Transport authorities launched a full-fledged investigation Sunday into the derailment of a bullet train on the Akita Shinkansen Line in Daisen, Akita Prefecture, on Saturday afternoon.
It's a dangerous, unpredictable world. Twice in January Chinese warships in the East China Sea challenged Japan's Maritime Self Defense Forces patrols in a manner deemed threatening. And on Feb. 12 came North Korea's nuclear test.
Here's an open secret: Japanese men have a bad international reputation on the romance front.
SELLING WOMEN: Prostitution, Markets and the Household in Early Modern Japan, by Amy Stanley. University of California Press, 2012, 282 pp., $49.95 (hardcover) In the vast cultural landscape, Japan fascinates the mainstream with manga and anime, the martial arts, Zen and kimono. Of course, ...
Kenta Maeda shook off worries about his form with five shutout innings as Japan beat China 5-2 in first-round Pool A of the World Baseball Classic on Sunday at Fukuoka Dome. Japan improved to 2-0 following a tough win over Brazil in Saturday evening’s ...
They say that if a frog is dropped into boiling water it will jump out, but if it is placed in water that is then heated slowly it will steadily acclimate and boil to death — having missed its chance to escape. I have ...
While visiting India earlier this month I had a revelation. It wasn’t a burst of enlightenment of the spiritual sort, though India offers those, too. It was a realization about corporate social responsibility that came with the lifting of a misapprehension I have toiled ...
BAR HARBOR MAINE — Each summer, our family visits this part of the New England coast, and each year I am reminded of the elemental connections humans share with the oceans. This summer, though, brought a deeper awareness of the dramatic changes humans are ...
Events this month have brought home to me once again the enduring truth of that popular slogan, “Think globally, act locally.” While watching G8 and G-5 delegates posturing and finger-pointing at the recent summit in Rome, two acquaintances reminded me that real change often ...
The 19th-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer declared: “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident.” Reading the most recent book by James Gustave Speth, Dean of the Yale University School of ...
Each year on May 5, Japan celebrates Children’s Day with waves of young families flooding local parks, playgrounds and amusement centers. If the swelling crowds and cacophony of cheerful voices are any indication, all is well in Japan. But the numbers tell a different ...
Judging from the last month’s headlines, it’s clear we are collectively still not getting it — despite how much we know about the environment. In fact, it seems the more we know, the less we learn. Here are some examples: — In an effort ...
If print media are any indication, change is in the air. Readers are sourcing news in new ways, and newspaper sales are declining as a result. But there is also a change in how writers are covering environmental and economic issues and the interplay ...
Takeshi Hara is an accomplished journalist, author and educator, and at 70 years of age he could easily choose to rest on his laurels. But with the energy of a teenager and a “Never give up!” motto, he is dedicated to promoting environmental sustainability ...
As I am for the most part an optimist, it seems only right to kick off 2009 with an upbeat column and, as an educator, one area I believe offers great promise is education. Of course, everything has a downside, and one reason the ...
