Search - news

 
 
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Sep 15, 2010

Facebook is sidelined in Japan as social network battle heats up

In July, the number of active users on social networking site Facebook worldwide surpassed 500 million. More than 60 percent of Internet users in the United States have signed up with the site, and its presence has reached into almost every country on Earth. You might think that Facebook is taking over...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 15, 2010

196 more reasons to explore Heisig's imagination

Last spring, the bar was raised for kanji learners aiming to attain literacy in Japanese through mastery of the general-use (jōyō) kanji, when the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology announced the addition of 196 characters to the original list of 1,945 official jōyō kanji...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Sep 15, 2010

Petition project lets Web surfers make their mark

As of Tuesday, 84,512 people were united in their call for laws banning restrictions on manga / anime content, at least 8,984 people had endorsed same-sex marriage, and 1,609 individuals wanted Panasonic to keep a speech aid for the physically impaired on the market.
BASKETBALL
Sep 12, 2010

Akita inks Burks, Henry

The expansion Akita Northern Happinets have signed their first two import players, the bj-league team announced on Friday.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 12, 2010

Budget cuts dooming diners to plumpness

"The destiny of a nation depends on the manner in which it feeds itself," wrote French epicure Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) in his famous treatise, "The Physiology of Taste: Or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy."
CULTURE / Books
Sep 12, 2010

Nara legends, myths and other weird tales

From May 1974 until March 1985, Kenji Inui wrote the column "Hometown Legends" for the prefectural news magazine Kensei Nara.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Japan Pulse
Sep 11, 2010

Publishers flock to next-generation newsstands

Publishers adapt to the changin' times and experiment with new digital channels and pay models.
EDITORIALS
Sep 11, 2010

Rights of whistle-blowers

The Aomori District Court on Sept. 6 sentenced two Greenpeace Japan activists to a suspended one-year prison term, ruling that they broke into a cargo delivery depot in Aomori on April 16, 2008, and stole a 23-kg package of whale meat that a whaling ship crew member was mailing home to Hakodate, Hokkaido....
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 11, 2010

Rooney's antics overshadow England's strong start

LONDON — Another mad, mad week on Planet Football.
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2010

Kan, Ozawa draw flak for fiddling while Rome burns

As Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Democratic Party of Japan kingpin Ichiro Ozawa battle toward their showdown Tuesday, observers are criticizing them for creating a political void in the ruling party at a time when Japan is struggling to rekindle the economy and address other pressing issues.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 10, 2010

Will nationalistic pursuits doom European Union?

WASHINGTON, THE WASHINGTON POST — The European Union is dying — not a dramatic or sudden death, but one so slow and steady that we may look across the Atlantic one day soon and realize that the project of European integration that we've taken for granted over the past half-century is no more.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2010

Ozawa, if he wins poll, promises Kan key post

Democratic Party of Japan heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa said Wednesday he will offer Prime Minister Naoto Kan a key Cabinet post if he is elected party leader and thus the next prime minister.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 9, 2010

Tokyo's 2010 Fashion's Night Out ups the ante

In 2009, Anna Wintour, fashion icon and editor in chief of American Vogue, announced the launch of Fashion's Night Out (FNO), a mass shopping festival organized to not only celebrate but also help keep the fashion industry vibrant in a declining economy. New York's first FNO, which took place just in...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Sep 9, 2010

Endocrine surgeon Dr. Koichi Ito

Dr. Koichi Ito, 52, is an endocrine surgeon and the best-known and most sought-after Japanese authority on the management of thyroid diseases. He is also the third-generation owner of Ito Hospital, ranked as Japan's most progressive thyroid-care medical center. Physicians all over Japan refer their...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2010

Tsuneoka says captors grew tired of holding him, failing to get ransom

Fresh from his release in Afghanistan, freelance journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka said Tuesday in Tokyo he was probably freed after five months in captivity because his abductors' demands for ransom failed.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2010

When a baby can't come naturally

Seiko Noda, a Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker, surprised the public late last month by revealing in a magazine article that she got pregnant at age 49 through artificial insemination using a donated egg from a third person.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 8, 2010

Despite the big spender image, Japanese actually love to save

There's this image that the Japanese are drop-dead, go-all-out kaimono-chūdokusho (買い物中毒症, shopaholics), despite whatever the latest dreary news bulletin on the global recession says. While that may be true, it's also a fact of our collective lives that the Japanese hate spending, with every...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2010

Greenpeace pair guilty; no prison

The Aomori District Court sentenced two Greenpeace Japan activists Monday to suspended one-year prison terms for trespassing and stealing whale meat from a transport company branch in Aomori Prefecture in April 2008.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 7, 2010

Anime makes Japan a cultural superpower

Japan may be on a slow decline as far as being a global economic force, but the "soft power" of its modern entertainment genres, from manga to "anime," has global appeal, especially among young people.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 5, 2010

Scully set to carry on for 62nd season with Dodgers

Baseball news reports last week indicated Los Angeles Dodgers legendary play-by-play announcer Vin Scully has decided to return for another year behind the microphone in 2011. The 82-year-old Hall of Famer will be in his 62nd season calling Dodgers games in a career that goes back to seven years before...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 5, 2010

Fertility issue pregnant with discord

In 2004, Diet lawmaker Seiko Noda wrote a book titled "Watashi wa Umitai" ("I Want to Give Birth"), which chronicled her years of infertility treatments and the subsequent pregnancy that ended in miscarriage. Two years later she ended her six-year relationship with fellow politician Yosuke Tsuruho, who...

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat