search

 
 
Reader Mail
Aug 16, 2019

Missing the point of spoken English

Regarding "Test results show students' poor English skills" in the Aug. 2 edition, while it may seem a good thing that Japan's accountable authorities recognize the need to do something about Japanese students' English-speaking inability, perhaps they are the wrong people to succeed.
Reader Mail
Aug 16, 2019

May chindonya keep on playing

The cover story "Chindonya: The beat goes on" in the Aug. 4 edition filled me with Showa Era nostalgia. It's great that this profession has survived even in Reiwa Era 2019, though the number of professional chindonya (street musician advertisers) is small. To my surprise, even overseas this concept is...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Aug 16, 2019

As rains lead to thousands of school meals being binned, Hiroshima weighs how to cut waste

A 30-year-old female reader in Hiroshima contacted the Chugoku Shimbun one day to convey her frustration that school lunches are thrown away when schools shut down due to heavy rain.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2019

Japanese team developing AI-based system to forecast chance of tsunami and scale of damage

Drawing lessons from one of the worst disasters in the nation's history, a team of Japanese researchers is developing an artificial intelligence-based tsunami-forecasting system set for release in fiscal 2020 that could help limit loss of life and property in future calamities.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 16, 2019

Genetic study implicates humans in demise of prehistoric cave bear 20,000 years ago

Genetic research that reconstructed the past population dynamics of the cave bear, a prominent prehistoric denizen of Europe, implicates Homo sapiens rather than climate cooling in the Ice Age extinction of these brawny plant-loving beasts.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 16, 2019

Planet 10 times Earth's mass may have smacked Jupiter long ago

Jupiter may have been smacked head-on by an embryonic planet 10 times Earth's mass not long after being formed — a monumental crash with apparent lasting effects on the Jovian core, scientists said on Thursday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 16, 2019

Gujo-Hachiman: Travel along the rivers of time

Perhaps it is the gurgling brooks that feed the town's roadside culverts, the colorful, vaguely Pyrenean window boxes, or the friendly, natural disposition of the locals — Gujo-Hachiman seems a place where people's spirits are pitched a notch or two higher than elsewhere.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 16, 2019

BOJ's September meeting to be watched closely for new easing

The next policy-setting meeting of the Bank of Japan, set to be held from Sept. 18 to 19, is the subject of heightened attention as observers anticipate fresh monetary-easing after the yen's recent spike against other major currencies.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 16, 2019

Samoan diaspora ink bonds with ancestors and motherland

Oliver Fagalilo takes a labored breath and tenses his body before a sharp steel comb, dipped in ink, is driven into his skin.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2019

Air Seoul to suspend Incheon-Toyama flights amid tense South Korea-Japan ties

South Korean low-cost carrier Air Seoul will suspend its regular flights connecting Incheon International Airport in South Korea with Toyama airport in central Japan from Sept. 16, the Toyama Prefectural Government said Thursday.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 16, 2019

Young Maori women on frontline of New Zealand's fight for indigenous rights

Five years ago, law graduate Pania Newton and her cousins got together around a kitchen table and agreed to do everything in their power to prevent a housing development on a south Auckland site that is considered sacred by local Maori.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2019

As population ages, Japan's convenience stores find future in funerals

It might escape the notice of a passerby that Davius Living Yamato, a one-story building standing unassumingly on a street in Kanagawa Prefecture, is a funeral parlor.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 16, 2019

Families of Kashmir detainees still don't know where they are, or why they are being held

A week and a half after Indian authorities began detaining hundreds of local leaders and activists in Kashmir, fearing violence after the region's special status was withdrawn, it is unclear in many cases where they are — or even why they were taken away.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 16, 2019

Sydney's water supply falling at record pace due to drought

Sydney is running down its water supply at the fastest rate on record, with dams expected to fall below half maximum capacity due to the worst drought on record, the government said on Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 16, 2019

Ministry urges Rakuten Mobile to speed up preparation of base stations ahead of Japan rollout

The communications ministry has instructed Rakuten Mobile Inc. to speed up its rollout of base stations, with the mobile operator slated to launch its service in Japan on Oct. 1, it was learned on Thursday.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Aug 16, 2019

Trump has privately — but possibly not seriously — talked about America buying Greenland

U.S. President Donald Trump has privately discussed with aides and advisers the idea of the United States purchasing the island of Greenland as a way to expand U.S. territory, two sources familiar with the situation said on Thursday.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 16, 2019

U.S. threatens sanctions in Iranian tanker case after Gibraltar court orders ship released

The U.S. is gravely disappointed with the U.K. after a Gibraltar court allowed the release of an Iranian tanker suspected of transporting oil to Syria, and threatened sanctions against ports, banks and anyone else who does business with the ship or its crew, two administration officials said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2019

Kyoto Animation suspends annual novel contest in wake of deadly arson attack

Arson-hit Kyoto Animation Co. has decided to suspend its annual novel competition in the wake of the July 18 attack on its studio in Kyoto that left 35 people dead and dozens injured.
WORLD
Aug 16, 2019

Radioactive iodine from Russian missile accident detected in Norway

Norway's nuclear safety authority is analyzing tiny amounts of radioactive iodine detected in the air in northern Norway in the days after a deadly explosion during a rocket engine test over the border in Russia.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 16, 2019

North Korea fires more 'projectiles' into Sea of Japan and vows not to meet with South

North Korea added insult to injury Friday when, hours after blasting South Korea's leader as "impudent" and vowing not to meet with Seoul officials, it launched two more "projectiles" into the Sea of Japan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2019

Japanese firms in Hong Kong concerned protests may escalate as ministry issues warning

The Foreign Ministry's Level 1 travel warning is its weakest, but Japanese financial institutions operating in the international financial hub are growing wary of conducting business there.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Aug 16, 2019

Double disqualification after heat shortens 2020 test event

British triathletes Jessica Learmonth and Georgia Taylor Brown were both disqualified after they crossed the line together following the heat-affected test event for next year's Tokyo Olympics on Thursday morning.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2019

LDP panel to study ways to prevent heatstroke during 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics

A group of lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party will launch a full-fledged study this autumn on measures to prevent heatstroke during the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 16, 2019

Homicide retrial to resume of Salvadoran rape victim who delivered stillborn son

The retrial of a Salvadoran woman convicted of aggravated homicide after having a stillbirth was scheduled to resume on Thursday, offering a possibility to overturn her 30-year sentence in a country that bans abortion in all circumstances.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Aug 16, 2019

Trump blames mass shootings on the mentally ill and calls for more institutions

President Donald Trump said on Thursday he supports meaningful background checks for gun buyers, but he told reporters that those responsible for recent mass shootings were mentally ill and the United States should build more mental institutions.

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?