Search - world

 
 
BUSINESS
Mar 2, 2014

Underwater gold rush spurs fears of ocean calamity

This is the last frontier: the ocean floor, 4,000 meters beneath the waters of the central Pacific, where mining companies are now exploring for the rich deposits of ores needed to keep industry humming and smartphones switched on.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Mar 1, 2014

Going back to the Simien's future

On Saturday, Jan. 18, I set foot in Addis Ababa for the first time since I left Ethiopia in late October 1969.
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Feb 28, 2014

Another nail in the coffin of amateur sumo

Sumo currently exists in two forms around the world. Most famous, of course, is the Tokyo-based professional sport led by yokozuna Hakuho, et al. However, the amateur version, often termed “amasumo” in abbreviated form, is of interest to many in nations that lack direct access to Japanese broadcasts....
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 25, 2014

Vandalized Anne Frank diaries are troubling sign of the times

It would be an astounding coincidence if the shameful vandalism of copies of Anne Frank's memoirs was not related to the request by a southern Japanese city to have the U.N. World Heritage organization enshrine farewell letters written by World War II kamikaze suicide pilots alongside other historical documents.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2014

How we lose our marbles — and get them back

A remark by American actor George Clooney has reignited the debate over whether removing the Parthenon Marbles (aka Elgin Marbles) from the British Museum and returning them to their ancient home in Athens would be the right thing to do.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 23, 2014

Shambolic Venezuela's biggest threat? Itself.

Late President Hugo Chavez used to call it "la revolucion bonita" (the pretty revolution), but the world looked at Venezuela last week and saw only ugliness. Protesters gunned down in the streets, barricades in flames, chaos. One of the dead was a 22-year-old beauty queen shot in the head.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 22, 2014

Can waste-made chic save the oceans?

Search online for "Pacific gyre" and you'll get about 455,000 results in 0.15 seconds. Try "Pacific trash vortex" and you'll get 474,000. Here's another: Do a search for "Pacific garbage patch" and, in 0.40 seconds, you'll have 593,000 hits.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 14, 2014

Asia's democratic dramas

Socially and economically, Asia now stands roughly where Europe was at the start of the 20th century. One can only hope that its democratic journey will be shorter and less violent.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Feb 10, 2014

Tokyo model community melds fashion and compassion

Male model Dean Newcombe runs what surely must be the most photogenic all-volunteer organization around. And although some of the volunteers are indeed fashion models, the 'model' in Intrepid Model Adventures refers to role models as well as the catwalk variety.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Feb 6, 2014

Nanbu takes control of men's national volleyball team

A day after the stunning news of Gary Sato's dismissal, the Japan Volleyball Association announced Thursday that Masashi Nanbu would replace the American as the men's national team head coach.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 3, 2014

Torture happens when people are your export

It's simply easier for leaders of some countries to export their own people abroad and count the money than to take on vested interests and generate opportunities at home.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Jan 31, 2014

Three decades on, Tokyo bluesman is still rambling

'You can't go home again,' but you can take a little bit of home with you wherever you roam. 'Rambling' Steve Gardner does; a Mississippi roots and bluesman based in Tokyo, Gardner travels the world making music and giving seminars about musical history.
COMMUNITY / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jan 29, 2014

The confounding case of Japan's creativity crisis

The smartphone demands the attention and occupies the mind of its owner, crowding out the random impressions that — were they observed — might just lead to insights, ideas and novel solutions to seemingly intractable questions.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 26, 2014

Religious differences to fuel this century's bloody wars

The last weeks have seen a ghastly roll call of terrorist attacks in the obvious places: Syria, Libya, Iraq and Lebanon, as well as Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia and Pakistan. Also suffering are places where we have only in recent years seen such violence: Nigeria, and in many parts of central Africa, in Russia...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 17, 2014

A vision for Japan's future

Thanks to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's 'Abenomics' initiative for national economic recovery, Japan's economy as well as its currency and stock markets started the New Year on a positive note for the first time in a long while.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 10, 2014

Looming economic problems

The major uncertainty facing the world today, says George Soros, is not the euro but the future direction of China. The growth model that drove China's rapid rise appears to have run out of steam.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jan 10, 2014

Educator with a mission sends out support from Hiroshima

Some people seem to have a knack for turning their hand to anything that comes along and, moreover, making a success of it. This is certainly the case with Hiroshima-based Adam Beck. Over the years, the American has been a children's theater director, an English teacher, a newspaper columnist and the...
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Jan 10, 2014

Kim looking like a lock for second gold medal in Sochi

With less than a month to go until the Sochi Games begin, all signs are that defending Olympic and world champion Kim Yu-na is rounding into form and will be in top shape when she enters the rink at the Iceberg Skating Palace.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2014

Russian road to mediocrity

Only a few economists in Russia seem to stress the importance of understanding the impact of the current mass outflow of capital and the sharp deterioration of the situation in world commodity markets.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2014

Century engine starts now

The last two centuries (and possibly more) didn't 'start' with the turning of the calendar from 00 to 01. Each century began bending the arc of history, in essence, in its 14th year.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2013

Putin plays games to salvage Sochi Olympics

Ahead of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, President Vladimir Putin is playing his own game of trying to make his autocratic regime more palatable to world leaders wondering whether they should show up at all.
EDITORIALS
Dec 28, 2013

Year of ups and downs for Japan

Japan in 2013 was besieged by problems in politics, business and society even while several key events helped to rekindle a sense of confidence in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2013

When leaps in technology make cheating easier

As economists keep reminding us, the optimal level of cheating isn't zero. Sometimes the costs of monitoring tests and chess games, for example, can outweigh the benefits of the underlying activity.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 23, 2013

How the Federal Reserve was created

A century ago this week, Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act, creating a central bank for a nation that was only beginning its economic ascendance. This is the story of how it came to be, from a nearly catastrophic financial panic to secret meetings of plutocrats on the Georgia coast to the pitched...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 21, 2013

Protecting nature to protect ourselves

This month's column takes an intrepid look at efforts to expand protected areas in Japan and worldwide, areas that are essential to conserve biological diversity and mitigate natural disasters.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 2013

Josef Koudelka: the theatrics of life

Wild white hair and beard, but dressed in a drab, olive shirt and combat jacket, Josef Koudelka is like a guerrilla Father Christmas. Wearing scuffed shoes, and with a roughly unceremonious joviality, the Czech photographer appears uncomfortable being stalked around his exhibition by dozens of press...
WORLD
Dec 15, 2013

Some Afrikaners unmoved by Mandela death

Dirk Smit's reaction to the death of Nelson Mandela, it would be fair to assume, puts him in the minority of South Africans.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan