Search - media

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 10, 2013

Two wide-ranging, informed compilations scrutinize the March 11 disasters

NATURAL DISASTER AND NUCLEAR CRISIS IN JAPAN, edited by Jeff Kingston. Routledge, 2012, 304 pp., £28.99 (paperback)
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 24, 2013

Japan's vegetarians stay in the closet

Last week, entertainment-related media in the U.S. reported that the American Broadcasting Corporation had rejected an advertisement the animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wanted to air during the Academy Awards ceremony, which takes place early tomorrow morning Tokyo time.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 15, 2013

Kim signals a familiar, familial policy

In power for barely more than a year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has adhered overwhelmingly to the policies of his father, using a familiar mix of internal repression and nuclear showmanship while all but dashing hopes he would emerge as a Deng Xiaoping-style reformer.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 10, 2013

Lots of blame, but few solutions to terrorist attacks abroad

On Jan. 16, Islamic militants believed led by the elusive commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar struck a natural-gas processing plant in Ain Amenas, Algeria. In the rescue attempt by units of Algeria's army, as many as 81 people may have died, among which were 10 Japanese employees of JGC Corporation.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 9, 2013

Taro Aso may, for once, have a point

Ever since the Liberal Democratic Party regained power last year, standard-bearer Shinzo Abe has been conspicuously cautious with his public pronouncements, cooling it on the nationalist rhetoric and keeping the bravado to a minimum. Deprived of excitement, the media was delighted by Vice Prime Minister...
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jan 28, 2013

China blogger gets surprise police visit

Two months after exposing a scandal involving sex tapes, blackmail and lucrative government contracts that got 11 officials fired, blogger Zhu Ruifeng received a surprise visit from Chinese security officials Sunday night.
Japan Times
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2013
Jan 23, 2013

Managing the Japan-China Row

At a time when official Japan-China dialogue has come to a standstill over conflicting territorial claims, the Tokyo Foundation hosted an important Track 2 meeting of foreign policy experts from Japan, China, and the U.S.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 22, 2013

The blunt, blue-blooded Aso is back

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may be the face of the new government led by Liberal Democratic Party, but Finance Minister Taro Aso is also a force in the LDP to be reckoned with.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2012

The rise of the attention economy

I was recently posed the following question: "The most important way in which the Internet and online social media are changing our world is [fill in the blank]."
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Dec 26, 2012

2012 in tech — and what it means for the year ahead

In the world of technology, the past year has seen a changing of the guard in almost every sector. Personal computers, mobile devices, gaming and Internet services have all seen incredible developments, with new challengers taking the place of old incumbents. As we move into the new year, we'll meet...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 25, 2012

Shedding light on problems with Japan's psychiatric care

MENTAL HEALTH CARE IN JAPAN, edited by Ruth Taplin and Sandra J. Lawman. Routledge, 2012, 148 pp., $155 (hardcover) This collection of seven chapters makes for grim reading because it details the miserable state of mental health care in Japan.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 25, 2012

The convoluted crime spree of Amagasaki's 'piranha family'

By next week, the media will start compiling lists of the top news stories of 2012. The short list can be expected to include natural and manmade disasters, political bombshells, international disputes, indiscretions by celebrities in the worlds of sports and entertainment and, of course, sensational...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 11, 2012

Giving voice to the survivors of the unprecedented 3/11 disaster

STRONG IN THE RAIN: Surviving Japan's Earthquake, Tsunami and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, by Lucy Birmingham and David McNeill. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, 256 pp., $27 (hardcover) This is a riveting story about Japan's March 11 cataclysm told uncommonly well by two veteran Japan-based journalists who...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 3, 2012

Nippon Ishin no Kai: Local but with national outlook

After months of preparation, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's new political party, Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), was formally inaugurated at a mid-September gathering that drew more than 3,000 supporters.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 26, 2012

