Search - 2015

 
 
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Feb 10, 2016

Japan and its birth rate: the beginning of the end or just a new beginning?

Despite demographic doomsayers, Japan could be ripe for a gender revolution that boosts its birth rate.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 10, 2016

U.S., India 'weighing joint patrols' in contested South China Sea

The United States and India have held talks about conducting joint naval patrols that a U.S. defense official said could include the disputed South China Sea, a move that would likely anger Beijing, which claims most of the waterway.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 10, 2016

Introducing the complex refugee experience to Japan

The plight of refugees is dauntingly hard to comprehend for the majority of Japanese who have been brought up believing they live in a racially homogeneous nation. (Let's reserve the falseness of this belief for another story.)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Feb 10, 2016

The 11th edition of the Osaka Asian Film Festival

Tokyo tends to suck up all the media oxygen when it comes to film festivals and events in this country, but there's plenty going on beyond the capital's borders, as evidenced by the Osaka Asian Film Festival. The 11th edition of the festival, unspooling March 4-13 at venues in Osaka, will present a wide-ranging...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Feb 10, 2016

Japanese hoops waking up to skill training

Japanese athletes have always been labeled inferior in size and power, forcing them to rely on skill and technique to compete on the international stage.
EDITORIALS
Feb 9, 2016

A turning point in Syria?

The Syrian government and its backers appear to be succeeding in their goal to wipe out moderate opposition forces that the international community could rally to replace President Bashir Assad.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Feb 9, 2016

Catching up on MLB moves as spring training looms

Are there any words more beautiful to the ears of MLB diehards than these: Pitchers and catchers report Feb. 23rd.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 9, 2016

Ten perfect Valentine's Days in 10 global cities

Early stroll: The Limmat River in Zurich, A beautiful place for a morning walk before your big date. Enjoy a panoramic view of the city from the observation tower on Uetliberg Mountain. | BLOOMBERG
EDITORIALS
Feb 8, 2016

Yet another Pyongyang provocation

The international community, in particular China and the U.S., need to serious consider why their North Korean policies are failing to curb Pyongyang's ambitions.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2016

How far has the North's missile technology come?

North Korea's latest rocket launch raises a lot of questions about just how far its ballistic missile technology has come.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2016

Syria's continuing chemical fallout

The ongoing use of toxic gas in the Syrian civil war could undermine the global ban on chemical weapons.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 8, 2016

Glass ceiling yet to be broken in Japan politics

Japan will this year mark 70 years since the nation saw women win Lower House seats for the first time in April 1946.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 8, 2016

Nomura, Mizuho see Takata's distressed debt at bargain price

Takata Corp. may be embroiled in the biggest vehicle recall in U.S. history as its air bags have been linked to 11 deaths, but don't count it out as an investment, say credit analysts at Mizuho Securities Co. and Nomura Holdings Inc. who are recommending investors buy its bonds.
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 8, 2016

Nicaragua retains hope of building new canal despite China's woes

Manuel Coronel Kautz isn't a man who's easily deterred, which is a good thing, because as head of Nicaragua's Canal Authority, he's seen the $50 billion, Chinese-backed project suffer setback after setback.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Feb 8, 2016

China offers rewards for terrorism tipoffs: Xinhua

China has pledged to reward people who report online "terrorist" content up to 100,000 yuan ($15,200) for each tipoff, after giving out 2 million yuan worth of rewards last year, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Feb 8, 2016

Aichi university group helping refugees with language study

A group of university students from Aichi Prefecture has started a volunteer group to assist refugees.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2016

Japan takes aim at ballooning drug prices as costs strain health budget

When two of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies announced a tie-up in Japan, its $78 billion drug industry took note.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 8, 2016

Pakistan military blankets area as China port construction underway

A heavy police presence, guarded convoys, new checkpoints and troop reinforcements have turned parts of the southern port city of Gwadar into a fortress, as Pakistan's powerful military seeks to protect billions of dollars of Chinese investment.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Feb 7, 2016

What's in a surname? A court divorced from reality

Here at Law of the Land, I try to share "the Japanese law experience" with general readers. Today's experience is called "The Frustration of Reading Supreme Court Decisions" and takes as examples two of the most significant decisions of 2015: one on a law requiring spouses to have the same surname, the...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2016

Is it time for the U.S. to dump Saudi Arabia?

Washington must accept the fact that Saudi Arabia is a major contributor to worldwide Islamic extremism and reevaluate its relationship with Riyahd.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 7, 2016

Some unpaid Chinese workers skip Lunar New Year holidays to protest

This year, laborer Fan Fu and 20 or so colleagues working on the Zixia Garden apartment complex in Hebei province have not joined China's legion of migrant workers returning home to celebrate the Lunar New Year with their families.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 7, 2016

Obama, other advocates of gun control own stock in firearms makers through mutual funds

U.S. President Barack Obama, a fierce advocate for gun regulation, is an unlikely investor in the firearms industry — yet he has money in a pension fund that holds stock in gun and ammunition companies.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2016

The predators behind the TPP

Twelve Pacific Rim countries representing around 40 percent of the global economy signed the u2028Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade accord on Thursday. Dutch author Karel van Wolferen u2028examines the corporate ramifications of the divisive deal

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past