Search - long form

 
 
Japan Times
JAPAN / POWERING THE FUTURE
Sep 24, 2011

Despite headwinds, solar energy making progress, advocates say

Japan's largest solar panel plant is in full swing in Kunitomi, Miyazaki Prefecture, daily churning out up to 16,000 30-sq.-cm solar panels that have a conversion efficiency rate of more than 12 percent.
COMMENTARY
Sep 2, 2011

U.S.-China 'win-win' game

In spite of the polar positions of the United States and China in the global system, during the past dozen years their economies have become intertwined to such a degree that one is tempted to speak of an emerging new giant macroeconomic entity with a common metabolism — at least with regard to some...
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2011

Contenders' backgrounds

Seiji Maehara Seiji Maehara represents Kyoto's No. 2 electoral district, a cultural cornucopia where in some ways he could be considered an outsider.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 24, 2011

1991 USSR coup attempt's steep cost

Twenty years ago this weekend, a group of Communist Party Politburo members and Soviet government officials attempted a coup d'état. They created an unconstitutional "committee on the state of emergency," isolated the Soviet president and removed him from power.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 22, 2011

The nostalgic and sweet life of Kyoto

The world of wagashi, traditional Japanese confectionery, can be a little difficult to decipher. Not a few people are rather underwhelmed by their first taste of a typical wagashi such as daifuku, a sticky rice dumpling filled with an, sweet adzuki bean paste. Even if you can get over the strangeness...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 3, 2011

Have a hideously good time in Tono's past and present

The professor's snoring had kept me up until the wee hours of the morning. When I awoke, the reading light in the hostel's upper bunk was still on and a copy of "The Legends of Tono" lay open at the page where I had dozed off. With that book being full of hobgoblins, ravaging wolf packs and rural satyrs,...
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2011

Besieged Kan marks milestone: one year

The first anniversary of Naoto Kan's prime ministership arrived Wednesday amid a whirlwind of political maneuvering and speculation over when he would step down and whether the ruling and opposition parties can form a grand coalition.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 2, 2011

Fired-up tales of ceramics in wonderland

Craft was maligned in Japan's Meiji Era (1868-1912) as the transposition of Western aesthetic theory denigrated it in relation to grand ideas of "fine art." All the while, though, it was an important export industry and a core component of Japan's contributions to various world expositions. It became...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 27, 2011

Tokyo theater offers butoh performance and lecture

The mission of Theater X (Cai), according to its website, is to stand out from all other theaters in Tokyo, "though they are as numerous as stars in the sky."
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
May 16, 2011

The new enervated Tepco

With the onset of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant crisis following the March 11 Tohoku-Pacific earthquake, radioactive substances continue to seep into the sea, air and soil. Residents within a designated proximity of the plant will likely have to live away from their homes a long time. The prospect...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 3, 2011

It's innovate or die in today's mad mag world

In few countries are the most vital political, economic and cultural activities as geographically concentrated as in Japan. All the main institutions can be found in Tokyo — one can only shudder to think what will happen not only to this city, but to the whole country if and when a massive earthquake...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 24, 2011

Lotus Stutra enlightenment

THE STORIES OF THE LOTUS SUTRA, by Gene Reeves. Wisdom Publications, 347 pp., 2010, $18.95 (paper) Gene Reeves is just the kind of preacher-teacher I like, one who lays his wares out, takes a step back and lets you appraise what he has to offer without obligation. Buddhism, like all religions, is best...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 17, 2011

In this time of trials, a new nationalism would aid Japan's recovery

The worst form of bondage is the bondage of dejection, which keeps men hopelessly chained in loss of faith in themselves."
CULTURE / Books
Apr 10, 2011

Poetry lies in wait to spring at our throats

NONZEN POEMS, by Morgan Gibson. Printed Matter Press, 2010, 100 pp., $15 (paper) Translator, scholar and poet Morgan Gibson's collection "Nonzen Poems" divides into four parts concerned variously with breath, nature, Buddhism, and the author's mentors and contemporaries — notably Kenneth Rexroth and...
BUSINESS
Mar 25, 2011

