Search - international-reports

 
 
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 22, 2010

Rakuten's English- only policy endures close media scrutiny

Learn to speak English, or else!
EDITORIALS
Aug 13, 2010

WikiLeaks makes a splash

Mr. Julian Assange is a child of the Internet age. A former hacker and software programmer, he helped found WikiLeaks in 2006, a Web site that publishes otherwise unavailable documents provided by anonymous sources. It calls itself "an uncensorable system for untraceable mass document leaking." WikiLeaks...
COMMENTARY
Jul 21, 2010

Don't underestimate ASEM

One of the less-noticed initiatives in the world is the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), designed to foster closer cooperation between the old economic giants of Europe and the new economic powers of Asia — the two diverse but culturally rich continents that together represent half of the world's GDP and...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 28, 2010

Is the Atsugi tragedy finally drawing to a close?

During the 18 years I have been writing this column, few stories have haunted me as much as that about the Japanese-owned incinerator that, for more than a decade, fumigated the U.S. Naval Air Facility at Atsugi in the Kanagawa Prefecture cities of Yamato and Ayase.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2010

No. 1 automaker pitching trust amid the repercussions of recall

As the impact of Toyota Motor Corp.'s massive vehicle recalls to make free repairs unfolds on the world's automobile markets, at issue are not only the irregularities found with the Toyota models concerned but also the company's very systems for handling complaints and managing crises. Consumers are...
JAPAN / Q&A
Jan 20, 2010

Mileage members fret over their points earned on JAL, credit cards

With Japan Airlines filing for bankruptcy and undergoing court-led rehabilitation, consumers are worried about how this may affect their mileage points and points they have saved by using JAL credit cards.
COMMENTARY
Dec 25, 2009

Ever-widening pay gaps

LONDON — According to recent reports, chief executives of top British companies are now paid 81 times more than the average British worker. The pay gap has nearly doubled in the past decade. There is no justification for this trend.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 3, 2009

Marriage ever-changing institution

Marriage may be an institution, but it's permutations have run the gamut from polygamy, a practice that dates to ancient times but is still allowed in certain areas, to the recent legalization in some places of same-sex partnerships, with everything in between.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2009

Move reveals Aso's lack of power

Prime Minister Taro Aso's decision to bolster his depleted Cabinet appeared to be strategy as usual and his apparent inability to change the Liberal Democratic Party leadership is a sign party bigwigs still hold sway, but neither may matter in the looming general election, pundits said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2009

BAE pitching Typhoon as F-22 eludes

Japan should consider adopting the Eurofighter Typhoon as its next mainstay fighter jet even if the U.S. lifts its ban on exporting the stealthy F-22 Raptor, representatives of a U.K.-based defense and aerospace company said Thursday in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Mar 10, 2009

Warming up for the bottom line on climate

SINGAPORE — Researchers from around the world meet in Denmark this week to discuss the latest scientific findings on climate change, following recent warnings that the severity of global warming this century will be much worse than previously expected and that changes to the climate will be difficult...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2008

Peddling influence with Fiji

SYDNEY — From dazzling the world at the Beijing Olympic Games, China now appears to be turning its attention to the South Pacific. Its chosen beachhead to begin island- hopping is Fiji.
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Aug 11, 2008

Beijing squeezed by Olympic ideals, populist distortions

When the Olympic games were awarded to Beijing in 2001, more than a few questions were raised about the host country. It was clear from the start that China was not just making a bid to host a sporting event — it was claiming a place in the developed world.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 7, 2008

Stop criticizing China, it has come so far

BEIJING — When I was at school, sports lessons included an exercise where we threw hand grenades (made from wood topped with metal to resemble the real thing) against a wall over which a red slogan had been stretched offering the reason for such a militaristic pastime: "Exercise our bodies and protect...
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Nov 28, 2007

Hakuho notches another as the ozeki raise eyebrows

This year's Kyushu Basho, which ended Sunday, saw Hakuho stride through the muck and grime to claim the fifth title of his career with a 12-win, 3-loss record. When push came to shove, his class shined through. Hakuho, who is looking more and more like the second coming of the great yokozuna Futabayama,...
EDITORIALS
Nov 20, 2007

A symbolic summit

The trip had to be made. It is traditional for a Japanese prime minister to make his first overseas trip to the United States, to affirm relations with the country's only ally. With reports of tensions growing in the bilateral security relationship, Mr. Yasuo Fukuda's visit to Washington last week took...
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2007

Ozawa offers to resign

Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa offered his resignation Sunday as head of the biggest opposition force over the rift caused by his controversial handling of a proposal for a grand coalition with the ruling bloc.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 26, 2007

Turning waste into rich resources

Visit Calcutta, even briefly, and you soon learn the rules of the road — or rather that there aren't many, if any. You will also meet some of the planet's most resourceful people, from street children to scientists who are masters of making very little go a long way.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 18, 2007

Looking on the bright side

Last in a two-part series
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 22, 2007

Indian schools make a mark

Every day at the Global Indian International School (GIIS) in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward starts with yoga. All the students -- from kindergarteners to 14-year-old ninth-graders -- have a 20-minute session in their classrooms. The focus is on breathing, which it's thought helps them to relax and concentrate...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 11, 2007

Female foreigners are OK in Japan, so long as they're not Asian

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's refusal to apologize anew for Japan's sex-slave policy during World War II has a different meaning in Japan than it does abroad. The issue has come around again because the U.S. Congress is considering a resolution to demand that Japan clearly accept responsibility for the...

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami