Search - 2012

 
 
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 22, 2012

Once one and only, Sony seeks to regain that status

Despite reporting a record ¥457 billion annual loss last year, Sony Corp. earlier this month said it would return to the black in fiscal 2012 with a ¥30 billion profit.
MULTIMEDIA
May 21, 2012

Solar eclipse in Japan 2012

COMMENTARY / World
May 21, 2012

Rebalancing eurozone wages and productivity

The eurozone crisis unfolded primarily as a sovereign-debt crisis mostly on its southern periphery, with interest rates on sovereign bonds at times reaching 6 to 7 percent for Italy and Spain, and even higher for other countries. And because eurozone banks hold a substantial part of their assets in the...
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
May 21, 2012

For better or worse, Japan might remain nuclear-free forever

On May 5, Japan's last operating nuclear reactor was shut down, turning it into a nuclear energy-free country. The government is working desperately to restart two reactors in the town of Oi in Fukui Prefecture, but the outcome is difficult to predict.
COMMENTARY / World
May 21, 2012

Reinventing NATO for the 'smart defense' era

This month the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will hold its next summit in Chicago. Unlike European Union summits, which take place almost monthly, NATO's are infrequent. This helps to explain the inflated rhetoric that surrounds them: The November 2010 summit in Lisbon, for example, was described...
COMMENTARY
May 21, 2012

Bipartisanship alive and well for the 'entitled'

Bipartisanship, the supposed scarcity of which so distresses the high-minded, actually is disastrously prevalent in the United States.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 20, 2012

TV: no longer the drug of the people

Last week, Japan's fifth largest discount electronics retailer, Bic Camera, announced it would soon obtain a 50 percent share of Japan's sixth-largest discount electronics retailer, Kojima, thus making the combined companies Japan's second-largest electronics retailer. Bic operates 34 stores in large...
CULTURE / Books
May 20, 2012

A tour de Japan

Japan on Foot, by Mary King.
CULTURE / Books
May 20, 2012

Exploring the pathologies of Japan's youth

A Sociology of Japanese Youth: From Returnees to NEETs, edited by Roger Goodman, Yuki Imoto and Tuukka Toivonen. Routledge: Abingdon, U.K., 2012, 191 pp., $51.95 (paperback)
EDITORIALS
May 19, 2012

Few strong performers in 2011

Listed major companies are announcing their business performance for fiscal 2011. As a whole, they are expected to show the first decrease in recurring profits in three years, mainly due to the effects of the 3/11 disasters, floods in Thailand, the strong yen and rises in the prices of imported raw materials,...
BASKETBALL
May 18, 2012

Ryukyu star Newton set for seventh straight Final Four

This is arguably the most remarkable statistic in the bj-league's seven-year history: Center Jeff Newton's teams have advanced to the Final Four every season.
CULTURE / Music
May 18, 2012

Will the world soon wake up to the scent of Perfume?

When the Nippon Budokan was built in 1964, its architects probably never envisaged it one day resembling a massive nightclub filled with hundreds of laser beams in every shade of neon as three women in lightup minidresses danced like finely tuned robots to the sound of the bassiest bombast imaginable....
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2012

NATO: world's best security insurance

Many years ago, I took my children to visit the sites of the D-Day landings (June 6, 1944) in Normandy. I wanted them to understand the sacrifices that others had made so that Europe and North America could enjoy the benefits of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 17, 2012

Maccabees rise above indie's fall

So indie-guitar music in Britain is in the doldrums, is it? Try telling that to The Maccabees.
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2012

Is Europe on a cross of gold?

Increasingly, one hears predictions that the euro will go the way of the gold standard in the 1930s. And, increasingly, the reasoning behind such forecasts seems persuasive. But does that mean that the euro doomsayers are right?
BUSINESS
May 15, 2012

Tepco pays dearly for disastrous year

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday it posted a ¥781.6 billion group net loss for fiscal 2011 after incurring massive costs from the meltdown disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, compensation for the victims and fuel costs for reverting to thermal power.
COMMENTARY
May 14, 2012

Consequences of the state's proclivity to tax

Bill Hewlett and David Packard, tinkering in a California garage, began what became Hewlett-Packard.
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2012

The ayatollah contemplates a contradiction

The recent nuclear talks in Istanbul between the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany, and Iran have shifted the world's focus to the possible terms of a deal when the sides meet again, probably in Baghdad on May 23. So, what accounts for the new seeming willingness...
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2012

Are humans getting better at beating violence?

With daily headlines focusing on war, terrorism and the abuses of repressive governments, and religious leaders frequently bemoaning declining standards of public and private behavior, it is easy to get the impression that we are witnessing a moral collapse.
CULTURE / Books
May 13, 2012

A chart-topper for J-Pop fans

Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon: A Geopolitical Prehistory of J-Pop by Michael K. Bourdaghs. Columbia University Press, New York, 2012, 304 pp., $27.50 (paperback)
CULTURE / Books
May 13, 2012

Tokugawa: the art of governing

PERFORMING THE GREAT PEACE: Political Space and Open Secrets in Tokugawa Japan, by Luke S. Roberts. University of Hawai'i Press, 2012, 263 pp., $49.00 (hardcover)
BUSINESS
May 12, 2012

Analysts wary of carmakers' projections

Although Japanese automakers foresee a strong earnings rebound for the business year ending next March, experts remain cautious about extended gains amid intensifying global competition and persistent strength in the yen.
BUSINESS
May 12, 2012

Toyota leaves GM trailing in global sales in first quarter

Toyota Motor Corp. sold the most cars and trucks in the world in the first three months of the year as it made up for production losses caused by natural disasters.
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
May 11, 2012

Tepco survival plan depends on restarts

Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s special 10-year turnaround plan has been officially endorsed by the government, but industry observers are skeptical it will work.

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.