Search - author

 
 
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Aug 12, 2013

Ainu fight for return of plundered ancestral remains

Shigeru Kayano, one of the most well-known and respected Ainu figures of modern times, writes in his autobiography "Our Land Was a Forest" about the loathing he felt as a young man for the shamo (Japanese) researchers who used to visit his village and family home.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 10, 2013

Ninagawa's golden oldies reach a whole new stage in life

"After a performance at the 232-seat Maison de la Culture du Japon in Paris, one of the Japanese staff there said I had a 'splendid voice.' I didn't buy anything in Paris, but that was the best possible souvenir," said Kiyoshi Takahashi, 85, the oldest male member of Saitama Gold Theater.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 10, 2013

'Haiku killings' recall infamous horror story

Mitake, a tiny mountain hamlet located in eastern Yamaguchi Prefecture, is administrated as part of the city of Shunan (pop. 150,000). The area is so remote, cell phones don't always receive signals there.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 10, 2013

Aso's Nazi gaffe tarnishes Abe's agenda for constitutional revision

The other night at my local sushi bar conversation turned to Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso's comments about constitutional revision — specifically, his suggestion there is something to be learned from the way the Nazis revised the Weimar Constitution in 1933.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Aug 7, 2013

Can Amazon's Bezos save the newspaper business?

Amazon.com founder Jeffrey Bezos' purchase of The Washington Post promises not just an ownership change for the 135-year-old institution but a potential transformation of the fusty mechanics of the newspaper business.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 6, 2013

Japan's security dilemma

Chinese military planners have probably calculated that the U.S. is unlikely to threaten to devastate China in a Sino-Japanese conflict confined to the East China Sea.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 6, 2013

Why it was right to acquit Manning of treason

If U.S. Army Private First Class Bradley Manning had been charged with treason, it would have elevated a reckless act into a brave choice of some ideological significance.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 6, 2013

Political Islam loses legitimacy

The progress of political Islam depends on whether Turkey's AKP and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood commit to safeguarding the principles of pluralism and the rule of law.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 6, 2013

Homo economicus might be an idiot

Surprisingly, in social simulations, the species that helped others to gain resources and reproduce ended up doing better than those who acted out of pure self-interest.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 6, 2013

SkyTruth, the environment and the satellite revolution

Somewhere in the South Pacific, thousands of miles from the nearest landfall, there is a fishing ship. Let's say you're on it. Go onto the open deck, scream, jump around naked, fire a machine gun into the air — who will ever know? You are about as far from anyone as it is possible to be.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2013

Can Egypt's past spur respect for plurality now?

One must hope that Egypt's experience of recent decades will induce a broad range of Egyptians to seek an answer based on respect for a plurality of ideas today.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2013

Inside the mind of Deng's intellectual successor

A new book at last puts Zhu Rongji, Shanghai's former mayor and the economic intellectual successor to the late Deng Xiaoping, into the pantheon of Chinese giants.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 4, 2013

Peng Liyuan, Chinese leader Xi's wife, callled best-dressed first lady

In the love-hate U.S.-China relationship, there has been no shortage of competition: cyberwars, currency wars, intellectual property wars and, most recently, the tug-of-war over a certain asylum-seeking leaker of secrets.
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Aug 3, 2013

Is new yakuza journal good news for Japan?

If you're a well-connected Japanese gangster, you now have your own newspaper to keep you abreast of underworld life. Another perk of the job.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 3, 2013

Revealing the landscaped gems of North America

North America is not a land mass one immediately associates with gardens. China, Japan, Britain and France, perhaps, lay claim to the mind's strongest landscape associations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 3, 2013

Murderous disintegration of a marriage is all too believable in first and final novel

Jodi Brett is beautiful, rich and intelligent. A psychotherapist, she is also, as A.S.A. Harrison's debut opens, "deeply unaware that her life is now peaking ... that a few short months are all it will take to make a killer of her." Because her partner of 20 years, Todd Gilbert, never a faithful man,...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 2, 2013

Why acupuncture is giving doubters the needle

You can't get crystal healing on the National Health Service. It doesn't fund faith healing. And most doctors believe magnets are best stuck on fridges, not patients. But ask for a treatment in which an expert examines your tongue, smells your skin and tries to unblock the flow of life force running...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 2, 2013

Detroit is bust, but it's still Henry Ford's world

Henry Ford, born 150 years ago, defied the bromide about necessity being the mother of invention, as there was no demand for the Model T until he built it.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 1, 2013

Where does Manning rank in the annals of espionage?

Cleared of the most serious charge — aiding and abetting the enemy — but convicted of most everything else, including espionage, Pfc. Bradley Manning is now facing sentencing, which could land him behind bars from roughly zero to more than 100 years.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 31, 2013

A prince's push for workplace equality

Prince William's decision to take two weeks of job-protected, paid statutory paternity leave represents bold support for workplace equality between men and women.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 31, 2013

Kerry fights the wrong war as Syria grieves on

Now into their third year of grief, with 2 million people in refugee camps, the Syrians know better than to expect deliverance from the pre-eminent Western power.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2013

New America-Japan Society chief looks to expand

It has a well-recognized name and more than a century of history. Many prominent figures from Japan and the United States have been involved in its efforts to nurture friendly ties between the two nations.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2013

China should return to the natural birth model

China has one of the highest Ceasarian birthrates in the world. The consequences should make Chinese women think twice before requesting this procedure.
LIFE / Digital
Jul 30, 2013

Post-Snowden, the days of the global Internet are numbered

Repeat after me: Edward Snowden is not the story. The story is what he has revealed about the hidden wiring of our networked world.
WORLD / Society
Jul 30, 2013

Pope's accepting comments on gays mark change in tone

In another act of the kind of humble outreach that has marked the early months of his papacy, Pope Francis called on Monday for the integration of gays into society, remarking that even as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, he has no right to "judge" gay people.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jul 29, 2013

Recommendations for Setouchi Triennale island hoppers

This year more than 150 new artworks are being introduced at the Setouchi Triennale, making a total of around 200 pieces in the islands' collection.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 29, 2013

Japan could soften U.S. cuts

Settling Japan's right to a 'collective self-defense' is destined to become of vital interest to the United States as it carries out mandatory defense budget cuts.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 28, 2013

Weiner wife emerges as husband's chief defender despite repeat of sex scandal

It was his news conference, but it was hard to take your eyes off her. With Huma Abedin's emergence as her husband's chief defender and protector in a second sex scandal, she made a public transformation from being the victim of Anthony Weiner's transgressions to a full partner in his ambition.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jul 28, 2013

In India, a rise in surrogate births for West

When 24-year-old Komal Kapoor handed over the twins she had just borne to a visiting American couple last month, she said she felt "something like sadness."
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 28, 2013

Recovery in Rwanda; the mysterious side of Kinkakuji; CM of the week: Dandy House

One million people were killed in Rwanda 20 years ago during a period of civil terror. On Monday, TV Tokyo visits the African country for the documentary series "Mirai Seiki Jipangu" ("Future Century Japan"; 10 p.m.) to look at its "miracle recovery."

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.