Search - u_times

 
 
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Apr 26, 2011

Create 'GI Bill' to empower quake, tsunami victims

Dear Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Yoshiaki Takaki,
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 26, 2011

Refugee NPO to celebrate music, hope for Tohoku

There are approximately 15.2 million refugees around the world who have had to flee their home countries in fear of persecution for political, religious or racial reasons. In Japan, tens of thousands of people remain unable to return home since the deadly earthquake and tsunami hit Tohoku on March 11....
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Apr 26, 2011

Pitching will determine validity of Carp's strong beginning

So what, if anything, are we to think of these Hiroshima Carp?
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2011

Official arrogance of Chernobyl

It began as a gray and muddy spring day, like so many others in my homeland. It ended in dread and mourning.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Apr 25, 2011

Kanto-area teams take hit at gate

As Japanese baseball heads into the third week of the 2011 season, the effects of the ban on night games has been felt by three Kanto-based franchises, the Chiba Lotte Marines, Tokyo Yakult Swallows and Yokohama BayStars.
Reader Mail
Apr 24, 2011

Renminbi conversion still strict

Barry Eichengreen's April 15 opinion article, "Safer alternative bears on dollar," was a very interesting take on the potential replacements for the dollar. I agree that the most frequently discussed alternatives are not viable, but my question is about China's renminbi currency.
Reader Mail
Apr 24, 2011

What are Tepco's execs doing?

Regarding the April 20 article "Nuke workers at risk of overwork death": The treatment of workers at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant is outrageous. They should be better taken care of in terms of the time they spend working, sleeping, eating, etc. They are working for the sake of the country...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 24, 2011

Mikura: Tokyo's island of natural wonders

Last week, while much of the metropolis continued to reel from aftershocks following the March 11 megaquake, and worries about radiation leaks from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear reactors lurked in most people's minds, there was a part of Tokyo blissfully removed from all that madness.
Reader Mail
Apr 24, 2011

Deeper problem than Fukushima

The April 20 editorial "Nuclear crisis and Japan's image" is off the mark. It mistakes officially voiced opinions for what Europeans, at least, actually begin to see when they look at Japan.
Reader Mail
Apr 24, 2011

Making best use of the 'military'

By explaining the role of the Japan Self-Defense Forces in disaster relief, the April 15 article "Military flexes relief might, gains newfound esteem" painted the SDF in a very good light.
Reader Mail
Apr 24, 2011

Tribute to the Japanese people

Since the gigantic earthquake and tsunami hit March 11, the Japanese people have shown extraordinary intelligence and spirit, the same intelligence and spirit I saw over the years as Commander of U.S. Army Japan (1985-1988). Despite allegations that some responses might have been faster and that many...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Apr 24, 2011

Miyazaki's Cole displays fortitude by sticking it out

For every expansion team, its inaugural season is a series of highs and lows. There's the exhaustion and enthusiasm that it takes to build a team from scratch and the growing pains that go with it. And it's never an easy task.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Apr 23, 2011

Experience has taught Nakamura how to persevere

If the J. League is looking for inspiration as it prepares to restart the season on Saturday, Shunsuke Nakamura knows more than a thing or two about triumph over adversity.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Apr 22, 2011

NHK hopes for a home run with new anime

It's a quintessential scene of Japanese youth: Young boys out in baseball uniforms jog across their school grounds, the white and maroon of their gear contrasting with a clear blue sky. In the bleachers, an earnest-looking high school girl named Minami, in a jersey that matches the team's uniforms, eyes...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 22, 2011

Children's voices soothe Iwate survivors

As survivors from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami sat in evacuation centers across Iwate Prefecture on March 19, support came from a surprising source. Amid the steady flow of information from the radio, a children's choir began singing.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 22, 2011

Lack of action makes it tough for Albirex BB

The Niigata Albirex BB will enter the postseason after a remarkably light schedule in recent weeks. So light in fact that it's easy to forget when the team actually played games in back-to-back weeks.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Apr 22, 2011

Japanese music fans need the shows to go on

Last month I wrote a hastily conceived piece for this column documenting the immediate reaction of the music scene in Tokyo to the Great East Japan Earthquake. It was a difficult article to write because the situation was still unfolding and so much was unresolved; however, a month later, a picture of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 22, 2011

Subtleties that shine through the shadows

Recently, thanks to the power cuts caused by the damage to the Fukushima nuclear reactors, many of us have been rediscovering exactly what light is again. Instead of something to be taken for granted, unvarying and instantly available at the flick of a switch, it has once again become altogether more...
Reader Mail
Apr 21, 2011

Dangerously unstable technology

I would like to add my voice to that of other readers who recently have expressed their opposition to nuclear power generation. Ever since disaster struck the Fukushima plant, the industry cheerleaders have been in full damage-control mode, reassuring us of the safety and benefits of nuclear energy....
Reader Mail
Apr 21, 2011

Consider a land deal with Russia

I loved my visit to Japan. I traveled all over the country and enjoyed the ryokans, department stores, shrine cities, bullet train, dolls, Noh and Kabuki, tea ceremony, and, most of all, the people. I love Japan! It grieves me that Japan is suffering all these earthquakes and that the country is ruined...
COMMENTARY
Apr 21, 2011

Gas: the rising star of engery

As many countries become wary of nuclear power following Japan's atomic disaster, they are looking to natural gas as the best alternative for generating electricity.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2011

Fukushima No. 1 and derivative meltdowns

Financial commentators have likened Japan's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe to derivatives' role in the 2008 financial meltdown. The resemblance is clear enough: Each activity yields big benefits and carries a tiny but explosive risk. But the similarity between the two types of crisis ends...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Apr 21, 2011

Setsuden

Dear Alice, Everywhere I go now I see signs for setsuden (conserving electricity). There's a notice at my local convenience store explaining that the lights are down for setsuden. My post office has shortened its hours for setsuden. And the subway is running with fewer trains — you guessed it — for...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 20, 2011

A personal letter from a Miyagi hinanjo resident

I never thought at my age, that I would be in this spot. But this is where I am at 74, in the taiikukan (体育館 gymnasium) of a middle school in Miyagi Prefecture, now known as a hinanjo (避難所 evacuation center) for people who lost their homes to the earthquake and tsunami that hit the region...
MORE SPORTS
Apr 20, 2011

Win 'Stepping Higher'

With the 2011 world championships in Moscow just days away, The Japan Times is offering several readers the chance to win a copy of the recently released Japanese book "Saranaru takami-he" (Stepping Higher) about two-time world champion Mao Asada's life story.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 20, 2011

Hatakeyama, Ishikawa lift Swallows past Dragons

Tuesday turned out to be unexpectedly cool in Japan's capital city, but the Tokyo Yakult Swallows may have finally started to heat up.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan