Search - question

 
 
EDITORIALS
Jun 12, 2014

Ramping up debate in the Diet

Lawmakers need to make sure that steps taken by the ruling coalition and two major opposition parties to reform Diet proceedings do not let government leaders off the hook in facing legislative scrutiny and regular debate.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 12, 2014

The most important sci-fi film never made

Cinema is strewn with the ghosts of films unmade — projects that spent years in development, teetering on the brink of being greenlit before disappearing without a trace. And one such project became the stuff of legend: cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky's planned adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 12, 2014

Ukraine president ready for talks if pro-Russia rebels lay down arms

Ukraine's new president signaled on Wednesday he would be ready to hold talks with opponents in eastern Ukraine if pro-Russian separatists waging an insurgency there agreed to lay down their weapons.
Japan Times
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 10, 2014

Brazil ready to take on world's best on home turf

The World Cup kicks off on Thursday (Friday, Japan time) in the country that has won the tournament more times than any other — Brazil. Thirty-two teams will compete over the next month for a place in the final at Rio de Janeiro's Maracana Stadium on July 13.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 10, 2014

Putin gambles on culture war with the West

Oleg Makarenko wants to set the story straight and answer the "Russophobes" who he says are trying to split and humiliate Russia.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 10, 2014

Some companies still struggle with their dark WWII history

The amount of bookshelf space dedicated to the 12 years of Hitler's Third Reich often exceeds that of any other period in history, but the role and the complicity of companies in the atrocities committed by the Nazis continue to be shrouded in obscurity.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 10, 2014

Private U.S. report accuses another Chinese military unit of hacking

A private U.S. cybersecurity company on Monday accused a unit of China's military of conducting far-reaching hacking operations to advance the country's satellite and aerospace programs.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jun 8, 2014

The new National Stadium will have to rock you

The burgeoning concert business could make the new Olympic Stadium feasible.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 7, 2014

Japan's efforts bring back 'extinct' species

Oriental stork 73; crested ibis 82; red-crowned crane 1,143; short-tailed albatross estimated 3,550. Those numbers of wild birds in Japan seem perilously low — and they are, especially when considered alongside the Japanese population of 126.75 million people — but in reality they are good news!...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 7, 2014

'Battle Royale' wins the game for hungry fans

I should probably start this review with somewhat of a disclaimer. About 10 years ago — not long after Kinji Fukasaku's film adaptation of Koushun Takami's controversial novel "Battle Royale" became a cult hit overseas — I bought a screen-printed poster from a London-based design studio called Airside....
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 7, 2014

U.S. nonintervention casts a vote for Assad

The question is not whether Bashar Assad's Syrian regime is better than Islamist extremism, but how the world can forsake Syrians to suffer oppression by both.
EDITORIALS
Jun 6, 2014

Public pension reforms

A new labor and welfare ministry report highlights the possible need to extend the period during which workers pay premiums into national pension plans so that the benefits paid out to retirees can help sustain retirees' livelihoods at the levels promised.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2014

Korean unification and peace

When the United Nations celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2015, Koreans will be lamenting 70 years of national division. Yet, those South Koreans who have not given up on the dream of unification are pushing proposals to address the North's humanitarian, infrastructure and welfare problems.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 6, 2014

Brazil says it cannot guarantee readiness for World Cup

On a day when a transport workers's strike brought part of Brazil's biggest city to a halt, Brazil's Sports Minister said it was impossible to promise his country would be ready for next week's opening match of the World Cup.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 6, 2014

Bergdahl had left his unit before: reports

A U.S. military investigation of Bowe Bergdahl's capture by the Taliban found the army sergeant had slipped away from his unit on several known occasions but had always returned, raising questions about whether or not he was deserting when he disappeared in 2009, people familiar with the findings said...
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 5, 2014

Sixth-graders to get condoms in Oregon

An Oregon school district will offer condoms to students starting in sixth grade as part of an updated sex education policy aimed at decreasing teen pregnancy, sparking debate over whether 11-year-olds are too young for such a program.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 5, 2014

'Sad Tea'

Ensemble dramas about the ups and downs of love, and its various substitutes, are popular now — at least with indie filmmakers. (A contrast to Japan's commercial romantic dramas, which still focus on star-crossed couples, one of whom is usually dead by the closing credits.)
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jun 4, 2014

Atop Pacific 'Ring of Fire,' debate flares over volcanic risk to Japan's nuclear plants

In the three years since the Fukushima disaster, Japan's utilities have pledged $15 billion to harden their nuclear plants against earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes and terrorist attacks.
EDITORIALS
Jun 4, 2014

Aging public facilities

Aging public facilities present a growing problem for cash-strapped local and prefectural governments.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2014

China wields history as weapon, except on June 4

For China, history is a weapon to use against other countries, but it keeps a curtain of silence drawn around the events that transpired in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 3, 2014

Once near defeat, Assad reasserts himself

It was not so long ago that Bashar Assad's enemies thought he was finished.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2014

The Tank Man's defiance

Chinese Communist authorities largely spared the student protesters of Tiananmen Square 25 years ago, though many leaders went to prison. It was ordinary citizens like the famous man who stood down the tank — along the streets to the square — who suffered the most.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 2, 2014

Japan urged to make its cosmetics 'cruelty-free'

While Japanese consumers clamor for items that will make their skin smoother or their hair shinier, relatively few people are aware of the horror behind the products in their cosmetics cases.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 1, 2014

Bright smiles: Laser light coaxes stem cells to grow new teeth

Scientists have come up with a bright idea to repair teeth And they say their concept — using laser light to entice the body's own stem cells into action — may offer enormous promise beyond just dentistry in the field of regenerative medicine.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
May 31, 2014

Anti-stalking laws 'are a dead end'

On May 8, the National Police Agency gathered police officers from all over the country to declare a war on stalking. This gathering was even held before members of the all-girl pop group AKB48 were attacked by a man with a saw at a handshaking event. (It's still unclear whether the assailant was stalking...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 31, 2014

AKB48's business model is likely to survive media attacks

The universe shifted on the afternoon of Sunday, May 25, when a young, unemployed man attacked two members of the all-female idol collective AKB48 and a male security staffer with a folding saw during a fan event in the city of Takizawa, Iwate Prefecture. Or, at least, that's how the media reacted. Some...

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan