Search - japan

 
 
EDITORIALS
May 30, 2010

Futenma outcome disappoints

In a joint statement Friday, the foreign and defense ministers of Japan and the United States declared that the replacement facility for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, will be relocated to the Henoko area of Camp Schwab and adjacent waters in Nago, the northern part of Okinawa Island....
Reader Mail
May 30, 2010

How low should population go?

I appreciate the spirit in which Jeff Huffman wrote his May 16 letter, "Japan will become more livable." But Huffman seems to make some big claims without providing facts to back them up. He says that Japan, in relation to its usable land mass and resources, is probably overpopulated "by 25 million to...
LIFE
May 30, 2010

By definition, who are 'adult learners' anyway?

Defining "adult learners" isn't easy. After all, youths in Japan can vote and drink at the age of 20, yet when attending university they are not considered adults.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
May 30, 2010

Pearl farmers look to satoumi to save their way of life

One bright blue February afternoon, Akira Harajo stood on a concrete pier and surveyed Mie Prefecture's Ago Bay. With dyed black hair, a zippered sports shirt and immaculate V-neck sweater, Harajo, 75, hardly looked the part of the farmer that he is. Then again, his crop isn't exactly ordinary: Harajo...
EDITORIALS
May 29, 2010

A good time to quit smoking

Japan Tobacco Inc. plans to raise the prices of tobacco products from Oct. 1 following the government's decision to raise the tobacco tax by ¥3.5 per cigarette or ¥70 per 20-cigarette pack. As a result, prices for cigarette packs, now around ¥300, will top ¥400 in what JT calls an "unprecedented...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 29, 2010

Hordes greet iPad debut in Tokyo

Apple Inc.'s much-awaited iPad debuted in Japan Friday with hundreds of people lining up for the device and celebrating its arrival at retail stores in Tokyo.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 28, 2010

Sources say Tennichi set to part with Evessa

It won't take long for the bj-league's offseason coaching carousel to begin.
JAPAN
May 28, 2010

Innovate or perish: new Keidanren chief

Hiromasa Yonekura, newly appointed chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), says he wants to compile a Japanese version of landmark U.S. industrial competitiveness reports that should strongly appeal to the public.
JAPAN
May 28, 2010

Bethune plea: Trespassing on whaler

A Sea Shepherd activist pleaded guilty Thursday at the start of his Tokyo trial to trespassing onto a Japanese research whaling vessel in the Antarctic Ocean in February but denied trying to hurt a crew member.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 28, 2010

'Railways'

The Japanese have a love affair with trains, especially the ones that trundle through the more picturesque parts of the country. One sure way to draw tourists to your rural prefecture is an ancient steam locomotive that chugs through a pretty middle-of-nowhere. For many visitors, it's not the destination,...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 28, 2010

'Gas' event asks big questions

Playwright Jason Maghanoy burst to prominence in the Canadian theater world in 2007 with his maiden offering, "Gas," about the Iraq War, which questioned the meaning of democracy and freedom in the instant-reaction, life-and-death conditions of live-fire conflict.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 28, 2010

Sober approach pays dividends for these puritans

Jack Barnett, the scrawny, intense singer/songwriter with English post-art rockers These New Puritans, is stood on a rest area off a German autobahn on his way to Freiburg. This can be an unedifying business at the best of times, but the banality of the situation seems a world away from the sonic sorcery...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 28, 2010

Something new brewing for sake

When Kenji Ichishima, the sixth-generation head of Ichishima Shuzo in Niigata Prefecture, took over his family's sake brewery eight years ago at the age of 34, he immediately started making changes. First, he drastically reduced the number of products. Next, he revamped the brand to project a more artisanal...
JAPAN
May 27, 2010

Stable masters gave front-row seats to mob

NAGOYA (Kyodo) Two sumo stable masters face disciplinary action after they were found to have given senior underworld figures front-row tickets for a tournament last year.
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
May 27, 2010

Okada's moment of weakness sets worst possible example

Whether Takeshi Okada's offer to resign as national team manager immediately after this week's defeat to South Korea was serious or merely a gesture of apology, the effect is still the same: The growing sense that Japan is heading for World Cup humiliation has now been endorsed by the team's own leader....
EDITORIALS
May 26, 2010

Back to the starting line

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama essentially told Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima on Sunday that he cannot help asking the Okinawan people to accept the Henoko district, in the city of Nago in the northern part of Okinawa, as the site for relocating U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. In mentioning Henoko,...

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