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COMMENTARY / World
Mar 24, 2014

China no longer takes guff from U.S. about rebalancing

Just as China should be reducing savings and boosting domestic demand, it's equally important for the U.S. to be retooling its unbalanced economy. The big worry is denial in Washington.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 17, 2014

U.S. military report suggests cover-up over toxic pollution in Okinawa

Perhaps the most serious concern raised in the internal U.S. military report is the fear that PCB contamination at Kadena — if made public — would prompt demands for widespread tests on other U.S. bases.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 14, 2014

Culture of safety can make or break nuclear power plants

On the third anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and its devastating impact on Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima nuclear power plants, we need to understand why Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s Onagawa Nuclear Power Station — which was even closer to the quake epicenter — had a drastically different fate.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 13, 2014

China waging psychological warfare in the East China Sea

Japanese and Western news reports suggest that the U.S. bombers and routine Japanese patrol fighters that flew into China's air-defense identification zone right after the ADIZ was proclaimed did not encounter any Chinese interceptors or radar beams.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 8, 2014

Media complicit in normalizing xenophobia

Since Japanese reporters are averse to characterizing domestic right-wing positions as being extreme, those positions come across as being normal, even sensible.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 2, 2014

Who will stop the slaughter?

Who will stand up in the world today for the millions of people whose lives are being savaged by evil men and women in states like Syria and North Korea?
COMMENTARY
Feb 28, 2014

China uses Ukraine unrest as argument for stability

China's Communist Party-controlled media appear to be using the unrest in Ukraine as a teaching moment to point out the pitfalls of clamoring for more rapid reforms in a large, multi-ethnic society — one like China's.
Reader Mail
Feb 22, 2014

Pioneer on course to foil stereotype

Rowan Hooper makes a good observation in his Feb. 16 article "Stem-cell leap defied Japanese norms." But I think this is also a cultural issue in which Haruko Obokata herself is given more importance than what she does.
EDITORIALS
Feb 16, 2014

Now Kaieda must deliver

The head of the Democratic Party of Japan says the party will fiercely confront the Abe administration, which he called a 'raging horse,' to push politics aimed at protecting people's lives and jobs.
Reader Mail
Feb 15, 2014

Time for project on climate reality

Readers might find it puzzling that the subject of the Feb. 3 editorial, "Rising costs of climate change," was not front-page news. Increasingly extreme weather events brought about by man-made global warming should be a priority today precisely because it is the No. 1 threat to our future.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Feb 7, 2014

Female scientists push for breakthrough in equality

Recent news that Haruko Obokata of Riken's Center for Developmental Biology found a new way to generate pluripotent cells cast a spotlight on women in the male-dominant field of science.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 26, 2014

French women defy stereotypes

Shock news: French women do get fat, they have brattish, fussy-eater children, chipped nails, they sometimes sleep on their own wearing big cotton knickers and they do mind if their husband is enjoying "cinq-a-sept" trysts with his mistress.
EDITORIALS
Jan 24, 2014

Limits of secrecy oversight panel

An expert council for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may be able to serve as a minor check against the arbitrary application of the new state secrets law, but the the defects of the law will remain.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2014

Pining for Lyndon Johnson, Americans got Christie

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's recent scandals won't impress anyone who has read of the political arm-twisting shenanigans conducted a half-century ago by U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 20, 2014

Ambiguous fisheries law sets up in-your-face conundrum for China

The ambiguity of China's 'new' fisheries law courts conflict by setting up an in-your-face conundrum for its neighbors
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jan 16, 2014

Iwate's Yonamine never loses track of ultimate goal: winning

Tsubasa Yonamine doesn't grab front-page headlines or dominate the highlights segment on TV sports shows. He helps his basketball team achieve success.
COMMENTARY
Jan 5, 2014

Obamacare took a beating in 2013, and this year could be worse — for the law and Democrats

As bad as 2013 was for Obamacare, the year ahead has the potential to be even worse — for the law, the Obama administration and congressional Democrats.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jan 4, 2014

To the Simien and back — 47 years on

By the time you read this I should be in the Simien Mountains of northern Ethiopia. I have been asked to go back there to tell the nation's current generation what the forests and wildlife were like in 1967, '68 and '69 when I served the government of Haille Selassie as the country's first game warden...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 31, 2013

Abe's quest to revive, reshape nation rides on the economy

Just six months ago, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was riding high after his party swept the Upper House election. Now things aren't looking so rosy.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Dec 29, 2013

South Korea's house of cards

Except for Samsung Electronics, South Korea's manufacturing industry appears to be on the verge of a big stall. How long Samsung will be able to maintain its market dominance is an open question.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2013

First lady scrutinizes blackballing of beauty queen

Ikumi Yoshimatsu's pursuit of stalking charges against powerful talent agency executives Genichi Taniguchi draws the attention of first lady Akie Abe.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2013

U.S. Navy gives benefits to gay spouses in Japan

The U.S. Navy will provide military benefits to gay spouses stationed in Japan after previously denying dependent status to them, defense officials said.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2013

Help Ukrainians stand up for Western values

Make no mistake, Ukraine's so-called oligarchs still support President Viktor Yanukovych, and they will be prime beneficiaries of the $15 billion in bailout loans and lower natural gas prices that he secured from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Reader Mail
Dec 21, 2013

Hard-liners play to home crowd

Regarding the Dec. 15 feature article “Kim purge puts world on alert”: I vividly remember the tense atmosphere that often existed in Japan amid the Cold War, when we would be intimidated by news of Russian fighters intruding on our territory. We’d worry about the Kremlin’s every movement and...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 5, 2013

Postal employees carry extra burden during the holiday season

Sales quotas make postal employees' lives miserable at the end of the year.
Reader Mail
Dec 4, 2013

Risk of losing public's 'tolerance'

Regarding the Dec. 2 article "Secrecy law protests 'act of terrorism': LDP secretary general": Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba's comments that street protesters voicing opposition to the new state secrets bill by shouting it in public demonstrations are doing something "not...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2013

China girds to open sectors to foreign investors

It appears that China's leaders are cautiously preparing to let foreign investors enter any industry other than those on a 'negative list.'

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