Manufacturers left in limbo by rolling power outages

The power shortages spawned by the Tohoku quake and tsunami are expected to continue this summer and maybe even longer, leaving companies whose production lines are already affected unsure how they will cope in the long term.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 8, 2011

Byzantine temp rules need permanent fix

Back in the days when I was a corporate drone in Tokyo, I had a wonderful secretary who had the good fortune to get pregnant. Bad news for me, though, since I had to endure a series of temps, some good, some bad, and one who marinated herself in enough perfume to make everyone ill. But what I found most...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 1, 2011

Solving parental child abduction problem no piece of cake

The Way of Cake is mysterious and paradoxical. A master of the Way can make his neighbors feel they have filled themselves with tasty cake without ever cutting off a piece. The Way allows its disciple to step outside the boundaries of rational thought by partaking of cake while continuing to possess...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 11, 2011

The legacy of kyogen's Okura tigers

Noh, the Japanese theater form, is renowned for its highly stylized use of masks, elaborate costumes, literary and religious context, and difficult narratives. It's also known for its incredibly long performances — traditionally taking up an entire day.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 30, 2011

Murin-an Garden: an ode to water

Surprisingly, as modernization swept through Japan in the Meiji Era (1868-1912), the number of traditional gardens increased. The clients, though, were now of a different order. Instead of the shoguns, their court aristocracy and feudal lords, the new patrons of these meticulously crafted sites of reflection,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 21, 2011

'Gantz'

Films about murder games of various sorts have become a popular Japanese-movie subgenre, beginning with the ultra-violent Kinji Fukasaku hit "Battle Royale" (2000) and continuing with the even more successful "Death Note" trio of films (2006-2008) — though the "game" in the latter was more of a battle...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2011

Blasphemy hardly equates to hate speech

NEW YORK — The assassination of Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab province in Pakistan and an outspoken critic of religious extremism, has focused attention on his country's Draconian blasphemy law.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2011

Tax hike not question of if, just how

Working mother Gudrun Skuladottir appreciates her life in Sweden, where her two small children can receive a good education for free.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 14, 2011

Spelling out China's calligraphic influence

At the end of the Edo Period (1603-1868), as Japan began to change its long-held cultural reference point from China to the West, a strong Sinophile interest was maintained by the nation's cultural and political elites. From the late 19th century, however, the cultural reorientation to the West had deleterious...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 18, 2010

A giant salamander sermon

Japan has the world's longest life span. Even their animals live to be elderly. Japan' oldest giant salamander, who lived in Okayama, passed away in August this year — at 100 years old.
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Nov 30, 2010

Tokyo: Who — if anyone — should be punished for the Senkaku collision video leak?

Olivia MokStudent, 21 (Chinese)I think no one should be punished because the navigator (who uploaded the video to YouTube) revealed the truth, and people have the right to know. I think what the government is doing by trying to hide the information is just another form of censorship.
BUSINESS / ASEAN JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Nov 16, 2010

Japan urged to cope with changing landscape in Asia

Japan needs to come to terms with its declining influence in Asia and readjust its strategy toward Southeast Asia, where its once-dominant position has been replaced by rising China, veteran journalists from the region said at a recent symposium in Tokyo.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 13, 2010

No easy way out of 'twisted' Diet

The Democratic Party of Japan has faced a divided Diet since its ruling coalition lost its Upper House majority in July's election. While the DPJ-led coalition retains a majority of seats in the more powerful Lower House, the opposition now controls the other chamber, giving it the power to veto the...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 10, 2010

Contract loophole opened door for Nomo's jump

Second in a four-part series
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Oct 1, 2010

Twenty ways for the bj-league to boost exposure

How can an upstart league become relevant to the masses?
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2010

Ending the secret life of the death penalty

Japan's former Justice Minister Keiko Chiba surprised many people when she ordered the hanging of two convicted killers at the end of July.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami