Hong Kongers share postdisaster insights

Sep 17, 2011

Hong Kongers share postdisaster insights

Most Hong Kongers are enthusiastic about Japan — its fashion and pop culture have been popular for years, hundreds of thousands vacation in the country each year, and more of its food is imported there than anywhere else, with fresh sashimi flown in daily ...

Top blogger illustrates Chinese wife's struggles

| Aug 9, 2011

Top blogger illustrates Chinese wife's struggles

W ith his winning of the prestigious Alpha Blogger Awards 2010, Tokyo-based cartoonist Junichi Inoue is now recognized as one of the most influential Japanese bloggers. His blog carries comic strips of amusing episodes about a new life with his young, Chinese wife, Yue, ...

GE plan followed with inflexibility

Jul 14, 2011

GE plan followed with inflexibility

Second of two parts Yukiteru Naka, a former employee of General Electric who took part in designing and operating reactor units 1, 2 and 6 at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, is just one of a few engineers whose knowledge spans the ...

Tepco report reveals lack of preparedness

Jun 20, 2011

Tepco report reveals lack of preparedness

Tokyo Electric Power Co. has released a 41-page timeline detailing its initial actions in the first days of the Fukushima nuclear plant crisis, and experts said it reveals a lack of preparedness and severe difficulty in coping with the world’s worst atomic accident since ...

Probe poised to take Tepco to task

| Jun 7, 2011

Probe poised to take Tepco to task

Shortly after 7 a.m. on March 12, Prime Minister Naoto Kan confronted Masao Yoshida, director of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, at the compound in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture. Kan flew from Tokyo by chopper to the crippled nuclear plant, desperately wanting to ask ...

May 30, 2011

Pump failure nearly brings No. 5 to a boil

The seawater pump in the cooling system for the Fukushima power plant’s No. 5 reactor broke down Saturday evening, prompting repair crews to install a backup pump 15 hours later on Sunday afternoon, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said. Tepco discovered the pump had stopped ...

May 28, 2011

Fukushima school limit: 1 millisievert

The education ministry said Friday it has set a new nonbinding target to reduce radiation exposure of Fukushima Prefecture students while they are at school to 1 millisievert or less a year. An earlier — and binding — regulation that allowed more exposure has ...

Aug 19, 2010

Business-Japanese proficiency test doomed by profit fall

A major business-Japanese language proficiency test for foreigners will be discontinued at the end of this fiscal year because the endeavor has remained unprofitable, the organizing body of the exam told The Japan Times on Wednesday. The Business Japanese Proficiency Test, run by the ...

| Jul 30, 2010

Modern era gentry's architectural gems

This is the first in a biweekly series appearing Fridays (Saturdays in some areas) that looks at photos and background stories of historic, architecturally significant mansions once owned by some of the wealthiest families in Japan. Near the quiet Shinobazu-no-ike pond in Tokyo’s Taito ...

Jul 29, 2010

Southern All Stars frontman Kuwata sidelined by cancer

Keisuke Kuwata, singer-songwriter of the popular rock band Southern All Stars, has early stage esophageal cancer and will undergo surgery as early as next month, his management firm, Amuse Inc., said Wednesday. Kuwata, 54, will cancel a planned concert tour that was to run ...