Search - people

 
 
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 21, 2014

Syria warns United Nations: Aid delivery without consent is an attack

Syria's government warned the U.N. Security Council that delivering humanitarian aid across its borders into rebel-held areas without its consent would amount to an attack, suggesting it would have the right to retaliate against convoys.
Reader Mail
Jun 18, 2014

Many elderly up against the wall

These days the aging society is becoming a big problem in Japan. It is difficult for family members to care for elderly people by themselves, and family members need knowledge of nursing. Many elderly people and their families are suffering. A good way to improve the situation is for the government to...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2014

Polarization in U.S. keeps getting exaggerated

A new study on political polarization in the U.S., conducted by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press, uses large sample sizes and impressive graphics, but its interpretation is exaggerated.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 14, 2014

Happy endings: foreigners working in Japan's film industry

Film is supposed to be a universal language, but the film business in any given country is usually run by the locals for the locals. The one great exception is Hollywood, which has been making films for the world since the silent days and is open to talent, preferably English speaking, from around the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 14, 2014

The hormone behind man's best friend

The other day I saw a picture of a dead dog on Twitter. Gross, right? Not at all, for this wasn't just any old dog: This was Hachiko, perhaps the most famous dog in the world, and certainly the most famous in Japan.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 12, 2014

Al-Qaida splinter group advances in Iraq, takes Saddam's hometown

Sunni rebels from an al-Qaida splinter group overran the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Wednesday and closed in on the biggest oil refinery in the country, making further gains in their rapid military advance against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.
EDITORIALS
Jun 9, 2014

Creeping Orwellian angst

Legislative attempts to criminalize the act of 'conspiracy' to commit some crimes as well as other government moves are enough to cause anxiety that Japan may be inching toward an Orwellian society.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2014

A memory of Tiananmen

A Tokyo-based writer who was in Beijing 25 years ago recounts the night the army moved into Tiananmen Square and the fates suffered by close friends.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jun 4, 2014

Humanize the dry debate about immigration

Lost in the immigration narrative in Japan is the idea that when we import labor, we import people. With lives. And needs. And voices to be heard.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 4, 2014

Wary China intensifies censorship and policing as Tiananmen anniversary arrives

Twenty-five years ago, Wang Nan took his camera and headed out to Beijing's Tiananmen Square, where tens of thousands of people had gathered calling for democratic reforms. The 19-year-old told a friend he wanted to record history.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2014

The call to raise tobacco taxes and save lives

If the government of Japan increased the amount of excise tax on cigarette packs by 50 percent (to 68 percent of the final retail price), there would be 1.5 million fewer smokers and 330,000 smoking-attributable deaths would be averted.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
May 31, 2014

Diamonds are suddenly everybody's best friend

Dealers are flocking to Japan to buy up all those gems 'sleeping' in people's dresser drawers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 30, 2014

Photo series charts the family unit in changing Japan

Family photos in Japan, especially ones taken for formal occasions such as shichi-go-san (seven-five-three) ceremonies, are often as stiffly posed as 19th-century tintypes, with Mom, Dad and Junior never cracking a smile.
COMMENTARY
May 27, 2014

Caught between guns and disgust in east Ukraine

Throughout eastern Ukraine, ordinary Ukrainians are caught between the armed thugs of 'The Donetsk Criminal Republic,' a threatening Ukrainian military and a terminally corrupt state. Most have no desire to join Russia, but feel little enthusiasm for the new post-revolutionary order.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
May 26, 2014

Letters: Kikokushijo encounter trouble upon re-entry

Japanese returnees and others discuss the trials and tribulations facing those educated abroad if and when they attempt to settle back in Japan.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 25, 2014

Al Shabab attacks Somali parliament, killing at least 10

Al-Shabab militants stormed Somalia's parliament on Saturday, killing at least 10 security officers in a bomb and gun assault that the United States condemned as a "heinous act of terrorism."
EDITORIALS
May 24, 2014

Stop the bullying of LGBT students

A recent survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the Kanto area finds that 70 percent were bullied during their school years. Learning respect and tolerance for individual differences should start earlier.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 24, 2014

Kiev pins hopes on oligarch's fighters in battle against eastern separatists

Ukrainian self-defense fighters who clashed with armed pro-Russian separatists on Friday are at the forefront of Kiev's efforts to prevent the country from splitting.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 23, 2014

Farm life leads to healthy business for Dutch expat

Outdoorsy expatriate lured by the beauty of Hokkaido sets up in Niseko. Sound familiar?
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 21, 2014

North Korea building disaster reveals regime vulnerability

It may have taken the collapse of an apartment block in an exclusive district of the North Korean capital to reveal the Achilles' heel of young leader Kim Jong Un's secretive regime.
JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
May 18, 2014

Success of 'Abenomics' hinges on immigration policy

Foreign investment funds generally shun countries with shrinking populations, and this means “Abenomics” can't succeed unless Japan opens its door to more foreigners, an immigration expert warns.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
May 18, 2014

Japan home electronics makers play dumb on smart TVs

One company dominates Japan's smart TV market, and it isn't Japanese.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 16, 2014

Couple care for Tama cats cast off by society

Back in 1990, while taking a stroll along the Tama River, photographer Osamu Konishi came upon a surreal scene: dozens of cats sitting amicably and quietly on the branches of a tree, almost like apples waiting to be picked, as well as on the ground below.
LIFE / Digital
May 16, 2014

Trying to be anonymous on the Internet can attract more attention

When searching for an adjective to describe our comprehensively surveilled networked world — the one bookmarked by the NSA at one end and by Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Co. at the other — "Orwellian" is the word that people generally reach for.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 15, 2014

Ukraine begins peace talks without separatists

European-backed peace talks on ending Ukraine's crisis began with little promise Wednesday when pro-Russian insurgents — who weren't even invited to the session — demanded that the Kiev government recognize their sovereignty.
COMMENTARY / World
May 13, 2014

Lessons to be learned from Modi's popularity

One reason that 63-year-old Narendra Modi, the likely winner in India's parliamentary election, inspires fear in Delhi is that he did not go to the best Indian schools, eats simple food and is otherwise unlike many members of the political and bureaucratic elite.
COMMENTARY / World
May 12, 2014

It's a Thai thing: ditching the new for the old

More than almost any other political crisis on the face of the earth today, it is the crisis in Thailand that saddens American columnist Tom Plate.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 11, 2014

East Ukraine referendum raises fears of dismemberment

Rebels pressed ahead with a referendum on self-rule in east Ukraine on Sunday and fighting flared anew in a conflict that has raised fears of civil war and pitched Russia and the West into their worst crisis since the Cold War.
COMMENTARY / World
May 11, 2014

Trouble with revoking citizenship extralegally

In the absence of global citizenship, it may be best for the U.K. government to retain the principle that citizenship is not to be revoked without a judicial hearing.

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