Tag - islands

 
 

ISLANDS

Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2014
Japan teacher manuals state official positions on Senkaku and Takeshima isles
The education ministry instructs junior high and high school teachers to use newly revised manuals to teach their students that the Senkaku Islands and Takeshima islets are “integral parts of Japanese territory.”
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 9, 2014
Sea turtles returning to Ogasawaras
One of the Ogasawara Islands is seeing a spawning migration peak for green sea turtles born after World War II.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2014
Remote, unowned islets targeted for state control
The government will make some 280 remote islands without owners state properties to strengthen control of the country's territory.
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2014
SDF reservists, private ships may see combat
The government will ask commercial shippers to let Self-Defense Forces reservists use their vessels as military transports in the event of invasion, a new defense plan says.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Dec 7, 2013
Impending Japan-China war has the makings of a Clancy classic
On Nov. 23, China announced the creation of a newly expanded air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea, overlapping a large expanse of territory also claimed by Japan. The move has produced a visceral reaction in the Japanese vernacular media, particularly the weekly tabloids. Five out of nine weekly magazines that went on sale last Monday and Tuesday contained scenarios that raised the possibility of a shooting war.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 7, 2013
Fabled strand of 500 pines
Beautiful beaches, we've all seen our share, right? But a beautiful beach that's also historic and sacred? That sounds worth driving out of our way for — especially as the way takes us over a span I've long yearned to traverse: the Ondo Bridge, a delightful crimson structure over the Ondo Strait, a 90-meter wide channel that separates Kure City from the island of Kurahashi, Hiroshima Prefecture. Legend has it that, in the 12th century, the great warlord-politician Taira no Kiyomori carved out the strait in a single day to facilitate trade with China.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 3, 2013
China's territorial creep in Asia
China's 'territorial creep' is contributing to Asian insecurity, fueling political tension and turning the world's economically most vibrant continent into a potentially global hot spot.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Dec 1, 2013
Does China ADIZ take focus off 'real enemy'?
China has one of the largest and most consequential militaries in the world, but how Beijing thinks about its military and makes military decisions is largely a mystery to the outside world. The People's Liberation Army is technically attached to the Chinese Communist Party, rather than to the Chinese government, and scholars often describe it as a "black box" because it is so difficult to understand from the outside.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 28, 2013
China's move to establish air defense zone appears to backfire
It was designed as a forceful response to Japanese assertiveness. But Beijing's creation of an air defense zone may have backfired, experts said, eliciting a strong joint response by the United States and Japan.
EDITORIALS
Nov 9, 2013
Winds of energy independence
Amid the prime minister's push to sell nuclear technology abroad and restart nuclear power plants at home, the Environment Ministry has moved to develop Japan's capacity for wind power.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Nov 6, 2013
Japan brings out the big guns to sell remilitarization in U.S.
With a probable nod and a wink from the Americans, there's not a lot we can do but watch Abe's military machinations march to fruition.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2013
Security ties forged with Russia
The foreign and defense ministers of Japan and Russia agree to deepen security cooperation at the first 'two-plus-two' ministerial meeting between the two nations.
EDITORIALS
Oct 27, 2013
Taketomi Town's prerogative
The education ministry has cherry-picked a provision of the Local Autonomy Law to try to justify its order to compel a town in the Yaeyama Islands to adopt a textbook for junior high schools.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2013
Fukushima to host Japan-Pacific island leaders' summit in 2015
Cabinet ministers and their Pacific counterparts decided Saturday to hold the next leaders' summit of the Pacific Islands Forum in Fukushima Prefecture in May 2015, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida announced.
EDITORIALS
Oct 10, 2013
Political intervention in education
The education ministry should drop its threat to have Taketomi Town of Okinawa Prefecture declared a scofflaw for refusing to adopt a school civics textbook selected by an area council.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2013
Maritime status quo statement irks China
The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday denounced a joint statement issued by Japan, the United States and Australia last Friday condemning any attempt to change the status quo in the East China Sea by "coercive or unilateral actions."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 5, 2013
Sweet times on sugar-isle Kohama
In our minds, islands should be counter worlds, autarchies unsullied by continental concerns. We should arrive spellbound, leave anointed by their beauty.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 10, 2013
Japan-based Chinese scholar missing, reportedly under investigation by Beijing
Zhu Jianrong, a Chinese scholar based in Japan who comments on Tokyo-Beijing relations is under investigation in China for alleged espionage, Chinese sources said Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 27, 2013
Improving relations with Russia
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Vladimir Putin will meet on the fringe of the Group of 20 leaders summit next week in Saint Petersburg to discuss mutual trust.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 26, 2013
China building first amphibious assault ship: think tank
Increasingly assertive China is building its first amphibious assault ship capable of carrying multiple hovercraft and helicopters to strengthen naval landing operations.

Longform

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces