Search - environment

 
 
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 11, 2007

J. League's Onitake optimistic about future

The Japan Times recently visited J. League chairman Kenji Onitake at his office to find out about his vision for the future of the league and soccer in Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 8, 2007

Top-selling author Atwood: sometimes caustic, never without cause

She enjoys immense popularity in Japan. Twelve of her books have been translated into Japanese and more are on the way. But internationally acclaimed Canadian author Margaret Atwood wasn't in Japan recently to promote a new book. She was here to look at birds.
LIFE
Dec 31, 2006

Timeline points to ways ahead

The following are extracts from the mirai nenpyo (future timeline) database prepared by the team led by Masataka Yoshikawa, research director of the Institute of Life and Living at Hakuhodo Inc., Japan's second-largest advertising agency. By collecting vast amounts of published information spanning many...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 28, 2006

A lifetime's observations

He saw Ginza when it was a blackened plain but for the bombed-out Mitsukoshi department store, the Hattori Building and a handful of other structures left standing. He observed the city as it was rebuilt, and its people. He observed, and then he wrote.
EDITORIALS
Dec 19, 2006

Closing the biofuel gap

Japan is lagging behind several other countries in developing liquid biofuels that serve as alternatives for fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. An increase in demand for oil caused by expanding economic activities worldwide as well as tighter government control of natural resources, as in...
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2006

BMW's hydrogen statement

It was a sunny day in Berlin in November when this reporter anxiously got into BMW's newest car for a test drive. Which was appropriate, as the fuel inside the star was basically the same one running the car.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / POPULATION SYMPOSIUM
Nov 9, 2006

Low birthrate threatens Japan's future

See related stories: French values and child-care policies put family before work Environment, not career major hurdle to big families
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Oct 30, 2006

Will private equity boom in Japan? It did in Europe

After booming in the United States and Europe, private equity finally seems to have set its sights on Japan. Two of the world's top three private equity firms -- Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Texas Pacific Group -- have each opened offices in Japan or expanded their existing Japan operations over...
COMMENTARY
Oct 12, 2006

Great problems and promise

LONDON -- The huge growth in Chinese gross domestic product and the market represented by a population 10 times that of Japan present huge opportunities for potential trade and investment. But these tend to obscure the problems that policies pursued by the present regime in China pose to the rest of...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Oct 3, 2006

Transport minister wants road taxes to be spent on more than just roads

Gas and vehicle taxes should not be spent only on road construction but also on protecting the environment, including maintaining the nation's forests, according to the new minister of land, infrastructure and transport.
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Oct 2, 2006

Lobbying the potent EU, whose influence is borderless

Companies doing business in Europe are well aware of the European Union. But what some might yet not be so aware of is how important the EU institutions in Brussels and elsewhere can become for their business. What you don't know can hurt you a lot indeed. Consider the following:
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2006

Young and tech-savvy, India's market remains largely untapped

Japanese companies increasingly look to India for business opportunities, but they have yet to fully tap the potential of one of the world's fastest-growing economies with its vast pool of skilled human resources, said participants in a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 27, 2006

Welcome to the new world of cities

Flying into Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, just after sunset last month, I could have sworn we'd overshot the airport and were heading for the distant, frigid waters of the South Atlantic.
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2006

Fibrous plants are helping cars go green on the outside

You might think bamboo, corn and kenaf -- a plant similar to jute -- would make poor materials for building modern cars, but you would be wrong. These plants are helping make auto parts that are green in more ways than one.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 10, 2006

There's an art to saving country life

Just a few hours north of Tokyo's seemingly endless sprawl is the mountainous region of Echigo-Tsumari in Niigata Prefecture. Like so many other rural parts of northern Japan, it is a rugged, isolated, aging and economically stagnant place where elderly men and women can be found doubled over in terraced...
EDITORIALS
Aug 5, 2006

Pursue cautious defense policy

This year's government white paper on defense touches on North Korea's missile tests, closer security cooperation between Japan and the United States, and proposals to upgrade the Defense Agency to ministry status and expand the Self-Defense Forces' overseas activities, among other things.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 1, 2006

Staffing companies find market in helping retired athletes

When international midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata recently announced his retirement from soccer, people wondered what he would do in the next stage of his life -- business, sports, or a combination of both?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 25, 2006

Lesbian mothers' twin tasks

Motherhood can be daunting under even the best of circumstances, but, as a lesbian, considering starting a family brings with it a whole new set of difficulties.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 13, 2006

Moving toward a creative partnership

Valuing the wisdom and capabilities of women is critical to the development of any organization or society. Organizations where women are full, contributing participants are open and energized by a wide range of opinion and approaches.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 29, 2006

WTO: a call for 'enlightened negotiators'

The current multilateral trade negotiations under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are approaching the moment of truth. The major gridlock among key players, such as Japan, the United States, the European Union and Brazil seems, however, difficult to be unlocked at the series of ministerial...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jun 26, 2006

Laws, morals and the delay of the financial products trade law

A mid the public uproar over insider trading prompted by the arrest of investment fund manager Yoshiaki Murakami, the Diet quickly enacted a new law to regulate transactions involving financial products on June 7. The legislation combines the previous Securities and Exchange and other laws in an attempt...

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan