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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 10, 2010

Rising racket hoodwinks the have-nots

The gap between the haves and the have-nots continues to widen in Japan, and one attendant development is the rise of hinkon bijinesu (poverty businesses), enterprises that are blatant attempts to take advantage of people who are already poor.
EDITORIALS
Oct 3, 2010

Mr. Kan's to-do list trumps vision

As Japan faces serious domestic and diplomatic challenges, a 64-day extraordinary Diet session started Friday with Prime Minister Naoto Kan's policy speech. The speech drew particular public attention because it was his first policy speech following his re-election as head of the Democratic Party of...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2010

China steps up efforts to tempt returnees and stem 'brain drain'

Having worked for two years at a tech company in Japan and picked up the language, Qiu Zhaohua has decided to return to China, lured by a job in the eastern tech hub of Dalian that pays as much as 200,000 yuan (about $29,000) a year — a handsome starting salary by China's standards.
Reader Mail
Sep 26, 2010

Export tack has run long enough

Regarding the Sept. 19 editorial "Long battle in currency markets": For at least 20 years we have heard the argument from Japan's government and media that Japan must be allowed to intervene in currency markets to cheapen the yen vis-a-vis other major currencies, such as the dollar and euro. The Japanese...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2010

Universities looking to go global

Fostering global human resources seems all the rage these days and several Japanese universities are jumping in, opening their doors to foreign students who aren't proficient in Japanese in a bid to snatch top-class talent from around the world.
MULTIMEDIA
Sep 18, 2010

Japan lagging in business jet use

The economy may suffer unless visiting executives including Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs can more easily jet in and out of the country by private aircraft, according to a business aviation group.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2010

Kan cruises to victory in DPJ election

After a fierce two-week campaign, Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Tuesday defeated Democratic Party of Japan bigwig Ichiro Ozawa in the ruling party's presidential election, securing his post and avoiding yet another leadership change.
COMMENTARY
Sep 14, 2010

Higher education is worse since policy switch in 1991

For the past two decades, the education ministry has worked hard to reform Japan's university system. In fiscal 1991, the ministry adopted the policy of giving priority to postgraduate programs, leading a number of national universities to change gakubu — traditional undergraduate-level entities such...
Reader Mail
Sep 12, 2010

Okinawans could love the bases

Regarding the Sept. 2 editorial "Habitat for military aircraft?": I think the main reason that people living in Okinawa, including myself, oppose U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, in particular, is that the population, in general, does not feel the benefits of bearing the burden of so many U.S....
EDITORIALS
Sep 3, 2010

Mr. Kan vs. Mr. Ozawa

After some meanderings, the campaign for election of the next president of the Democratic Party of Japan officially started Wednesday, with Prime Minister Naoto Kan and former DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa vying for the post.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2010

Court gets JAL rehab specifics

Japan Airlines Corp. submitted its rehabilitation plan Tuesday to the Tokyo District Court, including a request for a ¥521.5 billion debt wavier, paring 16,000 jobs, retiring fuel-guzzling airplanes and shedding 49 unprofitable routes.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2010

Aussies facing a rocky ride

SYDNEY — An electoral rout of both major political parties, Labor and Liberal, has left Australian voters confused and angry. After decades of economic growth the uncertainty could not come at a worse time as the United States appears to slide into a double-dip recession threatening world markets....
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 22, 2010

Rakuten's English- only policy endures close media scrutiny

Learn to speak English, or else!
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 7, 2010

Kamakura expat at one with all Buddhist deities

Mark Schumacher's home in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, requires a journey, both on foot and for the spirit.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 27, 2010

EU leaders must face a welfare state crisis

PARIS — In the Western part of Europe — the part that former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld maliciously labeled "Old Europe" — almost every government is in deep political trouble.
EDITORIALS
Jul 26, 2010

Foundation of science crumbling

In 1995, Japan enacted the science and technology basic law with the idea that, owing to scarce natural resources, Japan should promote science and technology as the foundation for its development. Under the law, the government has so far prepared three basic plans for science and technology — each...
COMMENTARY
Jul 19, 2010

Getting on the same page for 'third way' to recovery

"The third way" to economic recovery, as advocated by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, appears to have been misinterpreted by a columnist who wrote for the July 3 issue of Nihon Keizai Shimbun, a leading Japanese economic journal.
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2010

Economy, tax on minds of voters

Voters interviewed Sunday at polling stations in Tokyo and Osaka expressed a wide range of opinions on the Upper House campaign, with some saying the Democratic Party of Japan should continue to lead the country while others were disappointed by its economic policies and inconsistent diplomacy.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 10, 2010

Crisis a chance for consolidation

The European debt problem triggered by the Greek crisis this year provides a good opportunity for both Japan and Germany to start fiscal consolidation efforts in the face of mounting public-sector debts, experts from the two countries told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 18, 2010

Lack of funds fail to stop Tokyo's young theater brigade

As a promising playwright, director and actor, 31-year-old Junichi Hirota highlights a cruel fact running through Japan's theater world — namely that once technicians such as lighting engineers, sound people and set-builders are paid from box-office profits, there's often little or nothing left for...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 10, 2010

Can Kan revive Japan?

HONG KONG — Naoto Kan, Japan's new prime minister, pledged to make the country's sickly economy his first priority and to pull Japan from its "quagmire of an ever- bulging debt." But that is easier said than done. It is not merely a question of when to stop the government stimulus and where to put...
EDITORIALS
Jun 8, 2010

Keidanren's to-do list

Mr. Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of Sumitomo Chemical Co., on May 25 became the top leader of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), Japan's most influential business lobby. He assumes the post at a time when the Japanese economy is suffering from deflation, high unemployment, a low birth rate...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2010

Exporters keep dreaming of a buyers' wonderland

HONG KONG — It is a measure of the nervous mess of world financial markets that when the Financial Times reported last week that China was reviewing its assets denominated in euros, the markets promptly plummeted. The very next day — when China denied any such euro-review — there was a massive...
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2010

Liberating NASA from the risks to people

NEW YORK — People first landed on the Moon while I was a teenager. Decades later, space travel was still reserved for a small corps of astronauts and cosmonauts, and wealthy space tourists — six so far. The space business was the preserve of a few governments, plus large cost-plus contractors who...
MULTIMEDIA
May 14, 2010

Firms battle back to profit on cost cuts

Japanese companies including Toyota Motor Corp. and Panasonic Corp. forecast profit will surge this year as exports and cost-cutting power a recovery from the worst postwar recession.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 4, 2010

Eikaiwa on the ropes after fall of Geos

RICHARD SMART Special to The Japan Times A chain of English conversation schools is closed down. Thousands of employees are left worrying whether they will get paid or keep their jobs. Students are told refunds will not be given on advance payments for lessons. G.communication steps in to pick up the...

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear