Search - 2012

 
 
Japan Times
JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Feb 15, 2015

Mainstream Japanese society slowly working to accommodate sexual minorities

When she was in her teens, Yumiko Higuchi was suicidal.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2015

Welfare state rises as exceptionalism declines

America's national character will have to be changed if progressives are going to implement their agenda to increase the size of the entitlement state.
BASKETBALL
Jan 8, 2015

Shimane signs forward Witherspoon

Forward Wesley Witherspoon, who saw action in three preseason games for the San Antonio Spurs in 2012 as an undrafted rookie, has joined the Shimane Susanoo Magic, the bj-league club announced on Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Dec 17, 2014

The skewed value of votes

Lawmakers must set aside their partisan interests and act fast to narrow the wide gap in the value of votes between rural and urban constituencies.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 17, 2014

Low voter turnout mars Abe's claim of election triumph

The Liberal Democratic Party won 43.12 million votes in Sunday's snap poll, nearly 3 million fewer than in the 2009 election, which it lost.
EDITORIALS
Nov 28, 2014

Foot-dragging on vote-disparity fix

The parties and lawmakers need to set aside their own interests and bring the gap in the value of votes within constitutionally acceptable levels.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Aug 7, 2014

Aomori warns foreign players about fraudulent agents

Despite having a collection of 80-plus import players for all recent seasons and the fact that 30 foreign-born head coaches, including one (Howie Landa) who never coached in the preseason or regular season, have been hired since the league's first game was played in 2005, there's no information on the...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Jul 30, 2014

Massive graft, rivalry behind purge of China's oil mandarins

Oil executive Jiang Jiemin rose to power in communist China in time-honored fashion: by hitching his star to a mighty mentor.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Jun 12, 2014

Interns abused as labor crisis grows

Wednesday was a regular work day at rusting Burberry factory Kameda Co. in Ishikawa Prefecture, but for three Chinese women, it was a day of escape.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society / FOCUS
May 8, 2014

The 'yes-man' whose faith defied China's rulers

It was shaping up to be a win in the Communist Party's quest to contain a longtime nemesis — the Roman Catholic Church. In July 2012, a priest named Thaddeus Ma Daqin was to be ordained auxiliary bishop of Shanghai.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 7, 2014

Republicans dredge up Benghazi controversy in bid for election-year ammo

Benghazi is back.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 17, 2014

For China's Xi, purging corruption a means to install loyalists

Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to use a purge of high-ranking officials suspected of corruption to instal people close to him and reform-minded bureaucrats into critical positions across the Communist Party, the government and the military, sources say.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 30, 2014

Mt. Gox workers challenged CEO

Two years before Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy, a half dozen employees at the Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange challenged CEO Mark Karpeles over whether client money was being used to cover costs, according to three people who participated in the discussion.
BUSINESS / Economy / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 1, 2014

Economic figures reveal more than you see

The Cabinet Office's Economic and Social Research Institute on Jan. 17 released the finalized figures on the country's economy's stocks (the net value of accumulated assets at a balance date) and flows (net transactions, including income and expenditure, during an accounting period) that were recorded...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 15, 2014

Suntory 'planning $12 billion bridge loan' to buy Beam

Suntory Holdings Ltd. plans to borrow as much as $12 billion to finance the purchase of Beam Inc., two sources said.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2014

How South Korea rides out emerging-markets turmoil

With seven of every 10 high school graduates attending a university, there is a surplus of educated people in South Korea. Estimates are that 40 percent of college graduates are redundant.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 30, 2013

Mirrorless cameras offer glimmer of hope to makers

Japan, once a leader in manufacturing, has lost its competitive edge in various electronics products, including televisions, video recorders and portable music players.
EDITORIALS
Nov 18, 2013

Poor use of reconstruction funds

The government must make better use of reconstruction funds to help the hundreds of thousands of people who have yet to rebuild their lives after the Tohoku disasters.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 20, 2013

Leon H. Sullivan Foundation: the implosion of a legacy

A soldier in olive fatigues pulled Hope Masters into a corrugated metal trailer, locked the door and dropped the key on the floor. He reeked of chewing tobacco and beer.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2013

Can Bezos provide what good journalism needs?

A veteran journalist never imagined that American newspaper reporters and editors would become the economically threatened steelworkers of the 21st century.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2013

Cross-purpose BRICS scheme

The absence of developed cooperative ties and of commercial turnover growth within the BRICS grouping may only perpetuate existing structural differences.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jul 15, 2013

Trolls or media watchdogs?: Japan's foreign-born defenders

Have the foreign media got it in for Japan? Do they unduly focus on, and sensationalize, Fukushima radiation leaks, alleged racial intolerance and the self-aggrandizing policy pronouncements of the reborn Liberal Democratic Party?
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 14, 2013

Major parties both fall short

It should be of concern to Japan's voters that the LDP's proposed constitutional revisions run counter to the principles of freedom and democracy.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2013

Deepening, revising ties with Southeast Asia

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Japan mark the 40th anniversary of their cooperative relations this year. ASEAN and Japan's partnership, which began with the establishment of the ASEAN-Japan forum on synthetic rubber, has evolved over the 40 years. The two parties have formed close cooperation...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 11, 2013

Rising cost of imports opens doors for craft beer revival

Naoyuki Ide is betting that a weaker yen will drive more Japanese people to drink his locally made craft beers.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 6, 2013

New talks unlikely to settle Northern Territories dispute

There is little reason for optimism that new Japan-Russia talks over the fate of the Northern Territories will fare any better than previous attempts to reach a deal.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2013

When freedom to make laws is license to restrict freedom

Since the presumably rigged elections of December 2011, Russia's Parliament/president machine has been stamping human-rights-restricting and authorities-power-enhancing laws one after another.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 11, 2013

Toxic management erodes safety at 'world's safest' nuclear plant

On Jan. 30, 2012, Byron Nuclear Generating Station lost operability to all of its safety-related equipment. At the time, Jim Hazen was the nuclear station operator responsible for the affected reactor, one of two at the Exelon-owned nuclear plant in Byron, Illinois.

Longform

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