Search - agree

 
 
Reader Mail
Sep 13, 2012

Managing a symbol of unity

Japan and South Korea are too closely connected, and have far too much in common, to quarrel over the Takeshima/Dokdo islets. Simply put, the risks of dragging the conflict out are too great. There are many possible solutions to the problem.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / ANALYSIS
Sep 12, 2012

Island disputes could cost Tokyo 2020 Olympics

With the vote to determine the host of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games less than one year away, Tokyo's chances of landing the global extravaganza could slip away in the wake of Japan's ongoing involvement in island disputes with South Korea, China, Russia and Taiwan.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 11, 2012

Isle row Rule No.1: Protect what you have

The nation's territorial disputes heated up in August when the South Korean president made an unprecedented visit to the Takeshima Islands, which his country holds, and Chinese activists briefly landed on the Japan-administered Senkaku Islands.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 9, 2012

It will take more than a pop group to save Fukushima's reputation

Last March, Tatsuya Yamaguchi of the idol group Tokio told the media that he was determined to someday reopen Dash Village, the farm that he and his bandmates built from scratch as an ongoing project on their long-running Nippon TV series "The Tetsuwan Dash." The farm is in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture,...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 9, 2012

Putin's siege-mentality Russia now firmly in the grip of a 'cold civil war'

There is an old Soviet-era Russian joke about two rival groups of archeologists who cannot agree on the age of a mummy discovered in Central Asia. At their wits' end, they call in the NKVD — the name of the dreaded KGB in Stalin's time — to settle the dispute.
COMMENTARY
Sep 8, 2012

Tokyo-Seoul: enough is enough!

Enough is enough! Obviously, the political leadership in Tokyo and Seoul never learned about the First Rule of Holes: When you find yourself in one, stop digging. Each side seems to be going out of its way to make a bad situation worse, even while providing private assurances that it won't let the situation...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 6, 2012

"Dogū , a Cosmos"

Archaeologists and other experts agree that dogū , ancient Japanese clay figurines were produced during the Jomon Period (c. 10,000 B.C. to 400 B.C.). However, the purpose of dogū remain a mystery. Many believe that they were likely ceremonially displayed at local festivals or used as talismans to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 6, 2012

Soil & "Pimp" Sessions, Jaga Jazzist and Bruut! challenge jazz's conservative image

Grammy Award-winning bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding recently told the Los Angeles Times that one of the problems in bringing jazz to a wider audience was essentially one of image.
COMMENTARY
Sep 6, 2012

Nationalists making waves in Japan-China ties

Forty years ago this month, Japan and China established diplomatic relations. However, the two countries are clearly in no mood to celebrate because of a heated territorial dispute over tiny uninhabited islands called the Senkakus by Japan and the Diaoyus by China. They are under Japanese control but...
BUSINESS
Sep 5, 2012

Diet impasse a threat to growth stimulus

The gridlock in the Diet threatens to curtail the government's ability to apply fiscal stimulus as the economic rebound falters.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2012

Making the eurozone work

Some economists believe that this summer could mark the moment when some of the eurozone's peripheral members may begin to be forced out; others think that such a scenario is inconceivable. All agree that, at least in the short term, a eurozone breakup would be disastrous for jobs and growth.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 28, 2012

Revival eludes nation's birthrate

It sounds like a broken record: Japan is beset by a low birthrate and an aging society.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2012

Cairo's problem with new realities

A new reality and an alternative reality are shaping up in Egypt. President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood appear firmly in control. Morsi seized on the killing of 16 Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai early this month — an embarrassment for the military and particularly the Supreme Council of...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2012

Seoul holding islets illegally, Noda charges

Japan escalated its verbal attacks on Seoul over the Takeshima territorial row Friday, with Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda calling South Korea's control of the islets "illegal" and the Lower House adopting a resolution denouncing its president, Lee Myung Bak, the first such Diet action over the islets...
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2012

56-day base age pushed for puppy, kitten sales

Sales of puppies and kittens would be prohibited until they are at least 56 days old under a planned revision of the Animal Protection Law expected to passed by the Diet this session.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 24, 2012

'Prometheus'

My high school English teacher once assigned an essay on Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." She was pushing the idea that the novel was one big Jesus allegory, with its hero McMurphy dying for the salvation of the other patients, but I couldn't agree. Kesey had worked in a mental institution,...
Reader Mail
Aug 23, 2012

More important than fast cars

Regarding Stewart Tennyson's Aug. 16 letter, "Why give geothermal short shrift?": I totally agree that industries would prefer to focus on bigger networks and generators rather than on alternative energy.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2012

Despite all the numbers, energy policy questions fall short

Numbers, numbers everywhere. So what are we to think?
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 23, 2012

A summer reading list for eurozone leaders

In August, Europeans head for the beach. The continent shuts down on the assumption that nothing of consequence will happen until everyone returns, suitably tanned, in September.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2012

Aichi boss woos Hashimoto with policy platform

In a move expected to accelerate tieup talks with his ally, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, Aichi Gov. Hideaki Omura's political group Chukyo Ishin no Kai has announced a like-minded policy platform for the next Lower House election.
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2012

Tokyo seeks ICJ ruling on Takeshima

Tokyo will go all out to persuade Seoul to take a sovereignty row to the International Court of Justice after South Korean President Lee Myung Bak's unprecedented visit to disputed islets in the Sea of Japan, government sources said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2012

U.S. religious liberty feeling the weight of so many faiths

In the United States, Muslim women trying to maintain modesty should get female-only hours at the public pool, right?
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Aug 17, 2012

Tokyo, Beijing want tiff ended fast

Tokyo and Beijing are exchanging tough words over the arrest of 14 Hong Kong protesters and journalists who landed Wednesday on the disputed Senkaku Islands, repeating their harsh rhetoric over who owns the rocky outcroppings in the East China Sea.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2012

Key crisis contact heads for London

As deputy Cabinet secretary for public affairs, Noriyuki Shikata instantly realized his workload would skyrocket when the Great East Japan Earthquake struck, but admits being taken aback by the flood of requests that started pouring in from overseas media.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb