Search - health

 
 
JAPAN / G8 SUMMIT 2008
Jul 10, 2008

G8 couldn't push emitters to set targets

TOYAKO, Hokkaido — The three-day Group of Eight summit in Toyako, Hokkaido, concluded Wednesday as the major industrialized powers and key emerging economies agreed to jointly fight global warming but failed to set any quantitative goals to substantiate their pledge.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 8, 2008

Japanophiles wind up in jam

An interior designer in California is wondering how she can get some fabric — "preferably the Kyoto brocade known as Nishijin-ori" — woven to order in Japan. "I'm working on a house owned by a couple of Japanophiles, and they have very specific ideas for what they want."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2008

Cardboard coffins boast eco-merit

As more consumers pursue environmentally friendly lives, businesses are introducing products and services catering to those quests.
EDITORIALS
Jul 7, 2008

Access to public documents

An expert panel's interim report on strengthening the system to manage official documents has been submitted to Population and Gender Equality Issues Minister Yoko Kamikawa, who also serves as state minister in charge of improving the custodianship of such documents.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 6, 2008

The shrine of controversy

YASUKUNI: The War Dead and the Struggle for Japan's Past, edited by John Breen. London: Hurst Publishers, 2007, 202 pp., £25 (cloth) Yasukuni Shrine resonates powerfully in contemporary Asia, dividing Japanese and alienating regional neighbors. In April, some conservative Japanese politicians' criticisms...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 6, 2008

Peace follows turbulent times

"It was a nightmare," laughs Tokyo-based author David Peace of a recent trip to Paris to promote the French version of his most successful novel, "The Damned Utd."
EDITORIALS
Jul 6, 2008

Tough tasks on G8's agenda

Japan hosts a summit of the advanced industrialized nations' leaders for the fifth time from Monday to Wednesday. Leaders of the Group of Eight nations who gather in Toyako, Hokkaido, will discuss how to overcome major problems troubling the international community, such as global warming, steep rises...
EDITORIALS
Jul 3, 2008

New pension errors found

Another example of sloppy work by the Social Insurance Agency has come to the fore. Sampling of pension-related records on original paper registers and in computers shows errors in 1.4 percent of matched records that relate to pensions for company-employed workers or kosei nenkin. As health and welfare...
JAPAN / G8 COUNTDOWN
Jul 1, 2008

¥60 billion G8 budget draws flak

Japan plans to spend more than ¥60 billion in taxpayer money to host next week's Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido and related events, prompting some to question if that sum could better be used to alleviate the national health-care and social welfare crises.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 1, 2008

Toy makers cast their gaze on the future: talking dolls for grannies

Primopuel is a knee-high Japanese doll with soft, apple cheeks and big black button eyes. It comes in green and pink. When you cuddle it or talk to it, it talks back. It is for grandmothers.
COMMENTARY
Jun 30, 2008

Taiwan's way with dignity

The inaugural address that Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou gave was titled "Taiwan's Renaissance." It was well-composed, reflecting the president's views clearly while not evoking excessive alarm or expectations on complex and sensitive issues. These include the future of Taiwan's democracy, relations...
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2008

Meguro to air five-language radio program

Tokyo's Meguro Ward will launch a five-language radio program Tuesday in an effort to better inform its foreign residents about daily subjects, a ward official said.
EDITORIALS
Jun 27, 2008

Unrelenting suicide toll

The year 2007 saw 33,093 suicides in Japan, with the number of people taking their own lives topping 30,000 for the 10th straight year. This is a sad situation. Some suicides may have been caused by strictly personal problems, but the National Police Agency's statistics hint that social factors also...
EDITORIALS
Jun 26, 2008

Divided Diet on break

The ordinary Diet session ended last week, but an extraordinary session will begin in late August with the Diet as divided as it is now. Despite confusion, the divided Diet produced some desirable results. Based on their experiences in the ordinary Diet session, both the ruling and opposition forces...
COMMENTARY
Jun 25, 2008

Zimbabwe: opposition right to cut its losses

Morgan Tsvangirai was right to withdraw from the runoff presidential "election" in Zimbabwe on Sunday. Thousands of his supporters have been kidnapped and tortured by President Robert Mugabe's thugs since the campaign started, and 86 have been murdered already.
EDITORIALS
Jun 24, 2008

More people dying alone

Many elderly people die alone these days. The breakup of the extended family structure amid the march of urbanization as well as, possibly, the accompanying economic decline in rural areas may be responsible for weakening human bonds. To discuss the issue of dying alone, four government bodies — the...
Reader Mail
Jun 22, 2008

Childhood lifestyles exact penalty

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of potential (killers) in Japan today like the 25-year-old who ran amok with a knife in Tokyo's Akihabara district June 8. It is high time that we stop ignoring the problem: Japanese children and young adults have reached the edge of mental breakdown.
Reader Mail
Jun 22, 2008

Give guest workers a set contract

Regarding Nick Wood's June 12 letter, "Whiff of hypocrisy in gate-tending," which referred to my June 5 letter on foreign workers ("Hold guest workers to a timeline"): Wood uses rather emotive language such as guest workers being "sent packing when their contracts expire."
Japan Times
BUSINESS / U.S. BUSINESS SCHOOL SYMPOSIUM
Jun 21, 2008

Long-term success can hamstring a company's ability to adapt to change and ultimately survive

Adaptability is the key to survival of even big, successful companies over time, said professor Charles O'Reilly, a professor at Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 18, 2008

Neither blatant benevolence nor silent giving

PRINCETON, New Jersey — Jesus said that we should give alms in private rather than when others are watching. That fits with the common-sense idea that if people only do good in public, they may be motivated by a desire to gain a reputation for generosity. Perhaps when no one is looking, they are not...

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