Search - 2013

 
 
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Oct 16, 2013

Nara's Chapman gets off to fast start for expansion team

Each season brings new standouts to Japan, what with nonstop expansion since the league's inception in 2005.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 15, 2013

Behind Washington's firestorm

The story behind the story of the U.S. budget showdown is that prolonged slow growth threatens historic changes to America's political and social order.
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN WEB WATCH
Oct 15, 2013

Japan's social-networking pioneer turns matchmaker

There was a time when the only social network that mattered in Japan was Mixi, but these days, after years of stagnation, it is hardly heard of in daily conversation — being replaced in popularity by rivals such as Gree, Mobage, Twitter, Facebook and most recently Line.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 15, 2013

Arab Spring countries suffer a financial hangover

Political assassinations and polarization, civil unrest, a military coup, terrorist attacks and an institutional vacuum have all but decimated the economies of countries affected by the Arab Spring.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 15, 2013

Nobel Prize shows wisdom, madness of crowds

Financial markets provide a useful reminder of just how humble economists should be about their understanding of the world.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 15, 2013

The narrative plot against Syria

America must focus on unifying Syria's bickering rebels before it can persuade Syrians that the campaign to destroy chemical weapons is not aimed at imposing a neo-colonial order.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 15, 2013

The dollar and the U.S. debt ceiling

Sane governments don't default by choice — especially when they're privileged with issuing the global currency. We are about to find out whether the U.S. still has a sane government.
CULTURE / Music / MONEY AND MUSIC
Oct 15, 2013

Download law yet to bite after a year

It has been a year since Japan introduced penalties for downloading pirated music and video files.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 13, 2013

San Francisco Treaty and the South China Sea

All parties to the South China Sea island disputes can cite geographic and historical connections to back their claims, but none has solid legal title under the San Francisco Treaty.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 13, 2013

What we talk about when we talk about the Olympics

If you're lamenting the number of kōji (工事, construction works) clogging Tokyo streets and coating your lungs with toxic fumes, you can lump at least part of the blame on the Olympics, slated to happen in the summer of 2020. And take comfort in the fact that in the years leading up to the last time...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 13, 2013

Abe set to overturn legacies of Koizumi and Nakasone

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is reviving the old Liberal Democratic Party, having undone moves by former Prime Ministers Yasuhiro Nakasone and Junichiro Koizumi toward smaller government.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 13, 2013

Seibu's Okamoto stays focused as teammates cut loose

There was no shortage of distractions threatening to rob pitcher Yosuke Okamoto of his focus during Game 2 of the Pacific League Climax Series First Stage.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2013

Busan is still Asia's film-fest gem, but its sparkle is fading

During the Q&A session after the screening of his new film "Stray Dogs" at the 18th Busan International Film Festival, which ran Oct. 3-12, Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang mentioned that not only was his previous film not distributed in South Korea, it wasn't even shown at BIFF. Tsai was one of the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 12, 2013

U.S. role in aiding Pinochet

To bomb or not to bomb? That is the question that has been exercising self-proclaimed liberal interventionists over the past two decades, from Bosnia to Syria. The argument that divides public opinion across the Western world is how far military means can be used to punish dictators.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 12, 2013

Capturing Olivier in his contradictory essence

Laurence Olivier was the greatest British actor of his time, primus inter pares of the trio who dominated our theater from the early 1930s to the 1980s. His superiority to his chief rivals, Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, resides in the role he played in the creation of the National Theatre and in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 12, 2013

One exhilarating summer brought to fact-filled life

It had to happen. After books about individual decades came books about individual years. Now we get the book about a single season. Bill Bryson's "One Summer" is the story of just four months — June to September 1927 — in the life of America. Four crucial months, needless to say — four months...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 12, 2013

Myanmar takes helm of ASEAN while sectarian violence persists

Myanmar last week took the baton from the Sultan of Brunei, assuming the rotating chair in 2014 of Asia's most important regional organization, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Reader Mail
Oct 12, 2013

Cigarettes belie health campaign

Regarding the Oct. 8 article "Japanese convenience store chain going healthy": I enjoy shopping at Lawson, but it seems blatantly hypocritical for the chain to launch a PR campaign that says the company is "going healthy."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 12, 2013

Pynchon's multigenre novel loses itself in glib in-jokes and pop-culture references

Thomas Pynchon's new novel prompts a question relevant to him and to all contemporary artists, from writers to directors to choreographers: If the present day is atomized, paranoid, infantile, obsessive, can a work of art capture this without taking on these attributes itself?
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2013

Crashes, sticker shock mark Obamacare shopping

Last week I spent six hours shopping for Obamacare on New York State's health care marketplace website. Officials had estimated that it would take the average person seven minutes. Either because I am not an average person or because the Obamacare people are idiots, I spent six hours setting up an account....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 11, 2013

A really long name — as long as the Mississippi

Small islands in the Seto Inland Sea such as mine are visited periodically by health care boats with doctors, nurses and medical equipment on board to offer health exams for islanders. The boat makes the rounds of all the small islands that belong to Okayama Prefecture, making it possible for even the...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2013

The U.S. Civil War continues

A big hoax of American history is that the Civil War ended in 1865. Unfortunately it continues — as a battle over redistributing shares of economic power in the clothing of cultural values.
Events / KANSAI: WHO & WHAT
Oct 11, 2013

Big Oktoberfest at Deutsche Schule Kobe

Deutsche Schule Kobe European School will hold Oktoberfest 2013 on Oct. 19 in Kobe.
WORLD
Oct 11, 2013

OPCW bags Nobel Prize for fight against chemical arms

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is awarded the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize, just weeks after a deadly gas attack in Syria sparked international condemnation.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 10, 2013

Fashion Week's side shows give the public a rare seat next to their runways

Next week is Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo but, chances are, you’re not invited. Before that teen trauma of being excluded sets in, don’t panic — there’s a ton of alternative events to get dolled up for.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 10, 2013

Giant duck to make its return

A giant rubber duck will make a triumphant return to Osaka after having survived serious hardships including drowning and being stabbed during its global tour.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 10, 2013

Shiga foodies to look for a few good men

This weekend, diners in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, will get the chance to vote for their favorite ikemen. Although this term is used to describe an attractive man, the most important men (noodles) at this year's Ikemen Battle will be those steaming in hot broth. The contest's title is a pun, with the "men"...

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