Search - …r-expert

 
 
COMMENTARY
Feb 3, 2012

Let economic impetus drive a deal in territorial dispute

Judging by the latest events in the seemingly endless territorial dispute between Japan and Russia over the "Northern Territories," the Japanese side has decided to confirm its steadfast stance by presenting strong historical and judicial arguments — some traditional, some rather new.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 22, 2012

'Boomer' came up short in latest bid for Hall of Fame

It was a good week for the Hiroshima Carp family as two former pitchers were elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. Manabu Kitabeppu and the late Tsunemi Tsuda garnered enough votes to enter Tokyo's version of Cooperstown. Their induction ceremony will take place at an All-Star Game at Kyocera...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 22, 2012

What to call baby?

While clearing closets at my parents' house in Nara in December following my mother's death the month before, I came across a large square card in a pile of old documents. A snapshot of a baby looking at a birthday cake was glued in the center of the card, and I recognized that it was me at the time...
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2012

Foreign Ministry hires interpreters for media

Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba has begun providing simultaneous interpretation in English at his weekly press conferences to provide more information to the international community about Japan's diplomatic activities.
COMMENTARY
Jan 17, 2012

Democracy and growth: Russia's great challenge

At this particular historic moment, the urgency of the economic assimilation of new natural and human resources worldwide is somehow obscured by the global crisis and by the necessity of reforming the global financial system.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 15, 2012

Kabuki workout helps students to stand out in a crowd

Looking for an enjoyable way to get back into shape after gaining a few pounds over the festive season? Well, look no further than kabuki — or learning a few moves basic to this traditional Japanese theatrical form, to be precise.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 15, 2012

The other side of world's 'worst battle'

FIGHTING SPIRIT: The Memoirs of Major Yoshitaka Horie and the Battle of Iwo Jima. Edited by Robert D. Eldridge and Charles W. Tatum. Naval Institute Press, 2011, 224 pp., $26.95 (hardcover) Iwo Jima is a tiny sliver of an island 1,200 km south of Tokyo, an unlikely setting for anything historical, let...
Reader Mail
Jan 12, 2012

What do 'experts' know about it?

In the Jan. 7 Kyodo brief, "Ideas on female royalty solicited," we find out that handpicked "experts" will be asked to approve of the government proposal to expand the number of members of the royal family. When will we see a constitutional challenge to this government-by-expert panel?
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2012

Europe atomic stress tests a charade

Stress tests being carried out on European nuclear power plants are a political charade designed to reassure the public that the reactors are fundamentally safe, a member of the European Parliament and a prominent Bulgarian atomic expert said Monday at a seminar in Osaka.
COMMENTARY
Jan 6, 2012

Russia's mental adjustment

Through the centuries, every people — big or small — has been working out its own approaches to various sides of life that, summed up, predestine its mentality and national character.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Jan 4, 2012

A look back at the best games of 2011

It's that time of year again: Time to look back at all the games that were released in 2011 and sort out the best of the best. Which games won over gamers and stood out from the pack?
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2011

Letter from a Ukraine jail

It has been said that there are no atheists in a foxhole. Here, after my show trial and 4½ months in a cell, I have discovered that there are no atheists in prison, either.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / LIGHT GIST
Dec 27, 2011

2011: a year of disaster in quotes

This year produced more than its share of memorable quotes, many of which were inspired by the March 11 disaster and its aftermath. But figures from other fields, from sports to entertainment, also said things worth repeating. Here is a sampling, in chronological order:
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Dec 20, 2011

Yomawari

Dear Alice,
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2011

'Prepare for the unexpected': Noda

Immediately after the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was announced, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Monday told his administration to "take all possible measures to prepare for the unexpected."
COMMENTARY
Dec 9, 2011

Russia's cooperation options for design of a trade scheme

Nowadays the trend toward trade and investment liberalization is developing under restraints of the opposite — protectionist — tendency strengthened by the shaky and unpredictable world situation, which in turn was created by the global financial and economic crisis.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2011

Brace for the coming Arab winter

One year after a Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire in an act of defiance that would ignite protests and unseat long-standing dictatorships, a harsh chill is settling over the Arab world. The peaceful demonstrations in Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen that were supposed to bring democracy...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Dec 6, 2011

Buck stops with landlord of moldy apartment

Reader G.R. writes: "My apartment has a serious mold problem. The bathtub is built in such a way that there is a space between the tub and the wall and water can easily get underneath and does not drain well.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Dec 4, 2011

Waxing woody as winter nears

This will be my 32nd winter in Kurohime, way up in the hills of northern Nagano Prefecture. Yesterday I was stacking firewood for the Afan Woodland Trust Centre, which has a fine, baronial-style stone-and-brick fireplace. There really is nothing like a room heated with firewood, and sitting by an open...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2011

Agent Orange buried at beach strip?

Dozens of barrels of the toxic defoliant Agent Orange were buried in the late 1960s beneath what is now a busy neighborhood in the central Okinawa Island town of Chatan, near Araha Beach, according to a former U.S. soldier who has recently pinpointed the location thanks to a 1970 map of a U.S. base obtained...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 22, 2011

Last trial brings dark Aum era to end

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by condemned killer Seiichi Endo, lowering the curtain on the trials over the cult's heinous crimes, which began in the 1980s and culminated in the 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 22, 2011

MacArthur, identity theory and Japan's lingering eigo woes

Some years ago I was teaching an advanced English class in San Francisco that featured a hodgepodge of students from all over the world. Just as the range of cultures and accents extended from Europe to the Middle East to Asia and South America, so did the array of communication styles. Yet while the...
COMMENTARY
Nov 18, 2011

Historic choices for Russia

Recently the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza stated that the foreign ministers of Poland and Germany — Radoslaw Sikorski and Guido Westerwelle — have worked out a common position concerning an eventual EU policy toward Russia.
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 13, 2011

In the wake of the Vikings

At both its western and eastern extremes some 10,700 km apart in France and the Russian Far East respectively, the great, fused supercontinent of Eurasia breaks into fragments, into not quite matching fringes of islands.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?