Search - 2012

 
 
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jun 4, 2013

The widening income gap is affecting higher education

Students from higher income families are squeezing out lower income students in public university enrollments
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 4, 2013

'Okinawa bacteria' toxic legacy crosses continents, spans generations

Tu Du Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City houses one of Vietnam's busiest maternity clinics, but hidden in a quiet corner, far from the wards of proud new mothers, is a room stacked floor to ceiling with every parent's nightmare.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 4, 2013

As evidence of Agent Orange in Okinawa stacks up, U.S. sticks with blanket denial

In April 2011, these Community pages published the first accounts of sick U.S. veterans who believe their illnesses were caused by exposure to Agent Orange on Okinawa during the Vietnam War era.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jun 4, 2013

By opening up the debate to the real experts, Hashimoto did history a favor

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto has been busy making headlines around the world with his controversial views on Japan's wartime sex slaves (or "comfort women," for those who like euphemisms with their history). Among other things, he claimed there is no evidence that the Japanese government sponsored the...
Japan Times
WORLD / TICAD V SPECIAL
Jun 1, 2013

Japan to focus on public-private partnerships

Since the first Tokyo International Conference on African Development, known as TICAD, took place in 1993, Africa has developed dramatically.
Japan Times
WORLD / TICAD V SPECIAL
Jun 1, 2013

JICA helps Africans develop their future

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), an independent governmental agency that coordinates official development assistance (ODA) for the government, has played an important role for the country in its relations with foreign nations. The following is the story of a JICA staff member who worked...
Japan Times
WORLD / TICAD V SPECIAL
Jun 1, 2013

Zensho pursues fair trade with small farmers in Africa

Fair trade is a concept widely accepted in the world describing a business practice in which importers provide humanitarian benefits to exporters, who are usually in developing nations. Humanitarian benefits can mean anything from paying proper prices for high-quality products to helping the people in...
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2013

Harder battle over Benghazi

Many conservatives suspect that the U.S. State Department, with the White House in a supporting role, deceived the public about the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans. This conspiratorial narrative is, in all probability, false.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 27, 2013

Delta ups ante in battle for New York fliers with $1.4 billion terminal

Delta Air Lines Inc. sharpened the jockeying for the highest-paying passengers in New York, the biggest U.S. aviation market, as it opened a $1.4 billion terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
May 26, 2013

History shows one man's rape is another's wooing

"The evolution of political thought in this relatively isolated island nation during the period in question is unique to the point of being somewhat freakish."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 23, 2013

Guitarist Dustin Wong brings singer Takako Minekawa out on a 'Toropical' journey

Guitarist Dustin Wong hesitates for a split second. It's a pause that would go unnoticed during most other sets, but Wong has spent the last 40 minutes seemingly in a trance while playing guitar and looping the notes via an array of pedals in front of him. The flurry of interlocking sounds he's produced...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 22, 2013

Stranger than fiction: Ryukyu fires Toyama after setting wins record

The Ryukyu Golden Kings failed to reach the Final Four for the first time since 2007-08, their inaugural season in the bj-league. That result proved to be unacceptable to team management.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 19, 2013

Surviving dangerous encounters

In "The Lion's Game" (2000) and "The Lion" (2010), Nelson DeMille's character NYPD Detective John Corey battles and defeats Asad Khalil, a brilliant Libyan terrorist who infiltrates the U.S. to extract revenge for the deaths of family members killed in a U.S. air raid on Tripoli.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 19, 2013

Immigration reform: Could this be Abe's new growth strategy?

The politics of immigration in Japan involve anxieties about national identity and worries about crime. Looking at other countries with large numbers of immigrants, the Japanese government has said "no thanks." There are, however, strong economic reasons for Japan to let down the drawbridges.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
May 19, 2013

Carp looking to turn things around after disappointing start

There were high hopes for the Hiroshima Carp heading into the 2013 NPB season but, almost a third of the way into the schedule, the results so far might well be described as a still wait-and-see situation.
EDITORIALS
May 16, 2013

Protecting a public pension program

To protect the kosei nenkin pension program, the welfare ministry should withdraw a plan to allow troubled investment funds for the program to keep operating.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 15, 2013

IRS conservative scandal snowballs

Internal Revenue Service officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved in the targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati that was initially blamed, according to documents obtained by The...
EDITORIALS
May 13, 2013

Renewable energy policy

The nuclear power plant problems at Fukushima remind us that one potentially positive effect of the Tohoku disaster was a rethink of Japan's energy policy.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
May 11, 2013

GungHo's smash hit title takes social gaming by storm

Thanks to the startling success of its smartphone game "Puzzle and Dragons," the spotlight is beaming brightly on GungHo Online Entertainment Inc.
Japan Times
WORLD / EU SPECIAL 2013
May 9, 2013

Japan, EU look to trade pact as way to lift up economies

Japan and the European Union have taken an important step toward deepening their relationship by starting formal negotiations on a free trade agreement in April, seeking to boost their faltering economies by creating one of the world's largest free-trade accords that will account for about 30 percent...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 9, 2013

Fukushima activist fights fear and discrimination based on radiation

Sachiko Banba aches for children in Fukushima Prefecture, who worry whether they can lead a normal life.
BASKETBALL
May 8, 2013

Griner signs with Chinese team

Center Brittney Griner, selected No. 1 in the 2013 WNBA Draft by the Phoenix Mercury will play in China after her first U.S. pro season comes to an end, it was announced last week.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 6, 2013

Street's 'political intelligence' firms draw Federal scrutiny

The Washington-based firm Height Securities is a small player in a burgeoning financial field where companies seek to acquire valuable information about even the most minor of federal actions and provide it to investors.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 5, 2013

The right to die: letting individuals make the choice themselves

It was not the most elegant way to launch a national conversation about the right to die, but this past January Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, 72, certainly drew attention to the issue of terminal patients. Unfortunately he did so by saying that old people should "hurry up and die" to unburden the nation's...

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A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake