Search - 2020

 
 
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 1, 2020

New year, new opportunities: What to expect in the Year of the Rat

The smallest of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac, the rat had only an outside chance in the Jade Emperor's race to determine the zodiac's order. Yet its intelligence, agility and quick-thinking enabled it to win the contest and become the first year in the system's 12-year cycle.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 19, 2022

U.S. midterm stakes grow clearer: Election deniers will be on many ballots

Fomenting doubts about Biden's victory is often the table stakes of Republican primaries that can tilt hard to the right. Candidates who avoid the subject risk losing their base.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 8, 2022

Voting-system firms battle right-wing rage against the machines

The efforts to fight misinformation have so far blocked any significant loss of business, but companies remain concerned as the belief in voter-fraud fictions continues to grow.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB Preview
Mar 24, 2021

Central League teams out to end Giants’ reign at top

The first of a two-part NPB preview beginning with the 2021 Central League.
Japan Times
Special Supplements / TICAD 8 Special
Aug 26, 2022

Pikotaro takes ‘PPAP’ schtick to Africa to battle COVID

The eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development will be held in Tunisia from Aug. 27 to 28. Since 1993, the Japanese government has been leading this conference, which is hosted with the United Nations, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank and the African Union Commission....
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World / Beyond COVID-19
Dec 28, 2020

China’s fateful year, from Wuhan to Hong Kong

In 2020, relations with the West swung back toward mutual distrust and hostility, with the COVID-19 pandemic and Hong Kong national-security law playing decisive roles.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / Longform
Aug 8, 2022

What will it take for Japan to embrace plant-based meat?

With consumers nationwide becoming more health-conscious, soy-based alternatives to animal-based sources of protein appear to be growing on Japan.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Mar 15, 2022

China faces mounting challenges amid wealth gap and other social issues

President Xi Jinping is facing serious barriers to his goal of unifying 'Chinese people of all ethnic groups.'
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 29, 2021

How errors and inaction sent a deadly COVID-19 variant around the world

In early 2021, flare-ups in the Indian city of Amravati were the first visible warning that the delta variant was spreading. A devastating path across the world would soon follow.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2021

America’s superstar cities aren’t what they used to be

The 10 biggest U.S. cities, while large and growing, now account for less than 7.9% of the country's population.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 1, 2021

Global rainforest loss 'relentless,' but Southeast Asia offers hope

The loss in 2020 of 4.2 million hectares of primary forest — intact areas of old-growth trees — equaled the size of the Netherlands.
COMMENTARY
Jun 8, 2009

Feasible anti-emission goal

In July 2008 the Japanese government adopted a target for 2050 of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 60 to 80 percent from 2005 levels. At the same time, a special panel was created to deliberate midterm reduction goals (through 2020).
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2000

Elderly seen heading 30% of all households

Households headed by people aged at least 65 are projected to account for more than 30 percent of households in Japan's 47 prefectures by 2020, the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research has said.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 6, 2022

China's private health system hurt by tough coronavirus controls

Dozens of private hospitals have declared bankruptcy in China during the past two years, pushed over the edge by the cost of complying with the country's 'COVID zero' policies.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB Preview
Mar 25, 2021

Hawks remain team to beat in Pacific League as new challengers emerge

The following is the second of a two-part NPB preview ending with the 2021 Pacific League.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
Jan 25, 2021

Pandemic-era central banking is creating bubbles everywhere

In 2020, cheap money, gushing in from the world's major central banks, inflated assets and reshaped how we save, invest and spend.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 15, 2021

A year after COVID-19 began, China’s economy is beating world

China's enhanced role in a post-pandemic world increases the urgency of debate among the rest of the world about how to engage with Beijing.
Japan Times
TENNIS
Sep 13, 2020

Outstanding Osaka: Japanese star captures second U.S. Open title

Naomi Osaka completed a nearly flawless two weeks of tennis with a tight three-set win over Victoria Azarenka to capture her third major title.
JAPAN / Outlook 2020
Jan 2, 2020

Japan's pressing regional affairs to unfold quietly in shadow of Olympics

This year, all attention will turn to the 2020 Olympics, with politicians, business leaders and the media talking about how to ensure its success, what it means for Japan domestically and internationally and how to avert a post-Olympic economic slump.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Mar 30, 2022

How the pandemic exacerbated Japan's gender inequality

Hanako Montgomery, a reporter for Vice World News in Japan, discusses Japan's poor record on gender equality.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / Longform,Longform
Jan 24, 2022

With international tourists still absent, Japan’s ski resorts dig deep

The ongoing pandemic could be the final blow for operators as memories of the ski boom — and bust — of the 1980s still linger.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 14, 2021

As American schools shut down due to COVID-19, 911 drug calls for youth skyrocketed

Last year, the rate of drug-related emergency calls for young people age 20 and under increased by 43%, an analysis of emergency response data found.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2021

COVID-19 trauma has changed economics — maybe forever

The 2008 crash triggered a rethink, but the framework in place since the 1980s emerged relatively intact. The pandemic then cast those conventions aside around the world.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2021

One year after the Diamond Princess outbreak, COVID-19 lessons still to be learned

The outbreak of COVID-19 on a cruise ship anchored off Yokohama last February provided an early test of Japan's defenses against a deadly virus that would later go on to upend our lives.
Doubts about the strength of the conclusions drawn from China’s research add to the mounting questions about how the positive tests were investigated and adjudicated by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
OLYMPICS
Dec 25, 2024

Questions emerge about data used by China to defend against doping allegations

The finding raises more questions about explanations from China and WADA as to why elite Chinese swimmers tested positive for a banned substance.
People release flowers into the Kawauchi River, a tributary of the Kuma River, which overflowed due to downpours five years ago, on Friday in Kuma, Kumamoto Prefecture.
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2025

Victims of 2020 Kumamoto heavy rains mourned five years on

The July 2020 downpours, which caused floods and mudslides, left 67 people dead, including indirect fatalities, and two others missing.
Demonstrators protest inside the Rockefeller Center asking for a cease-fire in the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, as U.S. President Joe Biden attends an interview in midtown Manhattan in New York on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 28, 2024

Among key Democratic Party voters Biden faces rebellion over Gaza war

Officials say the depth of Democratic Party anger over U.S. President Joe Biden’s handling of the Gaza war has caught his campaign off guard.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump departs after delivering remarks at Trump Tower in New York on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 2, 2024

Biden's big weakness vs Trump: Voters without college degrees

Such results help set the stage for what national opinion polls show is a tied race between Biden and Trump.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear