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COMMENTARY
May 18, 2010

Overhaul industrial policy to bolster the economy

Japan's industrial power is so stagnant that it seems a crisis is in store for our economy. Even as it lags far behind the United States in creating intelligent information systems, Japan is finding that South Korea, Taiwan and China are catching up with it in manufacturing.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 23, 2010

Higher education: opening up or closing in?

First in a two-part series
JAPAN / GOVERNMENT DEBT CRISIS
Mar 19, 2010

Bubble prophet fears new disaster

Prominent economist Yukio Noguchi is one of the few who correctly predicted the collapse of Japan's bubble economy in 1987, warning the preceding euphoria was based on a major distortion in land prices.
EDITORIALS
Mar 16, 2010

First step for serious emission cuts

The Hatoyama Cabinet Friday endorsed a basic bill designed to combat global warming. Importantly, the bill specifies middle- and long-term numerical targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions: by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, and by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050. However, the...
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2010

Airport wars roil Kansai region

OSAKA — Two years into his term, Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto continues to enjoy high popularity among voters, with some local media polls showing his approval rating at almost 70 percent, due largely to his personality and cost-cutting steps.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 27, 2009

COP15 farce: There's always more time, till there isn't

Post-conference analysis of the Copenhagen COP15 has ranged from despair and disgust to guarded optimism that 2010 will bring a new and better agreement.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2009

Gridlock threatens to doom COP15

COPENHAGEN — U.N. negotiators at the COP15 conference worked through the night Tuesday, increasingly desperate to reach agreement before more than 120 world leaders gather Thursday night and Friday and following an official warning that the stalemated negotiations could doom the conference.
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2009

Japan under fire for laying low in Copenhagen

COPENHAGEN — Japan needs to step up and take a more prominent and visible leadership role at the U.N. climate talks or the conference could end in failure, Japanese and foreign nongovernmental organizations said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Dec 11, 2009

'Clean energy' plan may jump start NGK's sales

Japan's plan to use more renewable energy to fight climate change hinges on another technology — batteries as big as London buses to be hooked up to the power network at a cost of as much as ¥6 trillion.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2009

Leaked Danish draft at COP15 angers G77 bloc

COPENHAGEN — A leaked draft prepared by Denmark but reportedly compiled with assistance from the U.S. and the U.K. threatened to disrupt proceedings at the U.N. climate change conference, infuriating developing countries who feared the proposal would force them to shoulder more of the burden for reducing...
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2009

Tempers flare at climate talks

COPENHAGEN — Tempers rose during the U.N. climate conference Tuesday, with key players criticizing each other's plans to combat global warming and a leaked draft from host nation Denmark creating havoc in the negotiating sessions.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2009

Japan says China cuts must be binding

COPENHAGEN — Japan's pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions continues to hinge on whether China and other major developing economies make legally binding reduction commitments, and Beijing's current negotiating stance does not meet that condition, according to Japanese delegates at the U.N. Climate...
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2009

Climate talks open amid growing hope

COPENHAGEN, After two years of preparation and anticipation, the U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP15, opened Monday amid growing hope an agreement between developed and developing countries on specific greenhouse gas targets is within reach.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE
Dec 1, 2009

Electric vehicle market charges up

FOURTH IN A SERIES Keio University engineering professor Hiroshi Shimizu believes the era of the electric vehicle is near.
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2009

Fukuyama optimistic emissions deal within reach

KYOTO — Last week's announcement by President Barack Obama that the United States would pursue a 17 percent cut in greenhouse gases compared to 2005, followed by China's announcement of its own emissions reductions target, are positive signs that an agreement will be reached at next month's Copenhagen...
COMMENTARY
Nov 19, 2009

Wrong way to halt warming

Here's a surprise. The countries with the best stories to tell at the forthcoming U.N. Copenhagen conference on climate change will probably be the ones that have not signed up to carbon-reducing targets at all, or have only signed up very recently. It could be China, the United States, India and Japan...
EDITORIALS
Nov 13, 2009

Turbulent climate talks

Clouds are hanging over current negotiations leading up to the 15th, 192-nation U.N. Climate Change Conference scheduled to be held in Copenhagen Dec. 7-18 for the purpose of adopting a global framework for curbing greenhouse gas emissions from 2013. The Kyoto Protocol now in effect will expire in 2012....
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2009

Rhetorical Hatoyama opens Diet

Calling his mission the "bloodless Heisei restoration," Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama kicked off a 36-day extraordinary Diet session Monday pledging to revamp postwar politics and establish a society based on his notion of fraternity.

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