Search - 2003

 
 
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jul 20, 2009

Two brothers competing on Japan's political ladder

One of the major topics of speculation among political observers nowadays is what course of action former internal affairs minister Kunio Hatoyama will take following his revolt against Prime Minister Taro Aso. He will have to make up his mind soon now that the date of the next general election has just...
COMMENTARY
Jul 19, 2009

Like it or not, China is not about to go away

KUALA LUMPUR — There was never the slightest doubt in the mind of a single reputable expert anywhere in the world that China was a caldron of ethnic unrest ready to boil over. Nor was there the slightest possibility that the masters of the People's Republic of China would be able to escape, within...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 19, 2009

A different kind of hardball

It's as English as dancing round a Maypole on the village green. But, wedged between a rugby pitch and fields full of practicing Little Leaguers, the University of Tokyo Cricket Club and their counterparts across town from Chuo are doing their best to put this most civilized of pastimes on Japan's sporting...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 18, 2009

JAL faces more losses as retirees fight cuts

Takahiro Fukushima gets a pension of ¥2.7 million a year from Japan Airlines Corp., where he worked for 35 years. Two months ago, the unprofitable airline sent the former cabin attendant a letter asking his permission to cut it by more than 50 percent.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 17, 2009

Dick El Demasiado

Dick El Demasiado is, by his own admission, an impostor. Born Dick Verdult in the Netherlands in 1954, the musician and media artist has become a pivotal figure on Argentina's experimental music scene thanks to an elaborate hoax.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 17, 2009

A cool show at Shiseido with the Helsinki School

Finland may seem like a cold, distant land better known for Nokia and reindeer than photography and art. But the Helsinki School, an art cooperative formed about 15 years ago, is heating up the international photography and video art world. Showing in Asia for the first time, the Helsinki School's photography...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Jul 16, 2009

Chrysmela founder sticks to it

At first glance, it comes as a surprise that such a quiet and sensitive young woman founded her own company, but Eri Kikunaga, 28, moved aggressively to establish Chrysmela Inc. in July 2007 and continues to drive it forward.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jul 16, 2009

Ishigaki

Dear Alice, Is it weird to love a wall? I recently visited the Imperial Palace in Tokyo and was totally blown away by a high rock embankment on the far side of the moat. That rugged face! Those elegant lines! I am completely enchanted and want to know anything at all you can tell me. But there's one...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2009

China's growth won't be high enough to sustain jobs: scholar

China's economy will grow at modest rates, but not strong enough to tame unemployment for an extended time without a radical change in macroeconomic policy, a Chinese scholar told a recent seminar in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Jul 12, 2009

It's up to the five powers to bottle the nuclear genie

LONDON — Speaking in Moscow on July 7, U.S. President Barack Obama was the very soul of reasonableness. The United States and Russia must cooperate to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons, he said, while keeping the goal of a world without nuclear weapons always in sight: "America is committed...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 12, 2009

Ethnic profiling threatens very ethos of EU

BRUSSELS — Several years ago, as terrorism, immigration, and unrest in suburban Paris were at the top of the news in France, a French police officer confided to a researcher: "If you consider different levels of trafficking, it is obviously done by blacks and Arabs. If you are on the road and see a...
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Jul 11, 2009

Religion couple's common ground

Zuzana Koike, a 29-year-old Austrian national of Slovak extraction, never thought she would even visit Japan before meeting and marrying Takeshi Koike, 38, a lecturer at Daito Bunka University in Tokyo.
CULTURE / Film
Jul 10, 2009

'Kani Kosen'

Why does a novel about exploited workers on a crab cannery boat, published 80 years ago by a young communist writer, later tortured to death by the police, become a hot movie property now?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 10, 2009

Artist Yoko Ono is honored

On June 6, the Venice Biennale presented artist Yoko Ono with one of its most prestigious honors, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Ono was nominated for the distinction along with American John Baldessari by the director of this year's biennale, Daniel Birnbaum.
Reader Mail
Jul 9, 2009

Added burden on the hospitals

Overstayers by definition are in Japan illegally and thus are criminals in that they have broken the law. Those acknowledged as not having the right to stay are usually not problematic as long as they do not break the law. Nevertheless, the vast majority are not enrolled in national health insurance....
EDITORIALS
Jul 9, 2009

McNamara's tragedy and triumph

Mr. Robert McNamara, the 1961-68 Pentagon chief who died on Monday, will be largely remembered as a tragic figure. He led the United States into a military quagmire in Vietnam that not only took the lives of more than 58,000 U.S. soldiers and an estimated 4 million Vietnamese but also weakened America's...
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2009

Diet OKs bills to up foreigner controls

The Diet passed bills Wednesday that tighten controls on foreign residents, paving the way for them to take effect within three years, despite opposition from foreigners and human rights activists.
BUSINESS / GLOBAL ECONOMY AND LABOR SYMPOSIUM
Jul 9, 2009

Outmoded labor practices blunt competitiveness

Japan needs a more flexible and diverse labor market as its population ages rapidly and starts to decline, experts told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
SOCCER
Jul 8, 2009

Huge crowd turns out to welcome Ronaldo

MADRID (AP) Cristiano Ronaldo received a rapturous welcome from 80,000 Real Madrid fans Monday, an outpouring so exuberant the soccer star had to be hustled away when spectators leaped barriers and took the field.
COMMENTARY
Jul 7, 2009

Rule of law eludes Guantanamo detainees despite Obama's cheerleading for rights

NEW YORK — The Obama administration should show resolve in releasing Guantanamo Bay inmates or trying them in a court of law, says Navanethem Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 5, 2009

New Niigata stadium opens this week, could host expansion team someday

The Hiroshima Carp and Hanshin Tigers will play the first official games at the new Niigata Prefectural Stadium this week with consecutive nighters on July 7 and 8. If ever Japanese baseball was going to expand or a team was to be moved, Niigata would be the next obvious best place in the country to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 3, 2009

ART iT transforms into digital forum

When Tokyo-based quarterly magazine ART iT announced the discontinuation of its print edition and that all content would move online following the publishing of its June 2009 issue, it seemed like yet another example of how the popularity of the Internet had combined with a global economic recession...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Jul 3, 2009

Imperial jazz festival 2009

The Imperial Hotels in Tokyo and Osaka will swing to the sound of jazz in August when they hold their annual, star-studded "Imperial Jazz Complex 2009" festival.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 3, 2009

Sheena Ringo

Following Sheena Ringo can be a frustrating business. Her third album, 2003's "Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana" ("Lime, Semen, Chestnut Blossoms"), ranks as one of the most wildly ambitious pop records of the past decade, which made it all the more confounding when she ditched her solo career the following...

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’