Search - 2014

 
 
EDITORIALS
Feb 18, 2015

Nursing care compensation plan

The government should consider overhauling the nursing care insurance system to ensure stable services for the elderly and to rationalize the system's overall operation.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 18, 2015

Oil train fireball seen adding pressure for U.S. safety decision

Video images of a fireball boiling from the wreckage of a derailed train hauling Bakken crude are adding to pressure on federal regulators to act on new safety standards for oil shipments.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 17, 2015

Danish Jews' affection for their country runs deep

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's calls for Jews to move to Israel after attacks in Paris and Copenhagen may strike a chord with thousands of French Jews, but it will likely fall on deaf ears in Denmark.
Japan Times
JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Feb 15, 2015

Mainstream Japanese society slowly working to accommodate sexual minorities

When she was in her teens, Yumiko Higuchi was suicidal.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Feb 14, 2015

Eagles need young duo to soar in '15

Earlier this year, 24-year-old Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles pitcher Wataru Karashima said he'd retire if he failed to reach 10 wins this season. Karashima has pitched in NPB for five seasons, and was used out of the bullpen over the first two, making 14 appearances as a reliever. Since becoming a starter...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 14, 2015

Carp catcher Aizawa expected to have bigger role this season

Keep your eye this coming season in Japanese baseball on catcher Tsubasa Aizawa of the Hiroshima Carp. The 27-year-old, eight-year veteran appears ready to take over as the first-string catcher on a team poised to challenge for the Central League pennant under new manager Koichi Ogata.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2015

Global economy's Chinese headwinds

Last year, interest rates were supposed to start rising in the U.S. and U.K. and quantitative easing would deliver increased inflation in Japan. Twelve months later, economic headwinds from China are a major reason why normality seems as distant as ever.
EDITORIALS
Feb 12, 2015

When push comes to shove

The forcefulness with which the Abe administration is pushing ahead with work on a replacement facility for a U.S. Marine Corps air station in Okinawa could harden the attitude of Okinawans long-opposed to its construction.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Feb 12, 2015

Afghan Taliban smuggling drugs and gems like mafia: U.N. report

Afghanistan's Taliban Islamist movement is increasingly financed by criminal enterprises including heroin laboratories, illegal ruby and emerald mines and kidnapping, making negotiated peace harder, according to a report for the U.N. Security Council.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 11, 2015

Is Japanese cinema sinking into a self-censorship swamp?

One great thing about living in Japan is the consideration, or omoiyari, people here commonly show for others. My newspaper delivery guy climbs the 25 steps to my front door and deposits a copy of The Japan Times in my mailbox every morning, rain or shine. His colleagues in the U.S. — my home country...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 11, 2015

With focus on wartime past, Japan's global PR message could misfire

A campaign to correct perceived bias in accounts of Japan's wartime past risks muddling the positive message in a mammoth public relations drive to win friends abroad.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Feb 9, 2015

Media spotlight will continue to shine on Otani

Hideki Kuriyama was a television commentator for 10 years before becoming manager of the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in 2012.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2015

Ukrainians would be wise to heed Georgia's war lessons

Many people in Kiev worry that if Ukraine makes a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he will meddle in domestic affairs to an extent that will make meaningful reforms impossible. But Putin hasn't done that in Georgia since the 2008 war.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 9, 2015

Airlines benefit from clogged sea traffic

The U.S. military ordered yogurt and cottage cheese flown to forces in Japan and South Korea last month as a labor dispute began jamming up West Coast ports.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 6, 2015

Piketty's solution for Japan's sick economy? A fourth arrow

French economist and author Thomas Piketty has received rock-star treatment in Japan while arguing that the Bank of Japan's ultra-loose monetary policies are ginning up stocks and real estate for the wealthy.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2015

One-child policy didn't give China too many boys

Research suggests that it was China's liberalizing economic reforms of the 1970s and 1980s that might have been responsible for today's heavily skewed gender ratio in favor of boys.
EDITORIALS
Feb 6, 2015

Protecting the elderly from fraud

The number of cases of the 'it's me' scheme to swindle senior citizens out of their savings is soaring of late as swindlers devise new ways to avoid the police crackdowns.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 5, 2015

McDonald's Japan posts ¥22 billion loss after food woes

McDonald's Corp.'s Japan affiliate reported its first full-year loss in 11 years as the fast-food chain faced fallout from food scandals and after labor disputes at U.S. ports forced it to ration french fries.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 5, 2015

Thai general to solicit Japan

Thailand's self-appointed prime minister will pay an official visit to Tokyo on Sunday to sign a deal involving on a high-speed train project and to seek Japan's endorsement of his country's military government.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 5, 2015

New threats, new costs as Japanese companies face up to new tactics from cyberattackers

A spate of high-profile cybercrimes and data leaks in recent months has left companies wondering if they will be next. They worry about the safety of their computer networks as hackers devise new ways to penetrate traditional defenses.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 4, 2015

Japan Tobacco to quit drinks business after 26 years

Japan Tobacco Inc. will exit the drinks business that it has built over the past 26 years, as an "increasingly challenging" operating environment in Japan makes it difficult for the unit to turn a profit.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 4, 2015

Families hit as inflation outruns wage rises

Increases in the cost of living outpaced annual earnings that rose for the first time in four years in 2014 as the Abe administration sought to reflate the economy.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Feb 4, 2015

Readers' letters: bursting bubbles on gaijin life and the Hague child-abduction treaty

A couple of readers' mails in response to recent Just Be Cause columns by Debito Arudou.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Feb 4, 2015

Japan execs leaving Citigroup, EG Capital flags wider loan retreat

The departures of Tokyo-based loan executives from Citigroup Inc. and General Electric Capital Corp. highlight the retreat of foreign banks from the nation's lending market.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2015

Ford CFO says Toyota gains $10 billion advantage on weak yen

Ford Motor Co.'s top financial executive said the weak yen hands Japanese automakers as much as $11,000 more profit per car and allowed Toyota Motor Corp., the world's largest automaker, to earn an extra $10 billion in 2013. Ford wants the U.S. to intervene against what it sees as currency manipulation....
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 1, 2015

Japanese and U.S. law schools at a crossroads

Law schools in Japan and the U.S. find themselves trapped between a rock and a hard place as the number of applicants continues to shrink in the face of a bleak legal job market.
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
Feb 1, 2015

App maker on quest for unique, crowd-pleasing products

Daisaku Yamamoto, an up-and-coming Web services creator, recounts being an attention-seeker as a child, always trying to differentiate himself from everyone else.

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