Search - japan

 
 
COMMENTARY
Mar 24, 2005

Northern Territories dispute highlights flawed diplomacy

Japan is now in serious territorial disputes with all of its neighbors -- Taiwan, China, South Korea and Russia. True, this could prove there is something wrong with all of Japan's neighbors. But it could also prove that there is something wrong in the way Japan handles territorial problems with its...
COMMENTARY
Mar 21, 2005

A cow walk toward a crisis

The Japan-U.S. row over beef imports looms as a grave problem that could develop into serious bilateral friction. Until recently the two countries had enjoyed what many experts regarded as the best relations yet in the postwar years. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi supported U.S. President George W....
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 19, 2005

Experts trade conflicting views on how to handle U.S. beef

Japan's 15-month-old import ban on U.S. beef has become a major diplomatic issue between Tokyo and Washington, and U.S. lawmakers are increasing pressure on Japan to lift the ban as soon as possible.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Mar 10, 2005

Will the 'Brave Blossoms' soon be drinking champagne?

It's often said that it is a brave man who owns up to being wrong.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2005

Waking up to China's threat

NEW YORK -- On Feb. 19, Japan and the United States issued a joint statement that maintaining peace and security in the Taiwan Strait is a common strategic objective. This was nothing extraordinary except for the fact that Japan, for the first time, joined the U.S. in voicing public concern about China's...
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2005

DHL poised to grab ever-increasing share of Asia-Pacific mart -- especially China

DHL, the world's leading international express and logistics company, is flying high over China, stepping up infrastructure investment geared to capitalize on fast-growing intra-Asia/Pacific trade, in particular Japan-China trade.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Feb 17, 2005

Natural numbers games

As island nations go, I have always maintained that Japan sits on a motherlode of biodiversity; it is rich in so many senses of the word.
Japan Times
Features
Feb 6, 2005

Drawing on experience

At age 82, Shigeru Mizuki (above) is undoubtedly among the most popular -- and certainly one of the longest-standing -- cartoon artists in Japan. There is probably no Japanese adult who is not familiar with his name, or who has not at least glanced at the voluminous comics/animation series "Ge-ge-ge...
COMMENTARY
Jan 24, 2005

A return to Northern basics

The Japan-Russia talks on the Northern Territories are deadlocked. Shortly after the end of World War II, the Soviet Union seized four islands or islet clusters northeast of Hokkaido -- Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and Habomai. In 1993, the two nations issued a joint statement calling for the conclusion...
COMMENTARY
Jan 18, 2005

Same old contrived hysteria

Japan seems headed for yet another bout of emotional confrontation with North Korea and China.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 15, 2005

Notion of an 'independent' missile defense is snake oil

According to press reports, Japan intends to mount an "independent" missile defense so as not to violate a constitutional interpretation that prohibits Japan from engaging in collective self-defense. Thus Japan would refrain from shooting down missiles that pass over Japan but are targeted at "other...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 11, 2005

Gaijin in cyberspace

It's a pretty lively gathering. A group of eikaiwa teachers are noisily denouncing their employers, while nearby a pair of leery Charisma Men are swapping tales of sexual conquests, and next to them some language students are loudly debating the Yasukuni Shrine.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jan 9, 2005

Keiko Sakai: Conundrum Iraq

One year ago this month, an advance team from Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) arrived in Iraq on a mission -- so the Japanese public was told -- to help rebuild the wartorn country. The rest of the main contingent of 600 troops soon followed.
Japan Times
JAPAN / DEMOGRAPHIC DILEMMAS
Jan 3, 2005

Health sector won't get by without a shot in the arm

Shiela Tahara Noble is living proof that nationality doesn't matter -- once language barriers are overcome -- when dealing with a sector where the domestic labor supply is increasingly scarce.
COMMENTARY
Dec 28, 2004

An updated stab at security

Japan's new National Defense Program Outline has three major objectives: dealing with "new threats" such as terrorism, introducing a missile defense system and participating in "international peace cooperation activities."
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 2004

Price of exclusivity too high

"Nippon Chinbotsu" -- Japan Sinks -- was the title of a 1980s best-selling novel that predicted how massive earthquakes would push the Japanese islands below the waters of the Pacific. The drenched survivors would head for Australia.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

Defense policy overhauled to meet new global threats

The government announced Friday plans to conduct a sweeping overhaul of its defense policy, adjusting Japan's armed forces to better handle new threats such as terrorism and giving them a greater global role.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

SDF set to shed its 'nonmilitary' shell

Since their establishment in 1954, the Self-Defense Forces have never had to be mobilized to defend Japan from attack.
EDITORIALS
Dec 2, 2004

First step to an 'open door'

In another milestone move aimed at expanding economic ties with fast-growing East Asian nations, Japan and the Philippines agreed this week to sign a free-trade agreement (FTA). Increased trade and investment in this region is especially welcome at a time when multilateral trade talks under the auspices...
Japan Times
Features
Nov 7, 2004

Love her or hate her...

Nahoko Takato became famous on the night of April 8 this year, when the Arab satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera aired video footage of her and two other Japanese held blindfolded at gunpoint in Iraq.
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2004

Tokyo can expect stronger ties, demands

George W. Bush's re-election to another four years in the White House will ensure that strengthening the U.S. security alliance with Japan remains a major component of bilateral ties.
COMMENTARY
Nov 2, 2004

U.S. strategies pose risks

Japan's security and defense policies are at a major turning point. The policies are still based on the deployment of the Self-Defense Forces and the American forces stationed in Japan, as stipulated in the bilateral security treaty, but roles are changing drastically in accordance with transformations...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Oct 25, 2004

Manchuria as a whipping post

NEW YORK -- The New York Times has an intriguing take on Japan. The latest example is an article with the heading "Atrocity Amnesia: Japan Rewrites Its Manchuria Story" (Sept. 19).
COMMENTARY
Oct 25, 2004

ODA looks wasted on China

This year Japan marks the 50th anniversary of the official development assistance program it launched after getting out of the postwar economic chaos. The Foreign Ministry's 2004 white paper on ODA boasts that Japan, now one of the world's largest ODA providers, has made major contributions to the economic...
COMMENTARY
Oct 24, 2004

The alliance hasn't expired

HONOLULU -- Much recent U.S. strategic thinking about Asia has focused on China or the prospect of a nuclear-armed North Korea. These concerns have overshadowed important changes in Japan that have been influenced in part by developments in those two countries.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 23, 2004

First step to a national security strategy

WASHINGTON -- Last week in Tokyo, Japan's Council on Security and Defense Capabilities (better known in the United States as the Araki Commission) issued its final report on the future direction of Japanese national-security policy. The report demands special attention, as it will provide the basis on...
JAPAN
Oct 13, 2004

Violence in Iraq holding back foreign aid

When Mohammad Ali-Hassan, the governor of Al-Muthanna Province in southern Iraq, visited Tokyo last week, he thanked Japan for the aid it has given to his province, where Ground Self-Defense Force troops have been deployed.
COMMENTARY
Oct 11, 2004

New mindset is the only salve

Japan-China relations are in trouble, again. The latest recriminations began with the fierce booing of a Japanese soccer team in Chongqing in July of this year. Few of Japan's many indignant commentators seemed to know that this large central China city had been the defenseless target of relentless Japanese...
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2004

Panel backs 'flexible' defenses, arms trade

A government advisory panel recommended Monday that Japan scrap some of the basic principles that have guided the nation's postwar, self- defense-oriented security policy and be more flexible in drawing up a new defense strategy.

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