Search - 2012

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 4, 2012

Sintok festival brings Singapore's growing movie scene to Tokyo

How long does it take to develop a unique national culture? Perhaps the answer can be found in Singapore. The "Lion City" has been independent for just half a century and maybe, judging from the splash the country has made at international film festivals in the last couple of years, its film directors...
Japan Times
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
May 3, 2012

Sumo's dohyo starting to level out

If Hakuho wins the upcoming Grand Sumo Tournament (May 6-20) it will be the 50th time a Mongolian has won the Emperor's Cup.
COMMENTARY
May 3, 2012

China's time to cut the cord

This week Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi and a large Japanese delegation will join some 4,000 participants gathering in Manila for the 45th annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank. By tradition led by a Japanese — typically a former Ministry of Finance official —...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2012

A crisis of capital flight as TARGET debt grows

For a while, it looked as if the European Central Bank's €1 trillion credit program to pump liquidity into Europe's banking system had calmed global financial markets. But now interest rates for Italian and Spanish government bonds are on the rise again, closing in on about 6 percent.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 22, 2012

Espionage and mystery in modern-day China

Don't Cry Tai Lake, by Qiu Xiaolong. St. Martin's Minotaur, 2012, 272 pp., $24.99 (hardcover) An American Spy, by Olen Steinhauer. St. Martin's Minotaur, 2012, 400 pp., $25.99 (hardcover) Qiu Xiaolong's mystery novels, featuring Chief Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Department, have largely...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 20, 2012

Hokkaido's diverse cuisine recognized by Michelin

Hiroshi Nakamichi dreamed of becoming a great one-star restaurateur when he went to Lyon, France, with a Michelin guide in his hands, to work at Michelin-starred restaurants. More than 30 years later, his dream came more than true when his "bible" gave three stars to his Sapporo-based French restaurant...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2012

The ECB's lethal monetary inhibition

Europe's financial system on the brink of disaster, the European Central Bank stunned the markets with an unprecedented intervention, offering banks across the eurozone essentially unlimited liquidity against any and all collateral for an exceptional period of three years.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 17, 2012

Toyota takes fight to VW on home turf

Toyota Motor Corp., which was overtaken by Volkswagen in sales last year, is striking back on the German automaker's home turf.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 15, 2012

Kato says NPB must work to keep stars

Between Game 7 of the 2011 Japan Series and Opening Day of the 2012 season, five players left Japan to play in MLB.
EDITORIALS
Apr 12, 2012

Ill-advised hiring cuts

The Noda administration has decided to reduce the number of recruits by government ministries and agencies for fiscal 2013 by 56 percent from the fiscal 2009's level — that is lower than the 70 percent average reduction Deputy Prime Minister Katsuya Okada asked the central bureaucracy to achieve. The...
EDITORIALS
Apr 10, 2012

Issues Mr. Noda must tackle

The ¥90.33 trillion fiscal 2012 budget was enacted April 5. If a special budget for the reconstruction of areas hit by the 3/11 triple disasters is included, its size expands to ¥93.55 trillion. Because the budget failed to be enacted by March 31, the end of fiscal 2011, the Noda administration had...
COMMENTARY
Apr 10, 2012

Energy conservation is key

If all the reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture remain offline, and if approval is not given for restarting the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture following their just-completed...
BUSINESS
Apr 7, 2012

Toyota ups U.S. sales forecast on higher consumer optimism

Toyota Motor Corp. has increased its 2012 industrywide forecast for U.S. sales of cars and light trucks to the 14 million unit range from 13.6 million, citing rising consumer confidence.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 6, 2012

Festival takes train fans for ride

Just because the cherry blossoms have begun to bloom nationwide, it doesn't mean weekend activities will be restricted to the park — any time of year is a good time for trainspotting.
JAPAN
Apr 6, 2012

Budget finally passed

The fiscal 2012 budget, at more than ¥90 trillion the biggest in history, was finally enacted by the Diet on Thursday as an earlier vote in the Lower House took priority after the opposition-controlled Upper House shot it down earlier in the day.
EDITORIALS
Apr 2, 2012

Lawmakers' pay cut for what?

The Democratic Party of Japan has proposed cutting Diet members' salaries by ¥3 million annually in fiscal 2012 and 2013. The proposal came after the Diet enacted a special law to cut the wages for national public servants by an average of about 7.8 percent, also in fiscal 2012 and 2013. The public...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 29, 2012

Mariners defeat A's in 11th

Ichiro Suzuki was the center of attention from the time the Seattle Mariners arrived in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 22, 2012

Japan competes for attention at SXSW

On the afternoon of the South By Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference And Festival's second day, I sat on a shuttle bus with eight people who had been hustling between the countless concert venues in this city. True to the its slogan "Keep Austin Weird," a local resident whipped out a bag of marijuana and...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2012

Can the world's poor nations save the rest of us?

Events in 2012 so far have confirmed a new global dissymmetry. Caught between unprecedented financial insecurity and a somber economic outlook, the rich OECD countries and their middle classes fear geopolitical weakening and downward social mobility. In much of Asia, Africa and Latin America, however,...
CULTURE / Art
Mar 16, 2012

Take a break from reality at Roppongi Art Night

At one end of town there will be a young girl in a polka-dot dress standing some 10 meters tall. At the other, a team of large yellow mice will host a festival complete with portable shrines. Tokyo's Roppongi district is a spectacle at the best of times, but come March 24, it promises to outdo even itself....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 16, 2012

Take a break from reality at Roppongi Art Night

At one end of town there will be a young girl in a polka-dot dress standing some 10 meters tall. At the other, a team of large yellow mice will host a festival complete with portable shrines. Tokyo's Roppongi district is a spectacle at the best of times, but come March 24, it promises to outdo even itself....
EDITORIALS
Mar 13, 2012

Volunteers still very much in need

Areas hit by the 3/11 disasters are suffering from a shortage of volunteer workers. Reconstruction is entering a critical phase and the whole nation must make an effort to lend a helping hand so that those whose lives have been upended by the disasters do not feel that they have been forgotten.

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?