Search - 2003

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 26, 2014

'Oldboy'

For an Asian female, watching Park Chan-wook's "Oldboy" in 2003 was somewhat agonizing, akin to a wisdom tooth extraction by a dentist with a limited supply of painkillers. Now Spike Lee ("Do the Right Thing," "Miracle at St. Anna") has made a remake under the same name — "Oldboy." This time, the dentist...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jun 24, 2014

Spurs set example for rest of league with consistency

The great American sportswriter Grantland Rice wrote a poem, "Alumnus Football," that ended like this:
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2014

America's addiction to war

Somewhere out there in an alternative universe, we should expect a more rational reaction to Barack Obama's announcement that he plans to re-invade Iraq. Perhaps a half-dozen Cabinet members would rush into the Oval Office and bundle the president off to an institution that can give him the treatment he seems to require. Why are American politicians addicted to war?
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2014

World needs to take a dose of realism about Iraq

As imbalances of power, wealth and productivity become magnified in our age, ethnic and religious loyalties as well as notions of honor and dignity have become more seductive than iPhones and elections. Just ask the despots who've lost the monopoly of force in Syria and Iraq.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 23, 2014

Car industry struggles to solve air bag fiasco

As automakers hype self-driving cars, the industry's struggle to fix Takata's exploding, shrapnel-spraying air bags shows how much can still go wrong with the most established technologies.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 23, 2014

Abe looks to put his stamp on foreign aid

Next up for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe? Figuring out how to put official development assistance (ODA) to "strategic" use so the international aid program can help Japan make a more "proactive contribution" to world peace, one of Abe's pet policy goals.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 23, 2014

'Black box' antidepressant warnings reviewed after rise in youth suicide attempts

A widely publicized warning by U.S. regulators a decade ago about risks for teens taking antidepressants led to plummeting prescriptions and increased suicide attempts, Harvard University researchers said.
LIFE / Language
Jun 22, 2014

Today's weird words are tomorrow's standard speech

Last month, a most peculiar word, dotakyan, popped up repeatedly in the media in reference to former Beatle Paul McCartney, who was forced to cancel his entire schedule of concerts due to health concerns.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2014

Japan urged to do more to promote its language overseas

Japan needs to make bigger efforts to promote its culture and gain public support for the promotion of Japanese-language education overseas, according to a linguistics scholar who has taught the language for more than 40 years in the United States.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 21, 2014

Any publicity is good news for beer firms

At a Tokyo news conference on June 4, Sapporo Beer President Masaki Oga announced his company would halt sales of its Goku Zero alcoholic beverage after current inventory was shipped. The parent company, Sapporo Holdings, had been contacted by the National Tax Agency in January regarding the manufacturing...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 21, 2014

Advances in robotics present singular worry

'Singularity' is an odd word. Originally it meant peculiarity. Then 20th-century physicists got hold of it and situated it at the very boundary of space-time, to the eternal bafflement of the lay mind.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 21, 2014

Ending Japan's sexism requires men to lean in, too

Ayaka Shiomura's tears show why Shinzo Abe's talk of empowering Japan's women is still more hot air than policy.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
Jun 20, 2014

Insurers balk at cost as gene tests unlock medical mysteries

Aimee Robeson just wants an answer.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 20, 2014

Obama sends U.S. military advisers to Iraq as battle rages over refinery

President Barack Obama said on Thursday he was sending up to 300 U.S. military advisers to Iraq but stressed the need for a political solution to the Iraqi crisis as government forces battled Sunni rebels for control of the country's biggest refinery.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2014

Retreating from a policy of ruinous grandiosity

The U.S. Republican challenge is to articulate a policy that fills the vast space between President Barack Obama's retreat on foreign policy and the ruinous grandiosity of the 'freedom agenda' of Obama's predecessor.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 18, 2014

Battling insurgency, Iraq's leaders make rare show of unity

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki broadcast a joint appeal for national unity on Tuesday with bitter Sunni critics of his Shiite-led government — a move that may help him win U.S. help against rampant Islamists threatening Baghdad.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2014

Sectarian monster reawakens

The systematic political marginalization of Iraq's Sunni communities demands the establishment of a new political and social contract to re-order the mess created by the U.S. invasion and Iran's intervention.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2014

The damage done by 'moderates'

Every day the insipid overlords of America's inane corporate news media put out the same message: Extremism is extremely bad. But might the so-called moderates be worse?
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 16, 2014

Heavy fighting in northwestern Iraq as Islamists advance

Sunni insurgents seized a mainly ethnic Turkmen city in northwestern Iraq on Sunday after heavy fighting, solidifying their grip on the north after a lightning offensive that threatens to dismember Iraq.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 15, 2014

Iraq insurgent advance slows, U.S. sends carrier to Gulf

An offensive by insurgents that threatens to dismember Iraq seemed to slow on Saturday after days of lightning advances as government forces regained some territory in counterattacks, easing pressure on the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 14, 2014

Iraq's top Shiite cleric issues call to fight jihadist rebels

Iraq's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric urged followers to take up arms against a full-blown Sunni militant insurgency to topple Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a conflict that threatens civil war and a possible break-up of the country.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 13, 2014

Rakuten rakes in ¥30 billion for first bond sale

Rakuten Inc., the e-commerce company led by billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani, issued its first public bonds Friday, selling ¥30 billion of three-year notes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jun 13, 2014

Forget Cool Japan — cute is this summer's hot global export

Summer is always high season for fans of Japanese pop culture. School's out, weather's amenable and festivals, conventions and expos shift into top gear in Japan and across the globe.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jun 12, 2014

Wakayama can't afford Pavlicevic

After an ultra-successful start in the National Basketball League, the cash-strapped Wakayama Trians are implementing big budget cuts for the upcoming season.
EDITORIALS
Jun 12, 2014

Dangerous turn in ODA policy

The Abe administration should give up on a plan to change the government's basic policy on official development assistance in ways that could see aid used for the armed forces of foreign countries.

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’