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JAPAN
May 17, 2014

Why Kansai's corporate captains are trumpeting TPP

Several years ago, at the Kansai Economic Seminar, an annual snoozefest of pompous platitudes and pretentious, paternalistic pontificating by the old men who run Kansai's major corporations, one senior leader called for entering the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 16, 2014

Violence abates in Vietnam as U.S. warns China for 'provocation'

Anti-China violence subsided in Vietnam on Friday after the prime minister called for calm and its de facto ambassador to Taiwan apologized, but the United States said China's "provocative" actions in maritime disputes were dangerous and had to stop.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 16, 2014

Arsenal desperate to end trophy drought with F.A. Cup

Arsene Wenger admitted that it was "a dream" to watch the F.A. Cup final when he was a kid.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
May 15, 2014

Panel lists steps for bypassing Article 9

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's security panel proposes revising Japan's interpretation of the Constitution to circumvent Article 9 and risk war in the name of collective self-defense.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 10, 2014

Convenience stores give our nation pride

Japan's prime minister is an unabashed patriot, as outspoken in his love for his country as in his desire to instill that love in his compatriots. Are his compatriots receptive? Opinion polls on attitudes toward pending revisions of long-standing interpretations of the pacifist Constitution, prologue...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 10, 2014

Bringing the wisdom of samurai into the modern world

The astrophysicist Carl Sagan famously called writing "perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs." "Books," he said, "break the shackles of time." In that sense, reading "Hagakure: The Secret Wisdom of the Samurai" lets the...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 2, 2014

Malaysia releases missing plane report, reveals confusion

Malaysia on Thursday released its most comprehensive account yet of what happened to missing Flight MH370, in a preliminary report that detailed the route the plane probably took as it veered off course and revealed the confusion that followed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 23, 2014

French to the fore on SPAC's 2014 festival menu

It is often said that "variety is the spice of life," but in the multifarious world of theater it is more a staple than a special condiment. That said, "variety" is the keyword chosen by Satoshi Miyagi, artistic director of the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC), to capture the upcoming and especially...
Japan Times
JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Apr 20, 2014

'STAPgate' shows Japan must get back to basics in science

On Jan. 30, as NHK kicked off its evening news program with upbeat music, footage aired of a young woman with immaculately coiffed brown hair wearing pearl earrings and her trademark "kappogi," a Japanese-style white apron.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 20, 2014

Why not teach students what's going on now?

Who do textbook publishers think it's smart to start a fourth-grade history textbook with prehistoric humans who lived 10,000 years ago? Why not begin by teaching students what's going on now?
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 12, 2014

Shift to green energy would barely slow growth, U.N. report says

A radical shift from fossil fuels to low-carbon energy would slow world economic growth by only a tiny fraction every year, a new draft U.N. report on tackling global warming said on Friday.
EDITORIALS
Apr 11, 2014

Energy plan looks to the past

The Abe government's new Basic Energy Plan fails to set a clear direction for the nation's energy policy, which has been clouded by safety concerns ever since three reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant melted down in March 2011.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2014

Simulation of texting at Shibuya crossing goes viral

What would happen if 1,500 pedestrians walked across the famous crossing in front of Tokyo's Shibuya Station while using their smartphones?
LIFE / Digital
Mar 6, 2014

Nokia revolts against the smartphone revolution at Mobile World Congress

If you were hoping to find a hotel room in Barcelona last week, then tough luck. Barcelona was full, period. It was the week of the Mobile World Congress, you see, the annual convention of what is, for the moment at least, the most dynamic industry on the planet. Everybody and his dog was there, except...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 5, 2014

Nomura's 'Don Quixote' enlists comedy to counter today's real foes

"Whenever I am creating a new play here at Setagaya Public Theatre, I aim for something that's as universal as all those kyōgen (traditional comic theater) or noh classics that are as vivid now as when they were first staged 600 years ago. If it isn't like that, it won't reach an international audience,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Mar 3, 2014

Yen's fading clout threat to BOJ inflation goal

The rising cost of overseas travel and imported goods such as Apple computers is spurring concern in Japan's bond market that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's success in fueling inflation will be short-lived.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 26, 2014

Line stake said good for SoftBank

SoftBank Corp. would attract younger consumers and help boost usage by acquiring a stake in instant messaging service Line Corp., an analyst at Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch unit said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 25, 2014

SoftBank reportedly has sights on Line

SoftBank Corp. is seeking to buy a stake in Line Corp., the mobile-messaging service controlled by South Korea's Naver Corp., sources said.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 23, 2014

Computers 'to top humans by 2029'

Computers will be cleverer than humans by 2029, according to Ray Kurzweil, Google's director of engineering.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / TRAVEL INSIDER
Feb 18, 2014

High-flying fashion, New SAS reward plan, Haneda to Jakarta

High-flying fashion
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Feb 17, 2014

Filipino academic community in Japan unites to aid typhoon-hit homeland

Reggy Figer saw the news. A rapidly intensifying typhoon was heading towards his family in Tacloban. Concerned and nearly 3,000 km away in Nagoya, Figer sent a text message to his sister, Aileen Rose Figer-Peru, asking her to go to his parents' home.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 15, 2014

Rakuten acquires Viber web phone/messaging service for $900 million

Rakuten Inc., the Japanese online retailer controlled by billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani, is buying the Viber Internet messaging and calling service for $900 million as it moves into social networking.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 13, 2014

Making sense of cultural nonsense

In today's complicated world of mass media and communication, contemporary British artists are finding new means of expression.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 12, 2014

Double-take for a new one-woman 'Tinkerbell'

Life is hard for Marcello Magni. Not only is he directing a production separately starring famed actress Tomoko Mariya and upcoming talent Kae Okumura, but the work, in Japanese, is also his brand-new version of an early play by his great friend — and Japan's leading contemporary dramatist — Hideki...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 10, 2014

A wealthier Africa will depend on health care

One of Africa's biggest challenges to greater GDP growth and personal wealth is inadequate health care. Preventable and treatable diseases plague the population.

Longform

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