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EDITORIALS
Apr 1, 2015

Nation's food self-sufficiency rate

Instead of setting excessively high targets for food self-sufficiency, maintaining an open trade system and diverse sources of food imports should be the priority for Japan in its quest for food security.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2015

Lee Kuan Yew and the myth of Asian capitalism

Singapaore's Lee Kuan Yew thought a competent meritocratic government should not only provide order but also guide economic development. The success of 'Asian capitalism' seems to prove him correct.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2015

Are we sure co-pilot was the killer?

News reports on accusations that Andreas Lubitz, the Germanwings co-pilot, purposely brought down Flight 9525 over the French Alps have rushed to convict him.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 29, 2015

Call Cameron's 'gaffe' anything but guileless

There's been much debate over whether British Prime Minister David Cameron's shock announcement about his political future was just an unguarded slip — as he tried to look like a normal family man rather than a power-crazed politician on a soft-feature TV show — or a tactic.
EDITORIALS
Mar 16, 2015

A corporate governance cure-all?

New Tokyo Stock Exchange rules requiring all companies listed on its First and Second sections to have at least two independent outside directors on their board is in line with the Abe administration's push to beef up corporate governance as a way of luring more foreign investors.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 14, 2015

When nature evolves to be awesome

A few years ago, an anthropologist told me an amazing story about a wild chimpanzee she had observed in Senegal. A bushfire had ignited in the summer heat, and she saw a chimp stand upright on its hind legs, face the fire and perform "a really exaggerated slow-motion display."
EDITORIALS
Mar 14, 2015

Thoughtful or self-promoting?

It was no surprise that when writer Haruki Murakami started a temporary ask-anything website he was swamped with so many messages that he had to suspend the site. But is the forum a vehicle for self-promotion?
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2015

How long will the price of oil remain low?

The real struggle over cheap oil prices is between the 'frackers' and Saudi Arabia, because the latter is the 'swing producer' in the OPEC cartel. Regardless of which side wins, the game should end in two years.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2015

Netanyahu's 'wolf' refrain tests longtime ties with U.S.

By trying to bury a proposed nuclear deal with Iran in front of the U.S. Congress, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put the most critical Israeli relationship at risk.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 9, 2015

Avoiding the subject isn't such a bad idea in Japanese

Japanese is so efficient as a language that it can sometimes leave new students feeling as though they are floating in space. Without the familiar gravity of shugo (主語, subjects), students are sometimes at a loss to create sentences that involve multiple actors and both direct and indirect actions....
EDITORIALS
Mar 5, 2015

Political funding law needs review

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has joined several other members of his Cabinet plus the opposition leader in admitting receipt of donations from businesses that have been granted government subsidies.
EDITORIALS
Mar 4, 2015

Update discriminatory Civil Code

The Supreme Court should not hesitate to rule that Civil Code provisions related to marriage surnames and remarriage after divorce are discriminatory and thus unconstitutional.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Mar 1, 2015

Four years on, Tohoku towns still waiting for schools, homes, answers

While cooped-up kids need places to play, exhausted residents could do with support from more teachers and caregivers.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 28, 2015

Shibuya's same-sex move kicks off debate

On Feb. 13, Asahi Shimbun's daily Vox Populi, Vox Dei column mentioned Morizo and Kiccoro, the official mascots of the 2005 World Expo held in Aichi Prefecture. These two "woodland fairies" supposedly hailed from Seto, which issued them the same resident cards (jūminhyō) held by everyone who lives...
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 27, 2015

Abe aims to formally authorize SDF ship inspections beyond Japanese waters

The Abe administration proposed Friday expanding the geographic range of ship inspections that can be conducted by the Self-Defense Forces beyond Japan.
EDITORIALS
Feb 22, 2015

Nuclear waste disposal problem

Even as the Abe administration pushes for the reactivation of idled nuclear power reactors once they're declared safe, it has yet to address the question of how Japan will dispose of highly radioactive nuclear waste so as not to endanger future generations.
Reader Mail
Feb 21, 2015

Being bilingual not always so cool

I'm considered bilingual. I lived in Canada until the age of 6. Many times people have told me it's cool to be bilingual, but it's not that simple. In Canada, I was too small to know there are different languages. I never distinguished Japanese from English. Sometimes I answered a Japanese question in...
WORLD
Feb 20, 2015

Turkey says it may buy Chinese missiles; will not integrate system with NATO

Ankara
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 16, 2015

Japanese deaths stir debate on hostage rescue capabilities

Following the gruesome executions of two Japanese by the Islamic State group, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seems more eager than ever for legal authority to deploy Self-Defense Forces elements overseas, saying it is the government's duty to rescue its citizens.
EDITORIALS
Feb 15, 2015

Questions of self-defense

A legislative package of bills on security — prepared by the ruling coalition with the aim of implementing the Abe Cabinet's decision last July to enable Japan to engage in collective self-defense — will no doubt be the main focus of the current Diet session.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Feb 14, 2015

Eagles need young duo to soar in '15

Earlier this year, 24-year-old Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles pitcher Wataru Karashima said he'd retire if he failed to reach 10 wins this season. Karashima has pitched in NPB for five seasons, and was used out of the bullpen over the first two, making 14 appearances as a reliever. Since becoming a starter...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2015

The U.S.-India nuclear breakthrough that wasn't

Nuclear power faces an uncertain future, with few new reactors under construction in the West. Yet India has continued to place the nuclear deal at the hub of its relationship with America.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Feb 5, 2015

India bets on U.S. aircraft carrier technology

India wants to use state-of-the-art U.S. technology to boost the range and potency of a planned aircraft carrier, defense sources said, a move that would tie their arms programs closer together and counter China's military influence in the region.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 4, 2015

Ninagawa still exploring in eighth take on 'Hamlet'

Yukio Ninagawa's "cherry-blossom" staging of "Macbeth" at the Edinburgh Festival in 1985, with actors in that famously Scottish play sporting kimono rather than kilts, was a sensation due to its radical reimagining of so revered a work.
Japan Times
SPORTS / NOTES ON A SCORECARD
Jan 30, 2015

No reason for fans to despair over Nishikori's defeat

What a difference three years makes.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 30, 2015

Japan's fertile architectural evolution

Today, Japanese contemporary architecture enjoys an outstanding international reputation, but the story of its emergence to a position of such accomplishment and acclaim has not yet been told comprehensively. A pair of exhibitions at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa presents a postwar...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2015

Washington suffers from a tolerance problem

For the next two years, the chances are good that the U.S. government will be almost completely paralyzed.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2015

Islamic State to release statement 'soon' on Japanese hostage pair, NHK reports

The Islamic State group will release a statement "soon" on the two Japanese hostages it has captured and is threatening to execute unless a ransom is paid, a spokesman for the armed group told NHK Thursday night.

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.