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January 24, 2025

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JAPAN / Politics

Apr 18, 2013

Suu Kyi hopes to surmount obstacles to presidency

By Mizuho Aoki

Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi says that like any political party chief, she hopes to become her country's president, despite the obstacles in her path.

JAPAN

Apr 18, 2013

'Sayonara Speed Tribes': Documentary chronicles disappearing world of bosozoku

By Tomohiro Osaki

Once a symbol of a burgeoning postwar counterculture, the bōsōzoku are fading. Gone are the days when gangs of bikers would zoom through neighborhoods with daredevil temerity.

JAPAN / Crime & Legal

Apr 18, 2013

Italy seeks seizure of $2.4 billion at Nomura

Prosecutors in Italy are seeking to seize €1.8 billion ($2.4 billion) in assets from Nomura Holdings Inc. as part of an investigation into Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA's use of derivatives to hide losses.

JAPAN

Apr 18, 2013

Pulvers wins Noma translation prize

By Tomoko Otake

Roger Pulvers, a noted writer and veteran contributor to The Japan Times, has won the 19th Noma Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature, major publishing house Kodansha Ltd. said.

JAPAN / Politics

Apr 18, 2013

Abe, opposition face off over economy

By Ayako Mie

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe boasted Wednesday that the aggressive economic measures of his first four months in office have helped the economy, but opposition leaders countered during Diet debate that "Abenomics" won't push up wages and increase consumption.

WORLD

Apr 18, 2013

Stronger U.S. gun law fails to pass in Senate

By Dan Balz

The Senate's rejection of a bipartisan bill to expand background checks for gun purchases reveals the difference in power between public opinion and a united minority.

WORLD

Apr 18, 2013

Bombs are simple in design, hard to trace

By Sari Horwitz and Joby Warrick

The bombs that tore through a crowd of spectators at the Boston Marathon could have cost as little as $100 to build and were made of the most ordinary ingredients — so ordinary, in fact, that investigators could face a gargantuan challenge in attempting to use bomb forensics to find the culprit.

WORLD / Politics

Apr 18, 2013

Thatcher 'gave nod to son's coup plans'

By Daniel Boffey

Margaret Thatcher approved of a failed attempt to use an army of mercenaries to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea, according to the unpublished memoirs of the chief protagonist of the bid — former SAS officer Simon Mann.

WORLD / Politics

Apr 18, 2013

House Republicans fault FDA in meningitis probe

After reviewing 27,000 pages of documents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Republicans and Democrats came to different conclusions about the agency's ability to prevent one of the worst public health crises in American history.

BUSINESS

Apr 18, 2013

METI chief urges Gazprom to keep LNG plant's spigot open, reasonable

By Kazuaki Nagata

Trade minister Toshimitsu Motegi on Wednesday called on the president of Russia-owned Gazprom to provide Japan with liquefied natural gas from its plant to be built near Vladivostok at a “reasonable price” and in a “timely manner” after it starts up.

BUSINESS / Companies

Apr 18, 2013

Holes in industrial ecosystems threaten manufacturing

By Takashi Kitazume

Even in a globalized economy, nations need to have strong local production capabilities in order to bring innovation to the market, American and Japanese scholars said in a recent symposium held in Tokyo.

BUSINESS / Companies

Apr 18, 2013

Nissan weighs North American Infiniti output boost

Nissan Motor Co.'s Infiniti, seeking a bigger share of global luxury vehicle sales, is considering adding a second production site in North America to produce models for the brand locally.

EDITORIALS

Apr 18, 2013

LDP out to undermine Constitution

The LDP seeks to revise Japan's Constitution in ways that run counter to modern principles aimed at preventing the imposition of arbitrary and warlike policy.

