Search - 2012

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 27, 2012

Roots of Japan-China rivalry

The anti-Japan protests that continue to roil China are just another indication of the rise of a potent Chinese nationalism. After a century slowly fomenting among Chinese intellectuals, national sentiment has captured and redefined the consciousness of the Chinese people during the last two decades...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2012

Hard truths about global growth

The world's high-income countries are in economic trouble, mostly related to growth and employment, and now their distress is spilling over to developing economies. What factors underlie today's problems, and how appropriate are the likely policy responses?
COMMENTARY
Sep 26, 2012

Why shouldn't pols treat voters like grownups?

In every year divisible by four, the dominant superstition of American politics — faith in the magic of presidential words and deeds — reaches an apogee that feeds national narcissism: Everything that happens anywhere is about us, is a response to something America did or did not do, and can be controlled...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2012

Transforming how India addresses its problems

Last month, I visited the Jaipur Foot clinic in New Delhi. You may have heard of the Jaipur Foot. It is both an invention — a prosthetic foot made from cheap materials costing about $45 (versus $8,000 for a similar device in the United States) — and an amazing, low-cost network of clinics around...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Sep 26, 2012

Get ready to broadcast video live online

Japan-based Cerevo has carved out an interesting business niche for itself as a provider of live-video-streaming hardware, most notably its Live Shell device released last year. That device enabled aspiring Internet broadcasters to stream live video directly from a camera to the Web without the need...
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2012

Toyota plans slew of new hybrid models

Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday that it will introduce 21 new gasoline-electric hybrid models by the end of 2015 to meet the growing demand for fuel-efficient cars.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 25, 2012

Gaijin cards valid until 2015 — but not at the post office

Reader AM informed us that Japan Post no longer accepts alien registration cards as valid identification.
EDITORIALS
Sep 25, 2012

Setting the DPJ on the right track

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda was reelected as head of the Democratic Party of Japan on Sept. 21 with an overwhelming win over three other candidates. On Monday, he reogranized the party's leadership His most important task now should be to consolidate his party, which has suffered the departure of many...
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Sep 25, 2012

Harumafuji — sumo's 70th yokozuna

The 2012 Aki Basho will forever be remembered as the tournament at which ozeki Harumafuji, winner of the previous Nagoya Basho with a perfect 15-0 record, mirrored his performance in July and guaranteed his promotion to the rank of yokozuna.
COMMENTARY
Sep 24, 2012

Gaffe calls welfare of candidacy into question

It is a measure of Mitt Romney's inadequacies as a candidate that he has not been able to turn his latest gaffe — his dismissive reference to the 47 percent of Americans who "are dependent upon government" — into a teachable moment and a campaign advantage.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2012

Secret of success for the top-rated universities

No country dominates any industry as much as the United States dominates higher education. According to Shanghai Jiao-Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities, for example, 17 of the world's 20 best universities are American, with Harvard topping the list by a substantial margin.
BASKETBALL
Sep 24, 2012

Cinq Reves struggle in exhibition play

The expansion Tokyo Cinq Reves fell to 0-4 in exhibition play on Sunday, losing 86-69 to the Sendai 89ers in the second day of the Tohoku Cup in Akita.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 23, 2012

The third space: the cafe's place in forming modern Japan

COFFEE LIFE IN JAPAN, by Merry White. University of California Press, 2012, 240 pp., $24.95 (paperback) Those of us interested in coffee, life and Japan will open Merry White's "Coffee Life in Japan" with high expectations. For most readers, alas, these expectations will be only partially fulfilled....
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 23, 2012

Street dance sweeps young Japan

The cool, wild and powerful movements of rhythm-heavy hip-hop dance are gripping the body and soul of ever more Japanese children and young people.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2012

Freedom of speech, blasphemy and violence

Violent attacks on U.S. diplomatic outposts across North Africa and the Middle East have once again raised the question of how to respond when Americans and other Westerners engage in provocative expression that others consider blasphemous. Though the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi,...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Sep 22, 2012

Evessa GM Nomamoto fired after team's rocky preseason start: sources

Hirotaro Nomamoto, the Osaka Evessa general manager since the team entered the bj-league in 2005, was relieved of his duties on Wednesday, sources familiar with the situation told The Japan Times.
BASKETBALL
Sep 21, 2012

Defense fuels victory for Japan over China in FIBA Asia Cup quarterfinals

Veterans Kosuke Takeuchi and Ryota Sakurai powered Hayabusa Japan at both ends of the floor in a 60-50 win over China in the FIBA Asia Cup quarterfinals at Ota City General Gymnasium on Thursday night.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 20, 2012

Coming to grips with Libya's jihadists

"They are armed and I am not going to fight a losing battle and kill my men over a demolished shrine," said Fawzi Abd al-'Aali, the former Libyan interior minister, before he "resigned" last August.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 20, 2012

The art of photography

This weekend sees the fourth installment of "Tokyo Photo" — Japan's first international photography fair, and now the biggest event of its kind in Asia. Since its inception in 2009, the fair has cast its net wide, and this year has more than 35 agencies and galleries taking part. Over half of them...
BASKETBALL
Sep 19, 2012

Panasonic pulls plug on JBL team

As Panasonic Corp. restructures due to financial problems, the JBL's Panasonic Trians, considered one of the pillars of the sport here for decades, will dissolve after the 2012-13 season, multiple media outlets reported Monday.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2012

Relisting just starting point for rejuvenated JAL

Japan Airlines Co. will return to the Tokyo Stock Exchange's first section Wednesday, two years and eight months after filing for bankruptcy in one of the country's biggest corporate failures.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 19, 2012

Why do nations' savings patterns differ so much?

Ever since the integration of emerging markets into the global economy began in the early 1990s, three striking trends have emerged: a divergence in private savings rates between the industrialized core and the emerging periphery (the former experiencing a sharp rise, and the latter a steady decline);...
COMMENTARY
Sep 19, 2012

In America, a tangled web of conflicting rights

Elaine Huguenin, who with her husband operates Elane Photography in New Mexico, asks only to be let alone. But instead of being allowed a reasonable zone of sovereignty in which to live her life in accordance with her beliefs, she is being bullied by people wielding government power.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 18, 2012

Shilling for our side over the Senkakus

Akihiro Suzuki does not think war will come, but if it does, he believes Japan will prevail.
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Sep 18, 2012

Celebration of Kanemoto's career offers Tigers brief respite

For the next couple of weeks, the prevailing narrative of most Hanshin Tigers games will be the impending retirement of star outfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2012

Competition for national dignity drove 9/11

September 11, 2001, may — at least at first — seem like an inappropriate addition to the history of nationalism, given al-Qaida's explicitly stated global pretensions.
EDITORIALS
Sep 17, 2012

Mr. Draghi's decision

Mr. Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), has made the boldest move yet to halt the economic crisis that threatens the solvency of European governments, the future of the euro and the very dream of a European Union.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.