Search - travel

 
 
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 10, 2014

Kiev warns pro-Russian separatists of plan to retake territory in east

Ukrainian government forces on Wednesday warned separatists in the eastern town of Donetsk that a plan was now in place to take back the territory they occupy, but defiant rebels reported a steady flow of new recruits who were ready to fight.
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Jul 8, 2014

Sotnikova to headline field at NHK Trophy

The epic 2013-14 season is behind us and it is onward to a new campaign, and in many ways a new era.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2014

Xi's fumbles give Obama's pivot a second chance

Years from now, when the history of Barack Obama's much-maligned 'pivot to Asia' is written, he may owe a debt of gratitude to Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose overbearing ways in the region are giving Obama a second wind.
Japan Times
JAPAN / AT A GLANCE
Jul 7, 2014

Asakusa paints traditional Tokyo in a popular light

As one of Japan's representative tourist destinations, the Asakusa district never ceases to attract people looking for a taste of traditional downtown Tokyo. The 30 million visitors it draws each year are a testament to its popularity.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jul 5, 2014

Entertaining guests with a little horseplay

I had returned from a three-month trip to the Canadian Arctic and was in Vancouver, meeting up with family and friends before returning to Japan.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 5, 2014

Is EU ready to actually change?

After six decades of relentless — if incremental — integration, might the European Union be about to go into reverse?
EDITORIALS
Jul 4, 2014

Watch progress on abduction issue

The government needs to watch North Korea to ensure that it follows through on a pledge to reinvestigate the fate of Japanese nationals kidnapped by North Korean agents, now that Japan has decided to lift some economic sanctions on the country.
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2014

Japan outlines sanctions reward for N. Korea's action on abductions

Japan will lift some of its sanctions on North Korea to reward the progress it has made in setting up an “unprecedented” panel to reinvestigate the abduction issue.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2014

Evacuation plans stir fresh doubts over Japan nuclear restarts

Keen to restart nuclear power plants three years after the Fukushima disaster, authorities may face an additional hurdle in securing approval — coming up with a cogent evacuation plan in the event of new accidents.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 2, 2014

'Nanpu (Riding the Breeze)'

Movies about women who fly off to foreign climes to reboot their lives are a thriving subgenre, though the heroines are mostly from well-off countries, Japan included. Women from the more troubled parts of the world may also cross borders to start new lives, but their motives are less often self-discovery...
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2014

Tokyo launches young volunteer training program ahead of 2020 Games

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has opened applications for a new summer seminar project that will prepare a cohort of young volunteers to act as guides for the growing number of foreign travelers expected to visit the city ahead of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Jul 1, 2014

Gunma's 'Brazil Town' offers a carnival of cuisine

This month A Taste of Home is taking a field trip to Oizumi, Gunma Prefecture. Oizumi, an otherwise ordinary town, is home to roughly 4,000 Brazilians — about one-tenth of the local population. Most of them work in nearby factories (Subaru is a big one). But some of them are working to make life a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 1, 2014

Shokuhin Matsuri aka Foodman cooks up footwork on 'oiss'

"I used to be a video-game nerd," says Takahide Higuchi, the experimental footwork producer also known as Shokuhin Matsuri in Japanese and Foodman in English. "I thought that guys who were popular with girls made music, but I was sort of stubborn and didn't try. Then, in my last year of high school I...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 1, 2014

Fear, suspicion undermine fight against Ebola

When Mohamed Swarray contracted the deadly Ebola disease in June, he was confined to a tented isolation ward at Kenema in eastern Sierra Leone. But he didn't stay there long.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society / FOCUS
Jul 1, 2014

Beijing quietly tightening grip on Hong Kong

Since Britain handed back colonial Hong Kong in 1997, retired primary school teacher and Falun Gong devotee Lau Wai-hing has fully exercised the freedoms China promised this city of 7.2 million.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 1, 2014

Emperor penguin populations to slide as climate change reduces icy breeding grounds: study

Global warming will cut Antarctica's 600,000-strong population of emperor penguins by at least a fifth by 2100 as the sea ice on which they breed becomes less secure, a study said on Sunday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jun 30, 2014

Japan tourism still suffers from a credit card gap

Tourists want two things: to be able to use their smart phones and their credit cards in Japan.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 28, 2014

Forget the world in a peaceful Okinawan island garden

First came the Ishigaki-teien, a mass of soaring limestone rocks, judiciously placed cycads and two lines of highly concentrated fukugi, the closely-matted leaves of the trees traditionally used in Okinawa as typhoon barriers. Owned by the Ishigaki family, who have lived on the island of the same name...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 26, 2014

U.S. Supreme Court ruling protects cellphone privacy

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that police officers usually need a warrant before they can search the cellphone of an arrested suspect, a major decision in favor of privacy rights at a time of increasing concern over government encroachment in digital communications.
Reader Mail
Jun 25, 2014

Duty-free reform off the mark

Regarding the June 18 Kyodo article "Duty-free reform to boost tourism": I feel that this initiative will have little effect on tourist numbers. To Western visitors, Japan is very "foreign"; prospective tourists are nervous at the prospect of a visit. This duty-free initiative is wide of the mark.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2014

World needs to take a dose of realism about Iraq

As imbalances of power, wealth and productivity become magnified in our age, ethnic and religious loyalties as well as notions of honor and dignity have become more seductive than iPhones and elections. Just ask the despots who've lost the monopoly of force in Syria and Iraq.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 21, 2014

Ending Japan's sexism requires men to lean in, too

Ayaka Shiomura's tears show why Shinzo Abe's talk of empowering Japan's women is still more hot air than policy.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Jun 20, 2014

France, Japan have different objectives for FIVB World League encounter

France will look to lock up a trip to the second group finals in Sydney next month when it takes on Japan in the opening match of the fifth round of World League Intercontinental play on Saturday afternoon at Shimadzu Arena.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2014

Tag pushed as an Olympic demo sport

If there is one thing Yasuo and Takao Hazaki feel confident about outdoing any other father-son duo in, it is their intense commitment to the ancient playground game of "onigokko," or team tag.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell