Search - 2012

 
 
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 28, 2013

The first family: ordinary yet extraordinary

As President Barack Obama took the stage to deliver his acceptance speech on the night of his re-election, his younger daughter nudged his arm. He bent down to listen to 11-year-old Sasha. "Behind you," she mouthed. The president nodded and promptly turned to wave to the supporters at his back. Sasha...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 23, 2013

“Mr. Children 2005-2010

My Japan Times colleague Ian Martin nailed the state of Japanese pop music when he wrote that it was "clinging on to the hoary old remains of the past." The Oricon Chart's top albums of 2012 list was dominated by "Best Of" compilations, with the top two spots going to a pair released by rock band Mr....
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2013
Jan 23, 2013

Looking to bring Japan's tastes to new markets through sake

As people across the globe toasted the New Year this month, Japan's sake brewers had another reason to celebrate. The industry saw modest increases in sake sales, offering a glimmer of hope to producers who have watched consumption decline since the late 1970s. According to the Japanese Sake and Shochu...
EDITORIALS
Jan 22, 2013

The problem of power harassment

One in four workers in Japan experienced power harassment over the past three years, according to a recent survey by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. The poll of 4,580 companies with 30 or more employees, conducted between July and September of 2012, also found that 45.2 percent of the surveyed...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jan 20, 2013

Hit the road: Japan's 2013 trend forecast

In 2012 we got cat-ear hair-dos, an increasing appetite for salty mold, and a tower with a silly name. What wonders will 2013 bring? We’ve gone through Trendy’s predictions and came up with a list of themes that look good to us. Basically it boils down to this: smart phones continue to up the convenience...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / WEEK 3
Jan 19, 2013

Nanjing remembers; disputes fester

Young Chinese marking the 75th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre are baptized in battles over war memory that shape bilateral relations.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jan 18, 2013

Yokohama's Geary recalls getting to meet NBA legends

Like every midseason showcase, the 1997 NBA All-Star Weekend in Cleveland was a marquee event, not only for its collection of active players — Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon, et al — but also for the much-planned celebration of the league's storied history.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2013

China sets sights on an 'outer space trump card'

When China destroyed one of its own satellites in space six years ago, it alarmed many other Asia-Pacific countries that have invested heavily in orbiting satellites for telecommunications, Earth observation and scientific research.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2013

U.S. should extradite ex-officer under Pinochet

On Dec. 28, 2012, Judge Miguel Vásquez charged eight retired army officers with the murder of Victor Jara, a popular songwriter, guitarist and theater director who was killed days after the 1973 military coup against Chilean President Salvador Allende.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 12, 2013

U.S. drones pound Taliban in Pakistan

The CIA has opened the year with a flurry of drone strikes in Pakistan, pounding Taliban targets along the country's tribal belt at a time when the Obama administration is preparing to disclose its plans for pulling most U.S. forces out of neighboring Afghanistan.
EDITORIALS
Jan 10, 2013

Generic drug prescriptions

The Liberal Democratic Party would like to get doctors and medical organizations, in principle, to prescribe generic drugs, instead of proprietary drugs, to people on welfare with their consent. Behind the idea is the hope of curbing the rising costs of livelihood assistance, known as seikatsu hogo,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 9, 2013

Foreign nurse success story has message for Japan: Open up

The success story of Dewi Rachmawati may hold the key to coping with Japan's declining population and quickly aging society. The struggles the Indonesian nurse has endured during her four years living in the country are what the government must rapidly remedy.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2013

The worst U.S. Congress ever?

When we set out to write a book about the growing extremism in American politics about 18 months ago, we thought that the 112th Congress was the worst we had seen in our four decades in Washington. However, the fight over the debt limit, the fiscal cliff and the farm bill — and the shutdown of the...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 8, 2013

Xenophobia finds fertile soil in web anonymity

As diplomatic strains with China and South Korea worsen over territorial disputes, more and more Japanese are using the relative anonymity of cyberspace to vent their political spleens online.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 8, 2013

Young Livesense chief needlessly lonely at top

It is a rarity for a young person to turn a startup into a corporate success story in Japan, but the nation's future growth may in fact depend on such youthful entrepreneurs.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 6, 2013

Complex tales of censorship in 20th-century Japan

THE ART OF CENSORSHIP IN POSTWAR JAPAN, by Kirsten Cather. University of Hawaii Press, 2012, 342 pp., $45.00 (hardcover) REDACTED: The Archives of Censorship in Transwar Japan, by Jonathan E. Abel. University of California Press, 2012, 376 pp., $44.95 (hardcover) Censorship in Japan has long been hot-button...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2013

Results for 2013 rely perilously on leadership

It's time once again to peer ahead at the global political and economic horizons this year. The political landscape offers both promise and peril, but much of the problem is that many of the outcomes will fall to the judgment of leadership.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jan 1, 2013

Berlitz union wins raise, bonus in suit settlement

The four-year legal battle between management and teachers at Berlitz Japan was declared over Thursday as both sides signed an agreement to end the company's lawsuit against union officials.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Dec 31, 2012

Supreme copout: twisted justification for guns

Suppose a Seung-Hui Cho, Jared Lee Loughner, James Eagan Holmes or an Adam Lanza shot and killed or seriously wounded any of the families of John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. Would any of them have given different opinions in their 2008 and 2010 decisions?...
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 31, 2012

Fed's policies more risky than 'cliff'

In the short term, Washington lawmakers are understandably preoccupied with trying to avoid the "fiscal cliff."
COMMENTARY
Dec 31, 2012

Cloudy prospects for Asia, 'Arab Spring,' global weather

To begin on a happy note, the world didn't end this year. Dec. 21 came and went without a sign of the Four Horsemen, leaving the Mayans (or rather their ancestors) with egg all over their faces.

Longform

It's back to the classroom for some residents as municipal governments across the country conduct lessons to learn how to use new technologies.
Can aging Japan go digital without leaving anyone behind?