TOKYO (Reuters) - (This January 25 story corrects to specify the three goals cited by Japan Times management for the style change in the December meeting and to revise the description of management’s expectations for the relationship to advertising revenue.) Early in December, dozens of journalists and editors from the Japan Times gathered for an emergency meeting in a glass-walled conference room

The Bright Side of Japan’s Bleak Election The country has reverted to de facto one-party rule. But there are signs that Japan's democracy is not dead yet. On paper, it looks like Japan’s October 22 general election was more of the same. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition partner, Komeito, went into the election with a supermajority in the House of Represen

Shinzo Abe doesn't wear a wizard's hat. Nor is the prime minister known to be skilled in sorcery, voodoo or hypnosis. And yet somehow Abenomics entranced millions for nearly three years, none more so than the MBA set in New York and London that should have known better. Western investment banks beefed up Tokyo staffs, stamped "buy" ratings on Nikkei stocks and raced out reports on Japan triumphing

Reporting from Kakegawa, Japan  —  The red-roofed temple at the top of the hill closed about a decade ago, and now Yoshihiro Shibata can’t even remember its name, though the 54-year-old dairy farmer has lived in this picturesque village all his life. “The income of the temple depends on the number of residents, and there weren’t enough to keep a monk here,” he said, looking around the deserted gro

(This version of the story clarifies 15th paragraph to indicate that Marano and many in Japan’s right wing have interpreted a 1944 U.S. Army report as saying the women were willing prostitutes, not that the Army stated they were willing prostitutes) Former telephone company employee Tony Marano is seen at a speaking engagement in Toyko in 2015, in this handout picture courtesy of Akira Semba. REUT

TOKYO (AP) — In the humble zoo, among the small cages of owls, guinea pigs and raccoons, Japan's oldest elephant stands in a concrete pen about the size of half of a basketball court. She drinks sugar water from a bucket and munches on bananas with her last remaining tooth while a debate is being waged about where she should live out her final years. A gift from the Thai government in 1949, Hanako

Japan is the only developed country without anti-discrimination laws, and ethnic Koreans are often targeted On a chilly February evening in 2013, Shinhae Lee, a journalist and ethnic Korean woman who has lived in Japan her whole life, was at home by herself in Osaka when her computer pinged with a message from a friend. It said the leader of the nationalist group Zaitokukai had just announced on t

Japanese protesters invoke human rights abuse and painful memories of war to oppose US Marine airbase on their island. Protesters have been staging demonstrations against the US airbase on Okinawa island [Hitoshi Maeshiro/EPA] Okinawa, Japan – The governor of this island, Takeshi Onaga, has annoyed both Washington and Tokyo by taking the case of his people against a US military base directly to th

An online furor has broken out over a controversial illustration that depicts a refugee girl from Syria as a selfish freeloader, with some labeling the work, drawn by a conservative manga artist, as racist. At the center of the controversy is an illustration depicting an unkempt girl with a wry smile. It is believed to be based on a real-life malnourished refugee who was forced to flee the war-tor

Some of my favorite Japanese people share a common trait: They hate the word ganbaru (頑張る). In fact, they resent being offered encouragement with phrases like ganbatte ne, ganbare, ganbatte kudasai or any of the other imperative iterations of the usually mindless exhortation directed at people experiencing adversity. Those learning Japanese may be surprised that ganbaru could have anything other t

WITH a weak opposition, an election in the bag and buoyant approval ratings, the government of Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, would hardly seem to have much to fight against. Yet it is waging an increasingly heavy-handed campaign to intimidate the media. Even pro-government journalists are crying foul. Discreet interventions by politicians have long been customary. But bullying recently broke

TOKYO (Reuters) - A former adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has praised apartheid as a model for how Japan could expand immigration, prompting the government’s top spokesman on Friday to emphasize that Japan’s immigration policy was based on equality. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivers his policy speech at the lower house of parliament in Tokyo February 12, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas Peter A