Search - (2006-01-27)

 
 
COMMENTARY
Apr 22, 2009

Nuclear disarmament: too much, too soon?

There is no country on Earth more committed to global nuclear disarmament than Japan. Ever since experiencing firsthand the horrors of nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese government and people have been steadfast in calling for the total elimination of nuclear weapons from the planet....
EDITORIALS
Apr 21, 2009

Ensure safety of nuclear power

The white papers issued by the Japan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) and the Japan Nuclear Safety Commission (JNSC) highlight the difficult situation faced by Japan's nuclear power industry. The JAEC's 2008 white paper says that facility utilization rates at Japan's nuclear power plants dropped to a...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 21, 2009

Kaneko's streak gives Fighters double vision

If Nippon Professional Baseball is serious about speeding up games this season, it should stop Makoto Kaneko from batting.
EDITORIALS
Apr 19, 2009

Landmark molestation case

In a 3-2 decision, the Supreme Court on April 14 ruled that a university professor was innocent of the charge that he had molested a high school girl in a packed train, overturning lower court rulings that had found the professor guilty and sentenced him to a 22-month prison term. The top court's Third...
ENVIRONMENT / WEEK 3
Apr 19, 2009

Picking up good vibrations

The vibrations of every passing vehicle are now being turned into electricity by a venture company whose technology is powering one of 108 LED (light-emitting diode) lights on the Goshiki Zakura Ohashi bridge over the Arakawa River in Tokyo's downtown Adachi Ward — and whose pioneering work may one...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Apr 19, 2009

Potting the pink in Saitama

Thumbing through any of the dozen Tokyo sex-service recruit magazines reveals ads for shops, indexed by region, seeking young ladies to serve in various fuzoku (sex-related) clubs and bars.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Apr 19, 2009

A plea to address pro basketball's future in Japan

Dear Prime Minister Aso,
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 18, 2009

Wii sales drop off 17% as mania cools in U.S.

U.S. sales of Nintendo Co.'s Wii video-game console fell 17 percent in March, the first monthly drop since January 2008, according to researcher NPD Group Inc.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 17, 2009

'Nisesatsu'

Counterfeiting is one of those movie crimes that, by the laws of script writing, is doomed to fail, like the overelaborate heists that end with the thieves either dead or captured and their loot billowing up in clouds of green from an open briefcase.
EDITORIALS
Apr 16, 2009

A message for North Korea

The 15-member United National Security Council has unanimously adopted a presidential statement condemning the April 5 rocket launch by North Korea, allegedly to place a communication satellite in orbit. The statement said that the launch is "in contravention of Security Council resolution 1718." The...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2009

Study of iPS cells draws nearer to finding cures

Jason Burnett and his 10-year-old son, Andrew, both born with a genetic defect, have been recruited into an experiment designed to transform bits of their skin into stem cells that may someday hold the key to a cure.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 16, 2009

Russia tax puts North America logs back in favor

Japan's lumber industry, which imports 80 percent of its supplies, may buy more timber from the United States, Canada and New Zealand after an increase in export taxes slashed Russian shipments by 55 percent.
EDITORIALS
Apr 15, 2009

Humiliation in Thailand

Who should be more embarrassed after the cancellation of the ASEAN summit that was to have been held last weekend in Pattaya, Thailand: Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as whole? Mr. Abhisit is certainly in the hot seat after insisting that the summit...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2009

Cheap jeans fitting well in recession

Nobody can ever have too many pairs of jeans, and thus the philosophy of GOV Retailing is to make them available on the cheap — a notion that is paying off for the new g.u. chain.
COMMENTARY
Apr 14, 2009

Beyond the gasoline era

Mitsubishi Motors will start selling its new battery-powered car dubbed "iMiEV" in Japan this coming July while Nissan Motor plans to follow suit next year. Toyota Motor, meanwhile, says it will launch a plug-in hybrid vehicle sometime in the "early 2010s." I agree with Nissan President Carlos Ghosn,...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Apr 14, 2009

Seeking permanence; ignoring Easter

Easter absence Brenda and family wonder why Easter has been ignored by Japanese commercial interests.
Reader Mail
Apr 12, 2009

Bowlegs revisited

In 2008, I traveled south in Japan to Matsuyama and its surroundings. Bowleggedness was so prevalent among women down there that we took photos of many of them, intrigued by why it should be so. We discussed it almost daily and started to notice more the occasional young lady with straight legs. By...
EDITORIALS
Apr 11, 2009

Restricting online drug sales

The health and welfare ministry has plans to prohibit in principle mail-order and Internet sales of some drugs from June 1. Such sales reportedly totaled about ¥80 billion in 2007. It is true that using these methods to sell drugs can pose safety issues. On the other hand, some people benefit from mail-order...
BUSINESS
Apr 11, 2009

Aso unveils record stimulus

To combat the deepening economic crisis, Prime Minister Taro Aso on Friday unveiled an additional stimulus package that calls for record actual spending of ¥15.4 trillion, or 3 percent of the country's gross domestic product.
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2009

Nintendo aims to turn DS device into learning tool, guide

Nintendo Co. said Thursday it will soon introduce a service that teachers can use to send quizzes and other school assignments from their personal computers to students who have the game giant's DS hand-held console.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 10, 2009

Bach leads Tokyo classical festival

"I told myself to combine the study of commerce and my passion for music," says French producer Rene Martin, who has built on those foundations to pursue his vision of democratizing classical music through the annual spectacular he's named La Folle Journee (Days of Enthusiasm).
JAPAN / Q&A
Apr 10, 2009

What did Japan's response to the North's rocket prove?

When North Korea sent what it claims was a rocket carrying a satellite over the Tohoku region Sunday, the Self-Defense Forces units deployed to possibly intercept it held their fire because the craft apparently posed no threat to Japan's territory.

Longform

A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped