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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 19, 2020

A welcome shift away from shareholder supremacy

Companies are starting to commit to benefitting all stakeholders: customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2020

Can China end its wildlife trade?

The government's latest crackdown on the $75 billion business won't work. Here's what might.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Apr 18, 2020

Delay to games, while frustrating, may allow Kumamoto runner to showcase Aso Bridge rebuilt after earthquakes

As a torch relay runner for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, second year junior high school student Teppei Miyata had planned to run near the Aso Bridge in his village in Kumamoto Prefecture, which collapsed during the April 2016 Kumamoto earthquake. Then the games were postponed to next summer, due...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Apr 17, 2020

Motorboat racing in Mie hit hard by outbreak, affecting public finances

Boat Race Tsu, a municipal-run kyōtei (boat race) course in Tsu, Mie Prefecture, is facing difficulties due to plunging sales after it began holding races without audiences to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 17, 2020

China’s economy shrinks for first time in decades amid virus shock

China’s economy recorded the first contraction in decades in the first quarter as the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 shut down large parts of the world’s second-largest economy and dimmed the global outlook.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 16, 2020

In Singapore, migrant coronavirus cases highlight containment weak link

As Singapore wins global plaudits for its handling of the coronavirus, the disease has spread rapidly within its large migrant worker community, highlighting what rights groups say is a weak link in the city-state's containment efforts.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Apr 15, 2020

Inside Hong Kong judges’ battle with China over courts’ autonomy

The independence of Hong Kong's judicial system is under assault from the Communist Party leadership in Beijing, senior judges in the city have said, posing the gravest threat to the rule of law since Britain handed its former colony back to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / NEWS IN NIHONGO
Apr 14, 2020

Japan post suspends delivery of international mail due to pandemic

According to a Kyodo story that outlines vocabulary related to postal services, Japan Post can't guarantee the delivery of international mail due to a disruption in airline travel.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 13, 2020

Diet faces obstacles to online voting amid outbreak

Moves to introduce remote work for Diet members amid the coronavirus outbreak are failing to gain momentum due to constitutional constraints and technical reasons.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 11, 2020

Counting the cost of postponing the Tokyo Olympics

Nearly a month before the decision was announced to postpone the 2020 Olympics, the media was already speculating over their fate. On Feb. 24, the headline in Nikkan Gendai read, “Relinquishing of the Tokyo Olympics would mean ¥20 trillion in economic losses.”
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / Kateigaho International Japan Edition
Apr 11, 2020

Creative women find harmony in Hayama: Communing in a sacred garden

When Sachiko Yatani began living in her house among the bamboo groves on the slopes of Hayama’s Mineyama hill, she started by closely observing the luxuriant vegetation that grows there. She didn’t set out to create and manage a garden, opting instead to trust nature to do what it does best and satisfying...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Apr 10, 2020

Shortage spurs rush on materials for DIY virus masks in Hokkaido

A nationwide shortage of face masks amid the growing COVID-19 outbreak has sparked a rise in the number of people who make homemade masks using cloth as a substitution for medical gauze as protection against the novel coronavirus.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional voices: Chubu
Apr 10, 2020

As pandemic hits conferences, Aichi firm launches remote interpretation services

As the business environment continues to be affected by the spread of COVID-19, an industrial painting firm based in Anjo, Aichi Prefecture, has begun offering Japanese-English simultaneous interpretation services remotely using teleconference systems.
Reader Mail
Apr 9, 2020

Consider teachers during the pandemic

I work in Japan as a teacher. Despite the news talking about teleworking in recent months, and about how some people are still going to work because of their inability to telework, I’d like to see an article about how schools are still forcing teachers to go in to work, even though we are prepared...
Reader Mail
Apr 8, 2020

There is much that we the people can do

Regarding the March 20 letter to the editor "School closures are a cruel blow to children," school closures will not turn out to be so bad if we can offer online lessons. Using technology in an efficient way is always a wonderful thing. With companies releasing 5G services at such a time, it would be...
Reader Mail
Apr 8, 2020

Proving loyalty

The article “California formally apologizes for WWII internment of Japanese Americans” in the Feb. 21 edition reminded me of the difficult experience of Japanese Americans.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Fincity.tokyo
Apr 8, 2020

Tokyo initiative, firms committed to boosting Japanese financial market’s image

In recent years, a surge of hedge funds and private equity funds have cropped up in Tokyo’s chief metropolitan area.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / NEWS IN NIHONGO
Apr 7, 2020

Virus outbreak boosts convenience store sales in February

Let's look at some business terms via a Japanese news article about a rise in sales at convenience stores during the early days of the new coronavirus outbreak.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Fincity.tokyo
Apr 6, 2020

Finance experts note importance of workforce diversity, global collaboration

Against a backdrop of startling international developments, such as Brexit and the Hong Kong protests, Japan’s financial sector is uniquely positioned to step out of the shadows of its competitors in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Apr 4, 2020

Navigating the murky waters of social media in a pandemic

The frequent occurrence of disasters in Japan has ensured that netizens are constantly on the lookout for online hoaxes. Following any large earthquake or typhoon, social media is typically flooded with all kinds of misleading posts and doctored images. Some are posted in a deliberate attempt to stoke...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / Kateigaho International Japan Edition
Apr 4, 2020

Creative women find harmony in Hayama: A haven between hills and ocean

Hayama, a coastal town on the northwest corner of the Miura Peninsula in Kanagawa Prefecture, is a place that draws people to a more old-fashioned, natural way of life, including poet and Japanese culture expert Chieko Hirota.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 4, 2020

Defining masculinity in a brave new world of despair

Dad works in a bank. “For a man, work is everything” — that’s his motto. It was his father’s before him. Unquestioned and undoubted, it entered his bloodstream.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Apr 3, 2020

Aichi schools' field trip plans upended by spread of COVID-19

As the number of COVID-19 infections surge, especially in the Tokyo metropolitan area, many junior high schools in Aichi Prefecture have been forced to change their school trip schedules, which are typically held in the spring with third-year students traveling to the Kanto region, or other destinations....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Apr 3, 2020

Iwate 3/11 survivors face isolation as wait to leave makeshift houses drags on

About 40 households who survived the March 2011 earthquakes and tsunami in the coastal areas of Iwate Prefecture are still stuck in makeshift housing, waiting to move into new homes.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 1, 2020

Better ties with China: Japan’s coronavirus silver lining?

COVID-19 has caused surprisingly little damage to Japan-China relations. In fact, ties may emerge stronger in unexpected ways.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 1, 2020

Japan’s art institutions struggle to cope with the COVID-19 crisis

Since the quarantine of the Diamond Princess, Japan has gone from being one of the world’s most at-risk countries to lucky outlier, to being again fearful of COVID-19 getting out of control.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2020

For Japan's nonregular workers, a weaker safety net as COVID-19 spreads

Different conditions from full-time staff creates worries for foreign-language teachers and others.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / NEWS IN NIHONGO
Mar 31, 2020

Local governments short on volunteer interpreters in emergencies

A Kyodo story looks at the lack of multilingual volunteers that would be able to help Southeast Asian communities in Japan in an emergency.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Fincity.tokyo
Mar 31, 2020

FinCity. Tokyo meet-up sees sector heavies discuss Tokyo's role as a future global financial center

During the bubble economy of the 1980s, Japan was a behemoth of global finance, with Tokyo and its financial institutions vying neck and neck with New York City and London. But everything changed when the country’s asset price bubble burst in 1992, generating a loss of 100 trillion yen — approximately...

Longform

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