Search - environment

 
 
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Nov 30, 2010

Frenchwoman's passions realized with Japanese help

Florence Roca, 45, is a French mother of three married to a fellow countryman who has lived on and off in Japan for 10 years. Aside from family, she has a passion for painting porcelain and making jewelry.
EDITORIALS
Nov 28, 2010

Death sentence for a minor

Six lay judges and three professional judges at the Sendai District Court on Nov. 25 sentenced a male 19-year-old to death for murdering two people and injuring two others, one of them seriously. This is the second death sentence under the lay judge system introduced in 2009 and the first death sentence...
COMMENTARY
Nov 25, 2010

Surviving the currency competition

The yen's exchange value is considered likely to top the rate of ¥79.75 to the dollar registered in 1995 for an all-time high sooner or later. At a meeting that ended Oct. 23, Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors managed to contain the confrontation between the advanced economies...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 25, 2010

Mozart's growing influence on food

Although the claim that listening to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's complicated scores can boost your IQ has been debunked, its effect on bananas has yet to be disputed. So in July, the Hyogo Prefecture-based fruit company Toyoka Chuo Seika shipped out its first batch of "Mozart Bananas" to supermarkets in...
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 2010

Uncovering government waste

In a Nov. 5 report to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, the Board of Audit said that in fiscal 2009, ministries and agencies as well as other government entities wasted public money in 979 cases. The total reached a record ¥1.79 trillion — some 7.5 times the fiscal 2008 figure.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 21, 2010

'Freeter' drama reflects Japan's income gap

The American media keeps wondering whether or not the United States will have to endure a "lost decade" of sluggish growth and stagnant employment like the one Japan suffered through after the real-estate bubble burst in the early 1990s. It seems unlikely. The American economy is dynamic while Japan's...
LIFE / WEEK 3
Nov 21, 2010

Heading for the hills — in style

One sunny Saturday a couple of weeks ago, this writer joined five women and three men who met up at Ikusabata Station on the JR Ome Line in the mountains of western Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2010

Companies going all-out in English

Enhancing employee English-language skills has become a high-priority management challenge for Japanese corporations, regardless of their size and industry.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 19, 2010

Van Gogh: Sanity behind madness

In recent years there has been a sea change in the official cult surrounding the Post-Impressionist Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). For the masses he is still the archetypal "crazy artist": razor blade in one hand, severed ear in the other, and a lovely picture of sunflowers on the easel...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2010

TPP signals commitment to Asia: Obama

YOKOHAMA — The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement will give Washington a strong presence in Asia and an opportunity to increase trade, U.S. President Barack Obama said Saturday in Yokohama.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 14, 2010

Revealing looks at a 'phantom chef' and city sparrows; CM of the Week: Lotte Xylitol gum

You've been thrilled by the skills of "Ryori no Tetsujin (The Iron Chef)" and impressed by the knowledge revealed by "Ryori no Meijin" ("The Master Chef"). Now you can enjoy the unique talents of "Ryori no Kaijin" ("The Phantom Chef"; TV Tokyo, Wed., 9 p.m.).
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2010

Imperial Hotel maintains its pride, 120 years on

Charles Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe and Babe Ruth, and in recent years U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev are among the many celebrities who have lodged at the Imperial Hotel, Japan's first grand Western-style inn, which opened as a state guesthouse during...
BUSINESS
Nov 13, 2010

Uniting APEC too tall an order for Kan?

Prime Minister Naoto Kan faces the huge task of forging consensus among the 21 economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and paving the way for a regionwide free-trade zone as chair of the summit that kicks off Saturday in Yokohama.
EDITORIALS
Nov 12, 2010

Japan's push for open trade

The 2010 APEC forum meetings started in Yokohama on Monday and an APEC leaders summit will take place on Saturday and Sunday. As host and chair, Japan faces the task of leading the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation members to agree on steps to push for further liberalization of trade and investment....
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2010

Hotels find profit in catering to families

One autumn afternoon in Kobuchizawa, Yamanashi Prefecture, a group of children and their parents were driving to a field to pick fresh vegetables for pizzas they planned to make there.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 10, 2010

Five anti-recession imperatives for the G20

NEW YORK — The world's economies are becoming more interdependent than ever, but economic nationalism, protectionism and beggar-thy-neighbor attitudes are threatening the bonds of trust and cooperation that a truly globalized economy requires.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?