Complacency perished in the Fukushima nuclear disaster

August, that most searing of months, compels us to reflect on the atom. Japan was atom-bombed twice in August 67 years ago, and Hiroshima since 1952 and Nagasaki since 1955 have hosted solemn anniversary ceremonies to keep the memory alive in the hope of preventing similar horror and folly in future....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 26, 2012

In the real world if it looks like violence it's violence

On Aug. 15 police in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, arrested a 19-year-old man for trying to kill the head of the local board of education. The suspect was reportedly angry at the board's failure to properly investigate the suicide of a male junior high school student last October. After the parents of the...
COMMENTARY
Jul 27, 2012

Syria's Palestinian refugees strive in vain for neutrality

"Flames are quickly approaching Yarmouk (as) someone is trying to drag the Palestinians into the fire," Palestinian observer Rashad Abu Shawar was quoted as saying in the Israeli Jerusalem Post, July 20.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 24, 2012

How I learned to stop worrying and embrace the atom

Like millions of other people in Japan, I watched the events of March 2011 unfurl with shock and trepidation. The massive earthquake, the terrible tsunami and then what seemed to be a dreadful nuclear disaster.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 22, 2012

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto: 'What Japan needs now is dictatorship'

Confrontational, outspoken, feisty and highly focused, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto is a self-made man determined to redraw the loci of power in Japan. He is clearly using the local platform from which to spring into the national arena. The question on everyone's mind is: Will Hashimoto ever be the prime...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 13, 2012

High price of the most gorgeous show in town

Note to self: Never be a young woman in Japan. It's just too harrowing.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 8, 2012

What nobody is saying about Noda's new consumption tax bill

Two weeks ago, the Lower House passed a law to increase the consumption tax to 10 percent by 2015, something Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has been pushing with blinkered, self-sacrificial dedication. Eventual final passage seems inevitable at this point, and so the only aspect deemed worthy of discussion...
OLYMPICS
Jul 1, 2012

Japan's medal count in London hard to forecast

In its past 11 Summer Olympic appearances, dating back to the 1964 Tokyo Games, Japan has collected 275 medals.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 1, 2012

Sexual policies and politics during the occupation of Japan

Occupying Power: Sex Workers and Servicemen in Postwar Japan, by Sarah Kovner. Stanford University Press, 2012, 240 pp., $50.00 (hardcover) Love, Sex and Democracy During the American Occupation, by Mark McClelland. Palgrave MacMillan, 2012, 252 pp., $85.00 (hardcover) Six decades after the U.S. occupation...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 24, 2012

Escaped-animal antics are good for ratings

One of the interesting factoids accompanying the escaped-penguin story that delighted the media for the last three months is that Japan has more penguins in captivity than any other country. Tokyo Sea Life Park, the facility from which the male Humboldt penguin in question made his break, has 135. The...
CULTURE / Books
May 20, 2012

Exploring the pathologies of Japan's youth

A Sociology of Japanese Youth: From Returnees to NEETs, edited by Roger Goodman, Yuki Imoto and Tuukka Toivonen. Routledge: Abingdon, U.K., 2012, 191 pp., $51.95 (paperback)
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 4, 2012

Playoffs could provide surprises in both conferences

And now, finally, it's time for the real season to tip off.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 22, 2012

It takes a forest, a field and a stream to raise a child

In 1996, back when the present U.S. Secretary of State was the first lady, Hillary Rodham-Clinton published a book titled "It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us," which popularized an old African proverb — "It takes a village to raise a child."
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 8, 2012

Fashion Week Tokyo escapes comfort zone

In what was the second season of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo since the German car-maker crucially stepped in as lead sponsor when government funding dried up last year, 37 brands presented their collections for the 2012-13 fall/winter season from March 18 to 23.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 25, 2012

A woman of wisdom among the energy mandarins

Ask me who should facilitate Japan's energy dialogue and the choice is easy: Junko Edahiro.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 4, 2012

Taro Yamamoto: Actor in the spotlight of Japan's antinuke movement

On a rainy midwinter day, Taro Yamamoto stood with a small group of people in front of Shimokitazawa Station in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward and addressed passers-by in that artsy youth-culture hub.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’