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Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2012

Lithuania follows nuclear path

While the meltdown crisis in Fukushima has raised awareness around the world of the dangers of nuclear power, Lithuania, with its limited natural resources, appears to have little choice but to rely on atomic energy to reduce its heavy reliance on natural gas from Russia.
EDITORIALS
Feb 8, 2012

Nation's bullet train blues

The central government has decided to start construction work on three sections of three planned Shinkansen bullet train lines — the Shin Hakodate-Sapporo section of the Hokkaido Shinkansen Line, the Kanazawa-Tsuruga section of the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line and the Isahaya-Nagasaki section of the Kyushu-Nagasaki...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 5, 2012

Facts, facts and more facts: 'Education' in Japan now only befits the past

Last week in Counterpoint I wrote about the three deep gaps crisscrossing this country, turning it into a kakusa shakai (society of disparities). These rifts, amply recognized today among the populace and in the media, are: the income, or wealth, gap; the goal gap; and the education gap.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2012

Back in Russia: peeling, meeting and shopping

In mid-December, while trying to understand what was happening in Russia, I checked Twitter and found a tweet that somehow signified everything.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2012

NRC briefed NISA on contingencies; Tepco in dark

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency in 2006 and 2008 received briefings from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on its contingency guideline for handling nuclear plants in case of a terrorist attack, which may have included detailed procedures to lower reactor pressure to avoid explosions, an...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 22, 2012

Changing self and systems for a leaner and greener Japan

Year in, year out, it never ceases to amaze me what a difference a day makes.
EDITORIALS
Jan 16, 2012

Russia as a WTO member

A ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization in mid-December unanimously approved Russia's request to join the world trade body. It also approved Samoa's and Montenegro's entry. It took 18 years for Russia to become a WTO member.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2011

Exchange-rate delusion distracts America from need to restore productivity, trade links

If one looks at the trade patterns of the global economy's two biggest players, two facts leap out:
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 25, 2011

Time for Japan to realize it really is the canary in the mine

This Christmas Day column is a book review, but it is also a wish and a prayer.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 25, 2011

When will the Japanese media stop avoiding antinuke sentiment?

On Dec. 15, freelance journalist Tomohiko Suzuki held a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan about his new book, "Yakuza and Nuclear Power," which describes Suzuki's stint as a worker on cleanup detail at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear reactor last summer. Though the book...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 7, 2011

Putin afflicted by Brezhnev syndrome

The winner of Sunday's legislative election in Russia was a foregone conclusion: United Russia, organized by Vladimir Putin. Likewise, there is no doubt that Putin himself will win the presidential election due in March 2012. But the public enthusiasm that ratified Putin's rule for a decade has vanished,...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2011

Keeping the eurozone intact

As the economist Mario Monti's new government takes office in Italy, much is at stake — for the country, for Europe and for the global economy.
BUSINESS
Nov 25, 2011

Apple reportedly switching to Sharp for displays, new TV

Apple Inc. is shifting production of iPhone and iPad displays to Sharp Corp. and may introduce a television with screens from the same partner as early as the middle of 2012, Jefferies & Co. said.
BUSINESS
Nov 25, 2011

Suzuki takes VW before arbitration

Suzuki Motor Corp. said Thursday it started arbitration procedures over its partnership with Volkswagen AG as the domestic carmaker seeks to buy back its shares after declaring an end to their 2-year-old cooperation agreement.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 22, 2011

Rock star starts a new 'circle of life' with Yoyogi Village

Squeezed between the two central Tokyo hubs of Shinjuku and Harajuku, Yoyogi is rarely a destination for tourists — more of a two-minute halt that breaks up the journey to somewhere else. But this month, ecological troubadour Takeshi Kobayashi, producer of multi-million-selling rock-band Mr. Children,...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Nov 21, 2011

Primer for decontamination

The potentially lucrative business of decontaminating areas of radioactive substances released from Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station may well go to companies handpicked by a government organization that has long played a leading role in promoting the construction of nuclear...
BUSINESS
Nov 13, 2011

Carmakers back TPP talks decision

The domestic auto industry has thrown its support behind the government's decision to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations in the hope that a free-trade deal will help them counter the impact of the stubbornly strong yen.
COMMENTARY
Oct 19, 2011

Our children's future no longer looks so bright

A specter haunts America: downward mobility. Every generation, we believe, should live better than its predecessor. By and large, Americans still embrace that promise. A Pew survey earlier this year found that 48 percent of respondents felt that their children's living standards would exceed their own....
BUSINESS
Oct 13, 2011

Rise in machinery orders bodes well for recovery

Machinery orders rebounded in August on demand for electrical products, signaling that companies are willing to invest even as global economic growth slows and the yen stays near post-World War II highs.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 9, 2011

Conditions are ripe for the volcano of Japan's betrayed to erupt again

Second of two parts
BUSINESS
Oct 8, 2011

Son mourns as he announces iPhone pricing

Softbank Corp. President Masayoshi Son mourned Friday over the death of a key business partner, Apple founder and former CEO Steve Jobs, on the same day that his company started receiving reservations for the new iPhone 4S.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 2, 2011

Bikes keep the wheels of progress rolling

With the onslaught of super typhoon No. 15 on Sept. 21-22, for the second time in a little over six months Tokyo's public transport network was snarled by a natural disaster. Several hundreds of thousands of hapless commuters found themselves stranded for hours as kitaku nanmin ("refugees" unable to...

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear