Search - special

 
 
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 18, 2012

Tireless volunteer Fukuda makes a difference in the lives she touches

Julie Fukuda, 75, is a giver — not financially, but physically — who has tirelessly volunteered for various organizations in her community for nearly 50 years in Japan.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2012

Court nixes key depositions against Ozawa

The Tokyo District Court said Friday it will not admit as evidence key depositions of former aides of ex-Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa, who stands accused of violating the Political Funds Control Law, and slammed prosecutors' interrogations as "illegal."
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Feb 14, 2012

Returns, regroups and debuts: Versace, Tokyo Runway, Julius, K-fashion, Alexander Wang

The Medusa is back
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Feb 14, 2012

Sharing a raft: Things click from get-go

Hiroshi Kato, 40, born in Sendai and raised in Kawasaki, met his wife Ying — from Harbin in northeast China — in Tokyo in fall 2007.
EDITORIALS
Feb 14, 2012

Disturbing trend in gang violence

Underworld organizations are stepping up their attacks on enterprises in the wake of efforts by prefectural governments to enforce bylaws that prevent businesses from distributing profits to gangsters and keep gangsters from participating in public works projects. These bylaws are also making it more...
EDITORIALS
Feb 14, 2012

Higher wages for nursing care

The government will increase payments awarded to nursing care services for the elderly by an average 1.2 percent beginning in fiscal 2012 (from April). These payments will go directly to entities providing the services — not to the individual care workers themselves. Still, the main purpose of the...
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2012

Olympus' ¥32 billion loss tops estimates

Olympus Corp., the camera maker that admitted committing accounting fraud and lost 59 percent of its value last year, predicted an annual loss of ¥32 billion — worse than analysts' estimates.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 12, 2012

Swindlers continue to scam the elderly out of their savings

Recently, my partner renewed her drivers license and was waiting in line to pay her fee. The clerk asked the elderly man waiting in front of her if he wanted to join the Japan Traffic Safety Association for an additional fee. She rattled off a memorized spiel, and after the intimidated old man assented...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 12, 2012

Family reunion special; medical mystery 'Shi no Tenteki'; CM of the week: Takasu Clinic

TV Tokyo presents the latest in its series of attempted reunion specials. Though this sort of show is common on Japanese television, "Umi wo Koeta Kazoku Ai" ("Family Love Beyond the Sea"; Mon., 8 p.m.) goes a step further by reconnecting loved ones separated by international borders.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2012

11 months on, Reconstruction Agency makes official debut

The Reconstruction Agency finally made its official debut Friday, 11 months since the devastating Great East Japan Earthquake, and its mission is to speed up the process of rebuilding the Tohoku region.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 10, 2012

'Kitsutsuki to Ame (The Woodsman and the Rain)'

In movies as in life, first impressions count. Hence all the money lavished on opening credits, all the thought devoted to opening scenes. Quite often though, the flashy, clever beginning comes to feel like a con, as the formulaic story wends its way to its predictable end.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2012

Will shrinking the Diet solve anything?

A company saddled with a hefty debt load might try to get back on a healthy track by laying off employees or reducing pay.
COMMENTARY
Feb 9, 2012

Dubious reasons to attack Iran

It is hard not to be impressed by the one-dimensional reasons the United States gives for its various animosities.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2012

What an Obama or Romney win means

Successful political candidates try to implement the proposals on which they ran. In the United States, President Barack Obama and the Democrats, controlling the House of Representatives and (a filibuster-proof) Senate, had the power to do virtually anything they wanted in 2009 — and so they did.
Reader Mail
Feb 9, 2012

'Couch-surfing' not for the fearful

What makes the Feb. 5 travel article "Yakushima free-stay takes some fearful turns" so special is that the place is so far from Tokyo that even The Japan Times sends a reporter here only when the trip is sponsored, and apparently has to rely on "freeters" to come up with something out of the ordinary....
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2012

Obama bows to Arab royalty in democracy push

Just after the first anniversary of the onset of the Arab Spring, the Obama administration announced in December an enormous arms sale to Saudi Arabia, with a price tag greater than the annual gross domestic product of more than half the countries in the world. The administration hailed the sale as a...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2012

A strategy for Russia's budding snow revolution

Nonviolent revolutions do not always remain nonviolent, as the examples of uprisings in Egypt, Libya, and Syria in the Arab Spring have shown. But peaceful movements for regime change often do succeed. They have toppled illegitimate rulers, as with the post-Soviet "color revolutions" in Georgia and Ukraine,...
COMMENTARY
Feb 8, 2012

China faces rising risks as it looks overseas for resources

China's meteoric rise to become the world's second biggest economy and a global manufacturing center is sustained by ever-growing imports of raw materials and increasing investment abroad, often in under-developed countries shunned by the West for alleged human rights abuses or because they are considered...
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2012

'Stealth' intervention reined in yen

Japan used so-called stealth intervention in November as the government sought to stem yen gains that hammered earnings at makers of exports ranging from cars to electronics.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2012

Egypt muddies waters of relationship with U.S.

When the government of erstwhile U.S. ally Egypt shut down 17 Western prodemocracy groups, trashed their Cairo offices and slapped travel bans on some of their staff, political relations between Washington and Cairo hit a new and unexpected low.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Feb 7, 2012

These are a few of my favorite things about Japan

The Just Be Cause column has been running now for four years (thanks for reading!), and I've noticed something peculiar: how commentators are pressured to say "nice" stuff about Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2012

Battlegrounds for bringing Wall Street to justice

What shall we make of the surprise pronouncement in President Barack Obama's State of the Union address that a belated investigation has been launched into the role of fraud in the financial crisis?
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 5, 2012

'Star Draft Council'; L'Arc-en-Ceil anniversary; CM of the week: Able/Chintai

"Star Tanjo" ("Birth of a Star") was one of the most influential TV series of the 1970s, an audition show that launched the careers of dozens of idol singers. "Star Draft Kaigi" ("Star Draft Council"; Nippon TV, Tues., 10 p.m.) takes the general structure of "Star Tanjo" — representatives of talent...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 4, 2012

F.A. must make Terry stand down

Sometime in the next three weeks the Football Association's power brokers will meet to decide whether John Terry should continue to captain England.
COMMENTARY
Feb 3, 2012

Let economic impetus drive a deal in territorial dispute

Judging by the latest events in the seemingly endless territorial dispute between Japan and Russia over the "Northern Territories," the Japanese side has decided to confirm its steadfast stance by presenting strong historical and judicial arguments — some traditional, some rather new.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 2, 2012

Warner's Ishizaka says 'exterminate' illegal downloads

Not many music-business executives compare themselves to Oda Nobunaga or Napoleon Bonaparte.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2012

DoCoMo to market Disney-themed smartphones from end of month

NTT DoCoMo Inc. and The Walt Disney Company (Japan) Ltd. on Wednesday unveiled smartphones featuring Disney brand characters and services that target women and families with small children.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan