Search - japan

 
 
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Dec 3, 2014

Time to burst your bubble and face reality

Facing the reality of their perpetual second-class caste status would force non-Japanese residents to admit that they traded their entire life for something that they ultimately found no stake in.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 1, 2014

A vote for Abe is no gamble

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is almost certain to receive a voter mandate, not least because he lacks credible opponents.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues
Nov 12, 2014

Mayor blazes trail with radical child-friendly vision for local government

Every time I try to read or write about local government in Japan I get so easily distra— say, is that paint drying over there? You see the problem?!
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Nov 7, 2014

Readers' letters: carrying ID, subway 'saviors,' JA rackets, Taiji alternatives and goats

A selection of emails received in response to recent Community articles.
OLYMPICS / ROBERT WHITING'S 1964 OLYMPICS RETROSPECTIVE
Oct 17, 2014

Schollander, Hayes were spectacular at Tokyo Games

The 1964 Tokyo Olympics had a profound impact on the capital city and the nation. In the third installment of a five-part series running this month, best-selling author Robert Whiting, who lived in Japan at the time, looks at some of the stars who emerged during the competition.
JAPAN / History / IMPERIAL ANNALS
Oct 11, 2014

Selective history: Hirohito's chronicles

Between July 30 and Aug. 2, 1945, when most of Japan's cities, including Tokyo, lay in smoldering ruins from U.S. aerial bombing and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were days away from being incinerated by American nuclear weapons, Emperor Hirohito sent an envoy to several Shinto shrines to pray for the "crushing...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Oct 1, 2014

Readers' letters: Ian Thorpe, the Yushukan, racism, teaching English, tipping and sunlight

Some emails received in response to recent Community articles.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 20, 2014

Lafcadio Hearn: 'Japanese Thru and Tru'

A small cage was opened at Lafcadio Hearn's funeral, setting birds into the air, the soul of the deceased presumably taking flight with them. His coffin was draped in chrysanthemums and fragrant olive, adorned by a laurel wreath. Seven Buddhist priests read the sutras at Kobudera (now Jishoin Enyuji...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Sep 3, 2014

Visible minorities are being caught in police dragnet

Around noon on Aug. 13, in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, a local apartment manager notified the police that a "suspicious foreigner" was hanging around the nearby JR train station.
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 30, 2014

Richard Katz on the failures of 'Voodoo Abenomics'

Richard Katz, editor-in-chief at The Oriental Economist, is the author of "Voodoo Abenomics: Japan's Failed Comeback Plan," an article published in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. Katz went into more detail about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "Abenomics" policy in a recent email interview...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2014

Corporate blowback builds from Minamata treaty

The Japanese government lobbied hard for a global pact that limits mercury use and to name the resulting treaty after Minamata, the site of a homegrown industrial disaster from the 1950s when the toxic metal poured into a river, poisoning thousands.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 25, 2014

The unsung heroes of Fukushima

What really went on among the workers inside the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami should be held up as an epic story with the theme of 'Man Saved in Japan.'
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Aug 15, 2014

Whatever you do, don't call Nestle's coffee 'instant'

Nestle aims to change the way office people think about coffee breaks.
JAPAN / History
Aug 14, 2014

Surrender had lasting impact on many Japanese after war's end

Many Japanese people remember Aug. 15 as the day World War II ended. Sixty-nine years ago today, in a speech broadcast on the radio, Emperor Hirohito announced that Japan had notified the Allied powers of its acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration.
EDITORIALS
Aug 7, 2014

The right path to pursue peace

The city of Hiroshima marks the 69th anniversary of its atomic bombing under completely different circumstances than in previous years, what with the Abe administration's recent decision to change the government's constititutional re-interpretation that paves the way for Japan's possible participation in military conflicts overseas in the name of collective self-defense.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 6, 2014

India's political, economic potential

The general election in India in May was groundbreaking in many aspects.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Aug 4, 2014

The dark side of the Koshien dream

The majority of high-school baseball players end up neglected due to a dearth of coaching education and a win-at-all-costs mentality that favors the very talented few.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / Q&A
Jul 25, 2014

A closer look at the Supreme Court's welfare benefits ruling

Opinions are divided over how the Supreme Court ruling last week declaring permanent foreign residents of Japan ineligible for welfare payments will affect the foreign communities in Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Jul 20, 2014

Osaka zone a litmus test of foreign worker policy

As prefectural officials begin talks with Tokyo on a deregulated economic area, local skepticism remains high over the content, necessity of the proposal.
EDITORIALS
Jul 15, 2014

The blowback from Shiga

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should realize that the defeat of the Liberal Democratic Party-backed candidate in the Shiga gubernatorial election Sunday is part of the price his administration pays for pushing to widen the scope of Japan's military role without seeking a mandate from voters.
Japan Times
SOCCER / World cup / SPORTS SCOPE
Jul 8, 2014

Time for fans, media to get real about Samurai Blue

"The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it."
EDITORIALS
Jul 2, 2014

Abe guts Article 9

With its Cabinet decision to allow Japan to exercise collective self-defense, the Abe administration has effectively gutted Article 9.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 1, 2014

Critics: What defines the conditions for military force?

Japan is at a historic crossroads in amending its long-held pacifist defense posture, a move that it may never reverse, and critics charge that the Abe administration's criteria for exercising the right to collective self-defense will prove ineffective.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 1, 2014

Abe's economic bull's-eye

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has unveiled the so-called third arrow of what has come to be known as Abenomics. It involves the removal of obstacles to growth for business, particularly the easing of regulatory barriers. Expect some officials to resist this initiative.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 27, 2014

Collective defense deal near

The ruling coalition closes in on three new standards that would let the Japanese military use force in cases other than when Japan is under attack.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 23, 2014

Abe looks to put his stamp on foreign aid

Next up for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe? Figuring out how to put official development assistance (ODA) to "strategic" use so the international aid program can help Japan make a more "proactive contribution" to world peace, one of Abe's pet policy goals.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jun 10, 2014

Tensions mount over security talks

A showdown looms as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pressures the ruling coalition to agree to overhaul Japan's pacifist security stance, possibly as early as Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jun 9, 2014

World Cup video views from Tokyo: Cote d'Ivoire, Greece and Algeria

An Ivorian 'ambassador of goodwill,' a Greek diplomat and an Algerian businessman discuss their teams' prospects in the World Cup.

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