Search - u_times

 
 
OLYMPICS
Feb 11, 2014

Struggling Takahashi running out of time

One day after revealing that he was still having trouble with his injured right knee, Daisuke Takahashi went through an uneven practice on Tuesday at the training rink next to the Iceberg Skating Palace.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 11, 2014

Mitsume play the indie game, but are winning the mainstream

Mitsume subscribes to an easy-to-get-behind ethos regularly found in indie-rock communities: "Since our first album, we've been under nobody's control but our own," says lead vocalist Moto Kawabe. "We prefer to do whatever we can ourselves."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2014

Student seeks Japan-Russia isle thaw

For Yuki Nishida, 23, the Soviet Union and Russia had long been the frightening foes who seized Kunashiri Island, where his grandmother lived, after Japan's World War II surrender.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 10, 2014

Sino-American trade and investment friction

In recent years, U.S. exports to China have been growing faster than Chinese exports to the U.S. Similarly Chinese investment in the U.S. is growing faster than U.S. investment in China. Trade frictions are inevitable.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 10, 2014

A wealthier Africa will depend on health care

One of Africa's biggest challenges to greater GDP growth and personal wealth is inadequate health care. Preventable and treatable diseases plague the population.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 9, 2014

Tokyo voters split by priority shift to welfare

Media outlets at home and abroad are playing up the Tokyo gubernatorial election as an effective public referendum on whether Japan should ditch its atomic plants, focusing on the battle between anti-nuclear candidate Morihiro Hosokawa and ex-health minister Yoichi Masuzoe, who is backed by pro-nuclear...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Feb 9, 2014

Getting the colors clear when filing taxes in Japan

Filing a tax return isn't easy at the best of times, but doing it in another country can be particularly challenging. Fortunately, if you work for a company and that's your sole source of income in Japan, they will take care of everything for you. However, those who are self-employed or have multiple...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2014

EU effort bound for conflict

The EU's effort to build a political association with Ukraine in order eventually to make Ukraine an EU member has been extremely reckless and was inevitably destined to end in conflict.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 9, 2014

Water shortages leaving world high and dry

On Jan. 17, scientists downloaded fresh data from a pair of NASA satellites and distributed the findings among the small group of researchers who track the world's water reserves. At the University of California, Irvine, hydrologist James Famiglietti looked over the data from the gravity-sensing Grace...
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 9, 2014

Sex and single-mindedness: The Wendy Deng story

When Rupert Murdoch sat before a British House of Commons select committee in July 2011, Wendi Deng appeared the very picture of a supportive spouse. Dressed in a pink Chanel jacket and black pencil skirt, she poured the then 80-year-old's water for him, lovingly stroked his back and quietly reminded...
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Feb 8, 2014

Snow Country

Winter, when mornings are crisp, puddles frozen and the promise of snow floats in the air; it's the perfect season to crack open "Snow Country" and let its well-known opening line — "The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country" — transport you into Yasunari Kawabata's poetic tale...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 8, 2014

The Nature of Japan

The title of longtime Japan Times columnist Mark Brazil's collection of essays sells itself a little short, for "The Nature of Japan" is less about identifying the web of life that inhabits this archipelago as it is about offering an insightful peek into the Japanese relationship with the great outdoors....
COMMUNITY / Voices / OVERHEARD
Feb 8, 2014

Age-old dilemma

American woman: I'm so old. I feel like staying in Japan is making me miss out on other things in my life.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 8, 2014

Blast from the past: Lucky Dragon 60 years on

Sixty years ago, on March 1, 1954, a Japanese fishing boat named Lucky Dragon No. 5 was doused by radioactive fallout from a U.S. hydrogen-bomb test, codenamed Castle Bravo, on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Although the bomb was over 1,000 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2014

Is wealth inequality near a tipping point?

Today's vast wealth inequality probably isn't the result of any economic conspiracy, or of vast differences in human skills. It's more likely the banal outcome of a fairly mechanical process that, unless altered, could easily carry us into a place where most of us would rather not be.
Reader Mail
Feb 8, 2014

What's eating the protesters?

My question is why not [kill whales off Antarctica]? I ask the question respectfully because I do not yet have an answer. In an otherwise nicely balanced article with quite interesting historical background and devoid of the emotional hysteria that usually accompanies articles on this subject, C.W. Nicol...
BASKETBALL
Feb 8, 2014

Iwate delivers another stellar performance on road, defeats Toyama in series opener

Wherever the play, the Iwate Big Bulls seem to know what's expected of them.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 8, 2014

NHK drama takes a wild stab at a dying art

The hero of 'Uzumasa Limelight' has made his living for half a century as a kirare-yaku in sword-fighting movies. Kirare-yaku have a specific role: Their job is to die on screen.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Feb 7, 2014

American tuna trader shares passion born in Tsukiji with the world

'I want to roll together the beauty of the history and culture of Japan into a quality tuna product and export that to the West,' says American David Leibowitz. 'I want the West consuming that and having it become part of them.'
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2014

John Kerry: a 'magnificent' U.S. secretary of state

The indefatigable U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been astoundingly discreet as a Mideast peace broker. Not a hint of what has been said in private has leaked into the public domain, yet there is almost no hope of a real peace deal.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Feb 7, 2014

NHK governors' impartiality doubted

Shocking remarks like "there was no Nanjing Massacre" and "the gender equality law triggered Japan's low birthrate" by NHK governors appointed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have called into question the qualifications and neutrality of the public broadcaster's board and the biased way its members are...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Feb 7, 2014

Volleyball coach Sato speaks out after dismissal

You are given a big project and asked for a long-term commitment. And then you are ousted based on your short-term showing?
BUSINESS / Japan Pulse
Feb 7, 2014

Bandai's projection-mapping candy toy: Hako Vision

A toy, its cardboard box and your smartphone are all you need to projection-map at home.

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