Search - politics

 
 
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Mar 9, 2010

Internet Go BOOM: Visual Kei's Deep Throat

In a long interview with Tokyo Damage Report, an anonymous music executive familiar with the Visual Kei scenes lights a short fuse.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 7, 2010

DPJ needs schooling on equality

When the Democratic Party of Japan swept to power last year, many people expected Japanese politics to become more rational. The Liberal Democratic Party had maintained a status quo that stifled meaningful change, and the DPJ supposedly won by promising to move forward.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2010

Pragmatic Asia can bolster global stability

DAVOS, Switzerland — Is there an "Asian way" for resolving global challenges? The conventional answer is no. But elements of an Asian way are gradually emerging. Given Asia's growing influence, the world should pay attention — and may have much to gain.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2010

DPJ-led bloc's vote passes 2010 budget

The Democratic Party of Japan-led coalition passed the fiscal 2010 budget in the Lower House on Tuesday evening, having survived relentless grilling from the opposition over a series of political funding scandals.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 1, 2010

Message for Hatoyama from his patron saint

Saint Thomas More is the patron saint of politicians. As a Catholic myself I should have known this before, but the information actually came to me quite recently via the Mainichi Shimbun. So many thanks to the newspaper for this piece of religious education.
EDITORIALS
Feb 25, 2010

Playing down Dalai Lama drama

Much to China's displeasure, U.S. President Barack Obama met with the Dalai Lama last week. As anticipated, the Beijing government complained bitterly about the meeting and demanded that Washington take steps to put substance behind the U.S. call for a truly constructive and cooperative relationship...
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2010

DPJ scandals cost us Nagasaki: Hatoyama

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama acknowledged that his party's political money scandals affected Sunday's gubernatorial race in Nagasaki Prefecture, where the ruling Democratic Party of Japan-backed candidate lost.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 23, 2010

No one-size-fits-all for foreign suffrage

Support has been surprisingly muted for the Hatoyama administration's push toward suffrage for foreign permanent residents, even among the constituencies such a law would enfranchise. The debate is definitely a hot one, sparking a number of protests against the plan around Tokyo, with opposition logic...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2010

Uncertainty beyond the Greek financial crisis

NEW YORK — As euro-zone leaders face growing uncertainty in financial markets about the public finances of Greece and other member countries, their statements, albeit somewhat vague, underscore a much larger story — one that will force firms and investors to question their assumptions about Europe's...
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Feb 21, 2010

Gambler fraternity bust, banana-only diet, 3-S formula tabloids, service industry growth

100 YEARS AGO
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2010

Kansai execs fret affairs of the state

KYOTO — Senior business leaders in the Kansai region have long been able to rely on smooth relations with local and central government politicians sympathetic to their causes.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Feb 20, 2010

Proposed new league will have major obstacles to overcome

To accurately describe what's been going on for several years now in this nation's pro hoop scene, I submit the following analogy:
EDITORIALS
Feb 19, 2010

Debates miss big picture

Liberal Democratic Party leader Sadakazu Tanigaki and Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi had separate one-on-one debates with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in the Diet Wednesday, although the debates were a long time coming. Five months have already passed since the Hatoyama administration began. Such debates...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 19, 2010

Visions of art in an alternative key

In its own quiet way, Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions was one of the standout art events of 2009.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2010

Perilous U.S.-China games

BEIJING — Beijing is increasingly playing hardball on every issue that brings it into contact and potential conflict with the rest of the world: democracy in Hong Kong; U.S. arms sales to Taiwan; the visit of the Dalai Lama to the White House; sanctions against Iran; the value of the renminbi; the...
EDITORIALS
Feb 15, 2010

Golden 20 for McDonald's Russia

Twenty years ago, McDonald's opened its first store in Russia. The appearance of the Golden Arches in Moscow's Pushkin Square predated the collapse of the Soviet Union, but it should have been seen as a harbinger of the end of the autarkic Soviet economic model. The company marked the landmark event...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Feb 15, 2010

LDP flailing for relevance

The once dominant Liberal Democratic Party is said to be trying to re-establish its identity as a genuine conservative force, but the LDP leadership appears to be doing nothing more than working desperately to maintain the status quo.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 14, 2010

Strange bird Sanshiro

From Oct. 28, 1900, until Dec. 5, 1902, Natsume Soseki lived in Clapham, a district of South London. Ordered to England by the Meiji government, Soseki, without sufficient funds to study formally and with little else to do apart from the occasional cycle ride or part-time tutoring, spent most of this...
JAPAN
Feb 13, 2010

Hatoyama is tax-dodging king: Yosano

Slamming Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama as "the king of tax evasion in the Heisei Era," the opposition camp Friday continued to attack the ruling Democratic Party of Japan over its recent political funds scandals.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2010

Treason of the magistrates

PARIS — In democracies, justice is supposed to be independent. Some prosecutors and investigating magistrates, however, conveniently forget this. Indeed many among them are deeply enmeshed in politics, pursuing agendas — and vendettas — of their own.
EDITORIALS
Feb 11, 2010

Ukraine comes full circle

Five and half years ago, Mr. Viktor Yanukovych was the villain in Ukraine. After "winning" presidential elections in 2004, disaffected voters took to the streets claiming fraud and hoping to reverse the results. One month of protests gave the world its first "color revolution" — the Orange Revolution,...
Reader Mail
Feb 7, 2010

French fight against climate hype

Regarding Gwynne Dyer's Feb. 1 article, "Heated politics of disbelief": How many more inconvenient "climate-gates" will be needed before journalists start doing their job, i.e. questioning? Sorry to disappoint, but climate skepticism exists beyond the "Anglosphere."
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
Feb 3, 2010

Shiya wo hirogeru: Time to broaden our horizons

Your son is a sainō no aru ko (才能のある子, a gifted boy)," Mr. Sawamura says. "His seiseki (成績, marks) are not impressive, and his social skills are perhaps not as developed as . . . "
EDITORIALS
Feb 2, 2010

Sri Lanka's chance to start again

Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, president of Sri Lanka, has been re-elected. Mr. Rajapaksa's victory was expected following the government's victory last year over the Tamil Tigers, ending a 26-year insurgency. Peace on the island opens the door to long-delayed economic development, a key to enduring stability....
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2010

Hatoyama sets agenda in Diet

Drawing on Gandhi quotes for inspiration, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama called on his colleagues Friday to make 2010 "a new start for Japan" in his first administrative policy speech at the ordinary Diet session.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years