Search - world

 
 
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 7, 2013

The aidoru industry seeks big bucks in numbers

They say that Japan is suffering from a major shōshika (少子化, plummeting birth rate) syndrome, but a cursory glance at the entertainment industry reveals a singular fact: The young people of this country are well and thriving, and huddled together in mass aidoru gurūpu (アイドルグループ,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2013

Indo-Pakistan divide cast as foil in Afghanistan

It's happening again. As the West prepares to leave Afghanistan, it is blaming India-Pakistan hostility for the the difficulty in making peace with the Taliban.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jul 7, 2013

Explosive costs hamper U.S. effort to dispose of nuclear arms

Costs can explode like fireworks when it comes to disposing of nuclear weapons.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 7, 2013

Japan's maverick entrepreneurs offer Abe lessons in growth

There's no shortage of pundits eager to tell Shinzo Abe how to shake up Japan's economy. Instead of looking to academics for advice, though, the prime minister should get into the trenches with some of the nation's more unconventional corporate heads.
BUSINESS
Jul 7, 2013

Messaging program WeChat leads Chinese firm's global Internet foray

With Web giants such as Facebook and Twitter blocked by the government here, an entire ecosystem of home-grown companies has flourished with names that are unfamiliar to many outside China.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 6, 2013

Letting opportunity slip away

So why hasn't March 11, 2011, been the game-changer that many anticipated? Richard Samuels' masterful account of Japan's policy responses to its greatest crisis since World War II explains why continuity has trumped change. But maybe, just maybe, it hasn't, as he also reminds us that the consequences are still unfolding.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Jul 6, 2013

Equal-opportunity infidelity comes to Japan

As a Japanese saying puts it: Suezen kuwanu wa otoko no haji (It is shame for a man not to eat a feast placed before him).
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 6, 2013

Pity the generation that can't retire before 80

"What if my wife and I die? What if we get dementia? How will our son live?"
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2013

America's revolutionary declaration of dissent

One cause of the growing American fury in this political age is that a large, distant federal establishment is not terribly well-suited to give ear to ordinary dissent.
Reader Mail
Jul 6, 2013

Luxury train a new beginning

The June 23 editorial "All aboard the luxury train" conjured up the allure of travel by train in Japan. It is true that Japan's train system is the envy of the world and has been symbolized by the Shinkansen with its safety, punctuality and speed. But I believe that the bullet train system lacks a certain...
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jul 6, 2013

U.S. has spotty record on aid cuts after coups

The Foreign Assistance Act, a U.S. law first enacted in 1961, is pretty clear: It says, in Section 508, that the United States must cut aid to any country "whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree."
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 6, 2013

Snowden assisted by WikiLeaks' 'gatekeeper'

He didn't have the space for it, but Gavin MacFadyen needed more bodies. The American running a British think tank for investigative journalism had eight employees crammed into a 4.5-by-3.5-meter office in east-central London, trying to crack a story on wrongdoing at a multinational company.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jul 6, 2013

'Price tag' vandalism attacks on Muslim settlements in Israel on the rise

Ibrahim Hamza was up before first light. When he went out to his truck, he thought it was a simple flat tire. But it didn't take long for Hamza, from one of the founding Muslim families who settled this village west of Jerusalem centuries ago, to realize the tires of 28 vehicles on his street had been...
JAPAN / Politics / GAME OF NUMBERS
Jul 5, 2013

Poll may see end to divided Diet but what follows may be worrisome

Unlike the past two House of Councilors elections, in 2007 and 2010, that saw opposition forces win big against the ruling parties, this time around they look to take the hit.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 5, 2013

Japan's national obsession with the color pink

If the cherry blossom is Japan's unofficial national flower, then it should be no surprise that pink is Japan's de facto favorite color. Yet I still have a hard time with this national obsession with the color pink.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 5, 2013

'Wind farms are not the answer to our problems'

Why do you think scientists and politicians have been slow and reluctant to confront population growth? It might be useful to first distinguish between growth and behavior. The problem is less the current number of us in itself (yet) but more the way the majority of the 7 billion of us live and consume....
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 5, 2013

Graca Machel: the impressive face of a new Africa

Shakespeare, in one of Nelson Mandela's favorite lines, now strangely apposite, says that "the valiant never taste of death but once." As the world waits for Mandela to make his final rendezvous with history, one woman — his third wife — who has been at his bedside throughout his illness, and now...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jul 5, 2013

Stressing on stress

The Internet is ablaze with lists suggesting ways to fight back against the deadliest foe of modern man — stress.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 5, 2013

Honda hopes diesel dents Suzuki India lead

Honda Motor Co. may have cracked the formula for success in India: a diesel-powered compact sedan.
Events / KANSAI: WHO & WHAT
Jul 5, 2013

Free movie at ethnology museum in Suita

The National Museum of Ethnology in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, will have a free screening July 13 of a film worked on by people from Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Serbia and Slovenia.
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Jul 4, 2013

Will Hakuho prove the party-pooper in Kisenosato's quest?

Hakuho, sumo's best grand champion in the past 25 years, will be aiming to win his fourth Nagoya Basho since being promoted to the top rank in 2007, and his 26th overall. Some would say this will be the toughest basho he has faced as a yokozuna.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2013

'A Late Quartet (25-nenme no Gengakushijuso)'

The astonishing thing about "A Late Quartet" is that Woody Allen didn't make it. It has the Allen look — set in a resplendent and privileged Manhattan, with lingering shots of apartment interiors; the Allen-like cast — consisting of some of the most talented actors in American cinema playing members...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 2013

The cyber highway potholes

There is no going back to the pre-Internet era. So we must work to ensure that freedom of information is not significantly undermined by cyber censorship.
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Jul 4, 2013

'The Deep' to feature ocean's oddities

While some companies have started to offer trips to the Moon, there is still more to be discovered hidden on our own planet.
JAPAN / Politics / GAME OF NUMBERS
Jul 4, 2013

Abe camp faces little true opposition, also little mandate

As one expert has it, the July 21 Upper House poll looks to be a cakewalk for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling bloc.

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