Search - …r-expert

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2008

'Kung Fu Panda'

He's fat, he's lazy, he's an underachieving slob. But Po the Panda could just be the answer to the prayers of a martial-arts master in "Kung Fu Panda," this summer's animation blockbuster from Dreamworks, opening in Japan to precede the Beijing Olympics.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Jul 20, 2008

Rethinking the tiniest class of car

They are Japanese cultural icons, easily recognizable by their diminutive size and yellow license plates. But unlike their even smaller anime cousins, such as Pokemon, kei-jidosha (subcompact cars) have remained a completely domestic phenomenon.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 20, 2008

Lemon-picking prof prompts reflection on strange twists of fate

Lately I have been thinking about some wonderful teachers I was blessed with at university. Three, in particular, shaped my life. Had I not encountered them, I doubt that I myself would have become an author of fiction, a translator and a teacher.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 20, 2008

What's that smell?

No one in Japan can avoid the sweat and smells of hot humid summer, regardless of sex, age or ethnicity. But a recent survey on body odor reeked of bad news for men.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2008

The rising middle classes want their wheels

BEIJING — W hat becomes immediately apparent on entering the 10th annual Beijing car show is the emotional intensity with which China has thrown itself into its greatest consumerist passion to date: the first throes of an affair with the car. The entire nation, it turns out, is in love with them, is...
COMMENTARY
Jul 17, 2008

Let's hope it's over soon

The world is now in the grip of a first-class financial crisis. Some will be hit harder than others, but no one is going to escape. Final confirmation of this has arrived with the news that the two giant mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pillars of American life that underwrite, or insure,...
Japan Times
Features
Jul 13, 2008

Top creators call for museums to save nation's modern heritage

What do industrial design, architecture, manga, anime, video games and traditional craft techniques have in common? Well, apart from each having spawned some of Japan's most popular cultural exports, the similarity is this: Japan has no national museums dedicated to their preservation, display and study....
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 12, 2008

Leaving the Beijing bird's nest behind

BEIJING — Ai Weiwei, China's most famous living artist, lives and works in Caochangdi, which used to be a village to the east of Beijing but is now, thanks to the city's endless creep — locals call it Beijing Tan Da Bing, or spreading pancake — just another crowded suburb. It takes a long time...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2008

Americans finally getting to taste high-quality ramen

Nearly four decades after the first instant ramen factory opened in the United States, Japan's beloved comfort food finally is making inroads — even achieving cult status — in a nation where burgers and pizza still rule.
JAPAN / G8 SUMMIT 2008
Jul 9, 2008

G8 offers halving of emissions by 2050

TOYAKO, Hokkaido — The Group of Eight powers agreed Tuesday to "seek to share" with both developing and developed states the goal of at least halving global emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050, showing only scant progress from last year's summit in fighting global warming.
EDITORIALS
Jul 7, 2008

Access to public documents

An expert panel's interim report on strengthening the system to manage official documents has been submitted to Population and Gender Equality Issues Minister Yoko Kamikawa, who also serves as state minister in charge of improving the custodianship of such documents.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 6, 2008

Was the Japanese language influenced by Tamil? The war goes on

For years I have been watching from the sidelines as the opponents battle it out. For the players this fight will go on and on, and the theater of war is right here.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 4, 2008

Sky monsters rule at Miraikan exhibition

Can your curiosity overcome your fear of the monsters of the skies that inhabited the Earth 150 million years ago?
JAPAN / G8 COUNTDOWN
Jul 2, 2008

Talks may heat up and go nowhere but global warming isn't waiting

Eleven of the 12 years between 1995 and 2006 ranked among the 12 warmest years since 1850, and since 1993 the global sea level has risen by an annual rate of 3.1 mm.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2008

Fukuda's heart for G8 leadership

This fragile earth of about 6.5 billion souls faces grave and unprecedented challenges: soaring prices of oil and basic commodities that fuel daily life; price increases that make staple foods like rice and wheat too expensive for millions of poor people; a savage profusion of natural and man-made disasters...
JAPAN / G8 COUNTDOWN
Jul 1, 2008

¥60 billion G8 budget draws flak

Japan plans to spend more than ¥60 billion in taxpayer money to host next week's Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido and related events, prompting some to question if that sum could better be used to alleviate the national health-care and social welfare crises.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 29, 2008

Akihabara killer followed plot mapped by the media

After serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki was hanged on June 17, some death-penalty opponents wondered out loud if Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama had signed the execution order as a response to the indiscriminate murders of seven people on the streets of Akihabara nine days earlier. Of course, Hatoyama didn't...
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2008

Third-grade English may get test run in fiscal 2009

The education ministry wants to start teaching English to third-graders on a trial basis at several hundred elementary schools nationwide in fiscal 2009, a ministry official said this week.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / LIQUID CULTURE
Jun 27, 2008

Eau contraire: no two waters taste the same

From the marketing bumf, you'd think all mineral waters tasted alike. The aquifers are ancient, the nature is untouched and blah blah blah. But H2O is such a great solvent it steals a bit of anything it passes through, resulting in a shelfload of different flavors.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2008

Tokyo falls in line with U.S. on Pyongyang

The nuclear declaration delivered to China by North Korea on Thursday evening is long overdue and will likely reveal a sharp divide between Tokyo's hardline stance toward Pyongyang and Washington's policy of appeasement.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2008

U.S. notifies Tokyo of plan to delist North

Washington has notified Tokyo of its plan to start the process Thursday of striking North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism if Pyongyang files a declaration of its nuclear activities, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Tuesday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jun 24, 2008

Women's shoe designer Moe Enomoto

Moe Enomoto, 28, is a women's shoe designer whose Sellenatela brand is carried by exclusive stores in Tokyo's Ginza and Daikanyama districts, and in San Francisco's hip Venus Superstar Boutique. Fascinated by beauty and driven by a desire to empower women of all lifestyles, Moe hopes that her shoes give...
COMMENTARY
Jun 21, 2008

Baptism by fire for Taiwan's President Ma

The success of the first round of talks between Taiwan and the China mainland is a feather in the cap of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, who made improved relations with Beijing the central theme of his campaign platform. But he has yet to display his acumen where foreign policy is concerned.
EDITORIALS
Jun 21, 2008

Consumers to come first

An expert panel has submitted to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda a final plan to establish a Consumer Agency that would integrate the administration of consumer affairs now handled by different ministries and agencies.
BUSINESS / U.S. BUSINESS SCHOOL SYMPOSIUM
Jun 21, 2008

Global changes pose new questions

The global repercussions from the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States are clear evidence of the growing interconnectedness of the world's economies, which requires a broader scope and purview on the part of corporate managers, a U.S. expert told a recent business symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN / RETRACING ROUTES
Jun 20, 2008

Immigrants weave tale of triumph

When the Kasato Maru arrived in Brazil with the first Japanese immigrants at Santos port near Sao Paulo on June 18, 1908, a shipload of Okinawans and other Japanese disembarked and headed out to find work on the coffee plantations, seeking a better life.

Longform

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