Search - 2005

 
 
LIFE / Digital
Mar 25, 2009

Programmed for combat or for pleasure

While Japan is a technological powerhouse, it is usually a follower and not a pioneer.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 24, 2009

Punishing foreigners, exonerating Japanese

Examine any justice system and patterns emerge. For example, consider how Japan's policing system treats non-Japanese. Zeit Gist has discussed numerous times (July 8, 2008; Feb. 20 and Nov. 13, 2007; May 24, 2005; Jan. 13, 2004; Oct. 7, 2003) how police target and racially profile foreigners under...
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 22, 2009

Oceans awash in toxic seas of plastic

Umbrella handles. Pens. Popsicle sticks. Lots and lots of toothbrushes. These are just a few of the items that make up the approximately 13 million sq. km Eastern Garbage Patch, an immense plastic soup in the Pacific Ocean that starts about 800 km off the coast of California and extends westward. Sucked...
EDITORIALS
Mar 21, 2009

Boost reactors' quake resistance

The Kanazawa District Court in March 2006 ordered Hokuriku Electric Power Co. to shut down the No. 2 reactor at its Shika nuclear power station in Ishikawa Prefecture — the nation's second largest power reactor. The unprecedented ruling said the reactor lacked sufficient earthquake resistance and could...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
Mar 20, 2009

Unheralded Iwakuma makes his international mark at the Classic

SAN DIEGO — Baseball fans around the globe knew about pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka and Yu Darvish before the start of the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2009

Quake-hit town split over reactor restart

Residents of a remote village in Niigata Prefecture must choose between jobs and safety as they weigh a request to restart the world's biggest nuclear plant, shut for more than a year after a deadly earthquake triggered a fire and radiation leaks.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2009

Goldman bids to acquire rest of USJ shares

A Goldman Sachs Group Inc.-led group offered ¥111.2 billion to take over USJ Co., the operator of the Universal Studios Japan theme park that's losing customers as the economy contracts.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 20, 2009

'Valkyrie'

World War II is all over the cinemas these days, with a slew of recent films attempting to go against the grain of received wisdom, focusing on the exceptions, not the rule. Thus we have Jews who fought back fiercely against the Nazis ("Defiance"), Wehrmacht officers who opposed Hitler ("Valkyrie"),...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2009

Bourbons of global finance

Today's International Monetary Fund (and, to a lesser degree, the World Bank) recall Talleyrand's description of France's Bourbon kings: having learned nothing and forgotten nothing. At a time when rich countries like the United States are running deficits of 12 percent of GDP because of the global financial...
EDITORIALS
Mar 18, 2009

A test for Northern Ireland

Terrorists murdered three people in Northern Ireland last week. A decade ago that news would have been commonplace. Today, however, it is a stunning development for a people who have grown accustomed to peace and reconciliation. The remaining elements of a terror movement are trying to fan the flames...
BUSINESS
Mar 18, 2009

Mazda, unable to sell bonds, to seek government bailout

Mazda Motor Corp., burdened with the second-worst credit rating among Japan's carmakers and a 62 percent surge in short-term borrowing this fiscal year, plans to apply for government aid as it consumes cash.
BUSINESS
Mar 17, 2009

Game publishers to Sony: Cut PS3 price or lose out to Nintendo

Sony Corp. is under pressure from video game publishers to cut the price of the PlayStation 3 console or risk seeing more development funds shift to Nintendo Co.'s Wii.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 17, 2009

Found in 'Area 51,' he goes by one name

Pitching greats Daisuke Matsuzaka and Yu Darvish are leading Japan's star-studded squad as national teams battle it out in the United States in the World Baseball Classic.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WEEK 3
Mar 15, 2009

Slow Life ambassador tickets hasty hordes

At a busy crossing in front of Tokyo Station, Bruno Contigiani, president of L'Arte del Vivere con Lentezza (The Art of Slow Living), an organization he founded in his native Italy, approached office workers one after another urging "Yuru yuru, shiawase" ("Go slowly, be happy").

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan