Search - world

 
 
COMMENTARY
Jan 14, 2009

Gaza: worse than a crime

"Israel is not going to show restraint," Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told the Washington Post on Jan. 10, after the United States abstained on Friday's U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. All last week the speculation grew that Washington was going to defy its Israeli...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 13, 2009

Bloated bureaucracy exposed

A common joke among some foreigners here is that everything makes sense once you realize Japan is a communist country. However, the role of privileged ruling Communist Party (or, if you have a literary bent, the pigs in George Orwell's socialist parable "Animal Farm") is played not by the perpetual opposition...
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Jan 11, 2009

Mao's poise under pressure proved decisive in 2008

Mao Asada capped off an incredible year by rallying for her third straight national title in Nagano on Dec. 27.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 11, 2009

Time a Darwinian 'true myth' evolved to rival religion

This year, 2009, is a double anniversary of particular relevance for this column.
EDITORIALS
Jan 9, 2009

Emperor's spirit of peace

Twenty years ago on Jan. 7, 1989, the Emperor ascended to the Chrysanthemum Throne immediately after the death of his father, the Emperor Showa. This year, the 20th anniversary of the Emperor's enthronement will be followed on April 10 by the 50th anniversary of his marriage with the Empress. We pray...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2009

Israel's response to Hamas' zero-sum game

MELBOURNE, Australia — Imagine your next-door neighbor — with whom you have had a long and bloody feud — pulling out a gun and shooting into your windows, from his own living room, which is densely packed with women and children. In fact, he's holding his daughter on his lap as he tries to target...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 6, 2009

Otaru ruling beats 'mob rule'

Paul de Vries' treatise on group accountability in Japanese society ("Back to the baths: Otaru revisited," Zeit Gist, Dec. 2) offered a new take on the now familiar story of the court case between Japan's naturalized enfant terrible, Debito Arudou, and the managers of the Yunohana public bath in Otaru,...
JAPAN / THE MANY FACES OF CITIZENSHIP
Jan 4, 2009

Multinationalism remains far from acceptance in Japan

Third in a series
EDITORIALS
Dec 29, 2008

An oddly familiar year

Historians like to say that "history doesn't repeat itself, it rhymes." That would explain the feeling of familiarity that many experienced throughout 2008. While there was one truly unprecedented event — the election of Mr. Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States — there was also...
EDITORIALS
Dec 28, 2008

China's miracle at middle age

It has been 30 years since China embarked on the greatest economic experiment in human history. In that time, the country has emerged from poverty and chaos to become one of the leading economic powers. It is tempting to call China's astounding growth an economic miracle, but the trajectory of the last...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 28, 2008

Place your wager on Macau

A charitable take on Tokyo's landfill projects would have them simply extending the city's alluvial plains into Tokyo Bay. Given another millennium or two, natural siltation might end up doing the same thing.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2008

Frogman's unique slant on politics

Animator Ryo Ono, a 37-year-old Tokyo native, achieved his dream of making films by changing his career as a movie production assistant.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 25, 2008

Dueling with a rare Japanese superhero

Japanese pop culture, by and large, doesn't do human superheroes. Super-powered robots (Atom Boy, aka Tetsuwan Atom), monsters (Godzilla) and aliens (Ultraman) exist in abundance, but it's harder to find the local equivalents to Spider-Man or Batman, especially on the big screen.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 24, 2008

Overseas aid benefits whom?

PHNOM PENH CAMBODIA — Despite widespread awareness and censure of human rights violations, Japan, the United States and member nations of the European Union continue to give aid to governments that use the money to enrich themselves while ravaging ecosystems and brutalizing their own citizens. China...
SOCCER
Dec 23, 2008

Ferguson eyes further titles after CWC glory

YOKOHAMA — Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson believes his side can use its Club World Cup victory as a launchpad to success for the rest of the season.
COMMENTARY
Dec 22, 2008

Japan's global invisibility

Friends of Japan abroad understand why Japanese politicians often assume a low profile in international relations. When they don't — as when paying much-publicized official visits to Yasukuni Shrine or taking a recalcitrant position on whaling — they attract criticism.
SOCCER
Dec 21, 2008

United ready for final push

YOKOHAMA — Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson is bracing for a bruising Club World Cup final encounter with Ecuador's LDU Quito on Sunday, but is confident his side can bring the world title back to Old Trafford for the second time in the club's history.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 21, 2008

Japan fired up for '09 WBC to start

It remains to be seen if Japan can score back-to-back victories in the World Baseball Classic, but there is no doubt the attitude of the Japanese side is a complete reversal from 2006 when the first WBC was played.
COMMENTARY
Dec 18, 2008

What can be done to protect Zimbabweans

WATERLOO, Ontario — The responsibility to protect (R2P) norm, embraced universally at the world summit in New York in 2005, remains operationally elusive. Calls are growing for international intervention to lift the shroud of Robert Mugabe's ruinous reign from Zimbabwe's body politic.
SOCCER
Dec 18, 2008

LDU Quito brush aside Pachuca to reach final

South American champion LDU Quito produced a first-half blitz to beat Mexico's Pachuca 2-0 Wednesday and book a place in the Club World Cup final.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past