Search - 2002

 
 
LIFE
Jan 11, 2014

The return of Godzilla, the king of kaiju

'Godzilla' first appeared in cinemas across the country in November 1954 but its story line was heavily influenced by an incident eight months earlier at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 10, 2014

Another test for Erdogan

Today the biggest challenge to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to emanate from another Islamic leader, Fethullah Gulen, a cleric exiled to the United States who is alleged to have masterminded the investigation of a burgeoning corruption scandal.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2014

How South Korea rides out emerging-markets turmoil

With seven of every 10 high school graduates attending a university, there is a surplus of educated people in South Korea. Estimates are that 40 percent of college graduates are redundant.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 4, 2014

Kenya Hara: the future of design

Sitting at a plain white table in a meeting room high up on the 12th floor of a narrow building in central Tokyo, product designer Kenya Hara asks me to picture a shallow plate in my mind. "Now imagine a slightly deeper plate," Hara says, "that gets deeper and deeper and eventually becomes a bowl."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 4, 2014

Back and forward: Asia in 2013; predictions for 2014

Crystal-ball gazing is a notoriously inexact science, so before getting to that, let's lessen the potential exposure to ridicule by starting with a roundup of the last 12 months' key trends and events in Asia.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Jan 3, 2014

China denies baby deaths caused by suspect hepatitis B vaccine

China has found that a hepatitis B vaccine produced by a Shenzhen biotechnology company didn't cause the deaths of nine babies who received injections, the national food and drug agency said.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jan 2, 2014

Political power struggle behind South Sudan crisis

U.S. and African officials seeking to mediate an end to South Sudan's bloodshed are, in effect, trying to repair rifts in the very liberation movement that they supported for years.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2013

2013, a year of angry elites

The crowds who called for revolution in Cairo, Istanbul, Bangkok and Kiev in 2013 were not the impoverished losers of globalization. They were mostly the economic winners: middle-class, educated, English-speaking. So why were they rebelling?
JAPAN / GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT ENGLISH
Dec 31, 2013

English to get 2020 push but teachers not on same page

A reform plan released in mid-December by the education ministry looks to bolster English study from elementary to high school from the 2020 academic year to pursue globalization.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 30, 2013

Once Tories' answer to EU fears, enlargement is now their problem

With the U.K. Independence Party breathing down the Tories' necks, EU enlargement is no longer the British government's answer in Europe, but its No. 1 problem.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 27, 2013

Researcher sees digital maps as key to understanding, alleviating crises

'Maps put into pictures what policymakers traditionally see in numbers,' says Elise Montiel-Welti, a researcher at Doshisha University who produces digital maps to explain global crises. 'They also put us in perspective: We can see how small we are in the face of huge disasters or conflicts.'
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Dec 27, 2013

Mao must let the triple axel go for shot at gold in Sochi

Enough already. It is time for two-time world champion Mao Asada to give up the triple axel.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2013

Help Ukrainians stand up for Western values

Make no mistake, Ukraine's so-called oligarchs still support President Viktor Yanukovych, and they will be prime beneficiaries of the $15 billion in bailout loans and lower natural gas prices that he secured from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 21, 2013

Making their wishes come true

If you were granted one wish this Christmas, what would you wish for? For 17-year-old Mostafa Horie, the choice was simple: to see a Ferrari race car in action.
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Dec 20, 2013

Odds on Ando making Olympic team for Sochi very long

"Do you believe in miracles?"
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 19, 2013

Mitsubishi Estate to hike office rent in Marunouchi

Mitsubishi Estate Co. plans to increase office rents for the first time in about five years in 2014 as the supply of new buildings slows.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 18, 2013

Show marks award of kabuki star's new name

Names matter, and in the realm of Japanese culture almost nowhere more than in kabuki, one of whose top names, Ennosuke IV, has just become artistic director of the Shunju-za theater in Kyoto.
Japan Times
SOCCER
Dec 16, 2013

Zaccheroni aiming for stars with World Cup ambitions

National team manager Alberto Zaccheroni on Monday refused to put a limit on Japan's ambitions at next summer's World Cup, but stopped short of claiming his team can win the trophy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 12, 2013

Director Cuaron examines all angles when shooting 'space'

Last month, we heard Paul Greengrass, director of "Captain Phillips," talk in detail about his choppy, handheld, visceral filming style. This month, we get to hear from Alfonso Cuarón, director of the massive hit "Gravity," whose style is about 180 degrees different.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 11, 2013

Tokyo's 'fayrest that ever was'

Scene 1: Late evening, Sept. 23, 1990, at the tiny Greek amphitheater, Shin-Okubo, Tokyo
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 9, 2013

India's Congress party trounced in state elections

India's governing Congress party suffered a bruising blow Sunday, losing four keenly watched state elections in what is seen as a semifinal for the national vote next spring.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Dec 7, 2013

Tales from on the trail of Okinawa's rail

Thirty-one years ago I set off on a quest to look for a species so rare that it seemed as mythical as a Phoenix. Not only was it almost unknown, but also the Okinawa Rail had only recently been discovered. It was, as reporters like to say, a species new to science. Nothing was known about its numbers,...
WORLD
Dec 6, 2013

Nelson Mandela, ex-president of South Africa, dead at 95

Nelson Mandela, the former political prisoner who became the first president of a post-apartheid South Africa and whose heroic life and towering moral stature made him one of history's most influential statesmen, died Dec. 5, the government announced. He was 95.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2013

'Hajimari mo Owari mo Nai (No Beginning, No End)'

When I first saw a trailer for Shunya Ito's "Hajimari mo Owari mo Nai (No Beginning, No End)," an all-but dialogue-free film starring dancer/actor Min Tanaka, I thought it might be a 95-minute performance piece — and thus better reviewed by a dance critic than by me.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan