Search - special-issue

 
 
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 14, 2010

Rich kids set to inherit higher taxes

A new proposed inheritance law, which hasn't changed since 1958, is being aimed at the silver spooners who can afford a higher tax.
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 19, 2010

Joan of Arc takes center stage

Though widely known in the West, St. Joan of Arc is an obscure historical figure for many people in Japan. Maki Horikita, who portrays the 15th-century French war heroine in the upcoming TBS stage production "Jeanne d'Arc," rises to the challenge of making Joan's tragic life story relevant for a Japanese...
JAPAN / Media
Nov 14, 2010

Documenting the art world's original odd couple

"No! You do it!" yells Dorothy across a small New York apartment to her husband, Herb. Megumi Sasaki, a Japanese film director, has just asked to take a peek at a priceless artwork from the 1960s that is covered in blankets.
JAPAN / ORGAN TRANSPLANTS
Nov 12, 2010

Transplants set to increase

Japan boasts highly skilled surgeons, universal health insurance coverage, well-equipped medical facilities — and few organ transplants.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 12, 2010

Indie breakout, 'kimchibilly' rockers bring Seoul to Japan

While K-pop continues to gain greater recognition worldwide, South Korea's prolific, small underground-music scene is still struggling to find audiences outside of Seoul.
COMMENTARY
Nov 10, 2010

Israelis destroying a symbol of peace and life

During the last few years, Palestinian olive trees — a universal symbol of life and peace — have been systematically destroyed by Israeli settlers. "It has reached a crescendo. What might look like ad hoc violence is actually a tool the settlers are using to push back Palestinian farmers from their...
COMMENTARY
Nov 2, 2010

U.S. hurts itself sitting on South Korea FTA

WASHINGTON — How have the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress responded to the twin challenges of continued high unemployment and China's displacing America as the No. 1 trading partner with leading East Asian states? By retreating economically from Asia.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 29, 2010

ATM for the new gold rush

HONG KONG — The 21st-century version of the Gold Rush is becoming so sophisticated and convenient that soon all you will have to do, if you live in the right place, is put your card in the normal slot of a special ATM machine, punch in your password, and out will tumble not boring paper currency but...
LIFE
Oct 24, 2010

Striving to stave off marine extinctions

Although oceans cover 73 percent of the surface of the Earth, little is known about marine plant and animal biodiversity.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 22, 2010

Entrepreneurs' best friend growing long in the tooth

HONG KONG — Standard Chartered Bank has an advertisement currently running on television that is eye-catching and thought-provoking. Its central message is that "not everything that counts in life can be counted" and that the bank wants to be "here for people; here for progress; here for the long run;...
EDITORIALS
Oct 19, 2010

Former prosecutor indicted

The Supreme Public Prosecutors Office on Oct. 11 indicted Mr. Tsunehiko Maeda, a prosecutor with the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation squad, on suspicion of tampering with data on a floppy disk seized from a suspect in a case involving alleged abuse of the postage discount...
COMMENTARY
Oct 10, 2010

Gingrich's military-industrial-terror complex

SEATTLE — Within a space of a few hours on Sept. 30, an accused man confessed to terrorism charges in Germany, the terrorism threat level was raised in Sweden, and former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich lengthily discussed "suicidal jihadists" in a speech given in Denver.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 5, 2010

Decade-long wait takes toll on asylum seeker

Most foreigners in Japan know the horror of waiting for a residency permit or visa. A few hours in the queue at the Shinagawa immigration office can feel like a lifetime.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 12, 2010

Budget cuts dooming diners to plumpness

"The destiny of a nation depends on the manner in which it feeds itself," wrote French epicure Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) in his famous treatise, "The Physiology of Taste: Or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy."
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
Sep 1, 2010

Believing the unbelievable causes goshin fears

The fat, ungainly kensatsukan (検察官, prosecutor) rises and, without speaking, niramu (にらむ, glares at) the hikokunin (被告人, defendant). For a fleeting instant the chinmoku (沈黙, silence) in the hōtei (法廷, courtroom) is so deep that when Reiko Keyes, one of the six saibanin (裁判員,...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2010

Pakistan's effect on Iran

WATERLOO, Ontario — The United States, no more but no less than other countries, tends to make self-centered assessments of other countries' policies. This is one reason Washington missed the Iran factor as the most likely explanation for Saddam Hussein's deliberate ambiguity about a weapons-of-mass-destruction...
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2010

Relax arms export ban so firms can profit: panel

Japan should consider relaxing its ban on arms exports so defense companies can participate in international projects, a special advisory panel to Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Friday.
SOCCER / J. League
Aug 22, 2010

Inui, Cerezo outplay Antlers in big match

KASHIMA, Ibaraki Pref. — Cerezo Osaka denied Kashima Antlers top spot in the J. League table and leapfrogged the defending champion into second place for good measure with a 1-0 win on Saturday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 20, 2010

'The A-Team'

There's no greater sign of the creative bankruptcy in Hollywood these days than the fact that pretty much any old TV series, no matter how stale or silly, is ripe for a remake. In fact, I'd be hard-pressed to think of a TV series from my youth that hasn't been remade.
EDITORIALS
Aug 8, 2010

Russia's new war anniversary

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on July 25 signed into law a bill designating Sept. 2 as "the anniversary of the end of World War II." The bill had been approved by the State Duma (lower house) on July 8 and by the Federation Council (upper house) on July 14.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 6, 2010

'The Men Who Stare at Goats'

Reality, wrote Philip K. Dick, is what's still there even after you stop believing in it. Thus an enlightened man in our age of science may well speculate on the notion that our bodies, like the walls of the room we are in, are all made up of atoms. And atoms, for their part, contain a lot of empty space....
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 3, 2010

Ubiquitous Tokyo subways moving the daily masses

With nearly 300 stations, Tokyo has one of the world's busiest and most sprawling subway networks at work today — not to mention globally notorious rush hours.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 20, 2010

Immigration procedures face huge shakeup

As of July 1, there are big changes afoot for the laws governing foreign residency in Japan. Not since 1990, when the categories of residence increased from 18 to 27, has the Ministry of Justice's Immigration Bureau undergone such a wholesale reordering of its operations.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell