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Japan Times
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2015
Jan 21, 2015

Spreading culture through cuisine

"One of the easiest and most effective ways to understand a culture is through its food," said Yoshiko Nishihama, owner of Zurich's Nishi Shop, a store specializing in Japanese imports and an affiliated company of Japan Restaurant Bimi in Zurich. "That's why, as representatives of Japan, we take our...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Jan 17, 2015

'Refugees should have the same opportunities in life as everyone else'

What do Nobel laureate Albert Einstein, composer Frederic Chopin, war photographer Robert Capa and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud have in common? They were all refugees.
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 10, 2015

The people's Emperor speaks truth to power

Emperor Akihito began the new year with a statement that pointedly referred to two major controversies: war memory and nuclear energy. His thoughts on these demonstrate why he is so admired by the public and underscore the crucial role the 81-year-old monarch plays in contemporary Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Jan 7, 2015

Never mind the facts — logic alone demolishes 'comfort women' deniers' case

Never mind all the living and documentary proof — the idea that 'comfort women' were somehow exempt from wartime coercion and organization is absurd.
Japan Times
JAPAN / 70 YEARS OF PEACE AND PROSPERITY
Jan 4, 2015

Patriotic few battle addiction to peace

The Japanese school system's treatment of modern history is so slipshod that having a rational debate on the need for war is nearly impossible, young nationalists say.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 3, 2015

Revisiting controversy in the Year of the Sheep

The year 2015 will not be a quiet one for Japan or its people as the region marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the Fifteen Year War (1931-45), the Pacific War (1941-45) and Japanese colonialism in Korea and Taiwan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Jan 3, 2015

Debate over WW1 role; 21 Nazis snatched off Yokohama; new Red China policy adopted; Nagasaki mayor shot

100 YEARS AGOTuesday, Jan. 26, 1915
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jan 1, 2015

Hate, muzzle and poll: a top 10 of issues for 2014

A recap of the top 10 human-rights news events affecting non-Japanese (NJ) in Japan last year.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jan 1, 2015

Readers' letters: Roppongi, Ferguson, 'Massan,' Julien Blanc and more

Some emails received in response to Community articles at the tail end of 2014.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 27, 2014

Business as usual or an energy revolution?

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party won a snap election two weeks ago that caught opposition parties and the public off guard. The result was a record low turnout in which the LDP lost several seats, but kept a two-thirds majority in the Lower House.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / SYMPOSIUM ON EUROZONE
Dec 24, 2014

Experts examine eurozone economy

The European economy is in a complicated situation as deflationary risks loom and the effects of quantitative easing are questioned. Other factors add to the risk as Russia, a resurgent power that wields strong influence on the eurozone, is suffering from economic sanctions over its actions in Ukraine....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 23, 2014

Still haunted by WWII, Asia looks for Abe atonement in 2015

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's election victory means he will helm Japan into the 70th anniversary of its World War II defeat in 2015, a watershed year that will set the tone for Tokyo's fraught ties with Beijing and Seoul.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 20, 2014

The good, and not-so-good, reads from 2014

I was lucky enough to read a number of good and informative books on Japan in 2014, but also read my share of clunkers.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Dec 9, 2014

Historian seeks to clear embassy of Pearl Harbor 'sneak attack' infamy

Dec. 7 has never been an ordinary day for Takeo Iguchi. On that day 73 years ago, when Imperial Japanese Navy warplanes attacked Pearl Harbor, he was in Washington, the 11-year-old son of Sadao Iguchi, counselor at the Japanese Embassy there.
EDITORIALS
Dec 4, 2014

Weighing Abe's Asian diplomacy

Japanese voters should consider the results of the Abe adminisration's diplomatic moves with regard to South Korea and China, when they cast their votes Dec. 14.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Dec 3, 2014

Time to burst your bubble and face reality

Facing the reality of their perpetual second-class caste status would force non-Japanese residents to admit that they traded their entire life for something that they ultimately found no stake in.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 1, 2014

A vote for Abe is no gamble

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is almost certain to receive a voter mandate, not least because he lacks credible opponents.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues
Nov 12, 2014

Mayor blazes trail with radical child-friendly vision for local government

Every time I try to read or write about local government in Japan I get so easily distra— say, is that paint drying over there? You see the problem?!
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Nov 7, 2014

Readers' letters: carrying ID, subway 'saviors,' JA rackets, Taiji alternatives and goats

A selection of emails received in response to recent Community articles.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / ROBERT WHITING'S 1964 OLYMPICS RETROSPECTIVE
Oct 17, 2014

Schollander, Hayes were spectacular at Tokyo Games

The 1964 Tokyo Olympics had a profound impact on the capital city and the nation. In the third installment of a five-part series running this month, best-selling author Robert Whiting, who lived in Japan at the time, looks at some of the stars who emerged during the competition.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / IMPERIAL ANNALS
Oct 11, 2014

Selective history: Hirohito's chronicles

Between July 30 and Aug. 2, 1945, when most of Japan's cities, including Tokyo, lay in smoldering ruins from U.S. aerial bombing and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were days away from being incinerated by American nuclear weapons, Emperor Hirohito sent an envoy to several Shinto shrines to pray for the "crushing...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Oct 1, 2014

Readers' letters: Ian Thorpe, the Yushukan, racism, teaching English, tipping and sunlight

Some emails received in response to recent Community articles.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 20, 2014

Lafcadio Hearn: 'Japanese Thru and Tru'

A small cage was opened at Lafcadio Hearn's funeral, setting birds into the air, the soul of the deceased presumably taking flight with them. His coffin was draped in chrysanthemums and fragrant olive, adorned by a laurel wreath. Seven Buddhist priests read the sutras at Kobudera (now Jishoin Enyuji...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Sep 3, 2014

Visible minorities are being caught in police dragnet

Around noon on Aug. 13, in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, a local apartment manager notified the police that a "suspicious foreigner" was hanging around the nearby JR train station.
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 30, 2014

Richard Katz on the failures of 'Voodoo Abenomics'

Richard Katz, editor-in-chief at The Oriental Economist, is the author of "Voodoo Abenomics: Japan's Failed Comeback Plan," an article published in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. Katz went into more detail about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "Abenomics" policy in a recent email interview...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2014

Corporate blowback builds from Minamata treaty

The Japanese government lobbied hard for a global pact that limits mercury use and to name the resulting treaty after Minamata, the site of a homegrown industrial disaster from the 1950s when the toxic metal poured into a river, poisoning thousands.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 25, 2014

The unsung heroes of Fukushima

What really went on among the workers inside the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami should be held up as an epic story with the theme of 'Man Saved in Japan.'
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Aug 15, 2014

Whatever you do, don't call Nestle's coffee 'instant'

Nestle aims to change the way office people think about coffee breaks.

Longform

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