Search - 2014

 
 
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.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 31, 2015

Fortune could shine on Cubs once again in '15

Two events that occurred last month have me thinking this could finally be the year the Chicago Cubs win the World Series and end a 107-year drought. The Cubs obtained outfielder Dexter Fowler from the Houston Astros in a Jan. 19 trade, and that was followed by the sad news on Jan. 23 of the death of...
WORLD / Politics
Jan 28, 2015

Billionaire Koch brothers launch 2016 U.S. 'electoral arms race'

Democrats acknowledged on Tuesday that it may be impossible to match the nearly $900 million that the conservative billionaire Koch brothers said their political network will spend during the 2016 campaign cycle.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2015

Risks to democrats who nod to blurred truth

Democratic societies are faced with the temptation to close one's eyes and ears to inconvenient truths. For example, we do not want to admit that Russian President Vladimir Putin has long since crossed the line into war with regard to Ukraine.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 26, 2015

Japanese rice: The new, safe luxury food in China

First it was European infant formula, then New Zealand milk. Now Chinese consumers are adding Japanese rice to the list of everyday foods they will bring in from abroad at luxury prices because they fear the local alternatives aren't safe.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years