Search - 2012

 
 
EDITORIALS
Jul 29, 2013

DPJ must overcome its crisis

Voters' vision of the Democratic Party of Japan has slipped to that of an also-ran and will remain as such until the DPJ can sell an alternative vision of Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 29, 2013

Grip on Diet leaves no scapegoats for LDP

The Liberal Democratic Party won a landslide victory in the July 21 Upper House election and regained control of both chambers of the Diet, ending years in which the legislature was effectively divided and bills were held hostage.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jul 28, 2013

Farmers can't bank on Abe

Japan's farmers must scrutinize what Shinzo Abe says so as not to be deceived by him again. The prime minister has never promised to protect their future.
EDITORIALS
Jul 28, 2013

Question of objectivity

A Kyoto university's announcement that research on blood-pressure drug Diovan was manipulated raises concerns about the drugmaker's objectivity.
EDITORIALS
Jul 28, 2013

Key to Korean peace

The armistice that ended the Korean War 60 years ago has never brought real peace to the Peninsula. North Korea holds the key to make that happen.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2013

How Republicans lost their economic edge

While Barack Obama is unlikely to be celebrated in history for his economic record, his presidency marks the end of Republican orthodoxy on such matters.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 27, 2013

Tight budgets, food safety and eel inflation

The future promise of Abenomics notwithstanding, Japan's white-collar office workers are still being squeezed in terms of their discretionary spending. Results of the annual survey of salaryman kozukai (allowance), released June 28 by Shinsei Bank, noted that this year the average monthly spending money...
EDITORIALS
Jul 27, 2013

Annulling the Upper House poll

As soon as the results were announced for last week's Upper House election, lawsuits were filed demanding the nullifcation because of vote-vale disparities.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 27, 2013

China betting on overland energy-supply lines

China's strategy to diversify supply routes for its rapidly rising energy imports has taken a major step forward as natural gas flows through a Myanmar pipeline.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 27, 2013

Multiple perspectives in novel on the Russo-Japanese War

I asked a Japanese friend how he would characterize Shiba Ryotaro's famous historical novel, "Clouds Above the Hill." I've known its immense popularity, but Shiba had started its newspaper serialization after I left Japan in 1968, and the size of the finished work — six volumes in book form — had...
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 27, 2013

Hashimoto, Matsui offer to quit but are persuaded to stay

Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) co-leader Toru Hashimoto and Secretary-General Ichiro Matsui offer to step down 'to focus on their political agenda in Osaka' but other party executives persuade them to stay on.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2013

China's salami-slice strategy

Beijing's strategy to change the territorial and maritime status quo seems anchored in 'salami slicing,' which centers on a steady progression of small actions.
MORE SPORTS
Jul 25, 2013

Yamagata aims to reach 100-meter final at world championships

Everybody now talks about high school sprinting sensation Yoshihide Kiryu, recognizing the 17-year-old is the fastest current man in Japan.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jul 25, 2013

Blood pressure medication huge cash cow

Earlier this month Kyoto University revealed that a study one of its researchers carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the drug Diovan, which lower blood pressure, was probably "erroneous." Though the university did not say the drug itself was ineffective, it did admit that the data of "those...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 24, 2013

Supergroup Muddy Apes get album out just in time to rock Fuji

From the beginning, rock act Muddy Apes set a lofty goal for themselves.
Reader Mail
Jul 24, 2013

Increasing migration pressure

Regarding Gwynne Dyer's July 1 article, "Preposterous population forecasts in Africa": As someone who lives in the United States, I find the outlook for us very troubling. Some have made the argument that a sustainable U.S. population would be around 200 million people. We certainly are not doing particularly...
EDITORIALS
Jul 23, 2013

Smoke and fire on Hokkaido trains

A recent series of fire-and-smoke incidents involving limited express trains of Hokkaido Railway Co. threatens to have an impact on tourism.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2013

An invitation to combat today's killer diseases

Noncommunicable diseases like cancer and diabetes lead to 63 percent of annual deaths worldwide. The good news is that they are largely preventable.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / BALANCING INTERESTS
Jul 23, 2013

Food looms large as trading houses plot overseas forays under new pact

Second in a series
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 23, 2013

Steel maker reaches price hike pact

Kyodo Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. have agreed on a price hike for sheet metal in the April-September period of about ¥10,000 per ton, sources said Tuesday.

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