Search - question

 
 
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 25, 2014

With canal and hut, India stands up to China on disputed frontier

Earlier this month, Indian troops on a remote Himalayan plateau built a small observation hut from where they could watch Chinese soldiers across the disputed border.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 24, 2014

Japan passes fresh round of sanctions against Russia over Ukraine

Japan unveiled new economic sanctions against Russia on Wednesday, its third round of penalties aimed at pressing the Kremlin to change course in Ukraine.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Sep 24, 2014

Job insecurity among Japan's university teachers is a recipe for further decline

Increasing the number of academic working poor hired as part-time teachers flies in the face of the education ministry's call to build universities that 'can compete on the world stage.'
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Sep 24, 2014

Obama forges disparate coalition to combat Islamic State, but will it stick?

The Arabs are in. Turkey is on the fence. Britain, still smarting from an earlier Iraq war, is cautiously edging toward expanded action. Even Greece wants to help — if someone would tell it how.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2014

Disaffected have their say, but will Westminster listen?

The dilemma for Britain's political leaders is how to build on the public engagement generated by Scotland's referendum without rushing into ill-conceived reforms that create more problems than they solve.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 22, 2014

U.K.'s Cameron shifts tack on constitutional shake-up to mollify Scots

Scotland will get more autonomy with no "ifs or buts," Prime Minister David Cameron's office said on Sunday, after Scottish leader Alex Salmond accused him and other politicians of tricking Scots out of independence.
EDITORIALS
Sep 22, 2014

To defeat and destroy Islamic State

Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria can be defeated, but doing so will require a serious and thoughtful strategy, not a knee-jerk, emotional reaction to its brutality.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2014

U.K. stays intact, promising more powers to nationalists

The No-to-independence campaign in Scotland was greatly helped by the publication of a joint pledge by all three U.K. party leaders that there would be speedy legislation conferring extensive new powers to the Scottish parliament.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 22, 2014

A peculiar perspective on the capricious word hen

One major event in Japan's 16th-century civil war — which is the focus of "Gunshi Kanbei (Strategist Kanbei)," NHK's current Sunday-night drama series — involves the duplicitous warlord Akechi Mitsuhide.
JAPAN / Politics / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Sep 21, 2014

Mihama viewed as test case for Japan's aging nuclear reactors

In recognition of Japan's rapidly aging nuclear plants, Kansai Electric Power Co. has begun discussing the possibility of decommissioning the Mihama No. 1 and No. 2 reactors, now more than 40 years old, in Fukui Prefecture.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 20, 2014

Glimpses of Lafcadio Hearn's Matsue

The Matsue-bound train I boarded at Okayama Station was pointedly named Yakumo, a reference to its destination's best-known former resident: Greek-Irish writer Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), whose adopted Japanese name was Yakumo Koizumi.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 20, 2014

Tabloids voice alarm over dengue surge

The first case of dengue fever was reported on Aug. 27. As of Friday, the number had increased to 141 people in 17 prefectures — not one of whom had traveled abroad. If the asymptotic or unreported cases are included, it's quite possible that figure may be two or threefold.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Sep 20, 2014

Backlash fears after Scottish vote

Scotland's "no" to independence may have saved British Prime Minister David Cameron his job, but sweeping pledges of a constitutional shake-up could undermine his re-election drive and trigger more political instability.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 20, 2014

Oh, Tama!

Mieko Kanai, a prize-winning poet, eminent critic and author of experimental fiction that evokes comparisons to the works of Borges and Kafka, has also, in her "Mejiro" series, produced a series of novels notably lighter in tone. In these books, two of which have been translated into English, philosophical...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 20, 2014

Netsuke

The British Museum's Noriko Tsuchiya compiles an intricate selection of netsuke, a prized Edo Period (1603-1867) art form of miniature sculptures. Her book contains 100 photographs, paired with color illustrations to contrast composition and artistic expression.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Sep 20, 2014

Can simplicity survive contact with complexity?

Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Sep 20, 2014

Angry with Washington, 1 in 4 Americans are open to secession

The failed Scottish vote to pull out from the United Kingdom has stirred secessionist hopes for some in the United States, where almost a quarter of people are open to their state leaving the union, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll has found.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Sep 20, 2014

Bahrain says parties find common ground but Shiites say demands not met

Bahrain's crown prince said Friday political parties had identified five areas of "common ground," including potential parliamentary and judicial reforms, in a bid to end years of instability in the U.S.-allied gulf Arab island state.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 19, 2014

All systems go for second stage of tax hike: Tanigaki

Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Sadakazu Tanigaki said Friday the second stage of the consumption tax rate hike should proceed as planned next year, but said the ruling party is closely monitoring the economic situation.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Sep 19, 2014

Cameron says Scottish independence issue settled 'for a generation'

British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Friday that the question of Scottish independence had been settled "for a generation" after what he called a clear vote by Scots to stay part of the United Kingdom.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Sep 19, 2014

Scots reject independence, vote to stay in the United Kingdom

Scotland has chosen to stay in the United Kingdom, spurning independence in a historic referendum that had worried allies and investors, results showed on Friday with more than two thirds of the vote declared.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Sep 18, 2014

Ex-Apache coach Hill supports FIBA mandate for JBA

Bob Hill hasn't coached a game in Japan since March 10, 2011. A lot has changed since then, but a lot hasn't; for instance, Japan basketball's systemic dysfunction.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 18, 2014

West African powerhouse Cote d'Ivoire battles to keep out Ebola

The billboard depicts a masked health worker in a biohazard suit looming over a bed-ridden patient. Above them, bright red letters warn commuters on a busy Abidjan street that "The Ebola risk is always there".
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 17, 2014

Many skins of Britain's cinematic chameleon

Jim Broadbent is one of those ubiquitous British actors whose face you'd recognize long before you knew his name. I first spotted him as Dr. Jaffe, the quack plastic surgeon in Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" (1985), but others will recall the small parts he played in cult TV show "Blackadder," and the art-house...
Reader Mail
Sep 17, 2014

Aim of annual achievement tests

Regarding the Sept. 14 editorial, "Test scores can't tell all about kids": It is true, of course, that disclosure of student scores is not the purpose of the annual nationwide achievement tests. The purpose is for educators to use the results wisely in improving children's abilities. The education ministry...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Sep 17, 2014

Der Spiegel magazine finds print and digital mix that works

With newspaper readership on the decline worldwide as the industry faces the print-to-digital transition, a German approach may serve as a reference for Japanese media seeking new tactics to attract customers.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 17, 2014

Pakistani militants allege India is deliberately opening its upstream dams as a 'water bomb' creating floods

Hafiz Saeed, widely considered one of South Asia's most dangerous militants, has no doubt who is to blame for devastating floods that have submerged swaths of Pakistani countryside and claimed hundreds of lives.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2014

G1 Global Conference 2014 takes up sales tax question

G1 Summit, led by Globis Management School Dean Yoshito Hori, hosted the G1 Global Conference 2014, in which politicians, business executives and scholars held panel discussions in English, in Tokyo on Monday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Sep 14, 2014

Cars that drive themselves starting to chat with each other

A Honda Motor Co. Acura RLX sedan demonstrated an unusual way to tow another car last week: the vehicles were not physically attached. The second car drove itself, following instructions beamed over by the first in a feat of technology that indicates a new stage in automation is happening faster than...

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