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Japan Times
JAPAN / FOCUS
Mar 26, 2019

Did Tokyo immigration officials allow proper treatment for ailing Kurdish detainee?

It had the appearance of a scandal in the making.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 26, 2019

U.S. Congress faces long road ahead in fight over special counsel's report

Lawmakers seeking special counsel Robert Mueller's report are likely to face a protracted legal battle that will turn on U.S. President Donald Trump's right to keep communications with his advisers private, legal and political experts said.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 25, 2019

A more skeptical U.S. Supreme Court to hear redistricting challenge

Last year, proponents of limiting partisan politics in the creation of electoral districts needed to win over Justice Anthony Kennedy. They couldn't.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 25, 2019

Cybozu chief Yoshihisa Aono loses lawsuit at Tokyo court over right to use premarital name

A Tokyo court on Monday upheld a national law that forces couples to use the same surname upon marriage, rejecting claims over its unconstitutionality.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2019

North Korean diplomacy after the Hanoi impasse

Look for Kim to play the Russia card to ratchet up pressure on U.S. and South Korea.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 25, 2019

Russia probe findings offer re-election weapon for Trump

U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's conclusion that Donald Trump did not collude with Russia to win the presidency in 2016 gives the president a powerful weapon to use against his Democratic opponents and a potential boost to what is shaping up to be a tough bid for re-election in 2020.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 23, 2019

Special Counsel Robert Mueller submits Trump-Russia report as lawmakers urge transparency and quick release

Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Friday handed in a confidential report on his investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 presidential election and any potential wrongdoing by U.S. President Donald Trump, setting off a clamor from lawmakers in both parties for the document's quick release.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2019

New Zealand vs. Australia: Terrorism and the difference

The monolithic dominance of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp over the Australian media landscape has few counterparts in other democratic countries, and it is reflexively anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2019

U.S. version of 'one country, two systems'

Is it time for the U.S. to reintroduce the 'fairness doctrine' to prevent the media from broadcasting extreme views?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 15, 2019

Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange founder Mark Karpeles gets suspended term for falsifying data but is cleared of embezzlement

Mark Karpeles gets a suspended term for data manipulation related to the scandalous disappearance of 850,000 bitcoins in 2014 but is found not guilty of embezzlement.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Mar 13, 2019

Is flashing the peace sign in front of the Hiroshima A-bomb memorial appropriate?

The newsroom of the Chugoku Shimbun recently received a letter of complaint from a 76-year-old whose daily ritual is to take a stroll around the Hiroshima Peace Memorial every morning.
Japan Times
ESG CONSORTIUM
Mar 10, 2019

Encouraging a shift toward greener outlook, practices

Amid increased global sustainability concerns and the implementation of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is vital for companies to work on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues to attract investment and contribute to the realization of a sustainable world through value creation,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Mar 6, 2019

Robot rights: From Asimov to Tezuka

Asimov's 'Three Laws of Robotics' are fictional rules, so why do we keep looking to them for guidance? The closest thing to real-world robot law we could have more seems likely to develop around the question of when autonomous military drones can make 'kill' decisions without human intervention.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 5, 2019

The global battle over big data

Big data can bring great benefits to society, but privacy and human rights must be adequately respected.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 28, 2019

Gang of Four's fluctuating degrees of animosity, 40 years on

British post-punk pioneers Gang of Four didn't come to Japan until 2005, nearly 30 years after the band formed. If guitarist Andy Gill had his way, it would have happened a lot sooner. "I clearly remember a conversation in the '80s about going to Japan," Gill says, sitting among an array of equipment...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 25, 2019

Japan's Ainu recognition bill: What does it mean for Hokkaido's indigenous people?

In a first for Japan, a bill to legally recognize the Ainu as the indigenous people of Japan is about to be submitted to the Diet.
JAPAN / History / Defining the Heisei Era
Feb 23, 2019

Defining the Heisei Era: Women in Japan speak out on inequality

Last April, a female reporter from TV Asahi accused Junichi Fukuda, the top bureaucrat at the Finance Ministry, of sexual harassment.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 23, 2019

Artificial intelligence debate raises more questions than answers

"The human race, version 2" — a thought to inspire hope or fear, maybe a little (or a lot) of both. "We today," says Komazawa University economist Tomohiro Inoue, whose thought it is, "will soon be 'the former human race.'"
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 16, 2019

Are press activities being undermined in Japan?

The Foreign Ministry ordered freelance journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka to surrender his passport after he tried to leave Japan on Feb. 2 for Yemen, which is in the midst of a civil war. The ostensible reason for the order is that Tsuneoka in January attempted to travel to Yemen through Oman, which refused...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 12, 2019

Trump wants to meet with Xi 'very soon' over trade war, adviser says

The Trump administration said the U.S. president still wants to meet China's Xi Jinping in an effort to end the trade war, a sign of optimism as negotiators from the world's two biggest economies start their latest round of talks this week.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2019

Japan's Taro Kono warns South Korean speaker after call for Emperor to apologize to 'comfort women'

Foreign Minister Taro Kono cautioned South Korea's top legislator against making divisive remarks after the lawmaker urged the Japanese Emperor to make a personal apology to women forced to work in the country's military brothels.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 11, 2019

Second Trump-Kim summit seen coming as North Korea continues to 'nuclearize'

President Donald Trump is set to meet North Korea's Kim Jong Un in less than three weeks, yet the biggest question hanging over the leaders' second summit is why they're even having it.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 10, 2019

Is Japan's sun still rising?

At a time of rising populism and authoritarianism around the world, Japan stands out as a relative island of social and economic stability.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / NEWS IN NIHONGO
Jan 28, 2019

More in Japan identify as LGBT as social awareness grows

A Dentsu survey finds that people are more aware of the LGBT acronym, giving learners of Japanese the opportunity to discover a world of new vocabulary.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 21, 2019

Tokyo terminates working level talks with Seoul after revealing new evidence on radar lock-on dispute

The Defense Ministry announced Monday it will terminate talks with its South Korean counterpart over the radar lock-on dispute, while revealing what it claims are sounds, converted from radio waves, of the fire-control radar system of a South Korean destroyer.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 14, 2019

As foreign ministers lay groundwork for Tokyo-Moscow territorial talks, what are the issues and obstacles?

Foreign Minister Taro Kono met his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow on Monday in a bid to lay the groundwork for a key diplomatic goal being pushed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — winning back at least some of the territory off Hokkaido seized by the Soviet Union in the closing days of...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 13, 2019

Are some of us born to have a beer belly?

Scientific literature on excess weight and health is expanding along with global waistlines, and yet, it's hard to find a solid, coherent scientific explanation for why some people get fat and others don't, and why some overweight people get Type 2 diabetes and heart disease and others don't.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 12, 2019

Japan's vernacular press coverage tiptoes around tattoo controversy

Before the Olympic Games come to Tokyo in the summer of 2020, Japan will get a chance to prove its mettle as an international sporting events host with the Rugby World Cup this fall. The games will be spread out among 12 stadiums nationwide, which means the whole country will be the focus rather than...

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.