Search - people

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 21, 2010

Enjoy the company of Ryoichi Yamazaki's reluctant 'hoodies'

The typical white cube gallery is not unlike a sumo ring. Both are bare, sanctified spaces, where we can stare intently at the participants' strenous efforts to impress. While the dohyo is purified by salt, the antiseptic agents in the case of the white cube gallery are white paint, light and an attitude...
EDITORIALS
May 19, 2010

Gaps in amendment procedures

A lthough the law setting down special referendum procedures for approving a constitutional amendment went into effect Tuesday, details of the procedures have not been worked out yet. Article 96 of the Constitution stipulates that the Diet may initiate an amendment to the Constitution by a concurring...
BUSINESS
May 19, 2010

Softbank debuts handsets with Twitter applications

Softbank Mobile Corp. unveiled new cell phones Tuesday boasting applications for the micro-blogging service Twitter.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
May 18, 2010

Why doesn't national health insurance pay for maternity care?

With high life expectancy and a declining birth rate, you'd think there would be more government money invested in maternity care.
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2010

Middle East needs truly secular governance

BEPPU, Oita Pref. — The march for secularism held on April 26 in Lebanon focused attention on the country and the region's conflicts and battle of values. Thousands of Lebanese from various social backgrounds — Shiite, Sunni, Maronite and more — took to the streets and marched to the national parliament...
EDITORIALS
May 18, 2010

A welcome dose of transparency

In April 2001, Japan's freedom of information law went into effect. But the law has many problems. For example, it does not have a clear clause that protects and promotes people's right to know. In a welcome move, the Hatoyama administration has disclosed a basic plan to revise the law.
COMMENTARY
May 16, 2010

Yemen's pitiful options to poverty and anger

SEATTLE — When the Soviets concluded their pullout from Afghanistan in February 1989, the U.S. government abruptly lost interest in the country. A devastated economic infrastructure, entrenched poverty, deep-rooted factionalism and lack of international aid caused the country to descend into complete...
EDITORIALS
May 16, 2010

What is next for Nigeria?

The transition of power since the death of Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has been swift and efficient. Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, sworn in a day after the president's passing, declared a week of mourning for his predecessor. It is unclear if Mr. Jonathan will seek to win the office in...
JAPAN
May 15, 2010

Carrying on the art of silent film narration

Midori Sawato knows how to act, from princess to samurai to thief — but only with her voice.
JAPAN
May 15, 2010

Housing glut opens door to foreign tenants

As the country's foreign population keeps growing and the declining birthrate and oversupply of housing result in more and more vacancies, it is time for real estate agents to create a more welcoming environment for foreign customers, according to people who work in the business.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
May 14, 2010

Strawberry hothouses forever

We know we should eat what the season's harvest give us, but in the case of hothouse strawberries, that's almost year-round.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 14, 2010

Shibuya 109 eyes rebound

It's no surprise that retailers are hurting amid the economic downturn and deflation. What is shocking, however, is that one of them is Shibuya 109, one of Tokyo's most popular fashion complexes.
EDITORIALS
May 14, 2010

Shape of citizens' justice

Some 20 Diet members, mostly Democratic Party of Japan members, have formed a Diet members' federation to consider the shape of the nation's judicial system. The federation formed on April 28 — one day after the No. 5 Prosecution Inquest Committee in Tokyo, a judicial review panel of 11 citizens, unanimously...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 14, 2010

Vamps bite into British rock roots

"L'Arc-en-Ciel is all about the musicianship. But Vamps are obsessed with rock music, and that's basically our watchword: 'rock.' "
JAPAN
May 13, 2010

Pot a long way from legalization

In early April, an Okinawa man in his late 20s visited activist Yusuke Sawada's office in western Tokyo. He had just finished serving his latest prison term, one of many that have kept him behind bars for most of the past decade, depriving him of the formative years of his life.
EDITORIALS
May 10, 2010

A better lay judge system

A 26-year-old Chinese man was given 18 years' imprisonment for stabbing to death another Chinese man on March 9, 2009, in Chiba Prefecture. Lay judges took part in his trial in Utsunomiya District Court. In an appellate trial before Tokyo High Court, his defense counsel challenged the constitutionality...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 9, 2010

TV Tokyo's soft approach toughens consumer savvy

Each of Japan's key commercial TV stations has distinctive traits, though in terms of programming these distinctions are probably insignificant to the average viewer, especially when you often have the boy band Arashi appearing on two or three different stations in the same evening.
JAPAN
May 8, 2010

Busy auctions mask Tsukiji decline

Around 5 a.m., the opening bell signaled the start of the auction at Tokyo's Tsukiji Central Fish Market. Lining the floor were hundreds of tunas, tagged with their point of origin — Guam, Australia and Katsuura, Chiba Prefecture. As the sellers called out each fish's number, buyers raised their hands...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 8, 2010

Nintendo 3-D player to get security boost

Nintendo's president said Friday that antipiracy measures will be beefed up to protect its new 3-D game player against software theft.
JAPAN
May 7, 2010

Removing SIM lock not so simple

While the government has been raising expectations that removing the SIM lock on cell phones will enable consumers to switch carriers but keep the same handsets, it will give virtually no immediate benefits to users under the current network environment, according to people in the industry.
EDITORIALS
May 7, 2010

Mr. Hatoyama at an impasse

Before the Aug. 30 Lower House election last year, Mr. Yukio Hatoyama, then the Democratic Party of Japan chief, made a campaign pledge to try to move U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, outside Okinawa or even abroad. This led the Okinawan people, who have suffered from the heavy presence...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 7, 2010

New Wave icons Plastics plan summer gigs

For artists in the late 1970s and early 1980s, New York was definitely where it was at and Japanese band the Plastics were among those who found themselves right at the heart of that heady scene.
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2010

Nuclear disarmament goal a harmful myth

MOSCOW — Russia and the United States have signed a new strategic nuclear-arms reduction treaty (START). Officially, the treaty cuts their weapons by one-third; in fact, each party will decommission only several dozen.
EDITORIALS
May 5, 2010

Mr. Hatoyama's rating in a spin

The Hatoyama Cabinet, which enjoyed an approval rating of 72 percent when it started in mid-September, is now writhing under an approval rating that has plummeted to 20.7 percent in an April 28-29 Kyodo News poll — a drop of 12.3 points from the previous poll on April 3 and 4. Meanwhile, the disapproval...
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
May 4, 2010

Last gasps of Japan's dying demagogues

Tally ho! The hunt is on for "fake Japanese" in Japanese politics.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 2, 2010

Downed in her prime, a beacon of Japan's emerging new culture

The formative culture of a country is its subculture. Mainstream culture is about the present; subculture creates the future.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight