Search - 2012

 
 
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...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2013

'Jigoku de Naze Warui (Why Don't You Play in Hell?)'

Even great directors can make turkeys, sometimes without much obvious change in their style or obsessions.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2013

Don't scapegoat schools over economic ills

American education reformers charge that companies can't find enough qualified workers in science and technology. But these workers are here — in the form of unemployed college grads.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 25, 2013

Chawan: Simply, some of the hardest works of pottery to create

In the world of Japanese traditional ceramics there is not one form held in higher esteem than a chawan, a "mere" bowl used to serve whipped green tea.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2013

Students offer practical ideas to boost tourism

Creating a credit-card friendly market, providing round-the-clock public transportation and supporting travelers in multiple languages would go a long way toward increasing overseas visitors to Japan, international students advised the tourism ministry Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 25, 2013

Drop antidemocratic secrecy bill

A proposed bill aimed at protecting state secrets that the government deems vital to national security would strongly limit people's access to relevant information.
EDITORIALS
Sep 25, 2013

Preparing for Paralympics

Tokyo's hosting of the Paralympics, besides the Olympics, in 2020 hopefully will raise people's interest in and support for sporting events performed by disabled people.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2013

Ex-top U.S. nuclear regulator counsels end to atomic power

The ongoing crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 plant is a sign that the world needs to seriously rethink nuclear safety and consider possibly ending its dependence on atomic power, the former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says.
EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 2013

'To infinity and beyond!'

Earlier this month, scientists confirmed that the Voyager 1 probe, launched nearly four decades ago, has left our Solar System and has reached interstellar space.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Sep 24, 2013

Producer gets deep inside the otaku heart

Masaaki Katabami is a content producer working in Tokyo. Besides producing manga and mascot design for clients, Katabami publishes Burgeon, a biannual free manga magazine aimed at a female otaku (geek) readership. Available at Tokyo's Comiket (Comic Market fair), the magazine is in its sixth year. In...
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Sep 24, 2013

'Grandma export' exposes Germany's struggle with care

Sonja Miskulin has forgotten her beloved cat, Pooki. She can't remember whether she has grandchildren and has no memory of her nine-hour journey one recent Sunday to forever leave behind her home in Germany.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Sep 24, 2013

Pussy Riot member on hunger strike

In the Soviet era, female political prisoners who were sent to labor in Russia's Mordovia region described their privations in tiny words written on cigarette papers, which took months to reach the world. Today, an inmate can hand a real letter to a husband, and it is posted on a blog, emblazoned on...
WORLD
Sep 24, 2013

Jews get OK to move into Hebron site

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an order late Sunday allowing Jewish families to move into a contested house in a Palestinian neighborhood of Hebron, the West Bank city where an Israeli soldier was fatally shot by a Palestinian sniper hours earlier.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Sep 23, 2013

Why are so many Nepalese in Japan taking their own lives?

Dear Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Minister of Education Hakubun Shimomura and Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Norihisa Tamura,
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2013

Businesses salivate over games boost

With the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics headed to Tokyo, many see the next seven years as a chance to revive the nation's moribund economy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Sep 22, 2013

Pacman, Peso and Pyongyang

A few weeks ago, a Kickstarter project was posted on the Internet featuring two young men who went by the names of Pacman and Peso.

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