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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 25, 2020

'Smart lockdowns' are the future in Europe

EU countries are experimenting with new ways of dealing with COVID-19. Germany, Portugal and Italy have all enforced selective or "smart” lockdowns, shutting down smaller regions in response to new outbreaks as opposed to bringing their entire countries to a halt.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 23, 2020

Don't be 'giri-giri' when it comes to applying for your coronavirus cash

In order to get your pandemic-related cash payment from the government, you're going to have to know some key Japanese terms.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Jun 6, 2020

Japan Times 1995: Police storm jet, rescue hostages in Hokkaido

Riot police storm a hijacked All Nippon Airways jumbo jet in dramatic predawn rescue, rescuing 364 captives to end a nearly 16-hour standoff.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2020

The pandemic is exposing the limits of science

The financial crisis tarnished the field of economics; will COVID-19 do the same for medicine?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2020

Lockdowns haven’t proved they’re worth the havoc

The U.S. survived the 1968 pandemic without shutting down society, and there isn't much evidence that shutdowns are truly effective this time.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 24, 2020

How U.S. citizens in Japan can apply for coronavirus aid payments from home

Lifelines gets answers from two taxation experts regarding the payments from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 4, 2020

Lockdown critics may have some valid points

It's always worth listening to smart people with ideas that go against the grain.
COMMENTARY / World
May 4, 2020

Lagarde can't solve the COVID-19 crisis

Managing the COVID-19 crisis goes way beyond the powers of central banks.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2020

Spain’s tragedy was all too predictable

The prime minister dithered before imposing lockdown measures that could have saved thousands of lives.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Mar 30, 2020

We live in neither East nor West

With COVID-19 pulling the world apart, it's the people, from healthworkers to thoughtful neighbors that can bring it back together.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2020

Agon Shu prays for relief from natural disasters at Fire Rites Festival

French poet Francois Villon once asked, “Where are the snows of yesteryear?” as he pondered the evanescence of existence. The thousands of people who made their way along the winding mountain road to the Agon Shu Buddhist Association’s Fire Rites Festival on the morning of Feb. 9 may have been...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2020

Italy's lockdown tests the limits of democracy

Restrictions on 17 million people are the most draconian in the West, but they're far less strict than China's. The onus is on citizens to comply.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 15, 2020

Nino Caruso's monumental contribution

More than 100 pieces, documents and designs have been selected for the Nino Caruso exhibition 'Forms of Memory and Space — the world's first retrospective of the Italian ceramist-cum-sculptor's work since his death in 2017.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 21, 2019

Review: 'The Nutcracker and the Mouse King' at the New National Theatre, Tokyo

A truly entertaining production of “The Nutcracker” should leave you questioning whether the performance was just a dream. “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” a take on the holiday classic staged by the New National Theatre, Tokyo, in the run-up to Christmas, is no exception. Performed for the...
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Dec 18, 2019

Hakuho more than deserving of special elder status

When you think of sumo, what's the first word that comes to mind?
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Nov 30, 2019

Japan Times 1969: Supreme Court rules that people have right to refuse being photographed

The Supreme Court ruling came in a case involving a student who injured a policeman who photographed him without his consent.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 30, 2019

Xi military parade to showcase China missiles spooking the U.S.

In Beijing, President Xi Jinping's grand military parade through the capital will be cheered as a display of national pride after 70 years of Communist Party rule. In Washington, many will see a growing threat to American dominance in the Western Pacific.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 31, 2019

'Life for Sale': Yukio Mishima's comically psychedelic take on the adventure novel

'Life for Sale' — first serialized in Weekly Playboy in 1968 — was, for long years, dismissed as mere 'entertainment.' Yet the surprising bestseller is a terrific example of Mishima's fecund imagination at its most free-wheeling and unfettered best.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 2, 2019

Making inclusivity a goal for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics

The 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games are a potent catalyst for concrete progress in achieving a barrier-free, more equitable Japanese society.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 28, 2019

Carlos Ghosn's wife has a message for the G20

She wants the world leaders gathered in Osaka to notice how Japan's 'hostage justice' system has mistreated Nissan's ex-chairman.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2019

Which Tiananmen narrative is true?

There is little doubt about the Beijing spring of 1989 that called for greater openness, freedoms and democracy in China, or about its suppression. But there is a counter-narrative that receives no mention in the China-bashing mainstream media.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 5, 2019

U.S. shared nuclear power info with Saudi Arabia after Jamal Khashoggi slaying, senator says

The Trump administration granted two authorizations to U.S. companies to share sensitive nuclear power information with Saudi Arabia shortly after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October, a U.S. senator who saw the approvals said on Tuesday.
MORE SPORTS / Japanese Derby
May 24, 2019

Many ways to enjoy Derby Day

On a sunny afternoon last Sunday, more than 60,000 people witnessed Loves Only You, ridden by Mirco Demuro, win the Japanese Oaks at Tokyo Racecourse in Fuchu. The race, 11th of the day's 12, was scheduled to start at 3:40 p.m, but fans filled most seats by noon.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 17, 2019

Boris Johnson slim, trimmed and ready to fight for power

For a man who has made his name as a comical shambles, cracking jokes on talk-shows and scruffing up his famous blond mop, Boris Johnson is taking a deadly serious approach to his work.
ENVIRONMENT
May 11, 2019

Reading the air: Tokyo still has work to do on air pollution

There are days when Makiko Ishikawa can barely breathe. Indeed, the 62-year-old Tokyoite has been short of breath for decades. In the early 1970s, she began feeling the effects of the miasma of vehicle exhaust along Shin-Ome Road, which ran by her home in the city of Musashimurayama in western Tokyo....
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 11, 2019

Tabloids press pause as nation celebrates dawn of the Reiwa Era

Welcome one and all to Big in Japan, the Reiwa version. During the just-ended 10-day Golden Week holiday, only one general weekly magazine — Aera (May 13) — went to press, giving it the distinction of being the first publication out of the starting gates in the new era. Aera's coverage of imperial...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 20, 2019

Downsized dwellings: Inside Tokyo's tiny living spaces

Twenty-five-year-old Sotaro Ito lives in a 9.46-square-meter apartment with a loft in the capital's retro-hip Koenji district.
Reader Mail
Mar 22, 2019

Chellaney wrong on Pakistan

I am writing with regards to the highly biased article by Brahma Chellaney in the March 6 edition. It is highly disappointing to see that once again the columns of The Japan Times have been used to make lopsided and misleading assertions against Pakistan. We firmly believe in the freedom of speech. However,...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Mar 20, 2019

In search of family and friends in Japan

Here is another of our occasional columns featuring requests from readers who are hoping to reconnect with "long-lost" people in Japan.

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go