Search - 2013

 
 
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 4, 2014

Looking ahead at what 2014 may hold

Happy New Year, and a reminder as we are in 2014, it was 10 years ago when Japanese baseball went into a crisis. There was a threat of contraction to 10 or even eight teams and a long hot summer of uncertainty as team owners and players negotiated and finally agreed to maintain the two-league, 12-team...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Dec 24, 2013

Familiar obstacles stymie change in domestic music industry

While the Japanese music industry ended last year on a promise of change, 2013 has highlighted a few of the ingrained practices that are going to be a little bit more difficult to dislodge.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 14, 2013

Major roster overhaul raises outlook for Hawks

The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks have been one of the most active among the Japanese pro baseball teams in making preparations for big improvement in 2014. It is clear the team management is viewing its fourth-place finish in 2013 as unacceptable and, judging by its wheeling-and-dealing this off-season, the...
Japan Times
PRESS / Publications
Dec 3, 2013

『The Japan Times報道デスク発 グローバル社会を生きる女性のための情報力』発売中

ジャパンタイムズの報道部を率いてきた大門小百合が情報処理の秘訣を伝授!
Japan Times
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Nov 11, 2013

Kokubo gets started in Japan dugout with one eye on future

Hiroki Kokubo got his feet wet as Samurai Japan manager by sweeping Taiwan in a three-game exhibition series between the two countries over the weekend.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 31, 2013

Festival/Tokyo pushes a return to storytelling

In 2009, when Festival/Tokyo took over from the annual Tokyo International Arts Festival, it burst forth with the slogan "Towards a New Real" and the resolve to stamp the city's name on the global arts map.
EDITORIALS
Sep 4, 2013

Slash wasteful government spending

The Liberal Democratic Party has not learned from its past policy reliance on pork-barrel projects, which caused the national debt to soar.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Aug 26, 2013

Plugging Tepco's brain drain

One reason Tepco paid a uniform ¥100,000 special summer bonus to each of some 5,000 managerial employees is to plug a brain drain. Core workers are quitting.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2013

Will this be another lost opportunity with Iran?

As Iran's new 'moderate' president, Hassan Rouhani, called for renewed dialogue on uranium enrichment program, stubborn U.S senators seemed to block their ears.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Aug 12, 2013

Radiation fears forced me to postpone Japan visit by U.S. students

Dear Minister of Education Hakubun Shimomura,
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jul 19, 2013

That's me in the picture: how 'selfies' became a global craze

It starts with a certain angle: A smartphone tilted at 45 degrees just above your eyeline is generally deemed the most forgiving. Then a light source: the flattering beam of a backlit window or a bursting supernova of flash reflected in a bathroom mirror, as preparations are under way for a night out....
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2013

IMF's global forecast makes for dreary reading

The International Monetary Fund's latest global economic forecast makes for unhappy reading. You may remember that, some years back, it was fashionable to ask whether the world economy could continue "flying on one engine" — meaning the United States. America's boom and import appetite boosted other...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2013

Seeking impressions in the two-dimensional

The title of Yu Kiwanami's "Confirmation of Happiness" (2013) is, in a sense, a kind of betrayal; for happiness cannot, in fact, be confirmed. A woman stands before a landscape, her head cropped off by the top edge of the picture in an artistic act of decapitation. With no head, we cannot see if she...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Feb 4, 2013

Navigating the Tokyo high school minefield: a foreign parent's tale

Not too long ago, I heard from a foreign resident of Tokyo looking for a high school for her daughter, a 14-year-old who will begin her final year of junior high in April. Both parent and child were extremely excited about recently discovering a nearby public school featuring a cosmopolitan atmosphere...
EDITORIALS
Jan 29, 2013

Tax plan benefits the wealthy

The tax outline for fiscal 2013 adopted by the LDP and Komeito places the heaviest burden on poorer people.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 5, 2013

Serpent hunting in the Year of the Snake

As 2013 is the Year of the Snake, for your serpentine pleasure, I've put together a list of snake-like creatures from Japanese legends and folklore. Loch Ness monster fans, Yeti fans and Bigfoot fans, you're going to have a heck of a year in 2013 with all the cryptids waiting to be discovered. Japan...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 3, 2013

Abe hoopla aside, key economic challenges loom

Stocks are up, the yen is easing and there is a new prime minister pledging to splash trillions of yen to breathe life into the country's moribund economy: Last year ended on a high note for Japan Inc., and 2013 looks even more promising for some.
BUSINESS
Dec 28, 2012

Toyota sees sales boom in '13 on overseas demand

Toyota Motor Corp., poised to regain its title as the world's biggest carmaker this year, said its vehicle sales may rise 2 percent next year to a record, led by demand from overseas markets.
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2012

Toyota plans slew of new hybrid models

Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday that it will introduce 21 new gasoline-electric hybrid models by the end of 2015 to meet the growing demand for fuel-efficient cars.
BASKETBALL
Jun 24, 2012

Chiba to quit bj-league

The Chiba Jets, coming off a mediocre 18-34 inaugural season, are jumping ship to the JBL's re-branded top league for the 2013-14 campaign.
COMMENTARY
May 4, 2012

A catastrophic social budget

During the past two years, Vladimir Putin repeatedly stressed his special attention to and personal patronage of the efforts to keep up and somehow improve the pitiful situation concerning the overall social position and living standards of retired and disabled people, such as those receiving pensions...
BUSINESS
Sep 16, 2011

Panasonic to procure more parts overseas

Panasonic Corp. will increase the amount of parts bought outside Japan this year to help cut procurement costs by ¥500 billion, according to a senior company official.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 4, 2011

Posturing won't keep Japan from defending WBC title

One of the stories in baseball news recently involves the participation — or non-participation — by a Japan representative team in the 2013 World Baseball Classic.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2011

Kan wants elections for both chambers in '13

Elections for both chambers of the Diet should be held together in 2013, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tuesday, denying he intends to dissolve the Lower House and call a snap election anytime soon.
BUSINESS
Jan 15, 2011

Keidanren, S. Korea business lobby oppose start of carbon trading

Japanese and South Korean companies, adopting arguments that helped block carbon trading in the U.S., are opposing government plans to set up emissions markets worth a potential $212 billion by 2020.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?