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JAPAN / Politics
Apr 1, 2014

Abe eases weapons export rules

The Cabinet approves eased principles and guidelines for weapons exports, ending a strict ban that lasted nearly 50 years as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sets the stage for Japan to play a more active role in global security.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 28, 2014

Anniversary of NATO's Kosovo airstrikes fuels Russian cries of hypocrisy

Russian television this past week has blasted viewers with 15-year-old footage of NATO bombing raids, burning buildings and wounded people in the Balkans to step up a media campaign against the West over the Crimea crisis.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2014

Nuclear peril should galvanize Asian leadership

This week leaders from around the world gather in the Netherlands at the third Nuclear Security Summit to discuss and agree on actions that should be taken to reduce nuclear risks in Asia and elsewhere.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 14, 2014

Lithuania won't recognize Crimea referendum: envoy

As Sunday's referendum in Ukraine's Crimea approaches, the visiting Lithuanian foreign minister called Russia's de facto occupation of the territory an act of aggression against a sovereign nation and said the Baltic state will not recognize the election results.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Mar 6, 2014

Big power talks on Ukraine crisis make little progress

High-level diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in Ukraine made little apparent headway at talks in Paris on Wednesday with Moscow and Washington at odds and Russia's foreign minister refusing to recognize his Ukrainian counterpart.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2014

Color-coding won't explain mess in Thailand

Recent developments in Thailand may put paid to the international media's tendency to make sense of the protests by describing the 'red shirts' as representing the poor and the 'yellow shirts' as the elite.
EDITORIALS
Feb 5, 2014

Stalemate in Syria

The first round of Syrian peace talks began in controversy, proceeded in the most formal of terms, then concluded after a week with a whimper. A second round is uncertain.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2013

No Chinese jets scrambled: Japan

Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera denies China's claim it scrambled fighter jets in response to Self-Defense Forces aircraft entering its new air defense zone.
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2013

Tokyo cries foul over China's declaration of air defense zone

Beijing's setting up an air defense identification zone over a section of the East China Sea violates a basic rule under international law and is a 'very dangerous' move that could lead to 'an unexpected event,' a high-ranking Japanese official warns.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 27, 2013

Rajapaksa: Sri Lanka's affable authoritarian?

Down in the deep south of Sri Lanka, where life usually moves at a leisurely pace, there is one small town that is less tranquil. Hambantota — population 20,000 — is expanding fast. There is a vast new deepwater port, built with $360 million of borrowed Chinese cash; a new 35,000-seat cricket stadium;...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 12, 2013

Myanmar takes helm of ASEAN while sectarian violence persists

Myanmar last week took the baton from the Sultan of Brunei, assuming the rotating chair in 2014 of Asia's most important regional organization, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
EDITORIALS
Oct 6, 2013

Japan must go green

In releasing the first part of its fifth assessment report on Sept. 27, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that temperatures are likely to rise by 0.3 to 4.8 degrees Celsius and sea levels could rise by 26 to 82 cm by the end of the 21st century compared with the latest 20 years.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Aug 29, 2013

West missed chances to cut arsenal

The United States and its allies may be headed for a war that they could have tried harder to prevent.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 9, 2013

The Central African Republic abandoned to its violent fate

It was dusk when armed Seleka rebels dragged the teenager from the road leading north toward Kobe. They pulled her into the jungle and raped her for several hours. Her friend, Lisa Moussa, 17, was more fortunate. As soon as she saw the rebels, she began running. They tried to kill her, shooting until...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / ANALYSIS
Jun 29, 2013

Tokyo 2020's chances looking good

The much-anticipated IOC 2020 Evaluation Commission Report, which was made public on Tuesday, shines the spotlight on the strengths and weaknesses of the three candidate cities.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2013

A U.S. 'pivot' to Latin America is long overdue

While the Obama administration and the media have made much ado about the U.S. 'pivot' to Asia, China has been lining up economic allies in Latin America.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jun 4, 2013

By opening up the debate to the real experts, Hashimoto did history a favor

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto has been busy making headlines around the world with his controversial views on Japan's wartime sex slaves (or "comfort women," for those who like euphemisms with their history). Among other things, he claimed there is no evidence that the Japanese government sponsored the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2013

Projected baby boom needs immediate action

With one-third of the world's children in 2050 predicted to be born in Africa, the international community must invest in their parents now, not down the road, UNICEF's executive director said in an interview with The Japan Times.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 25, 2013

Africa's Lincoln or a tyrant exploiting Rwanda's tragic story?

Paul Kagame is angrier than I've ever seen him. Rwanda's president is famously direct with his critics. His contempt for governments he's crossed swords with, led by the French, is only marginally less vitriolic than his view of human-rights groups daring to lecture him, the rebel leader whose army put...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
May 14, 2013

Inose's slurs anger, bemuse Turks in Tokyo but may boost Istanbul's Olympic bid

It's prayer time at Tokyo's biggest mosque and the congregation is pondering God, community and Naoki Inose, the city's governor, who many here say has revealed himself to be, well, a bit of a bigot.
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2013

Barren legal ground for U.S. airstrikes in Syria

Would the U.S. have any legal justification for launching airstrikes against Syrian government radars, antiaircraft sites and air bases — and killing civilians?
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2013

Cyprus mess portends unsafe world for deposits

The controversy over a Cyprus bailout plan the past week raises fears that future financial crises in Europe will trigger bank runs by worried depositors.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2013

Leaders we can trust again

Leaders with a compelling vision whom we can trust again could turn back the tide of public cynicism in democratic governance. But where are they
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 8, 2013

Nakao nominated to head ADB

Japan announced Thursday that it will nominate its top currency official, Takehiko Nakao, to head the Asian Development Bank as Haruhiko Kuroda prepares to step down to lead the Bank of Japan.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 21, 2013

From ADB to BOJ: a 'twofer' for Abe?

As President Barack Obama struggles to get his Defense and Treasury choices in place, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has his own personnel challenges.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jan 22, 2013

Readers' views: Skype's downside for teachers; Senkaku and the ICJ; Arudou's ageist attack on Keene; Abe's nuclear folly

Do we really need to know ages? Re: "Osaka: What are your hopes for yourself, Japan and the world in 2013?" (Views From The Street, Jan. 1):
CULTURE
Jan 17, 2013

Audie Bock interviews Oshima at Cannes

The award for "Best Direction" at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival actually caps the achievement of a decade for Japan's Nagisa Oshima. His latest film, "Ai no Borei (Empire of Passion)," a ghostly story of doomed love, saw its world premiere as Japan's official entry in the most important international...
EDITORIALS
Jan 1, 2013

Back to the future for Japan?

As the new year kicks off and the coalition government of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito gets into full swing, Japan will see a drastic change in the direction of policies set by the DPJ government during its rule of three years and three months. It will not be a new direction, however, but...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 13, 2012

Avoiding a sectarian split in the Middle East

As the Assad regime hurtles toward deserved collapse in Syria, I often think back to a warning I received from a friend 18 months ago. I was serving then as the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad and was focused on Iraqi problems. But my confidant, an Iraqi Kurd with a strong commitment to a unified, multisectarian...
COMMENTARY
Sep 8, 2012

Tokyo-Seoul: enough is enough!

Enough is enough! Obviously, the political leadership in Tokyo and Seoul never learned about the First Rule of Holes: When you find yourself in one, stop digging. Each side seems to be going out of its way to make a bad situation worse, even while providing private assurances that it won't let the situation...

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Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?