Search - reference

 
 
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Feb 22, 2012

Smith's track record cause for concern

On a one-week assignment with the Nuggets last season in full anticipation of Carmelo Anthony exclusively spilling his guts to me about every aspect of his life and forthcoming destination, I accompanied the team on its charter to Phoenix.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 19, 2012

Codebreaker who saved the U.S. Pacific fleet

JOE ROCHEFORT'S WAR: The Odyssey Of The Codebreaker Who Outwitted Yamamoto At Midway, By Elliot Carlson. Naval Institute, 2011, 616 Pp., $36.95 (hardcover) Spying on other nations has long been part of the global power game, but it has not always been considered proper diplomatic practice.
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2012

Hashimoto forges ahead with fiery reform agenda

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's campaign to fundamentally reform the central government is moving forward even as Diet lawmakers and members of his own group criticize his goals as unrealistic.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 12, 2012

A future free from nuclear energy? Yakushima may be ready

I once took a ferry from Kagoshima on the southernmost tip of Kyushu to Amami Oshima, halfway to Okinawa. Just 60 km out from the massive Sakurajima volcano that dominates Kagoshima City, our ship passed a huge granite hunk of rock some 50,000 hectares, covered in forest.
Reader Mail
Feb 5, 2012

Yours-is-mine model doomed

Observing the furor on the Web and in newspapers last month over the attempt by members of the U.S. Congress to pass legislation aimed at cracking down on Internet piracy makes it clear that large numbers of people support the irresponsible positions of the Internet heavyweights such as YouTube, Google...
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2012

TSE glitch no payday for platforms

Japan's alternative trading platforms missed out on a potential payday as regulators stopped them from fielding orders when a computer error caused the biggest trading disruption in six years Thursday at the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 3, 2012

DiCaprio visits America's dark past in 'J. Edgar'

Leonardo DiCaprio admits that he didn't hear much about the famously feared J. Edgar Hoover while he was growing up. That doesn't stop him from making an astute observation: "The man was a troll."
Reader Mail
Feb 2, 2012

Upshot of starting in spring

I am writing with reference to the front-page Jan. 19 Kyodo article "Todai panel recommends fall enrollment." As a longtime resident and teacher here in Japan, there are many aspects of the current education system that I would like to see change. However, the April start to the academic year is not...
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Jan 28, 2012

Okada: Officialdom must sacrifice to sell tax hike

Winning the public's support to hike the consumption tax is the government's priority as their backing would force opposition parties to drop their stance against tax reforms, new Deputy Prime Minister Katsuya Okada said.
CULTURE / Art
Jan 26, 2012

Japan's role in the 19th-century modernization of Chinese art

Last year was an excellent one for engaging Chinese art in western Japan. A series of exhibitions got underway with the airing of the Ueno Collection at the Kyoto National Museum in January, the superlative holdings of the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art and the Sumitomo Collection housed at Sen-oku Hakuko-kan...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 26, 2012

Japan's role in the 19th-century modernization of Chinese art

Last year was an excellent one for engaging Chinese art in western Japan. A series of exhibitions got underway with the airing of the Ueno Collection at the Kyoto National Museum in January, the superlative holdings of the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art and the Sumitomo Collection housed at Sen-oku Hakuko-kan...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 22, 2012

Fresh light on history books

POSTWAR HISTORY EDUCATION IN JAPAN AND THE GERMANYS: Guilty Lessons, by Julian Dierkes. Routledge, 2010, 224 pp., $130 (paper) The ways in which both Japanese and Germans remember and narrate the history of World War II have generated a vast literature in recent years. School education and textbooks...
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Jan 15, 2012

Anniversary of Korean annexation, "harakiri" row halts Diet, Socialist Party-China communique, Kyoto Journal debuts

100 YEARS AGOSunday, Jan. 7, 1912
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2012

Futenma move may hinge on Okinawa 10-year growth plan

With U.S. officials pressing Japan to make major progress on the long-stalled relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within Okinawa, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his new defense minister will have their work cut out getting locals to accept the move.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 7, 2012

Man United's flaws on display in loss

Wayne Rooney looked like someone who had not been training properly during a shocking cameo display in Manchester United's 3-0 defeat at Newcastle three days ago.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 6, 2012

'Spamalot' cast hopes 2012 is Year of the Python

"This is Spam," says Eric Idle to a room full of Japanese journalists, holding up a can of the precooked meat product that he and his fellow Monty Python cast members mocked to lasting effect in 1970 in their iconic BBC TV series.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 1, 2012

For how much longer will Japan's fate remain in the hands of amateurs?

As we enter into a new year in which last year's greatest event is still, dreadfully, uppermost in the mind of everyone in Japan, let's pause to think hard about the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, the tsunami it triggered, and the release into the environment of radioactive substances from...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Dec 27, 2011

Readers' views: Do foreigners deserve a fairer shake in Japan?

Some responses to the Nov. 6 Just Be Cause column by Debito Arudou headlined "For the sake of Japan's future, foreigners deserve a fair shake":
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 27, 2011

Time to change the way we live

Reeling off our names and nationalities between East Halls 1 and 2 of convention center Tokyo Big Sight, our group introduces itself: "I'm from Thailand," "Vietnam, hi," "We're Taiwanese", "Singapore", "Korea".
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 26, 2011

A look back at the buzzwords and street slang of 2011

On Dec. 1, publisher Jiyukokumin-sha announced that the winner of its annual 流行語大賞 (ryūkōgo taishō, buzzword grand prix) for 2011 was 撫子ジャパン (Nadeshiko Japan). This of course is the name of the winners of the Women's Soccer World Cup held last June-July, and you can hardly blame...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 24, 2011

Terry's future with England in doubt

The season of goodwill? I don't think so. Happy New Year? I doubt it.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 23, 2011

'Restless'

Gus Van Sant's "Restless" is a film about love, an ode to doomed but pure teenage infatuation. But it's also about love of a film, in this case Hal Ashby's cult classic "Harold and Maude." It's one of those cases where the lift (or "homage") is so overt and massive that it's hard to consider "Restless"...
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Dec 15, 2011

Painting a picture of Yumeji Takehisa

A persistent and lingering myth is that Yumeji Takehisa (1884-1934), who forwent conventional art training at a sanctioned institution and earned widespread popular appeal for all the things the arts were supposedly not, was unimportant to the fine arts.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Dec 13, 2011

Eyewear designer Alain Mikli

Alain Mikli, 56, is not just the most famous eyewear designer in the world — he invented the job description. Mikli was the first person to achieve worldwide success as a designer of nothing else but eyeglasses. He established his own brand in Paris in 1978 and pioneered the idea of wearing frames...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 11, 2011

It takes a supersize brain to drive a London taxi

Visitors to Japan often comment on the way taxi doors open as you approach — at the touch of a button by the driver; and that those drivers generally wear smart white gloves. I apologize for the competitive tone, but there is something far more remarkable about London taxis: their drivers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 2, 2011

"Collections III: Yasui Nakaji and His Age"

Hyogo Prefectural Museum presents the work of influential Japanese photographer, Nakaji Yasui (1903-1942), for its third exhibition in a series showcasing the museum's collection.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 2, 2011

Tintin gets a little closer to Japan in 3-D movie

"Everyone knows Tintin!" says a street hawker in the film "The Adventures of Tintin" — but 30 years ago director Steven Spielberg had no idea who or what he was.

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it