Search - 2014

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 30, 2014

TACT promises a globe-trotting Golden Week glow for all ages

"Baaa, baaa, ba-aaa" — many Tokyoites sheepishly making their way from JR Ikebukuro Station to their workplaces or the shops stopped in their tracks when they heard a strange bleating coming from the open-plan plaza basement of Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre by West Gate Park in this seriously nonrural...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2014

Ukraine narratives spawn dangerous presumptions

Competing, starkly different U.S.-Western narratives are spawning dangerous presumptions with regard to the Ukraine crisis.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2014

Debt runup looms as next phase of euro crisis

The euro crisis has passed through six phases so far. The seventh phase of the crisis appears to be one of enhanced moral hazard, stemming from a runup in debt.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2014

America's Afghanistan albatross

Pakistani interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs can be made to stop only if the Obama administration finally makes that a condition for continuing its generous aid to cash-strapped Pakistan — a remote prospect.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 23, 2014

Bambitious excited about future after debut season

Nobody realistically expected the Bambitious Nara to win 35 or 40 games in their inaugural season. After all, an expansion team must endure a lot of growing pains as a first-year franchise during a challenging 52-game schedule.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 23, 2014

Bambitious excited about future after debut season

Nobody realistically expected the Bambitious Nara to win 35 or 40 games in their inaugural season. After all, an expansion team must endure a lot of growing pains as a first-year franchise during a challenging 52-game schedule.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2014

A moment of truth for the women of India

"The Power of 49": That's how Indian activists have started describing the potential influence of women, who make up just under 50 percent of the population, in the country's ongoing elections. Political parties are courting women for the first time as a bloc, a transformative force that could upend...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2014

The irrelevant German consumer shines on

With regard to global rebalancing, the German consumer is a sideshow. What is needed is an investment surge in Germany and Europe, and a coordinated exit from ultra-loose monetary policies.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 21, 2014

Artists' mission to revitalize an onsen town

It begins with a long, slow hiss. The valves open, and a thick fog is released into the air, pouring from the roof of Dogo Onsen Honkan, the famous three-tiered bathhouse built in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, in 1894. It flows down the side of the building, past bathers in bathrobes on the open balcony...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2014

Raise corporate profile of women, confab urges

A two-day international conference aiming to empower women kicked off Friday in Tokyo with a call for companies and the government to foster more female executives — an area of gender equality where Japan greatly lags behind the global norm.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 15, 2014

E-Girls "Colorful Pop"

E-Girls are a 28-member-strong idol pop collective constructed by Avex. The "E" stands for "Exile," as in this is the female version of greased-up R&B doofs Exile.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Apr 13, 2014

Conservatives Paul, Cruz test U.S. presidential waters in New Hampshire

Conservative Republican Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz tested the 2016 presidential waters at an event Saturday in the influential state of New Hampshire at which potential opponents from the more moderate wing of the party did not appear.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 8, 2014

Russia's big bet on 'Putinomics'

Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks he can enjoy political and military freedom in dealing with Ukraine without experiencing crippling economic costs from sanctions or the exit of multinational firms from Russia.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2014

An Afghan 'Afghanistan'?

As it braces for its upcoming presidential election, can Afghanistan finally escape the cycle of militancy and foreign intervention that has plagued it for more than three decades?
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 29, 2014

Unpersuasive logic for death penalty in Japan

The death penalty in Japan is imposed in cases of murder, and robbery and/or rape leading to death. In such cases, capital punishment is not mandatory and is usually only imposed in cases of multiple killings, though since 2006 this criteria has not been strictly observed.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2014

Saudi Arabia's diplomatic pilgrimage to Pakistan

Although the strategic value of closer military ties with Pakistan seems highly questionable, Saudi Arabia has little choice.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Mar 27, 2014

Giants, Hawks look like class of NPB as season begins

2014 NPB Preview
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 26, 2014

Party with the yuru-kyara in Saitama

On March 30, Kibitan, Fukushima Prefecture's Narcissus Flycatcher bird mascot is joining other yuru-kyara regional mascots from across Saitama Prefecture in an event to support the recovery efforts in regions of northeastern Japan affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 24, 2014

Monetize state debt when deflation risks persist

How will central banks achieve a final 'exit' from unconventional monetary policy and return balance sheets swollen by unconventional monetary policy to 'normal' levels?
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 22, 2014

Okinawa redux: Democracy and an alliance at risk

U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy made a meet-and-greet trip to Okinawa last month, an opportunity to gauge the lay of the land and listen to some of the stakeholders in the longstanding controversies over plans to reduce America's military footprint in the prefecture.
Events / KANSAI: WHO & WHAT
Mar 21, 2014

Huge antique fair next weekend in Kyoto

The 58th Grand Antique Fair in Kyoto will run from March 28 to 30, with more than 350 shops from all over Japan displaying and selling their wares.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2014

Ike of Honda to take JAMA helm

Honda Motor Co. Chairman Fumihiko Ike will take over as chief of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association in May, the industry lobby group said Thursday.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 19, 2014

Ishigaki replaces Fukuhara for worlds

An unexpected phone call turned out to be surprising, but a pleasant one for Yuka Ishigaki when the 24-year-old table tennis player learned she would replace the injured Ai Fukuhara in the upcoming Japan Table 2014, the World Team Table Tennis Championships.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 18, 2014

Japan acts rock on at this year's SXSW

After somersaulting through a shallow puddle, the lead singer of Osaka's Vampillia stared intently at a nearby taco truck. As his band plowed through a noisy, violin-assisted song on the third afternoon of the South By Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference And Festival, he scaled the vehicle and screamed...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 15, 2014

The Fukushima tragedy justifies nuclear skepticism

The findings of a Kyodo survey conducted in February this year reveal a stunning level of reluctance to restart Japan's nuclear reactors in the host cities, towns and prefectures that stand to gain from revving them back up.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?