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EDITORIALS
Apr 22, 2012

Cutting CO₂ without reactors

An Environment Ministry draft report states that Japan can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent without relying on nuclear power. This news is most welcome after the dangers of nuclear power were starkly exposed by the Fukushima nuclear fiasco.
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2012

S. Africa's rebranding as tourist destination pays off

South Africa's tourism sector has grown robustly since it successfully rebranded itself as a top sightseeing destination, especially among business travelers, according to visiting tourism minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk.
BUSINESS
Apr 19, 2012

Autos boost Nippon Yusen

Nippon Yusen K.K., Japan's largest shipping line, expects its car-carrying vessels to transport more vehicles in fiscal 2012 than it has in five years as demand surges in North America and factories in Thailand recover from last year's floods.
EDITORIALS
Apr 18, 2012

A critical role for the Shin-Tomei

The first section of the Shin-Tomei Expressway opened on April 14 in Shizuoka Prefecture, a 162-km stretch between Gotenba and Mikkabi junctions. The expressway will eventually link Tokyo and Nagoya when it is completed in 2020. The Shin Tomei runs through areas that are about 10 km more inland than...
BUSINESS / ASEAN-JAPAN SYMPOSIUM
Apr 7, 2012

ASEAN members see mixed future; ties with Japan entering new phase

Southeast Asia has emerged from the 2008-2009 global financial crisis with a robust economic expansion that, along with China and India, makes up a new growth center of the world economy. Still, major countries in the region foresee a mixed picture in the years ahead.
BUSINESS
Apr 7, 2012

Japan-like fertility rate, aging population pose threats to China

The rapid aging of China's population poses a serious threat to the country's future growth and social security, and policy actions need to be taken now to deal with the repercussions in the coming decades, said a senior Chinese scholar from Shanghai.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Apr 3, 2012

Little houses crammed in a big city

The neighborhood of Minami Senju in Tokyo's Arakawa Ward is serviced by three train lines that provide easy, quick access to all parts of the city and beyond. East of these lines is an area called Shioiri, highlighted by a relatively new urban development complex centered around high-rise condominiums...
BUSINESS
Mar 31, 2012

Experts: 10% tax too minor to dent deficit

The Cabinet on Friday made good on its vow and moved forward on doubling the consumption tax by 2015, but some experts and lawmakers already see it as only a tiny step in cutting the ever-expanding fiscal deficit.
EDITORIALS
Mar 31, 2012

Approach tax hike with caution

The Noda Cabinet on Friday endorsed and submitted to the Diet a bill aimed at raising the consumption tax from the current 5 percent to 8 percent from April in 2014 and to 10 percent from October 2015. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is so obsessed with a tax hike that he seems oblivious to the possible...
COMMENTARY
Mar 19, 2012

Color GDP growth green

It is often said that the 21st century is the "century of the environment." This means two things: One is that the environmental problems of this planet, especially climate change and global warming, have become so serious that they are attracting more people's attention; and the other is that environmental...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2012

Asahi Kasei to buy Zoll Medical for $2.2 billion

Asahi Kasei Corp., a maker of synthetic fibers and industrial chemicals, has agreed to buy U.S. company Zoll Medical Corp. for $2.2 billion (¥181 billion) to expand its presence in the critical care products field and also to boost sales in Asia.
COMMENTARY
Feb 27, 2012

Don't sweat the power shift

On Feb. 15, just as Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping arrived in the United States for a four-day visit, U.S. President Barack Obama told an audience of American workers in Milwaukee: "Manufacturing is coming back!" Coming back from China, that is. But while the Master Lock Co. of Milwaukee has moved...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 26, 2012

Gloom, doom — and Lester Brown's 'Plan B'

Anyone who has read any of the 50-plus books that Lester Brown has authored or co-authored (in any of the 40-odd languages into which they've been translated) might easily imagine him to be another gloomy environmentalist.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2012

Lithuania follows nuclear path

While the meltdown crisis in Fukushima has raised awareness around the world of the dangers of nuclear power, Lithuania, with its limited natural resources, appears to have little choice but to rely on atomic energy to reduce its heavy reliance on natural gas from Russia.
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2012

Relief over another Greek deal

Greece and the European Union have reached another deal. A second bailout will avert a Greek bankruptcy, although the reprieve is likely to be only temporary. The harsh austerity measures that the EU is demanding as a condition of its aid, ironically, are likely to make it even harder for Athens to reach...
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Feb 18, 2012

Fiscal ills not DPJ's doing but it's holding the bag

The tax and social security reform outline adopted by the Cabinet on Friday indicate the government has run out of options and must finally address welfare costs and public finances that have been spiralling out of control for years.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2012

Reform means the world for Todai

When Japan's leading university announced in January that it intends to shift undergraduate enrollment from spring to autumn in line with colleges worldwide, the plan created waves far beyond the academic world.
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2012

Rising bond auction demand defies growing debt-burden concerns

Demand has risen at every note and bond auction in Japan this year, helping the nation maintain the world's second-lowest borrowing costs on a debt burden poised to exceed ¥1 quadrillion.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 1, 2012

Five myths about China's power

As China gains on the world's most advanced economies, the country excites fascination as well as fear, particularly in the United States, where many worry that China will supplant America as the 21st century's superpower. Many ask how China has grown so much so fast, whether the Communist Party can...
BUSINESS
Jan 28, 2012

Bond yields could soar if Noda's tax hike plan stalls

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda says doubling the consumption tax is a necessary remedy to address soaring debt and social welfare costs, and while his opponents don't disagree, they're still not going to let him do it.
BUSINESS
Jan 14, 2012

MUFJ targeting acquisitions, retail to enter top three in Asian banking, deputy chief says

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., the nation's biggest bank, is shooting to become one of Asia's three biggest lenders by profit through acquisitions, funding infrastructure projects and expanding retail banking.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2012

Adaptation to climate change will cost plenty

Rising, warming and increasingly acidic seas threaten the very survival of Pacific island countries.

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