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BUSINESS / Q&A
Jan 9, 2010

Bankruptcy would be bitter medicine for JAL

Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. of Japan, a state-backed body tasked with Japan Airlines Corp.'s rehabilitation, is expected to decide within this month whether and how it will save the nation's largest airline. A major focus is whether the program will be a court-led bankruptcy or handled out...
COMMENTARY
Jan 7, 2010

Obama on track in Asia

With one exception, U.S. relations with East Asian countries are better today than when the Obama administration took office. This is no small accomplishment since the Bush administration left Asia in good shape.
COMMENTARY
Jan 6, 2010

China wants it both ways

China is a schizophrenic power, a developing country on select international issues but a rising superpower that sees itself in the same league as the United States in other matters, with its new muscular confidence on open display. At the recent Copenhagen climate-change summit meeting, China was the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 5, 2010

Minors in own category but never above the law

Jan. 11 marks Coming of Age Day, an annual holiday to celebrate people who have reached legal adulthood.
EDITORIALS
Dec 31, 2009

Something in the air

There was something ineffable in the air throughout 2009. At first, it was the prospect of change, a fuzzy promise that propelled candidate Barack Obama to victory in the November 2008 U.S. presidential campaign. His "yes we can!" slogan captured the imagination of U.S. voters and millions more around...
COMMENTARY
Dec 29, 2009

Persuading China to put the screws to Iran

SINGAPORE — Will the world's leading powers act in a more united way on Iran's nuclear program than they have so far over climate change?
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Dec 29, 2009

Reconciliatory value of a visit to Nanjing

Dear Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama,
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2009

The challenge of Seoul's G20 chairmanship

BERKELEY, Calif. — On Jan. 1, South Korea takes over the Group of 20 chairmanship from the United Kingdom. Korea is not the first emerging market to chair the G20, but it is the first to do so since the global financial crisis. And it is the first to do so since the G20 emerged as the steering committee...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 25, 2009

The decade's most influential

Last week, The Japan Times picked Hikaru Utada as the most influential artist of the past decade. This week, our writers ask various figures in Japan's music scene who they thought were the most influential artists of the noughties. We asked them to choose one Japanese artist and one non-Japanese artist,...
Reader Mail
Dec 24, 2009

Flawed 'power structure thinking'

In his Dec. 20 article, "Wake up a friend about China at Christmas," Tom Plate recommends that readers give their friends a book about the Middle Kingdom for the holidays, specifically one with the scary title "When China Rules the World." Everyone, East and West, seems to agree that China is the emerging...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 21, 2009

Renewed dialogue welcome, but talks alone won't win peace

LONDON — Speculation has been building up on the Subcontinent that dialogue between India and Pakistan is about to restart. Last month Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir that if Pakistan showed "sincerity and good faith," India "will not be found...
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 2009

Taiwan poll's weight overhyped

HONOLULU — Voters in Taiwan went to the polls in 17 counties and cities recently to elect mayors and magistrates. The ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party won 12 of the 17 seats and enjoyed an overwhelming victory in elections of county and city councilors and township chiefs. The opposition Democratic Progressive...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2009

Numbers put nail in COP15 coffin

didn't agree to here," de Boer said. Or, as he indicated, maybe by then, the reality of what the numbers on global warming mean will convince negotiators they cannot afford another conference of the size and scale of Copenhagen that produces only more arguments on numbers rather than an agreement to...
COMMENTARY
Dec 20, 2009

Wake up a friend about China at Christmas

LOS ANGELES — Attention last-minute holiday shoppers: We have an easy-to-purchase gift to recommend. And we guarantee that it will fit all sizes, shapes and tastes. This is assuming your intended recipients are intelligent, literate and eager to learn about the world.
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2009

Divided climate summit ends with deal

COPENHAGEN — A two-week climate change conference billed as the most important postwar international gathering and perhaps the world's last chance to halt global warming and irreversible climate change concluded Saturday morning with a vague, nonlegal agreement that few delegates enthusiastically supported....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 19, 2009

Five rules of the aisle seat when you fly

Today I thought I would share with you my Frequent Flier Anti-Jet Lag formula. And it doesn't involve swallowing frequent flier miles to regain world time zones internally. My technique is simple: drink a few beers and sleep on the airplane for about six hours.
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 Times
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2009

Demographic crisis leaves universities in financial bind

The first day of the semester should be one of the year's busiest, but it is immediately clear at St. Thomas University that something is badly wrong.
Reader Mail
Dec 17, 2009

Hard to view Tokyo as a model

In his Nov. 27 article, "Tokyo's urban design role," Jared Braiterman paints a very glowing and cheery picture of the integration of urbanism and nature in Tokyo. While I agree that many Tokyo residents show ingenuity in their use of mostly tiny available spaces for propagation of plants, projects such...
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?

Longform

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