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Mar 19, 2014

Ishigaki replaces Fukuhara for worlds

An unexpected phone call turned out to be surprising, but a pleasant one for Yuka Ishigaki when the 24-year-old table tennis player learned she would replace the injured Ai Fukuhara in the upcoming Japan Table 2014, the World Team Table Tennis Championships.
EDITORIALS
Mar 19, 2014

A sign from North Korea

Last week's meeting in Ulan Bator between the parents of 1977 Japanese abductee Megumi Yokota and Megumi's North Korean daughter could be a sign that Pyongyang wants to resolve the abduction issue and end its diplomatic isolation.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2014

Yokota couple: Meeting a 'miracle'

The parents of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Korean agents in 1977, say their dramatic meeting in Mongolia last week with her 26-year-old daughter was 'like a miracle' and they were also very happy to see her 10-month-old baby, both for the first time.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 17, 2014

U.S. military report suggests cover-up over toxic pollution in Okinawa

Perhaps the most serious concern raised in the internal U.S. military report is the fear that PCB contamination at Kadena — if made public — would prompt demands for widespread tests on other U.S. bases.
BUSINESS / Economy / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Mar 15, 2014

Economy can do without structural reform

While critics of "Abenomics" begrudgingly agree Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policy package has been a success so far, they are equally quick to highlight its looming headwinds.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Mar 14, 2014

Dahl still drawing on the joys and absurdities of expat life

For over 20 years, Roger Dahl has been making Japan Times readers laugh — and think — with his Opinion Page political cartoons and “Zero Gravity” comic strip, which pokes gentle fun at the foreign experience in this country.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 14, 2014

Culture of safety can make or break nuclear power plants

On the third anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and its devastating impact on Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima nuclear power plants, we need to understand why Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s Onagawa Nuclear Power Station — which was even closer to the quake epicenter — had a drastically different fate.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Mar 12, 2014

J. League and media must show red card to racism

On Saturday, during their J. League match against Sagan Tosu at Saitama Stadium, some Urawa Reds fans hung a 'Japanese only' banner over an entrance to the stands.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 12, 2014

Abe pitches trilateral meet to kick-start chilly ties with Seoul

The government is trying to arrange a trilateral summit with South Korea and the United States for this month in a bid to thaw Tokyo's frozen relations with Seoul, an official said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2014

Reactors still feared despite new rules

The cost of restarting Japan's nuclear power plants: ¥1.3 trillion and counting.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 10, 2014

There is a giant serving of culture in one bowl of rice

Rice. A bland, white carbohydrate? Staple food that forms the nourishing core of every meal? A crop that has molded culture and society? Or primal sustenance imbued with mystic life force of the gods?
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Mar 10, 2014

Mathieson ready for action after refreshing offseason

If there was one thing Scott Mathieson enjoyed about the offseason, it was the family time.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 9, 2014

Thai crisis puts Japanese companies on notice

With Japanese investors already nervous about the domestic recession, the global economic recovery and competition with China, Thailand's political crisis threatens to spur a dangerous outflow of Japanese capital.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 8, 2014

Media complicit in normalizing xenophobia

Since Japanese reporters are averse to characterizing domestic right-wing positions as being extreme, those positions come across as being normal, even sensible.
EDITORIALS
Mar 7, 2014

Don't reopen old wounds

If the Abe administration tries to weaken or scrap the 1993 'Kono statement,' the perception is likely to strengthen in the international community that it is bent on whitewashing Japan's wartime behavior and, even today, lacks respect for the honor and dignity of women.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 7, 2014

Job market set to overheat with labor shortage

Kazufumi Yamamoto is having such a hard time finding waiters and sushi chefs to fill jobs at Ganko Food Service Co. that he's going to boost wages for the first time in more than a decade.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2014

Indonesia's economy growing steadily

Indonesian politicians and business experts, along with their Japanese counterparts, discussed investment opportunities in Southeast Asia's most populous country at a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 6, 2014

All-genre focus is the key to Art Fair Tokyo's success

It is difficult to criticize Art Fair Tokyo, the commercial art fair that celebrates its ninth edition at Tokyo International Forum in Yurakucho this weekend. Truth be told, it's a wonder that the event has reached nine editions at all, what with the inherent fickleness of the art market and Japan's...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 6, 2014

Osaka challenges Tokyo with tallest skyscraper

Japan's tallest building will open Friday in Osaka, as Asia's third-biggest metropolitan economy aims to lure tourists and stem businesses from moving to Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Mar 5, 2014

Much more than mere vandalism

Although most of more than 300 copies of 'Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl' and other Holocaust-related publications recently discovered vandalized in Tokyo and Yokohama libraries have been replaced, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department should leave no stone unturned in its effort to find those responsible for the acts.
EDITORIALS
Mar 5, 2014

Move cautiously in TPP talks

Ministers from Japan, the U.S. and 10 other Pacific-Rim countries again have failed to reach broad agreement on terms of their Trans-Pacific Partnership, but that's no reason for Japan to become less cautious about the talks, which have the potential to change the very fabric of Japanese society.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 5, 2014

Nomura's 'Don Quixote' enlists comedy to counter today's real foes

"Whenever I am creating a new play here at Setagaya Public Theatre, I aim for something that's as universal as all those kyōgen (traditional comic theater) or noh classics that are as vivid now as when they were first staged 600 years ago. If it isn't like that, it won't reach an international audience,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2014

Kishida prods Tehran counterpart on Iran nuclear program

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida met with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Wednesday in Tokyo and urged him to continue making efforts to reach a final agreement with the Western powers on Tehran's controversial nuclear program.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 3, 2014

Independent NHK chained to Diet leash

NHK, which is often compared with the BBC in the U.K., has been a focus of public attention and intense criticism in recent weeks. Many people are taking a closer look at the public broadcaster, including its history and whether it has been politically influenced by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's right-leaning...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 3, 2014

Why does the LDP prefer the GOP?

What is the justification for the Liberal Democratic Party's strange preference for America's Republican Party over the years? The two parties have little in common.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Mar 1, 2014

Fat men frolic, Jews to be treated equally, U.S. ambassador stabbed, new sales tax a headache

Twenty-five fat members of the House of Representatives with two Government delegates and two journalists, each of whom weighs more than 165 pounds (75 kg), sat at a dinner at the Fukuiro, Yanokura, Ryogoku, on Monday evening.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2014

Problems with 'Abenomics'

The economic recovery we see in Japan now is almost entirely due to the massive 30 percent depreciation of the yen. We are back to the 'structural reform' vicious circle of the Koizumi years.
Reader Mail
Feb 26, 2014

Cause of Chinese, Korean anger

I quite agree with Michael Hoffman's The Living Past article on Feb. 16, "Once upon a time, China anointed a 'King of Japan.' " Historically speaking, China believes it is the great master, Korea is a first disciple and Japan is a second disciple. Actually, before the Meiji Era (1868-1911), culture or...

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