Search - 2004

 
 
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2009

Japan ups pace in race for U.S. bullet train deal

NAGOYA — On a desolate stretch of track just before midnight, when all passenger lines have been put to bed, a juiced-up bullet train goes online and accelerates to over 320 kph. The 700-ton train, about 400 meters long, whooshes by rice paddies in under 5 seconds.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2009

Mayor touts Kyoto's climate-saving strides

by 25 percent and in 2004, we passed a local ordinance to reduce greenhouse gases. About 140 business are now in compliance with this ordinance," Kadokawa said. Kyoto is a city of traditions, he said, one of which is not to be wasteful, especially in the household. This tradition forms the basis of the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 18, 2009

The noughties played it nice

The biggest Japanese music event in 2000 was Hikaru Utada's Bohemian Summer tour, which was launched at Tokyo's Yoyogi Pool that June. Since emerging in December 1998 with the single "Automatic," followed by the debut album "First Love" four months later, the 17-year-old singer-songwriter, daughter of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 18, 2009

'Public Enemies'

Director Michael Mann's films are often about cops or criminals, and it doesn't really matter which, because in Mann's world, they're just flip sides of the same coin: hardboiled, driven, type-A personalities like James Caan in "Thief" (1981), Tom Cruise in "Collateral" (2004), or both Al Pacino and...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Dec 15, 2009

Hillman takes pride as Greinke, Darvish make good on pitching potential

As the 2009 season unfolded in major league baseball, Kansas City Royals manager Trey Hillman may have caught himself recalling his time in Japan two seasons ago.
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2009

Proposal followed fight over feline

. I had been involved in triathlon for two or three years. Kentaro: It was my first or second time to join the triathlon training group when we met. She and I both lived in Oizumi Gakuen (in Nerima Ward, Tokyo). She taught me how to swim.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 15, 2009

To gargle or not to gargle?

The Web site for the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contains a pandemic influenza storybook filled with personal reflections from survivors, family members and friends. One of the accounts tells the story of Art McLaughlin, who lived about 25 km east of Chicago during...
COMMENTARY
Dec 15, 2009

Underwriting a global reforestation program

SINGAPORE — Where does Southeast Asia rank in greenhouse-gas emissions, a key focal point of the international climate change negotiations?
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 13, 2009

Tuffy hopes to extend career in Japan another year

It remains to be seen if Tuffy Rhodes will return to play a 14th season in Japanese baseball in 2010. The all-time leader among foreign players in home runs and RBIs says he's ready for another year — or two — but, if he is unable to attract an offer from a Pacific or Central League club, he will...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 11, 2009

Mono

Considered one of Asia's top postrock acts since their 2001 "Under the Pipal Tree" debut and now a decade into their career, Tokyo's Mono are listed alongside the global leaders in their genre. Taking full advantage of their continually growing stature, the instrumental quartet invited a 28-member chamber...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 11, 2009

A decade when Japan's cinema stood up to Hollywood menace

When I started reviewing Japanese films for The Japan Times in 1989, many of the people making and distributing them were convinced that the Hollywood juggernaut was slowly crushing them. How could they hope to compete against superior Hollywood technology and vastly larger Hollywood budgets?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 11, 2009

(Near) death of a salesman

Amit started downloading music when he was 16 years old in India.
Reader Mail
Dec 10, 2009

Prepare students for the job hunt

It has been more than one year since the Lehman Brothers collapse, which led to the current world economic crisis. Last spring the news was about student employment offers being withdrawn. According to the research of one company, almost 30 percent of university graduates had still not been offered employment,...
COMMENTARY
Dec 10, 2009

Asia's new strategic partners

The recently concluded India-Australia security agreement has come at a time when tectonic power shifts are challenging Asian strategic stability. Asia has come a long way since the emergence of two Koreas, two Chinas, two Vietnams and a partitioned India. It has risen dramatically as the world's main...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Dec 8, 2009

Vietnamese physicist thrives in Japan

Nguyen Dinh Dang didn't choose Japan so much as Japan chose him. The Soviet-trained Vietnamese nuclear physicist and painter first came to live here in 1995 at the invitation of Riken, a semigovernmental science and technology research institute.
JAPAN / COP15 COPENHAGEN SPECIAL
Dec 7, 2009

A brief history of climate talks: looking back, looking forward

Industrialization in the 19th century brought many of the benefits we enjoy in the modern world, changing the structure of society, industry and economy. But nearly two centuries later, one of the downsides of the Industrial Revolution is gaining more attention: global warming.
SOCCER / World cup
Dec 6, 2009

Path to sixth World Cup win may be tough for Brazil

CAPE TOWN, Okada stands firm: Page 16 (AP) Five-time winner Brazil was stung by a tough draw for the 2010 World Cup on Friday while co-favorite Spain was given an easy ride through to the second round.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 6, 2009

Organ-transplant drama, Japan seen from above, and experimental mystery `Sisters'

The issue of organ transplants gets pulled into service for the two-hour suspense drama, "Egao: Jugonenme no Uso" (The Smiling Face: Fifteenth Year Lie; TBS, Mon., 9 p.m.).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Dec 6, 2009

Rika Kayama: Finding satisfaction in being ourselves

Psychiatrist Rika Kayama is an outspoken doctor specializing in mental illness, a best-selling writer and a popular social commentator.

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