Search - 2014

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 29, 2014

Criminalizing policy rifts

Criticism of policy decisions should not be allowed to curdle into the hateful vitriol that demeans so much public discourse today. Words have consequences and can inflame thuggery or worse.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 29, 2014

The next nasty economic surprise for the U.S.

Without an expanding economy as a shock absorber, will racial, ethnic, religious, generational and ideological conflicts worsen in the U.S.?
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 29, 2014

Daiichi Sankyo to buy Ambit to strengthen cancer product line

Daiichi Sankyo Co. has agreed to buy U.S.-based Ambit Biosciences Corp. for as much as $410 million to bolster its pipeline of cancer treatments.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2014

China's border belligerence

It appears that the central objective of Chinese leaders' visits to India over the years has been to reinforce China's territorial claims. Beijing is at it again.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2014

Iran has its dissenters on intervention in Iraq

Iran — already struggling to manage a decrepit economy and tricky nuclear negotiations with the international community — now worries about getting in over its head by intervening in Iraq.
MULTIMEDIA
Sep 28, 2014

[VIDEO] Indie Game Developers at Tokyo Game Show 2014

COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 27, 2014

Hyperbole over Asahi affair tarnishes brand Japan

The Asahi Shimbun has been apologetic of late after it confessed to journalistic wrongdoing in several articles.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 27, 2014

Read up on books about books about Japan

Revving up the metabolism of culture with the pulse of new artistic voices, a good literary journal doesn't usually have much to do with profit — it's all about circulation. Japanese literary journals enjoy a healthy transmission here, thanks to the financial backing of big publishing firms. How do...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 27, 2014

The slow recovery from a calamitous slump

What does slow recovery from a calamitous slump look like? In the U.S., you see women's pay catching up with men's and steady gains in full-time employment. But middle-class incomes have dropped to levels of the late 1980s or early 1990s.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Sep 26, 2014

Kojima's terrifying world of the unknown

Hideo Kojima's "P.T." isn't even a full game, and it still might be the scariest video game experience of the year. It is atmospheric, unfailingly creepy, and in future years might be looked back on as the first step in the reimagining of the horror genre.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2014

In praise of what looks like China's new norm

Based on the rising share of labor's national income, the decline in global demand, the aging population, rapid urbanization and education dividends from younger workers, China's annual growth rate over the next decade is forcecast to average 7.3 percent — which would still be the envy of the world.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 26, 2014

Transit hotel to serve layover passengers at Haneda

Passengers changing flights at Tokyo's Haneda airport will get a new option for layovers when their body clock demands nothing but a place to crash.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2014

Major halal-food expo planned to help make Japan more friendly to Muslim tourists

In response to a recent surge in Muslim tourists, a major halal-themed international expo will be held in Chiba Prefecture in November.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 25, 2014

Maestro Taijiro Iimori will mark his NNTT debut with Wagner's 'Parsifal'

The New National Theatre, Tokyo, will open its 2014-15 season with "Parsifal," the last completed opera by German composer Richard Wagner (1813-83). While opera fans will no doubt be thrilled at the long-awaited performance of this piece at the theater, they can expect an additional treat as Taijiro...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Sep 24, 2014

UFC eyeing Asian market

This past Saturday, the Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to Japan for a third straight year to host a show, dubbed UFC Fight Night Japan, at Saitama Super Arena.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 24, 2014

As festival's renown goes global, director hails its local role

Since its launch in 2010, Kyoto Experiment has steadily come to rival, if not even surpass, Festival/Tokyo as the nation's leading annual showcase for cutting-edge performances.
BUSINESS
Sep 24, 2014

Philanthropies and investors pledge $50 billion divestment from fossil fuels

The Rockefellers, who made their vast fortune from oil, and other philanthropies and high-wealth individuals have pledged to divest $50 billion from investments in fossil fuels.
BASKETBALL
Sep 23, 2014

Former Link Tochigi Brex coach Rabedeaux, 49, dies in Vietnam

Longtime basketball coach Jason Rabedeaux, who guided the Link Tochigi Brex to start the 2010-11 JBL season, died on Monday in Ho Chi Minh City. He was 49.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Sep 23, 2014

Williams won't allow Nationals to baby their players

What a difference a day makes.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2014

Choosing death when loss of self is imminent

For people who do not want to live on when their mind has gone, deciding whether and when to die is difficult, and likely to meet resistance from loved ones.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2014

End of Homo economicus looms

The world seems to be on the verge of another great transformation with changes that will fundamentally redefine the nature of our economic interactions — and the social dynamics that underlie them.
WORLD
Sep 22, 2014

Raft sinks near Libya; 40 migrants missing

Forty migrants were missing after the raft that carried them sank around 30 miles (48.28 km) from eastern Libya, an Italian coast guard official said on Sunday.

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