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COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2010

Russia hits the reset button, but will it last?

MOSCOW — NATO soldiers marching in Red Square on V-E Day; Moscow agreeing on a compromise resolution of the 40-year-old sea-boundary dispute with Norway; the sight of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin kneeling at the memorial to the Polish officers murdered by Josef Stalin at Katyn: These are a few glimpses...
JAPAN
May 28, 2010

Innovate or perish: new Keidanren chief

Hiromasa Yonekura, newly appointed chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), says he wants to compile a Japanese version of landmark U.S. industrial competitiveness reports that should strongly appeal to the public.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 21, 2010

NEC to invest ¥100 billion in energy, batteries

NEC Corp. said investments in its energy business will reach $1.1 billion over the next eight years, as Japan's biggest maker of personal computers aims to reinvent itself after a decade-long slide in sales.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2010

Reining in Europe's debtor nations

MUNICH — The euro-zone countries have now agreed to provide some 80 billion euro in cheap loans to Greece over the next three years, and hope that the International Monetary Fund will provide another 15 billion euro at the least. But the interest rate that Greece must pay buyers of its government bonds...
EDITORIALS
Apr 23, 2010

Going green with nuclear power

The Nuclear Safety Commission and the Atomic Energy Commission have issued their annual reports for 2009, in which they call for the promotion of nuclear energy as an important means of fighting global warming. Nuclear power plants do not emit carbon dioxide while operating.
COMMENTARY
Apr 21, 2010

Hong Kong treads the democracy tightrope

The Hong Kong government announced earlier this month that it had nominated a leading jurist, Justice Geoffrey Ma, to be the next head of the judiciary, succeeding Chief Justice Andrew Li, who served in that post since the former British colony became a special administrative region of China in 1997....
COMMENTARY
Apr 20, 2010

Methane has scent of potential

SINGAPORE — Starting this month and extending through May, South Korea will resume exploratory drilling in waters off its east coast to find out whether a long-hidden energy resource can be turned into a new wellspring of natural gas. Other major energy users and importers, including the United States,...
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 11, 2010

Fast fashion is on a roll

The meteoric rise of fast fashion in Japan and around the world has been the major style story of this new century.
COMMENTARY
Apr 8, 2010

Reverse Japan's insularity

Nine of the top 10 countries sending students to study at Harvard University, where I attended graduate school, have more students studying at the university now than 10 years ago. The only exception is Japan, where the number of students has declined. A decline in Japanese presence was also pointed...
COMMENTARY
Apr 7, 2010

Getting along with China

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, delivering a government work report at the third session of the 11th National People's Congress in March, claimed that China was "first in the world to realize economic recovery and positive turnaround" following the international financial crisis, and that its strategies...
EDITORIALS
Apr 7, 2010

Invest in young scientists

Strong investment in science education and research is fundamental to Japan's future, along with government policy that nurtures emerging industries able to provide new services and employment opportunities.
COMMENTARY
Mar 30, 2010

Drone dependency trivializing Afghan war

NEW YORK — Captain Ferguson (a fictitious name) gets up early in the morning, and has breakfast with his wife and children. At the office, he sits in front of a computer off and on for almost eight hours. At the end of the day he heads back home. Ferguson's wife is glad to see him as they discuss the...
BUSINESS
Mar 22, 2010

Populous China heads toward labor shortage

C hina can't expect to sustain double-digit growth in the next decade because the abundant labor that supported its high-flying growth will not exist much longer, an expert on the Chinese economy said at a recent seminar.
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2010

Half-year on, Hatoyama struggling

It's been six months since Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his Cabinet strutted the red-carpet for an inaugural photo session, staging a perfect Hollywood ending to a summer blockbuster election that knocked the Liberal Democratic Party out of almost 50 years of unbroken rule.
EDITORIALS
Feb 22, 2010

New chairman of business lobby

The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) has picked Mr. Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of Sumitomo Chemical Co., as its next leader. He will begin serving as chairman of Japan's most powerful business lobby in late May. His appointment comes at a difficult time as the Japanese economy is suffering...

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