EDITORIALS

Apr 18, 2013

Ms. Suu Kyi visits Japan

As a result of Aung San Suu Kyi's first visit to Japan in nearly 27 years, the government should work out a basic principle for providing assistance to Myanmar.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 18, 2013

A welcome nudge for doctors to wash their hands

By Ford Vox

Hand hygiene is the No. 1 contributor — and the most fixable — to the almost 2 million hospital-acquired infections each year that kill 100,000 people in the U.S.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 18, 2013

Margaret Thatcher and the 'Big Bang'

By Howard Davies

Americans have been surprised at the sharply divided views in Britain over the governance of Margaret Thatcher, a product with more appeal in export markets.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 18, 2013

Blame Western 'demonists' for Pyongyang's belligerence

By Gregory Clark

Demonists never sleep. They concoct fantasies almost daily over a North Korea that almost certainly only wants to protect itself from the threat of U.S. attack.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 18, 2013

Why well-informed people are also close-minded

By Cass R. Sunstein

A U.S. study finds that if you know a lot about politics, efforts to undermine or dislodge your political beliefs with facts might well upset you and therefore backfire.

BASKETBALL

Apr 18, 2013

Aisin edges Toshiba in JBL Finals opener

By Kaz Nagatsuka

The powerhouse Sea Horses withstood a tough challenge by Toshiba, but came through down the stretch as Aisin defeated the Brave Thunders 77-71 in Game 1 of the JBL Finals on Wednesday night.

CULTURE / Art

Apr 18, 2013

Scroll displays the human side of Perry's arrival

By Victoria James

"It's come pretty much out of nowhere," says British Museum curator Tim Clark, placing a small wooden box on the table — it's about the dimensions of a shoebox, slightly weathered and lightly inscribed with fluid kanji characters. "It was in Japan until last summer, where it belonged to a dealer, and...

CULTURE / Music

Apr 18, 2013

Playwright imprint focuses on newer jazz acts

By Sean Smith

At a time when stories about declining music sales are frequent and major labels aren't investing in new talent, hearing about an indie label like Playwright is music to the ears.

CULTURE / Music

Apr 18, 2013

Extruders have a rock epiphany

By Ian Martin

"Before the gig, we were quite intimidated: a lowly rock band performing in front of a god. After, we found we could do it, and that was the turning point for us."

CULTURE / Music

Apr 18, 2013

Kis-My-Ft2 "Good Ikuze!" (Avex Trax)

By Patrick St. Michel

Odds are, Japan Times reader, that you do not like Kis-My-Ft2. Maybe you've been unable to escape the bleating "Wanna Beeee!!!" while out strolling in Shibuya, or maybe they lost you at, "From the people who brought you SMAP and Arashi!" So this review should be quick, right? A nice hatchet job with...

CULTURE / Music

Apr 18, 2013

i-fls "Diary of Spectre" (self-release)

By Patrick St. Michel

The first song I ever made — and I'm willing to wager many who graduated high school in the mid 2000s share this experience — was using Apple's GarageBand, a software application that lets people make music on their computers. "I made a killer techno track last night, dude," I overheard one classmate...

CULTURE / Art

Apr 18, 2013

"Mono no Aware and Japanese Beauty"

By Delilah Romasanta

Traditional Japanese art has long shaped outsider's perception of Japanese culture. The precise, yet seemingly fluid lines create a feeling of serenity and wisdom that is very reflective of the Japanese culture. From April 17 to June 16, the Suntory Museum of Art will play host to such meaningful artworks....

CULTURE / Art

Apr 18, 2013

Early photos of northern Japan capture a time of change

By Alice Gordenker

Although photography entered Japan in the mid-19th century, it took time to spread beyond the few port cities permitted to engage in trade with the West at that time. As a result, it was several decades before this imported Western technology reached outlying districts, and by then the Japanese concept...

CULTURE / Art

Apr 18, 2013

Smuggling art into fashion

By Mio Yamada

In 1943, in the midst of World War II, a U.S. Army propaganda drop over Berlin distributed leaflets bearing gruesome images of Adolf Hitler's face partially obscured by a calf's skull. Those who dared to pick one up would never have guessed that the artist who created that foreboding picture was born...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.

Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go

By Kazuaki Nagata and Richard Meyer

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

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