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COMMENTARY
Sep 28, 2010

Venetians raise blinds against nuclear plan

VENICE — It seemed incredible when drama rolled off the screen and onto the streets at Venice during its recent film festival. People played loud music, beat drums, blew trumpets and clashed cymbals to protest the government's decision to locate a nuclear reactor just 20 kilometers away from this ancient...
COMMENTARY
Sep 23, 2010

Their own private seabeds

SINGAPORE — A bitter sea dispute between China and Japan, Asia's two biggest economies, is intensifying after the decision of a Japanese court Sunday to extend detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain until Sept. 29.
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2010

Sanyo Electric mulls expansion for lithium-ion battery plant

Sanyo Electric Co., the world's biggest maker of rechargeable batteries, may expand a plant making next-generation batteries by 40 percent next year as demand soars for pollution-free vehicles, an official said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2010

CEOs learning 'globish' to expand overseas

Oki Matsumoto, chief executive officer of online trader Monex Group Inc. and a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner, has a solution to the stagnant economy: Learn "globish."
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 12, 2010

Aging through the ages

"If only, when one heard That Old Age was coming One could bolt the door Answer 'not at home' And refuse to meet him!" (Anonymous, "Kokinshu" Imperial poetry anthology, 10th century)
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2010

Downside of a yen haven

HONG KONG — Is the world economy about to enter the second part of a double dip, or is it merely bumping along the extended bottom of what will eventually be a U-shaped recovery, or is it a long L with no real upturn in sight? Or is there no clear pattern of who's up and who's down?
COMMENTARY
Aug 21, 2010

China's cautionary tale

Will the 21st century belong to China? For a while, perhaps — but only in the sense that it was said to belong to Japan in the 1980s. Looking back now, that seems ridiculous, but at the time best-selling books were predicting that Americans, not to mention the rest of the planet, would be reduced to...
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2010

Flickers of hope for nuke abolitionists

HIROSHIMA — In Hiroshima, this place where a fearful age was born one fiery instant 65 years ago, the Flame of Peace still flickers on, awaiting the day when the world is rid of nuclear weapons.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Aug 18, 2010

Redefining the minimum wage in an age of no expectations

The DPJ wants to raise minimum wage to u00a5800 but is that high enough to decrease the number of 'working poor'?
COMMENTARY
Aug 16, 2010

Anti-global warming push also best for the economy

Until just recently the view prevailed that there was a tradeoff relationship between achieving respectable economic growth and reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, most of which consist of carbon dioxide. This led to a wide debate on how to achieve both goals.
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2010

Hiroshima urges end of nuclear umbrella

HIROSHIMA — At a memorial ceremony attended for the first time ever by a U.N. secretary general and a U.S. representative, Hiroshima on Friday marked the 65th anniversary of its atomic bombing by calling on Japan to withdraw from the U.S. nuclear umbrella and accelerate the progress made over the past...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2010

That 70s show in Russia

MOSCOW — Can Russia escape the "resource curse" implied by high oil prices, or will it succumb to what we call a "70-80" scenario? That is the question confronting Russians today, and we fear that their fate will be the latter: If oil prices remain at $70 to $80 per barrel, Russia is likely to relive...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jul 26, 2010

Black Sea challenge by U.S. set to keep Russia on edge

A storm is gathering in and around the Black Sea as Russia faces a mounting challenge from the United States, which is beefing up its military presence in former Soviet satellite countries like Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2010

Democrats abandon U.S. climate bill

WASHINGTON (AP, THE WASHINGTON POST) Senate Democrats gave up plans Thursday to attempt to pass an energy bill that caps greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, abandoning a priority of President Barack Obama.
COMMENTARY
Jul 14, 2010

U.S. bidding Iraq goodbye and good luck

As the American withdrawal gains speed, there are fewer American troops in Iraq than in Afghanistan for the first time since 2003. By the end of August there will be no U.S. combat troops left in Iraq, though some tens of thousands of support troops will remain until next year. And still there is no...
EDITORIALS
Jul 11, 2010

Motive for clean energy

Up to 9.5 million liters of oil continue to spew daily into the Gulf of Mexico since BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig off the coast of Louisiana exploded April 20, killing 11 workers. U.S. President Barack Obama has called the oil spill "the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced."
EDITORIALS
Jul 6, 2010

New era for cross-strait relations

Officially, it is called the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), but it is potentially much more. The trade deal signed by China and Taiwan early last week could transform the relationship between the two governments. It deepens the integration of the two economies, opening the door to closer...
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Jul 2, 2010

Tax hike amid slump: Kan's Hashimoto dilemma

Japan's slowing recovery from its worst postwar recession is signaling the economy may be too weak to sustain the higher consumption taxes under consideration by Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

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