DoCoMo counting on R&D to stay ahead

DoCoMo counting on R&D to stay ahead

by Kazuaki Nagata

NTT DoCoMo Inc., despite being Japan’s biggest mobile phone carrier, has been struggling against tough smartphone competition from KDDI Corp. and Softbank Corp., which is leading in that area. But one edge that the cellphone behemoth — it has more than 60 million subscribers ...

Bill threatens the lives of the poor

By tightening procedures to receive livelihood assistance, a bill just submitted to the Diet could end up raising the suicide rate and the number of deaths by hunger.

Shizuoka theater festival courts the avant-garde

Shizuoka theater festival courts the avant-garde

by Nobuko Tanaka

Claude Regy says the team at the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) threw him the “best birthday party ever” when he arrived in Japan just days after the actual May 1 occasion. The 90-year-old French director is hoping for an even better birthday gift, ...

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Bill for ID number program clears Diet

The Diet passes a bill for a system to assign an identification number to every citizen to improve government management of income, social security and tax information, despite public concerns ...

  • Science, sponsors abetted Miura's Everest success

    Science, sponsors abetted Miura's Everest success

    Japanese alpinist Yuichiro Miura, who at 80 became the oldest person Thursday to reach the summit of Mount Everest, used a carefully structured scientific training regime and support from corporate sponsors and fans to ...

  • 'Abenomics' still has long way to go

    'Abenomics' still has long way to go

    by Jun Hongo

    The recent volatility of the Nikkei 225 stock average should not be a cause for alarm, government officials assured Friday, but pundits pointed out that “Abenomics” seems to have a long way to go ...

  • Obama seeks to redefine U.S. war on terrorism

    Obama seeks to redefine U.S. war on terrorism

    by Washington

    President Barack Obama laid out new guidelines for drone strikes Thursday and launched a fresh bid to close Guantanamo Bay, warning that a “perpetual” U.S. war on terrorism will be self-defeating. Obama told Americans ...

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DoCoMo counting on R&D to stay ahead

DoCoMo counting on R&D to stay ahead

by Kazuaki Nagata

NTT DoCoMo Inc., despite being Japan’s biggest mobile phone carrier, has been struggling against tough smartphone competition from KDDI Corp. and Softbank Corp., which is leading in that area. But one edge that the cellphone behemoth — it has more than 60 million subscribers ...

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Life

1
Springtime beans aim for the sky

Springtime beans aim for the sky

by Makiko Itoh

Throughout most of Japan, June is the rainy season. While all that rainfall is great for rice paddies so that we can have delicious new harvest rice in the fall, it makes it a rather dull month for seasonal produce: The summer’s bounty of ...

Culture

Shizuoka theater festival courts the avant-garde

Shizuoka theater festival courts the avant-garde

by Nobuko Tanaka

Claude Regy says the team at the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) threw him the “best birthday party ever” when he arrived in Japan just days after the actual May 1 occasion. The 90-year-old French director is hoping for an even better birthday gift, ...

Opinion

Challenge of a lifetime, again

Having conquered Mount Everest for the third time, Yuichiro Miura, 80, demonstrates the physical possibilities of human endurance while inspiring Japan's elderly.