Search - u_times

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2014

Only amnesiacs could laud this recovery path

American graduates this season are entering an economy where more than 40 percent of recent college grads are either unemployed or in jobs that do not require a college degree. Barack Obama seems to suffer from amnesia concerning the policies that produced the robust recovery from the severe recession of 1981-82.
Japan Times
CULTURE
May 31, 2014

Essential summer festivals 2014

A summer without festivals simply wouldn’t be a proper summer in Japan, so now that the humidity has returned, it’s time to slop on an extra layer of sunscreen and line up some outdoor activities.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
May 31, 2014

When industry works in step with nature

It was about 15 years ago when an old friend, Yoshito Umezaki, invited me to dinner in Tokyo to meet a friend of his named Masayoshi "Mike" Ushikubo — "a really great guy who loves mountains, travels all over the world and is a company president who has a little problem."
COMMUNITY / Voices / OVERHEARD
May 31, 2014

The short answer

Man #1: My friend speaks English well.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
May 31, 2014

Kinoshita makes three TD grabs in Seagulls' rout over BigBlue

Noriaki Kinoshita caught three touchdown passes to lead the Obic Seagulls to a 45-14 victory over the IBM BigBlue on Saturday at Kawasaki Fujimi Stadium.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
May 31, 2014

Syrians fret over taste of war food

As Syria approaches a surreal presidential election in the midst of civil war, the capital has avoided the worst of the conflict but reminders are increasingly coming out the water taps and appearing on the dinner table, to the dismay of Damascenes.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 30, 2014

Former Aum member denies being bomber

Former Aum Shinrikyo fugitive Naoko Kikuchi said Friday she had no idea that cult superiors had roped her into a plot to build and send a parcel bomb to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government headquarters in 1995.
BASKETBALL
May 30, 2014

Kawai to remain Shinshu coach for 2014-15 season

After leading the Shinshu Brave Warriors to the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, head coach Ryuji Kawai will return to the sideline for the bj-league's 2014-15 season, the Eastern Conference club announced on Thursday.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 30, 2014

No end to Tottenham's revolving managerial door

When you have appointed eight managers during your 13 years as chairman winning only one League Cup, it is understandable that the fans view you with a certain cynicism.
EDITORIALS
May 30, 2014

Shaky grounds for Abe's defense bid

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe takes up the issue of collective self-defense in the Diet for the first time since he announced his desire to seek related changes to the government's long-standing interpretation of the Constitution. The scenarios he used to push his case seem unlikely.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
May 29, 2014

Kinokuniya revamps foreign books section

One of Tokyo's largest bookstores relaunched its foreign books section Thursday after doubling its capacity and offering what it says is the largest selection of non-Japanese titles available nationwide.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
May 29, 2014

Farmers find a new cash crop in solar power field

The campaign to boost renewable power supplies since the Fukushima nuclear disaster is producing some unlikely winners: vegetable farmers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 29, 2014

Short-film festival offers flicks for free

Short films are today both everywhere but nowhere, even for many who consider themselves film fans.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
May 28, 2014

Foreign labor key to Olympic gold

At a construction site in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, worker Fan Xiuyu says he's too busy to miss the wife and 6-year-old child he left behind in China.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 28, 2014

'The Bee' in Paris: Take #2

Last week, the Stage page featured a Paris resident's take on an English-language version of "The Bee," a disturbing drama cowritten by Hideki Noda and Irish playwright Colin Teevan that was performed there this month in a 300-seat section of the Theatre de Chaillot.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 28, 2014

The 'Great Wave' that reached the West

Ukiyo-e prints could be found in Europe from at least 1795 at the Cabinet des Estampes at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. It was not until the 1850s, however, when trade between Japan and Europe began to flourish, that the craze for things Japanese began to crescendo.
Reader Mail
May 28, 2014

Foreign workers are not robots

Regarding the May 19 article "Success of 'Abenomics' hinges on immigration policy": Japan's demographic, economic and social future must be planned beyond Abenomics. What the Abe administration seems to be hinting at — an "immigration" policy divorced from an "immigrant" policy — is a symptom of...
Reader Mail
May 28, 2014

Crack down on unpaid overtime

Regarding the May 21 Bloomberg article "Foreign domestics seen as aiding working mothers": I have to say that the solution to keeping women in the workplace and to increasing family size lies not with either increasing the number of domestic helpers (which would benefit only those women who could afford...
Reader Mail
May 28, 2014

Beyond the traditional confines

I like working women: Professional women. Women brought up on the basis of equality, educated on a par with their male counterparts. Women with a voice and something to say within society's pecking order, not on its margins. Challengers. Especially women brighter than myself.
Reader Mail
May 28, 2014

'Cinderella' workers won't help

These days a lot of companies and government organizations are bent on building a female workforce as they anticipate workforce shortages because of our aging society. It is a matter for congratulation that we see this trend finally happening in Japan, which was once known strictly as a vertically structured...
Reader Mail
May 28, 2014

To live in a place free of garbage

The May 20 Bloomberg article "Trash troubles pile up in China's Garbage Era" reminded me of my first trip to China as a student of Chinese four years ago. It was a trip mainly to the former "Manchukuo," a Japanese puppet country before and during the war. In the major cities of Harbin and Changchun,...
Reader Mail
May 28, 2014

U.S. patience, vigilance needed

Regarding Doug Bandow's May 24 article "Opportunity for U.S. to extricate itself from Korea": I wonder if this article was written before or after last week's exchange of naval gunfire between the two Koreas.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 27, 2014

Ishibashi won't return for second season as Saitama coach

The Saitama Broncos will not renew head coach Takatoshi "Big Bashi" Ishibashi's contract after a disastrous 5-47 season.
BASKETBALL / NBA / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
May 27, 2014

Playoffs filled with great action, interesting story lines

Cue DJ-style NBA public address announcer: In for-r-r Sa-a-a-a-m Smith this-s-s week, M-A-A-A-A-S!
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 27, 2014

SKST 4seasons aren't posing when it comes to rock

Tomo Nakamura had already decided before walking through the door that this audition would be his last. He'd already been in a half dozen bands that had never taken off. He was prepared to give up on dreams of being a musician, but fortunately for him he had found a group of young men who felt precisely...
EDITORIALS
May 27, 2014

A coup by any other name

Last week's military coup in Thailand may have been a reluctant coup, but the inclination should have been resisted. The longer it takes Gen. Prayuth Chanchoa to produce a civilian government, the greater the risk that soldiers will turn their guns against the people.
JAPAN
May 26, 2014

Journalist repeats assertion that Nanking Massacre didn't happen

A British journalist quoted rejecting historians' accounts about Japan's actions after occupying Nanking has restated that he believes the 1937 Nanking Massacre did not occur, after saying he was "shocked and horrified" by his Japanese book's conclusion, which said the Chinese government fabricated the...
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2014

Importance of being Modi lost on the old order's effete

These are exhilarating times in India as the old political supremacy of the Nehru-Gandhi family crumbles to make way for a new order gradually taking shape.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person