Search - event

 
 
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 18, 2007

Some things never change

In the last edition of this column, I sewed together a few of the major changes I have seen in Japan since first arriving here close to 30 years ago.
EDITORIALS
Aug 18, 2007

Nuclear safety at stake

The Nuclear Safety Commission made public its 2006 white paper on the safety of nuclear power last week. The fact that its publication came after two postponements shows that the safety of the nation's nuclear power plants cannot be taken for granted. It will take tremendous efforts on the part of the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 18, 2007

Classical accordionist finds harmony with Asia

Another a fine example of synchronicity if ever there was one!
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 17, 2007

Roh's trip to Pyongyang puts three scenarios in play

WASHINGTON — There is much speculation about what President Roh Moo Hyun will do when he meets North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang during Aug. 28-30.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 17, 2007

'I was totally squished, but it was ace'

It's apt that Rock in Japan takes place in between Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic. While Fuji sprawls myriad bands over a vast, scenic site and Summer Sonic hosts acts for a younger crowd in an exhibition hall and stadium, RIJ combines the best of both.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2007

Kin of war dead protest Yasukuni visits

People who lost relatives during the war and are against politicians' visits to Yasukuni Shrine gathered Wednesday in Tokyo to confirm their commitment to protecting the Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2007

U.S.-India agreement threatens to fuel nuclear proliferation as well as arms race

PRINCETON, New Jersey — The United States is having a difficult time trying to justify the U.S.-India nuclear deal that will be brought into effect by the "123 agreement" that has just been concluded between the two countries.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2007

Sight-impaired kids show how photos can come from heart

YOKOHAMA — Skill and high-quality equipment are not essential for successful photography. In fact, you don't even need to be able to see the subject.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 14, 2007

Manga frenzy proves that we're all kids at heart

That whole deal about growing up and behaving like an adult? Scrap it, you don't have to — at least not in the Japan of recent years. Adult responsibilities, adult worries, adult concerns — while we all know such things exist, it's become possible to dodge them well into your 30s and 40s, in a kind...
EDITORIALS
Aug 12, 2007

Summer recuperation

The famous psychologist William James once said, "We learn to swim in winter and skate in summer." What he meant was that relaxing downtime is essential for unconsciously processing the lessons from busier times. James never experienced the heat and humidity of a Japanese summer, but if he had, he might...
LIFE
Aug 12, 2007

Has another society of such superlatives ever existed at all?

The fascination of the Heian Period (794-1185) lies in the fact that in all world history there is nothing quite like it. It would be hard to imagine a culture more exclusive, more fastidiously refined, more smugly incurious about the unknown, more unwarlike, more tearfully melancholic, more sensitive...
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2007

Nagasaki mayor slams nuclear talk, tests

NAGASAKI — Nagasaki marked the 62nd anniversary of the atomic bombing here Thursday with criticism of nations that have tested or are suspected of possessing or pursuing nuclear weapons, and people in Japan who advocate acquiring them.
COMMENTARY
Aug 9, 2007

How to deal with disasters

LONDON — Britain is notorious for its weather. This year April was unusually fine and warm. May, June and July were unseasonably cool. To describe these months as "wet" would be an English understatement. There was record rainfall with some places being deluged by rains normally only seen in the tropics....
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 8, 2007

How is it our time seems to speed up?

"I never think of the future; I find it comes soon enough."
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 5, 2007

Keeping the horror of Hiroshima alive

Masako's Story: Surviving the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima, by Kikuko Otake, edited by Dr. Jesse Glass. Tokyo/Toronto: Ahadada Books, 2007, 94 pp. with photos and maps, $15 (paper) The cenotaph for the Hiroshima victims reads "Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil," but...
EDITORIALS
Aug 4, 2007

A grand champion is rebuked

The Japan Sumo Association has suspended yokozuna Asashoryu from the next two grand sumo tournaments for playing soccer in his home country Mongolia after he had notified the association that he would sit out the Aug. 3-20 summer regional tour in eastern Japan (not Tokyo) because of injuries.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 4, 2007

Speech contest aims to pull nation together

Up until a few years ago, Tom Gerrard was an entrepreneur with an eye to mainstream business. He then underwent a radical shift of attitude and interest, changing the name of his company in 2004 from Comm Pro (Communication Professionals) to Global Learning.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2007

Junction on Russia's road to nowhere

MOSCOW — Recently, a small event caused a major stir in Russian politics. An aide to President Vladimir Putin, Igor Shuvalov, said it was realistic to expect the appearance of a new person whom Putin would consider his potential successor. The statement hit like a bombshell, producing an explosion...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Aug 3, 2007

Home to the outsider

Western Taito Ward is a paradise for nonconformists who stray off the beaten track. Throughout the incense-scented alleys of Yanaka, and across the parklands of Ueno, it's hard to miss the area's preponderance of "strays"; tourists, artists and the homeless who, with a surprising number of cats, all...
COMMENTARY
Aug 2, 2007

Expect oil to hit $100 a barrel and beyond

LONDON — Nine of the last 10 serious downturns in the world economy followed a spike in the price of oil, and we are heading for another spike, with oil back up near the peak of $78.40 a barrel that it reached almost exactly a year ago.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 2, 2007

Last words on hell from the skies

"Moreover, the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is, indeed, incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Aug 1, 2007

A tale of morels

I have a Canadian friend, Nedd Kenney, a brilliant scholar, musician and fieldworker who now lives on Baffin Island off the northeast coast of Canada. It was Nedd who got me my first bhodran (Irish drum), and came to my house in Kurohime, in the Nagano Prefecture hills, to give me some tips on playing...
EDITORIALS
Aug 1, 2007

Revise the personal information law

The Personal Information Protection Law, which went into effect in April 2005, in principle bars organizations that possess or handle personal information from providing it to third parties without the consent of the people concerned. Good intentions are behind the law.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past