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BUSINESS
Apr 29, 2013

GOP shifts budget focus from cuts to tax reform

With another fight over the national debt brewing this summer, congressional Republicans are de-emphasizing their demand for politically painful cuts to retirement programs and focusing on a more popular prize: a thorough rewrite of the U.S. tax code.
EDITORIALS
Apr 25, 2013

Italy turns to Mr. Napolitano, again

Italy could do worse than re-elect 87-year-old Giorgio Napolitano to a second term as president. At least it's one thing dysfunctional politicians agree on.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 20, 2013

Why do we cry? A new reading of the old sob story

When it came to solving the riddle of the peacock's tail, Charles Darwin's powers of evolutionary deduction were second to none — the more extravagant their feathered displays, he reasoned, the greater their chances of attracting a peahen. But when he tried to account for the human propensity to weep,...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 14, 2013

Myanmar's unrest: Colonial legacy undermines nascent democracy

Alarming outbreaks of sectarian violence pitting Buddhists against Muslims in Myanmar cast an ominous cloud over that nation's democratic transition from military rule.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 4, 2013

Nippon Ishin, LDP ally on separate paths

As Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) gears up for this summer's Upper House election, its relationship with New Komeito, especially over constitutional revision, has come under increased pressure.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Apr 2, 2013

Wooden simplicity and pop-color spring fun

Paying tribute to traditional Japanese crafts with a touch of pop sensibility, Jin Kuramoto has produced a really attractive Japanese tea set.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 24, 2013

Abortion controlled by the state

TV personalities, or tarento in the vernacular parlance, wage a never-ending battle against encroaching irrelevance. They impose on our consciousness, and one of the easiest ways to do that without offering a compelling skills set is to exploit personal circumstances that are none of our business. Last...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 17, 2013

History of British intelligence

'Empire of Secrets' is, as Calder Walton himself writes, 'the first book devoted to British intelligence during the twilight of empire that has been based on declassified intelligence reports.'
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 11, 2013

Toxic management erodes safety at 'world's safest' nuclear plant

On Jan. 30, 2012, Byron Nuclear Generating Station lost operability to all of its safety-related equipment. At the time, Jim Hazen was the nuclear station operator responsible for the affected reactor, one of two at the Exelon-owned nuclear plant in Byron, Illinois.
SPORTS / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Mar 3, 2013

Many stories behind names for foreign players in Japan

While Japan and the rest of the baseball universe are deep in the World Baseball Classic fever, the conventional major league and Japanese teams are going about their business getting ready for their respective April 1 and March 29 opening days.
WORLD / Society
Feb 18, 2013

Americans face massive retirement funds shortfall

For the first time since the New Deal, a majority of Americans are headed toward a retirement in which they will be financially worse off than their parents, jeopardizing a long era of improved living standards for the nation's elderly, according to a growing consensus of new research.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 17, 2013

Kanai's provocative, textured 'girls' fiction' wistfully surprises

INDIAN SUMMER, by Mieko Kanai, translated by Tomoko Aoyama and Barbara Hartley. Cornell East Asia Series, 2012, 149 pp., $24 (paperback)
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2013

Five myths about America's immigration 'line'

The 'line' of people seeking citizenship or legal status has become an integral part of the U.S. immigration debate. But there's more than one line.
Reader Mail
Jan 31, 2013

Price of intolerance in a culture

The recent suicide of the Osaka high school basketball team student who had been regularly hit by his coach is a sad manifestation of one aspect of Japanese culture: intolerance. This takes the form of ignoring or excluding those who are deemed undesirable to the group. Often, bullying is involved as...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jan 21, 2013

Parker shines as West wins All-Star Game

Recognized as a dynamic playmaker since entering the bj-league in the 2007-08 season as a member of the run-and-gun Rizing Fukuoka, Michael Parker hauled in four straight regular-season scoring titles into the fledgling circuit's eighth season.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jan 1, 2013

Berlitz union wins raise, bonus in suit settlement

The four-year legal battle between management and teachers at Berlitz Japan was declared over Thursday as both sides signed an agreement to end the company's lawsuit against union officials.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 20, 2012

Harnessing the spirit of Kuniyoshi

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861) belongs to a category of ukiyo-e print artists that have long polarized art historians and connoisseurs for their jarring colors and compositions, cynical depictions of sex and violence, and use of Western pictorial techniques. These so-called "Decadents" were seen to represent...
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 18, 2012

Acne Studios opens house in Japan

They are two cities separated by more than 8,000 km. But despite the geographical distance, a little piece of Stockholm arrived last week in Tokyo — in the form of Asia's first Acne store.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 26, 2012

Notable negatives, funny titles and other linguistic oddities

When I was a wee lad of 4 or 5, I would sneak up on a chair and explore my grandfather's desk, atop of which was situated a curious object: a paperweight featuring the famous three wise monkeys of Nikko. At its base was inscribed the warning: Don't monkey with anything on this desk.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2012

Ishihara rattles saber against China

Shintaro Ishihara, the new head of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), remained true to his China-hawk form Tuesday by saying Japan should "simulate" possessing nuclear arms as a deterrent to Beijing.
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Nov 20, 2012

Emergency announcements

Dear Alice,
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 28, 2012

'Fresh Currents' charts the way to, and from, Fukushima

This month's column is about a book that is very much more than just a book: It is a work of art, a labor of love and a realizable dream of a better future for Japan. But I'm getting ahead of myself ...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 7, 2012

Shigesato Itoi shares lots of 'delicious life'

Shigesato Itoi is an established name in the Japanese cultural scene, but what he is known for may differ depending on who you ask.
SOCCER / J. League / J. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Aug 23, 2012

Slow and steady rise gives Sanfrecce upper hand in title race

There will be many more twists and turns before this season's J. League title is won, but after opening up a four-point gap at the top of the table, the balance of power is steadily shifting Sanfrecce Hiroshima's way.
EDITORIALS
Aug 22, 2012

Mr. Putin's butterflies

Alexander Pope's question — "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" — is as compelling as ever in the wake of the two-year sentences handed down Friday by a Russian court to three young women convicted of hooliganism.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Aug 19, 2012

The air around us is teeming with life — it's just too tiny to see

As I approached the top of Mount Tarumae's western peak, located in Hokkaido's Shikotsu-Toya National Park, for a brief moment I thought an early reward was awaiting me in the form of clusters of ripe blueberries in the bush tops. At first glance it appeared that the bushes were in fruit, and it was...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 13, 2012

'The Lady' / 'Betty Blue'

In cinema, as in music, micro-trends come and go: Will anyone remember "mumblecore" a decade from now? Yet the '80s French movement known as le cinema du look, based on three brash young French directors, has aged remarkably well. Jean-Jacques Beineix ("Diva"), Luc Besson ("Subway"), and Leos Carax ("Mauvais...
EDITORIALS
Jul 4, 2012

Mr. Ozawa needs more than slogan

Former Democratic Party of Japan chief Ichiro Ozawa and 49 other DPJ lawmakers on Monday bolted from the DPJ, which Mr. Ozawa had helped come to power by leading it to a victory in August 2009 Lower House election.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 21, 2012

Discerning purpose beyond power

The rerun of the Greek parliamentary election on June 17 was only the latest symptom of the most serious crisis to plague Western democracies and open societies since the 1960s. Liberal democracies in the West today are struggling to avoid — and in doing so are exacerbating — a crisis of identity,...

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.