Search - 2012

 
 
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Apr 1, 2013

Have U.S. political parties lost their purpose?

The Democrats and Republicans may be worlds apart on most things, but at their headquarters just two blocks away from each other on Capitol Hill, each is confronting the same question: Have political parties lost their purpose?
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Mar 30, 2013

Defending champion Giants usher in new season with victory over Carp

Ryota Wakiya's two-run single in the seventh inning gives the Yomiuri Giants a season-opening win over the Hiroshima Carp.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2013

Signs indicate the U.S. economy is strengthening

Traditional economic labels lose their meaning for many Americans when they're told that the U.S. economy has been in a recovery since mid-2009.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
Mar 18, 2013

Dutch prospect Profar aiming to prolong WBC fairy tale

Depending on whom you ask, Jurickson Profar, an infielder in the Texas Rangers' system, is either the best middle infield prospect in baseball, or simply the best prospect in baseball.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Mar 5, 2013

Child's quibble with U.S. 'poverty superpower' propaganda unravels a sobering story about insular Japan

Last November, a reader in Hokkaido named Stephanie sent me an article read in Japan's elementary schools. Featured in a sixth-grader magazine called Chagurin (from "child agricultural green") dated December 2012, it was titled "Children of America, the Poverty Superpower" (hinkon taikoku Amerika no...
EDITORIALS
Mar 4, 2013

Tourism in Japan and the world

Japan remains an untapped tourist destination, although it saw international tourism revenue rise 37 percent in 2012, higher than most nations.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2013

Ballast for Australia-India relations

As long as India focuses on consolidating national aspirations, and not on developing global governance norms, it will remain an incomplete power.
EDITORIALS
Feb 27, 2013

Making sense of cosmic coincidences

Two extraterrestrial objects intruded into the presumed order of our daily lives this month, one sideswiping the planet, the other impacting in Russia.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 21, 2013

The nations that make it easier for bands to leap overseas

At the end of last November, a flock of Canadians descended on concert venue Duo Music Exchange in Tokyo's bustling Shibuya district. It wasn't an attack of any sort; the Canuck invasion was only peppered with spirited calls to "Clap with us!"
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 2013

Stopping the economy's slide

The reported decrease in Japan's real GDP for October-December, compared with the previous quarter, marks the third consecutive quarterly decline.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 10, 2013

Gold rush: Japan Inc. flocks to Myanmar

Political reforms are happening because the military/political leaders wanted to end their nation's isolation and benefit from having a more prosperous economy.
EDITORIALS
Feb 7, 2013

Smaller pieces of the pie

The Abe administration is slicing ¥390 billion off last year's budget for central government grants to local governments, and calling for lower wages.
EDITORIALS
Feb 4, 2013

Suicide rate in decline

The annual number of suicides in Japan has fallen below the 30,000 level for the first time in 15 years, but suicide-prevention measures should not be slackened.
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Feb 3, 2013

Japan's suicide statistics don't tell the real story

According to the National Police Agency (NPA), Japan's annual total of suicides dipped below 30,000 people for the first time in 15 years in 2012 — to 27,766. While the fall is great news, part of me wonders: Has there really been a drop in suicides or should we look at it as a drop in homicides?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Feb 1, 2013

Sales surge for men's fashion magazines

In a sluggish publishing market, men's fashion mags stay in style.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jan 31, 2013

Diamond cries 'murder' on the dancefloor

In its Jan. 12 edition, the Japanese business magazine Diamond Weekly decided to ring in the new year with a 10-page feature titled, "Who's Killing Music?" It was the topic of much discussion and reaction in the music business, and the article even made the agenda during a meeting of the Japanese music...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 31, 2013

Hidden truths laid bare in the details of realism

With a population of around 35 million, Greater Tokyo is the ultimate "modernist" conurbation; a vast megacity, where something as old-fashioned as realist art might seem out-of-date and out-of-place. Maybe so, but on the metropolis' western and eastern extremities stand two museums that, each in their...
BASEBALL / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 28, 2013

Buffaloes need pitchers to succeed in search for redemption

Tomoya Yagi will be attempting to revive his career when the 2013 NPB season begins. So will Shun Tono, Takahiro Mahara, and Kei Igawa.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 28, 2013

GOP pragmatists in decline

The trio of Southern gentlemen came to the Senate together in 2003, the leading edge of a renegade Republican class set on shaking up the chamber's staid ways and aggressively promoting the Bush administration's conservative agenda.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 23, 2013

Alabama Shakes tap the roots of Southern blues-rock

Here's a question: what do Russell Crowe, Robert Plant, Jack White and David Byrne all have in common?
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 20, 2013

Tigers aim for return to respectability after two woeful seasons

The 2013 season will surely be a pivotal one for the Hanshin Tigers and their fans as the team attempts to halt a downward slide that has seen the club finish in the Central League's second division the past two seasons. Hanshin dropped from fourth place in 2011 to fifth last year.
EDITORIALS
Jan 16, 2013

Stimulus package alert

The Abe Cabinet on Friday endorsed an emergency economic stimulus package designed to buoy the sagging economy. It is only second in size to the one adopted after the Lehman Brothers shock in the fall of 2008. Government spending will reach ¥10.3 trillion. If spending by local governments and the private...
EDITORIALS
Jan 15, 2013

Stimulus package alert

The Abe Cabinet on Friday endorsed an emergency economic stimulus package designed to buoy the sagging economy. It is only second in size to the one adopted after the Lehman Brothers shock in the fall of 2008. Government spending will reach ¥10.3 trillion. If spending by local governments and the private...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2013

Japan urged to help build India's infrastructure

India needs to redouble its efforts to develop industrial and urban infrastructure that so far have not caught up with the pace of its economic growth, said Indian scholars taking part in a recent symposium in Tokyo who want Japan to play a key role to support such efforts.
LIFE
Jan 13, 2013

What Japan needs to do

With its economy spluttering, large parts of its northeastern region still devastated by the effects of the mammoth Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 — and releases of radioactive materials that followed — its population shrinking and aging at unprecedented rates and its citizens despairing of...
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Jan 8, 2013

Seven sumo stories to look out for in the year of the snake

1. Baruto — make or break
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jan 8, 2013

Here comes Fred

This year will see the arrival of a formidable new force in the Japanese fashion market. Perhaps best known for being a go-to for Hollywood stars, Fred Segal is a trend-setting California clothing and lifestyle goods retailer, which in its 50-year history had never planned to expand beyond Los Angeles....

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji