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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 5, 2017

North Korea apparently used Chinese timber truck for to carry ICBM, evading sanctions

To transport and erect the ballistic missile launched on Tuesday, North Korea apparently used a Chinese timber-hauling truck, highlighting the challenge of enforcing sanctions to curb the North's weapons program.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 2, 2017

Koike's camp clobbers Abe's LDP in historic Tokyo assembly election

Gov. Yuriko Koike's upstart Tomin First party scored a sweeping victory Sunday in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election, dethroning the Liberal Democratic Party and damaging Shinzo Abe's prospects for winning another term as prime minister.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 24, 2017

Watch what you do and say: Broader ramifications of the new conspiracy law cause concern

"Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high with reasons why privacy should give way to national security, to law and order ... and the like." — U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Douglas, 1970
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 23, 2017

Probe Abe's ties with the media, Maekawa urges

The former education ministry official vouching for the documents behind the Kake Gakuen scandal urges closer scrutiny of Prime Minister Abe's media ties.
EDITORIALS
Jun 16, 2017

What the abdication law passed over

Like the nation's population as a whole, the Imperial family is shrinking, and the succession rules are accelerating the process.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Jun 14, 2017

Conspiracy theory becomes frightening reality for Japan

So-called conspiracy legislation massively expands the state's coercive powers, with few checks in place to prevent abuse.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 12, 2017

Kake Gakuen probe to be relaunched without third party oversight, Suga implies

The government will release the results of the reopened Kake Gakuen probe “as quickly as possible,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga says.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 6, 2017

'Press Freedom in Contemporary Japan': Persuasive and important but incomplete

May 3 marks the United Nations' World Press Freedom Day, an annual reminder of the necessity of unfettered media in the maintenance of healthy societies.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Apr 26, 2017

Time to act on insights from landmark survey of Japan's foreign residents

Government's attempt to understand the foreign experience of Japan produces valuable data despite some blind spots.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Apr 15, 2017

Asuka Takita: Veterinarian embraces life on the African plains

The king of the jungle is among the many acquaintances of Japan-born Asuka Takita since she made Kenya her home almost a decade ago.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 8, 2017

Disputatious legacies: examining the historic ties that bind Okinawa and China

Commenting on the pervasiveness of his own culture while on a trip to Indonesia, the Nobel Prize-winning poet Rabindranath Tagore wrote, "I see India everywhere." A traveler to Okinawa today from continental Asia, might well say, "I see China everywhere."
WORLD / Politics
Apr 2, 2017

Beijing cozies up to EU in wake of Trump's 'America First' policy

China has launched a charm offensive with the European Union since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, shifting its stance on trade negotiations and signaling closer cooperation on a range of other issues, European diplomats say.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 29, 2017

Trump's policies on trade, climate and the U.N. push China toward EU

China has launched a charm offensive with the European Union since U.S. President Donald Trump took office, shifting its stance on trade negotiations and signaling closer cooperation on a range of other issues, European diplomats say.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 18, 2017

False sense of security? Experts weigh the threat that terrorism poses Japan

Widely regarded as a safe place to live, Japan currently sits in ninth position on the Global Peace Index's list of the most peaceful nations on the planet. The East Asian nation is generally believed to be an orderly society that has incredibly low homicide and assault rates, and it certainly doesn't...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2017

China's road to peace on the Korean Peninsula

The nightmare scenario of a violent conflict on the Korean Peninsula demands that cooler heads prevail.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
Mar 12, 2017

Militant approach to collecting fees hurts JASRAC's reputation

At the start of 2017, it was hard to imagine a way that the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) could garner more hate from social media users than its already received. The music copyright management organization has long been one of the most loathed institutions...
Japan Times
JAPAN / AFTEREFFECTS OF MARCH 2011
Mar 7, 2017

Tsunami-hit Rikuzentakata rebuilding on raised ground, hoping to thrive anew

This is the first of a four-part series looking at the lasting impact of the March 11, 2011, disasters.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 26, 2017

Japan has no room to criticize U.S. refugee ban

Donald Trump's America isn't the only country turning its back on refugees. Japan is just as guilty.
EDITORIALS
Feb 9, 2017

Scientists and dual-use technologies

Instead of encouraging scientists to participate in the development of technologies that have military uses, the government should boost funding for research that can improve people's lives.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 7, 2017

Abe renews pledge to solve territorial row with Russia

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday renewed his pledge to settle a dispute with Russia over four islands off Hokkaido despite failing two months earlier to produce any visible progress during a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jan 8, 2017

Japan's human rights issues fared better in 2016

Welcome back to JBC's annual countdown of the top issues as they affected Non-Japanese (NJ) residents of Japan. We had some brighter spots this year than in previous years, because Japan's government has been so embarrassed by hate speech toward Japan's minorities that they did something about it. Read...
Japan Times
JAPAN / JAPANESE IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Dec 19, 2016

Critical thinking essential in global environment

What is the key to developing flexibility in thinking — a crucial ability to live and work in the era of globalization? A recent classroom visit may have revealed a possibility for the future of universities in Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 10, 2016

Last splash: How long will the immodest Japanese tradition of mixed bathing continue?

The main reason that mixed baths have endured for so long is that communities have still supported them. When an onsen stops being a gathering place for locals, there's less to stop it slipping into disrepute.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / OLYMPIC NOTEBOOK
Nov 5, 2016

Gold in 1964 Tokyo Games set Cassell on life path

From humble roots growing up in a coal mining camp in Wise County, Virginia, Ollan Cassell built a successful, inspiring career in track and field.
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2016

Imperial abdication committee holds first meeting

A government advisory panel met Monday for the first time to discuss measures to reduce Emperor Akihito's public duties, with the central issue expected to be whether and how an emperor should be allowed to abdicate due to advanced age.

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.