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Japan Times
WORLD / YEAR IN REVIEW 2013
Dec 25, 2013

A look back at the year's top 10 world news stories

Japan Times editors selected these world stories as the most important of 2013.
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Dec 22, 2013

Kyoto aims to be Muslim-friendly city

Kyoto, a city known worldwide as a major center for Buddhism and as the home of some of the country's most famous Shinto shrines, is stepping up efforts to better welcome one particular group of foreign visitors: Muslims.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Dec 15, 2013

To stay here long term, visa seekers need to prove they can pay their way

From finding a residence status that suits your circumstances to signing up a sponsor, getting a visa to stay in Japan for the long term can be a challenge.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 14, 2013

TPP offers early test of how far secrets law will cow Japan's media

Journalist Toshihiro Yamanaka characterizes the TPP talks as 'the most secretive trade negotiations to take place since the end of the 19th century,' an observation supported by classified documents recently released by WikiLeaks showing how the U.S. is pressuring all countries involved in TPP to make sure details of the talks are kept from the public.
EDITORIALS
Dec 14, 2013

Nursing services under the knife

The health and welfare ministry plans to end some services under the nursing care insurance system for people whose conditions are not so severe, and have municipalities take them over.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2013

Two men hanged in latest round of executions

Two death-row inmates are hanged, each for killing two people in a series of crimes ranging from extortion to robbery.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 6, 2013

Diet enacts controversial state secrets bill

The Upper House passes the state secrets bill despite soaring opposition over the lack of an independent oversight body to check the government's decisions.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 3, 2013

Japan's secrets bill turns journalists into terrorists

The Japanese public supports Prime Ministe Shinzo Abe's bid to defeat deflation and stand up to China, but it's not with him on the secrecy bill.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 2, 2013

Ishiba softens criticism of bill protesters

Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba remains critical of public demonstrations despite retracting part of an earlier comment likening protesters to terrorists.
EDITORIALS
Dec 1, 2013

NSC council has dangerous flaws

The Upper House has enacted a law that establishes a Japanese version of the U.S. National Security Council. But there's no guarantee the NSC will contribute to the government's making rational security and diplomatic decisions.
JAPAN / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Nov 30, 2013

Japan: The new Uzbekistan of press freedom in Asia

If you're living in Japan, you may be surprised to know that your right to know has been replaced by the right to remain silent. Shhh ... don't protest. It's practically a done deal.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 26, 2013

Ruling bloc rams secrets bill through Lower House

The ruling coalition forced its contentious state secrets bill through the Lower House on Tuesday evening amid calls from all but one of the opposition forces for further deliberations on its provisions.
EDITORIALS
Nov 25, 2013

Opposition parties fail their duty

By supporting the government's secrecy bill, opposition parties failed their duty to serve as a check on the ruling coalition.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 23, 2013

ACLU seeks termination of NSA's call-records program

Civil liberties advocates on Friday asked a federal court in New York to end the National Security Agency counterterrorism program that collects data on billions of phone calls by Americans, arguing that it violates the Constitution and was not authorized by Congress.
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2013

Ruling camp fends off rewrite of secrets bill

The ruling bloc keeps its contentious state secrets bill intact though it gives the appearance of compromising with Nippon Ishin no Kai to attach minor requirements on government bodies seeking to classify information.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 20, 2013

Tea bowls, simple emblems of power

"Ido Tea Bowls: Treasured Possessions of Muromachi Daimyo," currently showing at the Nezu Museum, presents an array of 72 rare tea bowls that were once owned by renowned warlords, tea masters and Buddhist temples. Produced by country potters in kilns in Korea's South Kyungsang province, these bowls were...
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 19, 2013

Ruling bloc may yield a bit on state secrets bill

The Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc is wooing the opposition camp this week to reach common ground on the contentious state secrets bill that the administration hopes the Lower House passed by Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2013

Ex-Mainichi reporter blasts Abe's push for secrets bill

Takichi Nishiyama, an ex-reporter for the Mainichi Shimbun who uncovered the secret pact on the U.S. return of Okinawa, criticizes Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for trying to centralize power and control information with the state secrets bill.
WORLD
Nov 13, 2013

New fraud probe nets U.S. Navy officials

Federal authorities are investigating three senior navy intelligence officials as part of a probe into an alleged contracting scheme that charged the military $1.6 million for homemade firearms silencers that cost only $8,000 to make, court records show.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Nov 11, 2013

Okinawa: the junk heap of the Pacific

Over the past seven decades, Okinawa's sea, land and air have been contaminated with a cocktail of toxins by the U.S. military that have poisoned Okinawan civilians and U.S. troops alike.
EDITORIALS
Nov 8, 2013

NSC and secrecy bills pose dangers

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policy of 'proactive pacifism' must be stopped before it destroys the Constitution's war-renouncing principle and Japan's traditional defense-only posture.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 8, 2013

Abe's security bill aims to shutter 'spy's paradise'

With the prime minister's Liberal Democrats in strong control of both legislative houses, a bill to undertake the long-overdue modernization of Japan's national-security governance is certain to pass.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2013

Good, bad and ugly hacking

The trial of eight journalists and others accused of hacking private phones has begun in London. It is likely to last some six months and cost millions of pounds in fees to lawyers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 7, 2013

'Seven Psychopaths'

If you think the post-Tarantino hardboiled gangster movie has been done to death, well, wait till you see "Seven Psychopaths." This does to the gangster flick what Dali did to clocks.
WORLD
Nov 6, 2013

U.S. spy agencies out of sync, panel finds

The scientific research efforts of the U.S. intelligence community are poorly coordinated, and agencies have struggled to develop adequate defenses against emerging threats including cyber-attacks, according to a national commission that released its findings Tuesday.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.