Search - agree

 
 
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?
Reader Mail
Dec 13, 2009

Food self-sufficiency comes first

I agree with Takamitsu Sawa's remarks in his Dec. 7 article, "Agriculture must be rebuilt ahead of oil's 'noble' limits." Japan's industrialization in the 1960s had a crucial flaw: Mild areas where farmers could cultivate crops year-round were industrialized while farming continued in areas that had...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 13, 2009

How to survive a 'fearful age'?

The other day I attended a preview screening of "The Road," the new film of Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic 2006 novel of the same name.
JAPAN / COP15 COPENHAGEN SPECIAL
Dec 13, 2009

Japan objects to climate summit draft proposal

COPENHAGEN, Asia's battle: Page 3 — Japan objected to a draft proposal released Friday at the COP15 climate negotiations, saying that it would give the United States, which opted out of the Kyoto Protocol, a free pass to increase its carbon dioxide emissions beyond 2012 and penalize nations such as...
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2009

Poorest nations seek $200 billion

COPENHAGEN — Developing countries raised the stakes Thursday for any successful outcome of the U.N. climate talks, demanding that the international community provide $200 billion to mitigate global warming in the poorest nations.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2009

Developing countries' differences briefly suspend summit

COPENHAGEN — A document suggesting that developing countries should do more to combat global warming continued to dominate discussions Wednesday at the U.N. climate conference, where talks were briefly suspended after a controversy erupted among developing countries over what level of greenhouse gas...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 11, 2009

Central bankers must finesse money supply

TILBURG, Netherlands — The current economic crisis highlights the need for major changes at central banks. It is time for a return to some form of moderate monetarism — but in a 21st-century mold.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Dec 10, 2009

Up and running in Japan

Thanks to celebrity runners and the Tokyo Marathon, Japan is in the throes of another love affair with running.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2009

Tempers flare at climate talks

COPENHAGEN — Tempers rose during the U.N. climate conference Tuesday, with key players criticizing each other's plans to combat global warming and a leaked draft from host nation Denmark creating havoc in the negotiating sessions.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 8, 2009

Ichihashi trial key test of legal reforms

In March 2007, the Japanese police came under intense scrutiny at home and abroad after Tatsuya Ichihashi escaped barefoot from under the noses of a group of officers at his apartment in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture. The body of British Nova teacher Lindsay Hawker was found shortly after partially buried...
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2009

Climate talks open amid growing hope

COPENHAGEN, After two years of preparation and anticipation, the U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP15, opened Monday amid growing hope an agreement between developed and developing countries on specific greenhouse gas targets is within reach.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 8, 2009

Ichihashi trial key test of legal reforms

In March 2007, the Japanese police came under intense scrutiny at home and abroad after Tatsuya Ichihashi escaped barefoot from under the noses of a group of officers at his apartment in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture. The body of British Nova teacher Lindsay Hawker was found shortly after partially buried...
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2009

Breakthrough hoped for at climate talks

COPENHAGEN — A conference billed by some as the world's last chance to halt global warming and catastrophic climate change opens Monday in Copenhagen in an atmosphere of optimism among U.N. delegates and political leaders that a basic agreement can be reached now and a formal treaty hammered out later....
Reader Mail
Dec 6, 2009

Tattoos and Japanese tradition

I agree with all of Debito Arudou's Dec. 1 article, "A level playing field for immigrants." It's sad to see Japan, which is supposed to be one of the leading countries, falling short. The article should have included a section on how to teach Japanese society to be less fearful of non-Japanese people,...
Reader Mail
Dec 3, 2009

Tie scholarships to TOEFL score

I agree with the anonymous writer of the Nov. 8 letter "Lots of playful college students." It is quite hard to get accepted to a college in Japan, but once you get in, you do not need to study that hard. Therefore, it is understandable when someone from another country observes that "Japanese students...
Reader Mail
Dec 3, 2009

Web site fails to deliver goods

I'd like to respond to Kinuye Oshiro-Avery's Nov. 29 letter "Futenma has environmental issue." First, let me make it clear that I am against any country's military bases anywhere in the world. That said, I went to the Web site suggested by Oshiro-Avery, expecting to see a video about the threatened coral...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2009

Realizing an assertive post-American Europe

PARIS — As U.S. President Barack Obama arrives in Sweden to collect his Nobel Prize, the celebrations expose an awful truth: Europe's admiration for its ideal of an American president is not reciprocated. Obama seems to bear Europeans no ill will. But he has quickly learned to view them with the attitude...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 3, 2009

Platter of the day: Flash Sushi

LONDON — Nyotaimori — aka "female body arrangement" aka "naked sushi," in which the food is eaten from the nude body of a beautiful woman — is as much legend as fact in Japan (see accompanying article). But that hasn't stopped the Western imagination from seizing upon it as supposed shorthand for...
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2009

Liberal ticket to utopia unlikely

Regarding Charles G. Wilt's Nov. 19 letter, "Conservatives had their chance": As an American commenting on Japanese politics, I don't pretend to know much about this subject, but I do know this: I agree that President Barack Obama has done his country a service by mentioning those who suffered from the...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 28, 2009

The problem of loanwords in Japan, and returning them

Most people agree that the borrowing of English words into the Japanese language has gone too far. The Japanese complain that they can't understand the constant barrage of new katakana words that enter the lexicon, and foreigners complain they can't understand the "English" meanings once they've been...

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