage the world in the style of after-dinner conversation. As a result, his recent remarks about the power of free markets seemed vague or poorly considered.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / NOTEBOOK
Dec 17, 2013

Color Run comes to Tokyo; Arashi joins tourism push

IMG Worldwide, the global sports, fashion and media company, and The Color Run, a unique 5-km paint race series, will hold its popular event in Japan next year sponsored by New Balance.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2013

Hapless qualities for which Obama will be remembered

The wars that he has not ended and the moral climate he has sustained in American government will be the remembered qualities of Barack Obama's presidency. This seems a disheartening.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 16, 2013

Radioactive waste: a now and forever threat?

In recent months, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has rekindled the public debate on atomic power, drawing attention to perhaps the most critical question about its future: Is there a safe place and way to dispose of high-level radioactive waste?
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Dec 16, 2013

India gang rapes rise despite growing awareness

The chauffeur's boss was out of town, so the driver called a friend and said "Let's have some fun" — which police say meant finding a woman to rape.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2013

Deceptive rice price reforms viewed as too late for industry

Toru Wakui has defied the government's “gentan” rice production controls since the 1970s, but the farm ministry's plans to abolish them haven't made him any happier.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Dec 15, 2013

The war on katakana starts at school

Eliminating katakana's use as a pronunciation aide would benefit Japanese students' ability to communicate, but that clearly can't be achieved overnight. However, it's still worth putting up a 'faito.'
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 15, 2013

What would the president, pope and Jesus do about the growing gap between rich and poor?

The week before last Pope Francis and U.S. President Barack Obama separately weighed on what each would do about the growing gap between the rich and poor. The pontiff was more moral and dramatic, while the president had to couch his analysis in American self-interest.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 14, 2013

It's not enough to simply add a woman to the board

Twitter, which has garnered worldwide attention for bad corporate governance practices, should do more than add a women to its board. It should fully diversify its management.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 14, 2013

NSA can crack cellphone security, decode private conversations

The cellphone encryption technology that is used most widely across the world can be easily defeated by the National Security Agency, an internal document shows, giving the agency the means to decode most of the billions of calls and texts that travel over public airwaves every day.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Dec 13, 2013

For Canadian traveler, last-minute meeting led to change of heart and new start in Japan

Michelle Takahashi works as an English teacher at a school for families who hope to raise their children in bilingual and multi-cultural environments. Together with Toru, a systems engineer at an IT-related U.S. company, and their two sons, she now lives in Kodaira, western Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2013

The dawning of Pakistan's political renaissance?

Executive authority in Pakistan, a country long prone to military coup, increasingly is in the hands of elected representatives, rather than dispersed among various competing institutions. The political establishment has been revitalized.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2013

Curbing Tehran's ambitions

A sober second look at the deal on Iran's nuclear program signed in Geneva on Nov. 24 suggests that it is neither a historic breakthrough nor a historic mistake. It is welcome, though, because it suspends Iran's march toward weapons and the West's march to another war.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 13, 2013

Bike-riding bureaucracy may threaten the classic 'obāchan dismount'

The new regulation decrees that bicycles must be ridden on the left side of the road, in the direction of the flow of traffic. Seems logical, doesn't it? But no one has said how this will prevent accidents or make anything safer; we're just presuming it will.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Dec 11, 2013

The year in labor: the Top 5 pains of 2013

For Japan's workers, the last 12 months have been a mixed bag. The Top 5 Labor Pains of 2013 will focus on what really shook things up in terms of labor relations and employment law.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 11, 2013

Tokyo: Where do you get your news fix from?

NHK, The Japan Times, 2channel, Nihon TV . . . Fox? Tokyoites look to a wide range of sources to sate their thirst for news.
WORLD
Dec 11, 2013

Prominent Syrian activist missing

One of the most prominent figures in the peaceful protest movement that swept Syria early in the country's uprising was reported missing Tuesday from a rebel-controlled suburb of Damascus, prompting suspicions she is among the scores of civilian activists and journalists who have been detained by Islamist...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2013

Mandela's final step to freedom

Nelson Mandela's life had many parallels with that of Mahatma Gandhi. Above all, Mandela was an eternal optimist who believed in the possibility of improvement and progress by appealing to the better angels of our nature.

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