Search - news

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 29, 2008

Cannes: sobriety and great excess

Reader Mail
May 29, 2008

Natural greeting makes the day

On Armed Forces Network radio, iconic American newscaster/commentator Paul Harvey often says "Wash your ears out with this" before delivering a pleasant piece of news. I wonder if it is possible to "wash your eyes out" in the same manner. I'm quite tired of the diatribes in The Japan Times recently about...
JAPAN
May 29, 2008

China OK with SDF quake help

YOKOHAMA — China has asked Japan to help transport emergency supplies to the earthquake refugees in Sichuan Province and signaled that Self-Defense Forces aircraft would be welcome as well, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / AFRICA LIFELINE
May 28, 2008

Africa donors failing with financing: Sachs

The main quandary in aiding Africa is not the absence of initiatives or technology, but the "lack of adequate financing" by donor countries that fail to follow through on their commitments, U.N. adviser and economist Jeffrey Sachs said Tuesday.
JAPAN / AFRICA LIFELINE
May 28, 2008

Connection: Commodities

Few Japanese may be knowledgeable about far-away Africa, but the continent's exports affect daily life here.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
May 27, 2008

Tycoon aims to speed up politics

Business tycoon Hiroshi Okuda is said to be meeting frequently but secretly with leading figures of both the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the No. 1 opposition Democratic Party of Japan, apparently with an eye to reorganizing the political landscape after general elections expected in the not-too-distant...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
May 27, 2008

Giants' Gonzalez gets one-year suspension

Yomiuri Giants infielder Luis Gonzalez has been suspended for one year for violating Nippon Professional Baseball's drug policy, the league announced Monday.
BUSINESS
May 27, 2008

Daiwa to sell Shariah-compliant fund

SINGAPORE (Kyodo) Singapore's stock and derivatives exchange has teamed up with the Daiwa securities house to offer an investment fund based on Japan's top 100 companies whose activities comply with Islamic laws, the two sides announced Monday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 27, 2008

Arbitrary rulings equal bad PR

Getting to know Japan is hard work: a complicated language, cultural esoterica, mixed messages about prudent paths to take. People who find their way around and assimilate deserve kudos and respect.
JAPAN / G8 SUMMIT 2008
May 27, 2008

Kobe meet fails to set 2020 goals

KOBE — Environment ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations ended a three-day meeting in Kobe on Monday united on the need for a long-term goal of at least halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 27, 2008

Law bends over backward to allow 'fuzoku'

Some desires money can't gratify, but for appetites of the flesh, there are ways in Japan to legally sate one's carnal cravings.
JAPAN / G8 COUNTDOWN
May 26, 2008

G8 meet sidesteps midterm gas cuts

KOBE — Environment ministers from the Group of Eight countries meeting Sunday in Kobe apparently sidestepped the major issue of setting midterm greenhouse-gas reduction targets for 2020 due to a divide between developing and industrialized countries over specific targets.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2008

Can India and China dance?

TRIVANDRUM, India — It is fashionable these days, particularly in the West, to speak of India and China in the same breath. These are the two big countries said to be taking over the world, the new contenders for global eminence after centuries of Western domination, the Oriental answer to generations...
Reader Mail
May 25, 2008

Better answers are out there

As a member of the diplomatic corps in Tokyo, I would like to share my thoughts on Peter Singer's article. Singer obviously capitalizes on the recent catastrophes in Myanmar and China to deliver to the distraught public a classical piece of atheist propaganda. It always strikes me how reliable anti-religious...
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
May 23, 2008

Departure of Collins latest sign Buffaloes are in disarray

Something stinks in Kansai.
JAPAN
May 23, 2008

Whale meat being sold before OK: Greenpeace

Whale meat from Japan's processing ship Nisshin Maru is being illegally sold prior to the official government release of whale stocks, activists from the environmental group Greenpeace charged Thursday.
JAPAN
May 23, 2008

If push comes to shove, DPJ won't

Yasuo Fukuda and his Cabinet are sinking, and political analysts say the prime minister's condition is critical. So this would seem like the perfect time for the Democratic Party of Japan to pounce.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
May 21, 2008

Twitter launch in Japanese a boon for microblogging

Twitter is the Web site and service on a lot of lips in the technology world right now. It is a service that serves one very simple function by letting its users answer a simple question, "What are you doing now?" Users then subscribe to these answers by "following" the accounts of other users. The result...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 20, 2008

Ainu: indigenous in every way but not by official fiat

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples last Sept. 13, with Japan among the 144 member states voting in favor.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years