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Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 9, 2014

Sex and single-mindedness: The Wendy Deng story

When Rupert Murdoch sat before a British House of Commons select committee in July 2011, Wendi Deng appeared the very picture of a supportive spouse. Dressed in a pink Chanel jacket and black pencil skirt, she poured the then 80-year-old's water for him, lovingly stroked his back and quietly reminded...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2014

Netanyahu's talks with Kerry will be critical

Support for an independent Palestine alongside the state of Israel is not a constant. An odd tension in public opinion exists on both sides: The desire for the two leaderships to negotiate a settlement is set against a much weaker conviction that they are capable of doing it.
LIFE / Digital
Jan 30, 2014

Are Britain's plans for its patients' private data totally healthy?

A few days ago, I dropped into my doctor's surgery to pick up a prescription and was confronted by one of those large floor-mounted pop-up displays that one finds at exhibitions, trade fairs and circuses. It informed me of an exciting new scheme by which the "quality of care and health services" would...
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2014

Jury still out on Kansai union's worth

A useless talk shop that will ultimately be remembered as a massive waste of taxpayer money, or a farsighted experiment that will someday be seen as the forerunner of a fundamentally new system of central government?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jan 25, 2014

Baye McNeil: 'Always endeavor to do ... what you love to do'

Do what you have to do if you truly have to do it, of course, but always endeavor to be yourself and do what you love to do. That way, you'll come to the realization sooner that the life you're living is actually the product of your actions and decisions, and you'll be much less likely to waste a precious moment of it.
Reader Mail
Jan 25, 2014

Pleasure reading presents hurdles

Having the esteemed professor emeritus Stephen Krashen contribute to the ongoing question of English education in Japan is always pleasurable. However, his letter of Jan. 16, "Recreational reading will score," raises more questions than it answers.
EDITORIALS
Jan 23, 2014

Can't bury the nuclear issue

The Feb. 9 Tokyo gubernatorial election will not only decide the leader of the nation's capital but also indicate whether Japan will rely on nuclear power.
COMMENTARY / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jan 21, 2014

Is the Obama administration prioritizing ties with China?

The different tones of the U.S. and Japanese reactions to China's recent establishment of an air defense identificatin zone raises the question of whether the Obama administration is prioritizing ties with Beijing.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 19, 2014

Let Iraq, Afghan regimes look after themselves

What more than a decade ago was believed by Americans to be the omnipotence of the U.S. in the Middle East and Central Asia is today being replaced by a fear that the U.S. is responsible for why everything seems to be going wrong.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jan 19, 2014

'Pilgrims' flock to site of death in Alaska's wilds

The old bus in which Chris McCandless died in 1992 in the interior of Alaska — made famous in Jon Krakauer's best-selling book "Into the Wild" and later in the Sean Penn film of the same name — long ago lost its windows to souvenir hunters.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 17, 2014

A vision for Japan's future

Thanks to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's 'Abenomics' initiative for national economic recovery, Japan's economy as well as its currency and stock markets started the New Year on a positive note for the first time in a long while.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jan 12, 2014

'Tiger mom' author stokes controversy with latest trope

Almost exactly three years ago, the Wall Street Journal published an excerpt from a book that remains its most commented article of all time. Under the fiery title, "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior," Yale law professor Amy Chua set out a manifesto for motherhood in proudly recounting her ironfisted...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2014

Russian road to mediocrity

Only a few economists in Russia seem to stress the importance of understanding the impact of the current mass outflow of capital and the sharp deterioration of the situation in world commodity markets.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2014

Lebanon signals a sordid new turn as it struggles to be heard politically

The assassination Dec. 27 of a technocrat and former finance minister by a car bomb in a swanky part of the city called into question the rules of the sordid political game that has come to dominate Lebanon's life.
EDITORIALS
Jan 2, 2014

Gusty head winds in 2014

2014 promises to be a year of gusty head winds for world leaders. In Japan, the pre-eminent question is whether Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will continue to rein in his most conservative instincts and focus on economic issues.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2013

Deciphering Kim's actions

The day is fast approaching when Kim Jong Un and his clan will have to take responsibility for the country's dire condition, and it may come soon after his aunt dies.
COMMENTARY
Dec 30, 2013

Stagnation sustained by 'wrong type of debt'

The global economic recovery has been anemic because excessive private-debt creation before the crisis and subsequent attempts at deleveraging have weakened demand considerably.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 29, 2013

A pardon for war hero convicted of being gay

Queen Elizabeth II's long-overdue pardon of war hero Allen Turing should serve as opportunity for the world to reflect on discrimination against gays.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 28, 2013

In memoriam: Those we lost in 2013

2013 saw the loss of a number of personalities who stood at the top of their respective fields. As the year quietly draws to a close, we reflect on those we lost, their contribution to the world and their ongoing legacy.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 28, 2013

Is teacher demoralization the next step?

Publicizing the names of teachers in newspapers when their students fail to measure up could be a prescription for demoralization in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2013

Winners of 2013's behavioral economics oscars

The Oscars won't be awarded until March, but those who hand out the annual Behavioral Economics Oscars (Becons) are famously impatient, and it is time to announce this year's winners.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2013

'Frenemies' in the Mideast

The recent interim nuclear agreement between Iran and the so-called P5-plus-1 countries, led by the U.S., has provoked unprecedented criticism of U.S. policy from two of its strongest Mideast allies: Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 23, 2013

How the Federal Reserve was created

A century ago this week, Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act, creating a central bank for a nation that was only beginning its economic ascendance. This is the story of how it came to be, from a nearly catastrophic financial panic to secret meetings of plutocrats on the Georgia coast to the pitched...
WORLD
Dec 22, 2013

U.S. secretly helps Colombia kill rebel leaders

The 50-year-old Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), once considered the best-funded insurgency in the world, is at its smallest and most vulnerable state in decades, due in part to a CIA covert action program that has helped Colombian forces kill at least two dozen rebel leaders, according...
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Dec 20, 2013

Odds on Ando making Olympic team for Sochi very long

"Do you believe in miracles?"
COMMUNITY / Issues
Dec 18, 2013

A secrets law for whom? Look who gets a free pass

Ancient Confucian scholars regarded law as a necessary evil, something used on lower orders of people who lacked the moral refinement to act righteously without prompting. Yet this just states a basic truth about law: It is something we do to other people. You and I know how to act properly, right? It's...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 14, 2013

Beyond Newtown: 71 other young children killed by deliberate gunfire in 2012

The man with the gun burst into the apartment and opened fire. The first victim was a young woman, dead at 21. The second victim was her 25-year-old roommate. But it was the third victim who would cause the most anguished screams when the bodies were discovered. Shot in the head, he was a 6-month-old...
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 11, 2013

Eda gambit viable, just for subsidy?

Cresting criticism of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over his strong-arm tactics to pass the state secrets bill, ex-Your Party Secretary-General Kenji Eda hopes to form a new opposition party by year's end, qualifying him for subsidies.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 9, 2013

Otaku culture gets under the skin

Tattoos in Japan have long moved on from the kind often romanticized by the West — that imagery of flamboyant yakuza that so many seem reluctant to relinquish. But a brief glance at the policies of Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto reveals a nation still unwilling to allow tattoos into mainstream society...

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.