Search - community

 
 
COMMENTARY
Apr 7, 2010

Getting along with China

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, delivering a government work report at the third session of the 11th National People's Congress in March, claimed that China was "first in the world to realize economic recovery and positive turnaround" following the international financial crisis, and that its strategies...
COMMENTARY
Apr 3, 2010

Did China trash a treaty?

The high profile case of Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu closed with the three-judge court sentencing the Australian citizen to 10 years in prison on charges of corruption and stealing commercial secrets.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Mar 30, 2010

What's your favorite hanami memory?

Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Mar 29, 2010

Will a coven of Witch Girls grow in Japan?

Joining Japan's girls of the Forest, Swamp and Mountain are the Witch Girls. Question is, how potent will their spell be?
BUSINESS / U.K. JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Mar 26, 2010

Voter behavior holds key to political system change

Six months have passed since the Democratic Party of Japan ousted the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party from power. But whether there will be a fundamental change to the nation's political system will depend not just on the lawmakers but on the behavior of voters.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2010

Okada, Steinberg discuss Iran nukes

Visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said in Tokyo Friday that he and Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada are discussing how to coordinate more closely on the nuclear challenges of Iran.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 2, 2010

Desperate for jobs, U.S. town awaits Toyota plant

BLUE SPRINGS, Miss. — Terry McShan isn't thinking about car sales analyses or excess capacity when he drives by the idle Toyota plant in northeast Mississippi. He's thinking about his little girl.
COMMENTARY
Feb 24, 2010

Three lessons from Copenhagen

The world now accepts that protecting our atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, biosphere and even cyberspace — the "global commons" — is the responsibility of all countries. Enforcing that norm is proving the difficult part.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 23, 2010

No one-size-fits-all for foreign suffrage

Support has been surprisingly muted for the Hatoyama administration's push toward suffrage for foreign permanent residents, even among the constituencies such a law would enfranchise. The debate is definitely a hot one, sparking a number of protests against the plan around Tokyo, with opposition logic...
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2010

Kansai execs fret affairs of the state

KYOTO — Senior business leaders in the Kansai region have long been able to rely on smooth relations with local and central government politicians sympathetic to their causes.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 20, 2010

Artists push their own snow festival

Among the intricately carved sculptures at the Sapporo Snow Festival this year, three Dutch artists and a polar bear could be seen luring passersby with ribbon-wrapped blocks of compacted snow in an attempt to promote an alternative festival that makes better use of the city's most prominent resource....
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2010

New panel mulls new security parameters

A newly set-up government panel began discussing basic defense policies Thursday, ultimately aiming to revise the National Defense Program Guideline before year's end.
COMMENTARY
Feb 19, 2010

Japan, China, past, present

China's recent economic progress coupled with its growing assertiveness in international politics has, in Asia, Europe and the U.S., given rise to some concern and a number of commentaries about the role of China in international politics.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2010

Steps toward nuke-free world

In recent years there has been a growing chorus of calls for a world free from nuclear weapons. The Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference scheduled for this May will be a crucial test of the international community's ability to unite toward this goal.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Feb 6, 2010

Forces dispatch quick if it's a quake

Three weeks after the Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated Haiti, Tokyo is preparing to dispatch Self-Defense Forces personnel to join the United Nations peacekeeping operation to assist in the country's reconstruction.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 6, 2010

Journalist gives voice to voiceless

Shin Yamaaki is not familiar with the story of David and Goliath, but she has long understood the plight of the underdog. A chance experience in her 20s forged Yamaaki, 38, into who she is today: a woman who takes on global issues by giving voice to people who might go unheard.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2010

India's quick-strike doctrine causes flutter

LONDON — Recently the Indian Army chief, Gen. Deepak Kapoor, drew attention when he suggested at a training command seminar that India is preparing for a "two-front" war with Pakistan and China as it brings its war-fighting doctrine in sync with emerging scenarios to firm up its "Cold Start" strategy....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Feb 2, 2010

Non-Japanese suffrage and the racist element

On Jan. 17, Takeo Hiranuma made this statement about fellow Diet member Renho:
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2010

Our duty to remember Auschwitz

"Let us remember that we are on the site of the most gigantic cemetery in the world, a cemetery where there are no graves, no stones, but where the ashes of more than one million people lie."
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 2010

The reconstruction of Haiti

As the horrific death toll in Haiti has so tragically demonstrated, the primary defense against earthquakes is to have buildings strong enough to withstand their destructive force. It is estimated that at least 150,000 Haitians perished in the magnitude-7.0 temblor and aftershocks that flattened much...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jan 26, 2010

Artist perseveres to embrace life in Japan, keep tapped to Iran roots

Award-winning Iranian artist Mansour Kordbacheh has lived in Japan for 21 years and feels the weight of it on his shoulders.
EDITORIALS
Jan 18, 2010

More trade 'noodles'

Little noticed at the beginning of the year was the introduction of several more strands into the "noodle bowl" of Asia-Pacific trade agreements. On Jan. 1, several new free trade agreements went into effect. These trade deals are by no means perfect. In fact, they represent distinctly second- or even...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jan 17, 2010

Clandestine campaign led to Valentine's demise

First in a four-part series
COMMENTARY
Jan 13, 2010

Asia's changing dynamics

With Asia in transition and the specter of a power imbalance looming large, it has become imperative to invest in institutionalized cooperation to reinforce the region's strategic stability. After all, not only is Asia becoming the pivot of global geopolitical change, but Asian challenges are also playing...
COMMENTARY
Jan 8, 2010

Public hopes fade to fears over the DPJ's capabilities

The Hatoyama Cabinet's approval rating is falling rapidly. In the Lower House election last August, people in Japan rejected the Liberal Democratic Party's long years of reliance on vested interests in favor of the Democratic Party of Japan for a change of government.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Dec 29, 2009

Reconciliatory value of a visit to Nanjing

Dear Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama,
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2009

Will Russia save the West?

MOSCOW — Rapid changes in the global economy and international politics are raising, once more, an eternal issue in Russia: the country's relations with Europe, and with the Euro-Atlantic region as a whole. Of course, Russia partly belongs to this region. Yet it cannot and does not want to join the...
COMMUNITY
Dec 19, 2009

Group mentality — dressing to belong?

Japan's group mentality stumbles with frequent kicks from the Western mind.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat