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LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Sep 7, 2011

With the rise of smartphones, Nintendo faces a grim future

There was a time when Nintendo could do no wrong, when everything the Kyoto-based game maker touched turned to gold. That time is over — and has been for some time. However, that doesn't mean you should count them out.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 5, 2011

Japan in a European club?

Hitherto unknown and self-styled "loach" Yoshihiko Noda must learn to swim in an ocean of problems as Japan's new prime minister of the year. He has more than a plateful of domestic issues, but he should also realize, as his predecessors forgot, that Japan needs to re-engage the world if it is to find...
EDITORIALS
Sep 5, 2011

Working holiday anniversary

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the working holiday system in Japan. The program has enabled 20,000 young Japanese a year to live and work abroad, gaining valuable experience and broadening their point of view, but that number should be more. The re-energized attitudes and global outlooks that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 1, 2011

Sachiko Hara makes her mark in Germany

Tokyo-born Sachiko Hara, 46, was the apple of her ordinary, working-parents' eye. She was encouraged to get a degree in German studies from the prestigious Sophia University, and after that it seemed some sort of high-flying career was hers for the taking.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Aug 31, 2011

Discount strategies: Every dog, and man, has his day

The service industry is finally targeting guys.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2011

Noda a grappler, wears many hats

Depending on who you ask, Yoshihiko Noda is a fiscal policy expert, a conservative who believes the Class-A war criminals were not in fact so, or the ailing Democratic Party of Japan's last hope to regain the public's trust.
COMMENTARY
Aug 31, 2011

Time for U.S. to say yes to Canadian oil sands

When it comes to energy, America is lucky to be next to Canada, whose proven oil reserves are estimated by Oil and Gas Journal at 175 billion barrels.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2011

'Protection racket' for Net domain names

The Internet's domain-name system (DNS) was formalized in the late 1990s by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). I was ICANN's founding chairman, and we more or less followed the rules of trademarks, with an overlay of "first come, first served."
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2011

Revolution is far from over for self-respecting Russians

A glorious revolution swept through Russia 20 years ago. Glorious, because it was almost completely nonviolent and because no one who was there will ever forget the sense of solidarity, camaraderie and even affection people felt for one another — and for the new Russia they so fervently anticipated....
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / BACKSTREET STORIES
Aug 28, 2011

Building excitement in Shirokanedai

Exiting the Nanboku Line at Shirokanedai Station in west-central Tokyo, my sandaled feet immediately start to sizzle. So instead of walking to Meguro's Institute of Nature Study as planned, I bolt down the first shaded slope I find.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2011

The DPJ face of Obama perplexes Japanese voters

The Aug. 5 edition of The Economist caricatured the U.S. president as mimicking Japan's "absentee" Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who seems content to "lead from behind the crowd" and who is at a loss about what to do to end Japan's political and economic paralysis, even as corporations and ordinary people...
COMMENTARY
Aug 24, 2011

America's databook is far too valuable to kill

If you want to know something about America, there are few better places to start than the "Statistical Abstract of the United States." Published annually by the Census Bureau, the Stat Abstract assembles about 1,400 tables describing our national condition. What share of children are immunized against...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 23, 2011

Restoring foreign tourism tall order

Foreign tourist numbers have been plunging since the March 11 quake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in Fukushima Prefecture, and not only for visitors to the disaster zone.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2011

Civics built great but seen slipping on design front

Honda Motor Co.'s reputation for world-class manufacturing may belie a slipping emphasis on design just as the automaker's North American factories are preparing to return to full production.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Aug 22, 2011

Bureaucrats blame Kan for sapping their initiative

For the past several months since the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan, an increasing number of bureaucrats have grown "negligent in their duties" because of what they view as the incompetence of Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2011

Riyadh vs. the Arab Spring

Saudi Arabia is widely perceived as leading the counter-revolution against the Arab Spring uprisings. In reality, the kingdom's response is centered, as its foreign and domestic policy has long been, on "stability." The Saudis don't want anti-Saudi forces, including such enemies as Iran and al-Qaida,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2011

Reformist bureaucrat gets shuffled off to sidelines

When the Democratic Party of Japan won the 2009 election and ousted the Liberal Democratic Party-led government, Shigeaki Koga, a veteran reformist at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, had high hopes that the bureaucracy would finally change for the better.
COMMENTARY
Aug 17, 2011

Britain gropes for solutions

The images of burning buildings and looting of shops that took place between Aug. 5 and 9 in parts of London and other major cities, including Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, have rightly made the English people ashamed. The damage caused has been serious and some families have lost their homes...
BUSINESS
Aug 12, 2011

Credit Suisse to boost Japan equity coverage

Credit Suisse Group AG, the second-biggest Swiss bank, plans to expand Japanese stock coverage by 25 percent this year in a bid to catch up with foreign rivals.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2011

Nuclear power debate heating up

The Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant accident has sparked an unprecedented public debate on the nation's energy policy, and prominent figures are weighing in.
EDITORIALS
Aug 10, 2011

Pension collection rates falling

The premium-collection rate for the basic pension (kokumin nenkin) for fiscal 2010 was 59.3 percent, down from fiscal 2009's 59.98 percent and a record low. The rate has fallen below 60 percent for two consecutive years and has continued to tumble for five straight years.
COMMENTARY
Aug 9, 2011

Threat from the antidemocrats

The recent massacre perpetrated by a lone gunman in Norway has made leaders in democratic countries review the threat to their societies from extremist anti-democratic elements.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2011

Debt deal reveals empty toolbox

When President Barack Obama signed into law the bill increasing the debt ceiling to $16.7 trillion, Americans might have breathed a sigh of relief that the danger of default is over — for now (and probably until spring 2013).
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2011

Hibakusha turn against nuke power

For more than 65 years, the worst event in Japan's modern history stood alone, with nothing afterward momentous enough to change its lessons. Those who survived the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki decided that similar bombs should never be dropped again. To ensure that outcome, they called for the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Aug 6, 2011

Temp staffer wins maternity leave, via union

When female nonregular workers become pregnant, employers often refuse to renew their contracts. However, a Japanese-Brazilian woman in the Tokai region stood up and joined a local labor union to protest the practice.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 4, 2011

Rising noh star on mission to broaden audience

Noh, the 600-year-old performing art featuring drummers, chorus singers and masked actors, has survived in the modern world to this day thanks to its loyal, though aging, fan base. But as with many other traditional art forms, it is in dire need of new talent.

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