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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 5, 2014

Off the beaten path on Japan's paper trail

At a little roadside store in rural Nagano, a foreign tourist is miming a rice bowl with her cupped left hand. Firm in the belief that Japanese washi (paper — wa meaning Japanese and shi meaning paper) was made from rice, she waves her flattened right hand across the "bowl," miming her desire for "sheets"...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 1, 2014

Critics: What defines the conditions for military force?

Japan is at a historic crossroads in amending its long-held pacifist defense posture, a move that it may never reverse, and critics charge that the Abe administration's criteria for exercising the right to collective self-defense will prove ineffective.
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 21, 2014

Abe hijacks democracy, undermines Constitution

By short-circuiting the democratic process, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is abusing the trust put in him by the people. His initiative to reinterpret Article 9 of the Constitution to lift constraints on the Japanese military and permit collective self-defense is the most recent example of how Abe is trampling...
JAPAN / Politics
May 27, 2014

Abe moves to boost control of bureaucrats

The government has decided to create a new body that's seen as a political maneuver by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to tighten his grip on powerful government bureaucrats.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 15, 2014

Pacifism at a crossroads following panel's verdict

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe takes a major stride toward his goal of ending Japan's pacifist stance and orders the ruling parties to open talks on legalizing collective self-defense.
JAPAN / Politics
May 9, 2014

Wiser Abe Cabinet logs record 500 days in office

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet on Friday marked the 500th day since its inception in December 2012, extending its record as the longest-serving lineup in the postwar era.
EDITORIALS
Apr 23, 2014

Resuscitating Japan-China ties

It's high time leaders of Japan and China stopped fanning the flames of narrow-minded nationalism and started talking to each other in an effort to put bilateral relations back on track.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 8, 2014

Kamikazes live on at their Chiran base

As a child growing up in California in the 1980s, I learned my share of Japanese words. Sushi, which my family would get for a treat on birthdays. Mochi (chewy rice cake), ramen and karaoke — all encountered at the Japanese shopping arcade downtown.
Reader Mail
Nov 27, 2013

A tale of two untimely deaths

William Andrews' Nov. 19 article "Wife fights decades-long battle to free activist leader," underscores the typical treatment of a death, or a human life, because a riot police member trumps a citizen. On the one hand a poor policeman, dispatched to Shibuya from Niigata was fatally set afire by demonstrators...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 4, 2013

Diet reform paralyzed by hypocritical habits

Indecision is a much-criticized feature of Japanese politics. Diet sessions are rife with unproductive wrangling as the ruling and opposition camps dispute the timing of the submission of bills while avoiding constructive discussions on them.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Oct 24, 2013

Uruguay stoked to legalize marijuana production

Uruguay is about to go where no country has gone before by legalizing the cultivation and distribution of marijuana, with the left-of-center government regulating all facets of the trade.
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2013

Turn Japanese-Korean ties around

The chilly state of diplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea threatens to harm security cooperation among the two countries and the United States.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 1, 2013

April to see sales tax hike, Abe confirms

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe goes ahead with raising the consumption tax while also offering a ¥5 trillion stimulus package to offset the negative impact on consumer spending.
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 28, 2013

Camera artist casts new light on Jomon millennia

The Jomon Period of Japanese history is so shrouded in the mists of time that any bid to fathom its secrets stretches even the usual bounds of prehistoric archeology. Yet as amateurs and experts alike have continued unearthing examples of Jomon pottery and stone tools for more than a century, the pieces of the puzzle are gradually coming together.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 9, 2013

Renovating business and hope in Onomichi

The city of Onomichi in the southeastern part of Hiroshima Prefecture, which looks out to the Seto Inland Sea, has a rich and long tradition as a hub of trade. During the Edo Period (1603-1867), it prospered as a key docking point for domestic ships peddling goods, and from the early 20th century it...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2013

Why U.S. government is afraid of itself

The U.S. war on leaks has degenerated to a government deliberately destroying its property to keep its staffers from catching sight of publicly available information.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Aug 19, 2013

Officials search for fortune of Chun Doo-hwan, South Korea's last dictator

South Korea's last dictator lives in an L-shaped mansion protected by 5-meter stone walls and a plainclothes security team. He almost never goes outside, his longtime lawyer says, given the scrutiny he would face. Highlighting the extent of change in the nation he once ruled, Chun Doo-hwan is whiling...
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 17, 2013

China hit by rash of fake officials peddling 'power'

He had the swagger and trappings of a senior party cadre, and a natural authority that made him hard to contradict. The walls of his office in the heart of the Chinese capital were adorned with photographs of him next to retired generals and government officials. He drove a top of the range Audi and...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Aug 5, 2013

Iran's Rouhani sworn in as president, vows shift in relations with West

U.S. diplomatic posts in 19 cities in the Muslim world will be closed through the end of the week as a precaution, the State Department announces.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Jul 19, 2013

Does U.S. agency's new office represent the workplace of the future?

The U.S. agency that manages nearly 35 million sq. meters of federal office space is moving back to its newly renovated headquarters in central Washington, where its employees are finding that their personal real estate footprint has been radically altered.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 3, 2013

Opposition directly attacks 'Abenomics'

Opposition parties took aim Wednesday at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic policies, only to give the Liberal Democratic Party chief another chance to play up his administration's "achievements" over the last six months.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jul 2, 2013

The LDP constitution, article by article: a preview of things to come?

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing for constitutional change. Yet he is playing the political huckster by proposing to first only fiddle with the amendment procedure in Article 96, lowering the threshold for the process to move forward from the approval of two-thirds of both houses of the Diet, as...
JAPAN / Politics
May 23, 2013

As Hashimoto self-destructs, party also reels

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's remarks justifying the wartime 'comfort women' brothel system have caused major parties to distance themselves from his Nippon Ishin no Kai.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
May 4, 2013

Master craftsman carries on sashimono tradition

On the floor of an eight-tatami workshop sits master craftsman Yoshio Inoue in a spot he has occupied for decades. His atedai, the long, low slab of wood that serves as a workbench, is in front of him, and within easy reach are scores of tools — chisels, planes, hammers, saws, clamps and other implements...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WEEK 3
Apr 21, 2013

Closing time for an old-style watchmaker winding up his career

As cotton-thick snow falls on St. Catherine Street in the heart of the province of Quebec's largest city, Iwao Tsumura works away in his dingy second-floor shop.
Reader Mail
Apr 4, 2013

English-teaching issues revisited

The March 31 editorial, "Testing English versus teaching it," again raises many old issues, except for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) requirement proposed by the Liberal Democratic Party panel on education.

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.