Search - 2012

 
 
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2013

More Japanese teachers needed in ASEAN, Abe is told

An expert panel to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has proposed bolstering support for Japanese-language education in ASEAN countries by increasing the number of teachers, as more people in the region are learning Japanese.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 30, 2013

Japan, U.K. security wonks talk business

Nearly 18 months after Japan and Britain struck a deal to jointly develop weapons and defense equipment, security experts from both nations gathered in Tokyo Monday to discuss ways to expand that to maritime security, cybersecurity and military equipment.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 30, 2013

Abe betting this tax hike will be different

It's different this time. The four most dangerous words in markets, according to former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 30, 2013

Youths should learn from Malala's courage

What will it take to get more young people in Japan to break out of their shell and go out into the world to experience interacting with people of different cultural backgrounds
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Sep 30, 2013

Cultural and legal hurdles block path to child adoptions in Japan

While more than 7,000 couples applied to adopt or become foster parents every year between 2006 and 2010, only 309 children were adopted in fiscal 2010, according to government figures.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 30, 2013

Foreign iPhone fans, be aware of Softbank's two-year visa rule

Softbank requires that you have at least two years remaining on your visa if you wish to pay for a new iPhone handset in monthly installments rather than fork out for the whole lot up front.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Sep 30, 2013

Troop command top issue as Hagel visits South Korea

Sixty years after the end of the Korean War, the United States and South Korea still cannot agree on who should take charge if another war breaks out with the communist neighbor to the north.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 30, 2013

Hashimoto's Osaka merger dream in jeopardy

Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) co-leader and Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto was facing a critical battle. And he lost.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Sep 29, 2013

Few issues left in play as season nears finish

Nippon Professional Baseball has crowned its 2013 league champions and most of the spots in the Climax Series have already been spoken for.
EDITORIALS
Sep 29, 2013

Worries over fate of Japan hands

n a sign that China's leadership is trying to strengthen its control of speech to increase its ideological grip, the government has detained a Chinese professor who teaches in Chiba.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 29, 2013

Shutdown quandary shows Washington's breakdown

Washington once again stands at a moment of crisis — only this time, Democrats and Republicans are not negotiating a way to avoid it. They are not even speaking to one another.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Sep 29, 2013

Nontraditional college students juggle work, kids, bills with coursework

When President Barack Obama talks about the cost of higher education, his mentions of "college students" might often evoke images of teenagers who spent their senior years of high school searching for the four-year institution that best matched their personalities, then enrolled and moved into the dorms...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 29, 2013

Best, brightest and least productive?

Financial traders and speculators help to allocate society's resources to the most promising businesses. But these people's activities also impose costs on the rest of us.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 28, 2013

Stroll through 1,000 years of history in one Nikko garden

Even before seeing the great sights of Nikko, the visitor cannot fail to be impressed by the luxuriance of the area's moss. Towering cryptomeria trees, allowing filtered light to penetrate ground cover, provide ideal incubation zones and levels of exposure and protection for the flourishing of moss in...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 28, 2013

Nothing is clear about court ruling on illegitimate kids

Evidently I was wrong.
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2013

Where's the sense of duty?

Amid reports of track repairs left untended for up to a year, one wonders whether employees of JR Hokkaido have a clear sense of duty to protect the lives of passengers.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 28, 2013

Japan and Korea: Reconciliation and redress for wrongs remain elusive

On the eve of the International Olympic Committee's decision to award the 2020 Summer Games to Tokyo, Seoul's abrupt import ban on all fisheries products from Fukushima and seven other Japanese prefectures was clearly a response to public concerns about radiation spewing into the ocean.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2013

Ex-JR West chiefs cleared of '05 crash

The Kobe District Court on Friday acquitted three former presidents of West Japan Railway Co. over the horrific 2005 train derailment that killed 107 people and injured more than 560 in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 27, 2013

Energy-driven inflation rate puts pressure on Abe to engineer wage hikes

Inflation in August accelerated at its fastest pace since 2008 on higher energy costs, underscoring pressure on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to drive wage increases as he seeks to end the nation's 15-year deflationary spiral.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2013

Ex-con on mission to tame recidivism rate

Hiroshi Igarashi remembers feeling like a dinosaur when he was released from prison in 2011 after nine years behind bars. He had no idea how to use IC cards and phones as train tickets. Even the self-serve "drink bar" system in restaurants struck him as an utter enigma.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 27, 2013

Nippon Ishin's future seen riding on Sakai mayor race

Sunday's mayoral contest in Sakai, one of Japan's most independent-minded cities, is expected to decide not only the fate of a plan to merge Osaka prefectural cities into a single administrative entity, but also the fate of national-level efforts to create a new opposition party.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 27, 2013

Takeda failed to adequately warn of Actos cancer risks, U.S. jury finds

A Maryland jury has ruled that Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. failed to properly warn a former U.S. Army translator and his doctor about the risks of the firm's Actos diabetes drug and ordered it to pay more than $1.7 million (¥168 million) in damages, but a judge immediately threw out the verdict, court...

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