Economy | ANALYSIS
Households to take hit from tax hike
by Tomoko Otake
The consumption tax increase will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people’s financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the hike's impact.
Asia Pacific Feb 28, 2013
Safety concerns cloud South Korea nuclear drive
South Korea has big plans to become a major nuclear energy player, but they are unfolding at a time when the global industry is under intense scrutiny after the 2011 Fukushima disaster. And its ambitions have not been helped by a series of domestic ...
National Feb 26, 2013
Japan to rethink candidate sites for nuclear waste disposal
The Environment Ministry said Monday that it will restart the process to select candidate final storage sites for radioactive waste from the triple-meltdown disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 power plant, because residents living near the current chosen locations are up ...
Asia Pacific Feb 21, 2013
New activity detected at North Korea nuclear site
A U.S. think tank says North Korea has resumed activity at a nuclear site following its globally condemned atomic bomb test, fanning fears it is gearing up for another detonation.
National Feb 20, 2013
Greenpeace wants nuclear plant suppliers held accountable for Fukushima crisis
Greenpeace launches an online campaign saying nuclear power plant manufacturers should be held accountable for the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
Politics & Diplomacy Feb 16, 2013
North Korea upgrading rocket site; features point to Iranian help
North Korea is upgrading one of its major missile launch sites, apparently to handle far bigger rockets, and the design features implicate Iran.
Music Feb 14, 2013
Pianist Yazawa looks to the past to find security in the future
by Chiho Iuchi
Pianist Tomoko Yazawa always thinks about her music with the future in mind. However, for her latest album, “Playing in the Dark,” she made a rare diversion into the past — specifically, France at the end of the 19th century. Although Yazawa was classically ...
National Feb 9, 2013
Evacuee suits target Tepco, government
by Mizuho Aoki
Fukushima residents forced out of their homes by the nuclear crisis plan to file group damages suits against the government and Tepco on the second anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Politics & Diplomacy Feb 8, 2013
U.S. may restore North Korea to list of terrorist states
The United States is considering re-designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism in the event Pyongyang conducts another nuclear test.
Film Feb 8, 2013
How to cope when home is where the radiation is?
by Kaori Shoji
When she hears the phrase “a sense of home,” filmmaker Michale Boganim always endures a wave of sadness. “Home can mean a whole lot of things, but to me it has connotations of displacement and loss,” she tells The Japan Times. “I come from ...
Review Feb 8, 2013
'Land of Oblivion'
by Kaori Shoji
It’s 1996. Anya (Olga Kurylenko) works as a guide on a tour bus that takes people through Pripyat, a town located just 3 km from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The tourists, all of varying ages and nationalities, listen somewhat bored to ...
National Feb 7, 2013
Power goes out for minute at Oi nuclear plant
Power went out for one minute at reactor 3 of Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture but the outage did not affect the unit's operation or cause a negative impact outside the facility, Kepco says.
Politics & Diplomacy Feb 5, 2013
Video shows U.S. city under attack
North Korea, poised to conduct a nuclear test any day now, has posted a video on YouTube depicting a U.S. city resembling New York engulfed in flames after an apparent missile attack. The footage was uploaded Saturday by the North’s official website, Uriminzokkiri, which ...