Search - 2013

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 6, 2016

Festival/Tokyo speaks with a defiant voice

Press conferences are usually upbeat affairs, but at the one held to herald Festival/Tokyo — a two-month theater festival that kicks off Oct. 15 — Artistic Director Sachio Ichimura appears looking worried and begins proceedings by bemoaning the event's financial situation and wondering aloud about...
Japan Times
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Sep 25, 2016

Kansai uses subsidies to fill empty homes, but persuading aging population to pull up stakes remains a challenge

Some central Japan prefectures and even cities like Kyoto and Nara are increasingly adopting measures to reduce the number of vacant homes, including via subsidies for owners.
Japan Times
BASEBALL
Aug 2, 2016

Tokyo will host two rounds of 2017 WBC

Samurai Japan's quest to reclaim the World Baseball Classic title will begin in the nation's capital.
EDITORIALS
Jul 11, 2016

Abe's new voter mandate

Prime Minister Abe should use his coalition's bolstered Diet majority to more effectively implement economic reforms, not to amend the Constitution.
BUSINESS / Economy / G7 ISE-SHIMA SUMMIT SPECIAL
May 25, 2016

'Womenomics' continues as a work in progress

In 1999, we proposed that part of the solution to Japan's demographic crisis is higher female labor participation, which — at 57 percent at the time — was among the lowest in the developed world. Japan stood out from its developed country peers with its pronounced "M-curve" of female employment,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 11, 2016

Needs of post-3/11 Tohoku stay in focus for filmmakers

The dramatic imagery that emerged from the disasters of the March 11 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, documented so extensively by mainstream and social media, is hard to forget. However, there were and still are many stories to be told about the people who were left to pick up the pieces of their lives...
EDITORIALS
Jan 29, 2016

Amari still has much to answer for

Even though he has stepped down as economic and fiscal policy minister, Akira Amari still owes an explanation of his acts to a public weary of the repeated money scandals involving key members of the Abe administration.
BUSINESS
Jan 20, 2016

The Onion worth more than the Washington Post

The Onion's top news, circa 2013: "Print Dead at 1,803." On Tuesday, it helped put the nail in the coffin.
EDITORIALS
Jan 17, 2016

Futenma, elections and autonomy

The upcoming elections in Okinawa, starting with the Ginowan mayoral race, will weigh heavily on the Futenma relocation issue.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 18, 2015

Egypt's most feared: terrorist former special forces officer

As a special forces officer in the Egyptian Army, Hisham al-Ashmawy trained in the desert, learning camouflage, survival techniques and how to hunt the enemy in rough terrain. Now he has turned militant and uses that training to help fellow jihadis fight the government.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 17, 2015

Councilors get loud on library revamps

As testimony to their characteristically low profile, Japan's public libraries seldom make the news, although two recent exceptions come to mind.
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
Aug 2, 2015

Getting Japan's youth engaged in disaster preparedness

Even though earthquake-prone Japan has seen numerous warnings that massive, devastating temblors could strike at any time, including in the Tokyo metropolitan area and in the Nankai Trough off the Pacific coast, data shows the nation's youth don't seem to have the same sense of preparing for a disaster...
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2015

International students face job hunting hurdles in Japan

A 23-year-old student from China who attends the prestigious University of Tokyo is now looking for a job in Japan.
EDITORIALS
Jun 5, 2015

Job numbers up, but not quality

Current employment statistics may look good, but they belie a drop in the quality and earning power of available jobs.
EDITORIALS
May 13, 2015

No need for haste on TPP deal

The government must resist the temptation to make concessions that won't benefit Japan in its effort to conclude TPP negotiations with the U.S.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 4, 2015

Did America's drone strikes lose Yemen?

The U.S. drone program, which is responsible for the deaths of many innocent civilians, is fundamentally flawed and should not be perpetuated.
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2015

U.S. probes reports on Nissan air bag recall failure

U.S. regulators are looking into whether a recall last year by Nissan Motor Co., the nation's second-largest automaker, failed to fix a flaw in the air bag control systems on almost 1 million vehicles.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 13, 2015

U.S. students losing interest in China as dream jobs prove elusive

American students are getting cold feet about studying Chinese in China, with many study abroad programs in the country seeing a substantial drop in enrolment over the last few years.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 27, 2015

Two more Cabinet ministers ensnared in money scandals

The Abe administration's money scandals snowball as two more Cabinet ministers admit their chapters accepted donations in 2013 from a company that was set to receive state subsides.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Feb 23, 2015

'Abenomics' divides Japan's stocks as small shares left behind

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's plan to revive the nation's economy is leaving small companies behind.
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 2015

Japanese support for the AEC

Japan should throw its support behind the regional plan to establish the ASEAN Economic Community by yearend, thus creating a single market and production base of more than 600 million people.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 19, 2015

Secretive robot maker Fanuc targeted by activist investor Loeb

Fanuc Corp., one of Japan's most reclusive companies, has spent decades building a wall of secrecy around its ultra-profitable industrial-robotics business.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 17, 2015

How two small rocks stop Japan and South Korea from getting along

They were once a source of fortune for Japanese fishermen hunting sea lions and abalone, but now the pair of remote rocks in the Sea of Japan are preventing Japan and South Korea from getting along.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Feb 14, 2015

Eagles need young duo to soar in '15

Earlier this year, 24-year-old Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles pitcher Wataru Karashima said he'd retire if he failed to reach 10 wins this season. Karashima has pitched in NPB for five seasons, and was used out of the bullpen over the first two, making 14 appearances as a reliever. Since becoming a starter...

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan