Search - author

 
 
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 8, 2014

Luminaries' statement slams Henoko base deal

Twenty-nine scholars, peace activists, writers, artists and a Nobel laureate issue a statement condemning the decision to relocate the Futenma base to Henoko and comparing opposition to the move with America's civil rights movement.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2014

China's anti-Kim campaign

The next target of China's autocrats, already waging an undeclared war over territory against multiple neighboring countries, is likely to be fellow communist state North Korea, now an estranged ally.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jan 7, 2014

Love of the game: Bynum never seemed to have it

There's considerable freedom in the United States these days.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2014

How South Korea rides out emerging-markets turmoil

With seven of every 10 high school graduates attending a university, there is a surplus of educated people in South Korea. Estimates are that 40 percent of college graduates are redundant.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Jan 5, 2014

English fluency hopes rest on an education overhaul

Ringing in 2014, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has a dream: One nation that will actively re-engage with the global marketplace.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 5, 2014

Chinese gaming mecca attempts to shed its gaudy image

Walk into a casino in China's gambling mecca of Macau, and the first thing that strikes you is the silence. There's no blaring music, no sharp cries of victory; all you hear is the rustle of clothing, a hushed conversation, the occasional thump on a table — subtle signs of fortunes being made and lost....
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 4, 2014

Kenya Hara: the future of design

Sitting at a plain white table in a meeting room high up on the 12th floor of a narrow building in central Tokyo, product designer Kenya Hara asks me to picture a shallow plate in my mind. "Now imagine a slightly deeper plate," Hara says, "that gets deeper and deeper and eventually becomes a bowl."
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jan 4, 2014

Botchan

Written in 1906, Natsume Soseki's "Botchan" is based on the author's experience as a teacher in a "barbaric" country town at a time when modern, Western modes of thinking were slowly spreading across Japan from the rapidly modernizing metropolis of Tokyo. The clash between traditional Japanese values...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2014

Century engine starts now

The last two centuries (and possibly more) didn't 'start' with the turning of the calendar from 00 to 01. Each century began bending the arc of history, in essence, in its 14th year.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2014

Has the world hit the end of the end of history?

Almost 25 years after the intellectual and political collapse of communism, another — and by far grander — narrative of promised progress is unraveling: that of liberal capitalism.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2014

Cross-generational relations add to HIV cases

Studies show that the greater the age difference between sexual partners, the more frequent is the practice of unsafe sexual behavior that can lead to HIV infection.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2014

Lebanon signals a sordid new turn as it struggles to be heard politically

The assassination Dec. 27 of a technocrat and former finance minister by a car bomb in a swanky part of the city called into question the rules of the sordid political game that has come to dominate Lebanon's life.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 2, 2014

The conspicuous tendency to wish China well

If China fails and falls, the rest of the world will suffer more than a headache or a short-term setback. We need to be cautious about pessimism that might fuel self-fulfilling prophecy.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jan 2, 2014

Political power struggle behind South Sudan crisis

U.S. and African officials seeking to mediate an end to South Sudan's bloodshed are, in effect, trying to repair rifts in the very liberation movement that they supported for years.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2013

Pope Francis and the meteor

If, as researchers believe, a city-killer meteor arrives about once a century, then Earth is due. But we're not close to ready, and NASA lacks the money for a serious response system.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2013

Five lessons of 2013, guaranteed to be forgotten

One important lesson from 2013 is that we should beware political pronouncements posing as economic forecasts. The U.S. economy had its biggest increase in quarterly GDP in nearly two years despite the government 'shutdown effect.'
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 31, 2013

Failed predictions: President Romney, Pope Dolores

Humanity's faith in predictions was tested around this time a year ago when the floods, famines and other disasters predicted by the end of the ancient Maya calendar failed to materialize.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 28, 2013

A Day in the Life

"A Day in the Life" features 12 short stories told from the point of view of a man in his 60s. Each tale is essentially a reflection of aging, an examination of the moment in our lives when the confidence of our youth is replaced by the uncertainty of our physical and mental faculties.
EDITORIALS
Dec 26, 2013

All eyes on the new NHK chief

The governing board of NHK has appointed a supporter of the new state secrets protection law as the next president of Japan's public broadcaster. Katsuto Momii's three-year term starts Jan. 25.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2013

Christmas Grinch in China

The extension of Chinese President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption and anti-extravagance campaigns is blamed for creating a Grinch responsible for diminishing Chinese holiday cheer this year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2013

'Hunger Games' star continues to burn bright

Jennifer Lawrence says that first and foremost, she watches her latest film, "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," as a fan. She was "stunned" when she saw the end result.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2013

'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire'

The second installment to "The Hunger Games" is hot and fast but also pensive — not what you'd expect from an adaptation of a Young Adult novel series. I reckon author Suzanne Collins' work and the first "Hunger Games" should be on the syllabus for high schools everywhere, and the latest adaptation...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2013

Kaori Shoji's 2013 Top 10: films that aren't backward about coming forward

It has been a year of documentaries made on big ideas and small resources. At the other end of the spectrum, some of the best fiction films had the look and feel of a documentary, attesting to the modern notion that the individual and his/her story are just about the most interesting things around.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Dec 26, 2013

Start a tasty new kitchen tradition this New Year's

We're entering the most traditional time of year in Japan in food terms, starting on New Year's Eve and through the New Year's holiday period, when families gather to dine on osechi delicacies and bowls of symbolic soba noodles. That doesn't mean that there's no room for other kinds of foods, though....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2013

'11.25 Jiketsu no Hi (11.25: The Day Mishima Chose His Own Fate)'

Director: Koji Wakamatsu
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 24, 2013

Blazers look for real with Aldridge, Lillard, 'flow' offense

It's no surprise that going into the final week of December, the Portland Trailblazers had the best record in the NBA.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2013

When leaps in technology make cheating easier

As economists keep reminding us, the optimal level of cheating isn't zero. Sometimes the costs of monitoring tests and chess games, for example, can outweigh the benefits of the underlying activity.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2013

Winners of 2013's behavioral economics oscars

The Oscars won't be awarded until March, but those who hand out the annual Behavioral Economics Oscars (Becons) are famously impatient, and it is time to announce this year's winners.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Dec 23, 2013

Secrets, lies, gaffes, glory: 2013 in quotes

A mix of scandals, achievements, political missteps and commemorations highlighted 2013. Here's a rundown of the quotations that shaped the Year of the Snake.

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake