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Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 17, 2013

Judo scandal casts doubt on Olympic bid

News stories don't exist in a vacuum. What often makes them "news" is a confluence of factors that provide a context of interest. Though the public thinks the current story about 15 female judo athletes (jūdōka) demanding fundamental changes to the way the national team is structured and run is a self-contained...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 16, 2013

China digs in history to bolster isle claims

Beneath its bellicose rhetoric, China has been quietly bolstering its territorial claims with ancient documents, academic research, maps and technical data.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 10, 2013

Gold rush: Japan Inc. flocks to Myanmar

Political reforms are happening because the military/political leaders wanted to end their nation's isolation and benefit from having a more prosperous economy.
EDITORIALS
Feb 8, 2013

China's dangerous conduct

It is deplorable that Chinese warships recently locked their fire-control radar on an MSDF destroyer and an MSDF helicopter in the East China Sea.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2012

Ceasefire tests five leaders

The diplomatic activities under the current Gaza ceasefire will test whether a quintet of leaders — each with his own domestic critics — can find a peaceful rather than a military solution to the Palestinian situation. The ceasefire language was direct but ambiguous: "Israel should stop all hostilities...
EDITORIALS
Nov 28, 2012

New global energy picture

Anew report hails a crucial shift in the global economy. If current trends continue, the United States will surpass Saudi Arabia as the world's largest oil producer by 2020. This development will not only transform the world's energy picture, but geopolitics as well.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 3, 2012

Another week, another Chelsea row

Sometime in the next week the Football Association must decide who it believes — four English-speaking match officials or a player whose mother tongue is Portuguese and whose English is far from fluent.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Oct 6, 2012

Video journalist's work takes him to centers of the world's conflicts

Takeharu Watai has spent all of his two-decade career in video journalism as an independent. But he is conscious that public distrust of the mass media, particularly over its coverage of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the nation's nuclear energy policy, has grown so strong that, by default, it extends...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 17, 2012

Refugee groups slam Japan's struggling resettlement plan

Much fanfare greeted the arrival at Narita in September 2010 of the first Burmese refugees to take advantage of Japan's decision to join the U.N.'s third-country resettlement program. Japan was the first Asian country to join the program, it was emphasized, under which the country would take in "less...
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Jun 30, 2012

Amateur sumo in crisis: Europe and Japan go head to head

For the past 20 years amateur sumo has been bidding for full and formal IOC recognition. Making its way through the IOC's various levels of acceptance, it was, according to many, doing rather well.
EDITORIALS
Jun 18, 2012

Dousing the Flame

Reports of a new computer virus, dubbed "Flame," have raised alarms about a new era of cyber threats. While countries are increasingly reliant on cyberspace for their very survival — it is now part of the social, economic and security infrastructure — it remains a largely unregulated domain; worse,...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jun 4, 2012

The risks of democracy: When markets resolve what politics cannot

The European sovereign debt problem that began with Greece has entered a new phase. In addition to the ruling party's defeat in polls Greece held May 6, Nicholas Sarkozy, who helped champion fiscal austerity as the cure for the crisis, was replaced as French president by Francois Hollande, a Socialist...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jun 2, 2012

Racism not confined to Euro hosts

Before the 2006 World Cup in Germany we were told by certain sections of the English media that neo-Nazi gangs would terrorize visitors. Two years ago South Africa would, allegedly, be a machete-wielding war zone.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2012

Vaunted missile shield more for show than protection

With Aegis destroyers and Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles deployed and standing by, Japan's military appears ready to shoot down any debris from North Korea's rocket — or even the rocket itself — should it threaten the country this week.
COMMENTARY
Mar 21, 2012

Nearing the end of tyranny?

President Vladimir Putin in Russia, President Bashar Assad in Syria and President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe are detested by many of their fellow countrymen who would like to see them overthrown and tried for human rights abuses. They depend on a close coterie of guards and aides who have to be kept happy....
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 2, 2012

Hungary needs voice of Radio Free Europe

In recent weeks, the Hungarian government led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban has frequently attacked Western media outlets but none more than CNN for its reports on the sorry state of Hungarian democracy. Hungarians can still watch CNN, but since January, the network is no longer part of the package...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 2, 2012

Warner's Ishizaka says 'exterminate' illegal downloads

Not many music-business executives compare themselves to Oda Nobunaga or Napoleon Bonaparte.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2012

U.S. no longer land of the free

Every year, the U.S. State Department issues reports on individual rights in other countries, monitoring the passage of restrictive laws and regulations around the world. Iran, for example, has been criticized for denying fair public trials and limiting privacy, while Russia has been taken to task for...
EDITORIALS
Dec 31, 2011

The great unraveling

The last 12 months yielded another humbling year. One event after another confirmed the limits of our ability to predict and shape the future. Blame idle imaginations, selfish societies, pusillanimous politicians or blind bureaucracies. Whatever the cause, 2011 should remind us of the need to be better...
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Nov 20, 2011

Train-shame death, anti-Comintern pact signed, Tokyo "paralyzed," Japan and U.S. to halt yen rise against dollar

100 YEARS AGOSaturday, Nov. 25, 1911
COMMENTARY
Nov 10, 2011

Open markets key to growth

The lengthy communique issued at the end of the recent Group of 20 summit in Cannes has been largely overlooked in the media, which have understandably focused on the financial crisis facing the eurozone. It is probable that many leaders did not even read the full text that had been prepared in advance...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 8, 2011

'My children are my everything — the reason I'm alive'

On Bruce Gherbetti's right forearm, the names of his three lost children are permanently inscribed in a swirling script of dark blue tattoo ink.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 5, 2011

Hokkaido roots spur woman to bring folk tales to masses

For Deborah Davidson, Hokkaido is not only home, it is a door to other worlds. As a child, she played with Ainu children and watched them care for the frolicking cubs of the "iomante" (bear ceremony). As a translator, she now focuses on bringing Ainu folk tales to an English-speaking audience.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 13, 2011

Shedding new light on architecture and art

The floor is made of white concrete, but it hugs the contours of the ground so closely that it could be satin cloth. And the roof, apparently anchored to the ground only by a curtain of glass at its perimeter, appears to float in mid-air like a giant magic carpet.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 4, 2011

World Heritage listing has its price

News that Iwate Prefecture's historic Hiraizumi area and the Ogasawara Islands would be added to UNESCO's World Heritage List last June lifted the spirits of residents in the Tohoku region after the March 11 quake-tsunami trauma.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?