Search - world

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2012

Myth of the U.S. president as master of events

Americans are presidency-addicted. We can't get enough information about our commanders in chief, yet there is a woeful misunderstanding of the office.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 20, 2012

Clean poverty, clean living and love on a shoestring

Okane wa doko ni itteshimattanoka (お金はどこに行ってしまったのか, Where has all the money gone?). Until a few years back, the tone among Japanese business pundits used to go like this — a little humorous and slightly hopeful, almost as if we were all playing kakurenbo (かくれんぼ,...
Reader Mail
Feb 19, 2012

Time to send U.S. forces packing

Regarding the Feb. 14 front-page Kyodo article "Okinawa marines not Iwakuni-bound": Get the U.S. forces out of Japan. World War II ended almost 70 years ago. Japan does not need U.S. forces based there. All the United States is doing is bullying Japan and other countries, using economic sanctions and...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 19, 2012

Japanese in remote locations; drama about dying at home; CM of the week: Kirin

The subject of "Sekai no Hate no Nihonjin" ("Japanese at the Ends of the World"; TBS, Thurs., 7 p.m.) is Japanese people who live in remote areas outside of Japan.
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Feb 19, 2012

Chinese emperor abdicates, Italians to preserve hara-kiri site, Tokyo's population hits 10 million, Japan supports space station

100 YEARS AGOWednesday, Feb. 14, 1912
Reader Mail
Feb 19, 2012

Enough government lip service

I agree with Patricia Yarrow's Feb. 12 letter, "Shaky will to reduce smoking" — about lowering cigarette consumption in Japan, which has an obscenely high smoking rate, especially among men.
Reader Mail
Feb 19, 2012

Explaining things to Okinawans

I write in response to a Japanese newspaper's editorial view that the outcome of last Sunday's Ginowan mayoral election in Okinawa Prefecture should serve as a springboard to ensure that U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma is relocated to the Henoko district of Nago in the same prefecture.
EDITORIALS
Feb 19, 2012

Costly price of expensive education

A recent report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has found a few positives in Japan's educational situation. Japan has generally improved its educational conditions relative to other OECD countries, but the costs of education remain extremely high with little financial...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Feb 19, 2012

Setoyama says team play has Kyoto on pace for Final Four

The Japan Times features periodic interviews with players in the bj-league. Kyosuke Setoyama of the Kyoto Hannaryz is the subject of this week's profile.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Feb 19, 2012

An ode to Japan's magnificent Sika Deer

Deep powdery snow is to a Sika Deer what a stage covered with fluffy feather pillows would be to a top-ranking ballerina. Both lead to loss of grace and floundering, for slim-footed deer and ballerina alike.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 18, 2012

Arsenal paying the price for inaction

Dennis Bergkamp claimed in the buildup to Arsenal's Champions League tie against AC Milan that it was predictable, lacked characters and a winning mentality.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 18, 2012

Tireless volunteer Fukuda makes a difference in the lives she touches

Julie Fukuda, 75, is a giver — not financially, but physically — who has tirelessly volunteered for various organizations in her community for nearly 50 years in Japan.
BASKETBALL
Feb 18, 2012

Search on for new coach after JBA drops Wisman

After less than two years in charge, Thomas Wisman's ouster on Wednesday by the Japan Basketball Association was expected by those who pay attention.
BUSINESS
Feb 18, 2012

ANA looking to cut ¥100 billion in costs, expand international services

All Nippon Airways Co. plans to slash costs by ¥100 billion and expand international flights as it gears up for rising competition at home.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2012

America's pivot to Asia is not just about countering China

"All right China, come out with your hands up; we've got you surrounded!"
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2012

Behind Obama's Mideast policy of capitulation

No sooner did U.S. President Barack Obama welcome home American troops from Iraq and laud that country's stability and democracy than an unprecedented wave of violence — across Baghdad and elsewhere — revealed the severity of Iraq's political crisis. Is that crisis an unfortunate exception or, rather,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 17, 2012

'In Time' / 'Carnage'

Try to imagine a future where the super-rich live in gated, patrolled fortress-communities, completely isolated from the short, brutish lives of the underclass who must toil or die, just a paycheck away from having their life-force literally terminated by the powers that be. No, it's not America under...
Reader Mail
Feb 16, 2012

Let consumers rule on smoking

Regarding Patricia Yarrow's Feb. 12 letter, "Shaky will to reduce smoking": Coffeehouses and restaurants are private property. It is up to the business owner to determine what kind of environment attracts the greatest number of customers. Even if nonsmokers are a majority in the population, they are...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 16, 2012

The photographic cartographer

Tomoki Imai remembers well the turning point in his life when he decided to become a professional photographer. Already an aspiring film director at the Tokyo University of the Arts, the Hiroshima-native was turned onto the raw and trigger-happy cityscape and portrait snapshots of self-styled photo "genius"...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 16, 2012

The photographic cartographer

Tomoki Imai remembers well the turning point in his life when he decided to become a professional photographer. Already an aspiring film director at the Tokyo University of the Arts, the Hiroshima-native was turned onto the raw and trigger-happy cityscape and portrait snapshots of self-styled photo "genius"...
Reader Mail
Feb 16, 2012

A worrisome Facebook future

Regarding Kevin Rafferty's Feb. 11 article, "Facebook moves from the virtual world to the real one": Good article. While Facebook has done some good, such as participating in the Arab Spring and the like, for others it is an addiction whose social value is questionable.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan