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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 2, 2015

Shanghai cancels New Year's celebrations after deadly crush; money scramble alleged

Shanghai called off New Year's events and the central government demanded a review of crowd-safety procedures after 36 people were killed and dozens injured in a deadly crush on Shanghai's historic Bund on Wednesday night.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Jan 1, 2015

Activities to ring in year of the sheep

Usually, the New Year holiday season in Japan is a time to spend with family and many people go back to their hometowns, while others stay indoors for television-watching marathons. Therefore, with the exception of some shopping areas, Tokyo is relatively quiet compared with the usual hustle and bustle....
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 27, 2014

Learning to love robots

With half the decade complete, we examine an industry that has significantly changed the way we think about ourselves.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Dec 22, 2014

Jeers, apologies and silence: Japan's 2014 in quotes

First of all, we're sorry. Everybody is sorry. This was the year that everyone apologized and everyone was sorry about something. The Asahi Shimbun was sorry so many times (even when maybe they shouldn't have been) that we're omitting them from the list. There's not enough space.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Dec 17, 2014

Japan and others gain from Jamaican brain drain

In the last part of this series on Jamaicans in Japan, Baye McNeil speaks to a teacher, author and poet in Yokohama and an attorney in Tokyo.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Dec 14, 2014

Readers' letters: Hague abduction pamphlets, East Asia ties, temping teachers and learning English

Some emails received in response to recent Community articles.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Dec 10, 2014

Electoral dysfunction leaves Japan's voters feeling impotent

This Sunday's poll could well prove a high-water mark of pointlessness even for Japan: an election campaign waged against the unelected.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Nov 15, 2014

Shrinking well: Is depopulation affecting Japan's energy, climate goals?

Keishi looks a lot like it did when Toshiko Nakamura first moved there four decades ago. The quiet farming community in Nagano Prefecture is a patchwork of verdant rice fields, lush kitchen gardens and picturesque post-and-beam houses nestled between pine and chestnut trees on the slopes of Mount Hijiri....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Nov 4, 2014

Japan wakes up to reality of dementia, seeks unique solutions

Asayo Sakai banged on the front door, demanding to be let out. She was at her daughter's apartment, where Asayo has lived for the past six years. She has no memory of how she got there or what she's doing there.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Nov 4, 2014

The case for a higher consumption tax

If there has to be a tax, the consumption tax may be the fairest.
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
Nov 2, 2014

Crowdfunding leader wants others' dreams to come true

Bill Gates, the late Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg all hit the big time by persevering for years in the pursuit of their dreams. They continue to be an inspiration to entrepreneurs the world over who dream of one day growing their own companies into the next Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc. or Facebook Inc.,...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Oct 23, 2014

Traffickers use prison ships, abductions to feed Southeast Asian slave trade

When Afsar Miae left his home near Teknaf in southern Bangladesh to look for work last month, he told his mother, 'I'll see you soon' and said he expected to return that evening. He never did.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 9, 2014

RBMA co-founder hopes to support Japan's neglected artists

The Japan Times spoke to Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA) co-founder Many Ameri from New York, the site of last year's academy, and now home to an annual Red Bull music festival. Here are some excerpts from the conversation:
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 5, 2014

Hit to Hong Kong's economy spurs opposition to Occupy Central protests

A week into Hong Kong demonstrations notable for their order and endurance, protesters came under an attack highlighting the fault lines of a city torn between commercial interests and a desire for greater democracy.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 4, 2014

Vaccination: a choice between two unknowns

Yoshimi Kawabe's daughter was 2 years old in 2008 when an unusual rash broke out on her hands and feet. Her family doctor at first thought the rash was caused by hand, foot and mouth disease — a contagious viral infection common in young children — but decided to investigate further after her condition...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 2, 2014

Film festival hopes to present refugees as more than just victims

From Syria to Afghanistan to South Sudan, conflict this year has pushed the number of people seeking refuge around the world to numbers not seen since World War II.
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.
EDITORIALS
Sep 30, 2014

China's sentencing of a critic

lham Tohti, a moderate Uighur scholar who advocated for the rights of Muslim Uighurs, was sentenced to life in prison last week. Chinese leaders don't seem to realize that such severity will only deepen the resentment of separatists.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 5, 2014

Why extremism loves company

Most violent extremists are not poor and do not lack education. But psychological experiments suggest that it's a matter of extremism loving company, and that participation in group decision-making tends to strengthen and polarize people's views.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 30, 2014

Dealing with addiction: Japan's drinking problem

We admit we are powerless over alcohol and we need help to break the habit.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 27, 2014

On this island, depopulation isn't the problem — inertia is

There is one thing most people don't realize about this island paradise amid the Seto Inland Sea: that despite many people wanting to move here, none of them can.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Aug 26, 2014

Afghan-born doctor keeps adopted Japan city healthy while still helping his native land

Since his first year of medical training at the Kyoto University-affiliated Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, Afghanistan-born Khaled Reshad has worked harder than others to gain Japanese patients' trust.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Aug 18, 2014

Challenges can't compare to the rewards of cross-cultural adoption in Japan

Five years ago, my Japanese husband and I adopted a 3-year-old boy who had been placed in an orphanage when he was a month old. His birth mother, too young to care for him, had likely decided that giving him up was his only chance for a better life. After we first took him home, he would barely acknowledge...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 18, 2014

Building economic society driven by human values

The world is groping for a new growth structure to replace the economic society led by financial activities. A new model should be driven by the pursuit of human values.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND
Aug 8, 2014

Once state support ends, life is difficult to navigate

The main reason youths are placed in children's institutions is abuse and neglect, but experts say society knows little about the situations these children face.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Jul 30, 2014

Massive graft, rivalry behind purge of China's oil mandarins

Oil executive Jiang Jiemin rose to power in communist China in time-honored fashion: by hitching his star to a mighty mentor.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 28, 2014

Pushing locals aside, Russians take top rebel posts in east Ukraine

As Ukrainian troops gained ground in eastern Ukraine in early July, separatist leader, Aleksander Borodai, a Russian national, left for Moscow for political consultations.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Jul 23, 2014

Retirees swell national debt treating clinics as clubs

Kaoru Ishiyama gets to an orthopedic clinic in Kawasaki early so he can chat with about 20 other retirees while they wait outside for it to open, each sitting on folding chairs brought from home.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Jul 20, 2014

NPO chief builds a barrier-free world for the disabled and disadvantaged

The founder of two nonprofit organizations in Japan working across Asia, Michiyo Yoshida has become an expert on international philanthropy, teaching courses on NPOs at universities in Sapporo and traveling all over the nation to counsel others.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2014

Popularity of 'kendama' abroad spurs trend at home

The traditional cup-and-ball game "kendama" is back, thanks to a new "cool" image mostly nurtured overseas and imported back to Japan.

Longform

Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?