Search - 2012

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2014

Legal U.S. pot won't bring real peace to Mexico

The creeping legalization of marijuana in the U.S. does not spell doom for the Mexican drug cartels. In the final analysis, Mexico doesn't have a drug problem; its institutions are too weak to protect the life, liberty and property of its citizens.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 23, 2014

Nuclear energy fight highlights aging economy

The 'nuclear village' is at the root of the cronyism, corruption and inertia that continue to prolong Japan's malaise and dent its competitiveness. Tokyo gubernatorial candidate Morihiro Hosokawa threatens that village.
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2014
Jan 23, 2014

Japan's economy strong enough to weather tax hike storm

Last year Japan's economy finally refound some backbone, with strong growth, better company earnings, falling unemployment and the key stock index soaring by a half to a six-year high, thanks mainly to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic measures, the so-called "Abenomics."
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 22, 2014

Reforms open SE Asia's 'last frontier'

Newly democratizing Myanmar is a suitable destination for Japanese direct investment as it is Southeast Asia's "last frontier," two researchers based in Singapore said at a symposium in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Jan 21, 2014

Japan heading for darker days

It's still baffling why the Abe administration was in such a hurry to have the state secrets bill passed when various opinion surveys showed that the bill was opposed by about 80 percnet of respondens on the very day the Upper House voted on it.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 21, 2014

Korean credit card firms under fire as 20M user details are swiped

South Korea's biggest theft of personal information on credit card holders prompted dozens of top executives at financial firms, including KB Financial Group Inc., to offer their resignations this week as a regulatory probe widened.
BASKETBALL
Jan 19, 2014

Akita rolls to ninth straight victory

The All-Star spotlight will shine on Akita next Sunday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 18, 2014

Unilever slips into buttery embrace

Paul Polman, CEO of margarine maker Unilever, has criticized butter in the past, saying the dairy fat "kills." With sales of the company's spreads sagging, he is now embracing it.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2014

How U.S. won — and lost— the war on poverty

In reality, Americans both won and lost the War on Poverty launched 50 years ago this month. This is an ambiguous truth that the acrimonious U.S. political culture has trouble accepting.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2014

Smaller is getting bigger in the satellite business

As emerging space pioneers in China and India race to the moon and Mars, private-sector startups are quietly launching satellites the size of microwave ovens that aim to satisfy much more terrestrial desires.
COMMENTARY
Jan 16, 2014

Putin PR hides woes in 2014

The Kremlin's dismay at the scale and longevity of protests in Moscow and other cities, following the fraudulent election in December 2011, is forcing Putin to find new ways to shore up his presidency.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 15, 2014

Nissan's Infiniti says it's working with Daimler on four-car platform

Nissan Motor Co.'s luxury Infiniti brand is developing a new platform with Daimler AG that will spawn four models, including a crossover vehicle, the unit's president said.
BUSINESS
Jan 14, 2014

Tepco burning twice as much coal

Tokyo Electric Power Co. burned twice as much coal for power generation in 2013 than it did in 2012 as the company spent the entire year without using any nuclear capacity.
EDITORIALS
Jan 9, 2014

Tepco's flawed turnaround plan

Tepco should further streamline its operations and explore new avenues of business growth, such as the retail sale of electricity in parts of Japan, rather than return to its old model that depended on nuclear power for profitability.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2014

Russian road to mediocrity

Only a few economists in Russia seem to stress the importance of understanding the impact of the current mass outflow of capital and the sharp deterioration of the situation in world commodity markets.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2014

China's anti-Kim campaign

The next target of China's autocrats, already waging an undeclared war over territory against multiple neighboring countries, is likely to be fellow communist state North Korea, now an estranged ally.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2014

'Solar girl' sheds reliance on Tepco for spartan life on the edge of the grid

It was August 2012 when Chikako Fujii had one of the most memorable conversations of her life. That moment came when a bill collector from Tokyo Electric Power Co. rang her doorbell in the west Tokyo suburb of Kunitachi and told her with finality that she had an important choice to make.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 5, 2014

Chinese gaming mecca attempts to shed its gaudy image

Walk into a casino in China's gambling mecca of Macau, and the first thing that strikes you is the silence. There's no blaring music, no sharp cries of victory; all you hear is the rustle of clothing, a hushed conversation, the occasional thump on a table — subtle signs of fortunes being made and lost....
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 4, 2014

Kenya Hara: the future of design

Sitting at a plain white table in a meeting room high up on the 12th floor of a narrow building in central Tokyo, product designer Kenya Hara asks me to picture a shallow plate in my mind. "Now imagine a slightly deeper plate," Hara says, "that gets deeper and deeper and eventually becomes a bowl."
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Jan 3, 2014

Suzuki, Murakami exemplify power, passion that make skating magnetic

It has been almost two weeks now, but the emotions aroused by the recent Japan national championships in Saitama remain vivid.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 2, 2014

Abe's diplomatic overtures are likely to fall on deaf ears

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe saw relatively smooth diplomatic sailing in 2013, but he flushed his year-long effort down the drain with his surprising visit to Yasukuni Shrine.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jan 2, 2014

Part-timers skewing employment statistics

More restaurants and retailers are hiring short-hour employees to save money.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2013

Five lessons of 2013, guaranteed to be forgotten

One important lesson from 2013 is that we should beware political pronouncements posing as economic forecasts. The U.S. economy had its biggest increase in quarterly GDP in nearly two years despite the government 'shutdown effect.'

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami