Search - 2013

 
 
EDITORIALS
Feb 13, 2014

Pork-filled supplementary budget

The Diet's passage last week of a ¥5.465 trillion supplementary budget for fiscal 2013 is deceptive as it includes items that an expert panel had recommended eliminated from the fiscal 2014 budget last fall because they were deemed wasteful.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 10, 2014

Sino-American trade and investment friction

In recent years, U.S. exports to China have been growing faster than Chinese exports to the U.S. Similarly Chinese investment in the U.S. is growing faster than U.S. investment in China. Trade frictions are inevitable.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Feb 1, 2014

Japan: Why kill whales off Antarctica?

The Japanese whaling fleet — this year just a factory ship, three catchers and what is being called a "surveillance" vessel — left Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture in secret on Dec. 9, 2013 bound for the Southern Ocean and its annual hunt that will keep it away from home through March.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 27, 2014

Yamaha hits Indonesia target for motorcycles

Yamaha Motor Co., the world's second-largest motorcycle maker, said it probably met a reduced 2013 sales target in Indonesia and expects to at least maintain the level of deliveries in its largest market this year.
WORLD
Jan 25, 2014

'Abe-genda': nuclear export superpower

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is now in New Delhi to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Indian Republic. His presence speaks volumes about closer diplomatic, security and economic ties and, at least from Tokyo's perspective, a common agenda on responding to the rise of China. India remains...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 21, 2014

Kobe's tofubeats moves from blogs to the big time

Like many kids growing up in the 1990s, Yusuke Kawai's initial brush with the World Wide Web happened in elementary school.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 18, 2014

Giants' Terauchi shows importance of putting smile on fans' faces

Professional athletes have been known to have different attitudes when dealing with fans. Autograph-seekers have been told, "Take a hike, son" by players in a bad mood or on a bad day.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2014

Markets take a back seat under gesture liberalism

Building the Volt hybrid car was bailed-out General Motors' gesture of obeisance to its Washington masters when, in fact, U.S. auto sales have cruised back to 2007 levels thanks to Americans' fondness for pickup trucks and SUVs.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2014

Boosting the global economy

Although we have avoided the worst-case depressioin scenario over the past five years, thanks to the efforts of global policymakers, the world economy is not yet flying on all engines and is likely to remain underpowered this year as well, says the IMF managing director.
EDITORIALS
Jan 11, 2014

Perilous times for journalists

Given its recent enactment of the state secrets protection law, how soon will Japan start to appear on the annual lists of imprisoned journalists put out by the Committee to Protect Journalists?
Japan Times
PRESS / Services
Jan 10, 2014

『The Japan Times ST』人気連載コラム『福島民報』にて掲載開始!

~【毎週木曜日の教育欄】英語の正しい使い分け方を易しくアドバイス ~
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 6, 2014

Abe squandering good will

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's weakening public standing doesn't bode well for the 'third arrow' of his economic plan — lower trade barriers, less regulation and a greater embrace of free-market principles.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2014

Obama's Asian 'pivot' went flying off like a divot

Even in Washington-centric Washington, President Barack Obama gets the award for having the worst year in Asia. His 'pivot to Asia' looked more like a divot.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 4, 2014

Cash, sex, the mob? Weeklies seek clues in gyōza king's killing

Just when it was starting to look like 2013 would end with minimal gun violence in Japan, two socially prominent individuals were shot dead in the space of two days.
COMMENTARY
Jan 4, 2014

China risking a debt crisis from localities

Although the odds this year of a full-blown financial crisis in China are slim, they're not nonexistent. The flash point is the burgeoning debt of localities to finance infrastructure.
COMMENTARY
Dec 30, 2013

The distributional challenge

Assessing the recent past and looking forward to the near term may well be a necessary exercise when it comes to the global economy in 2013 and 2014.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 24, 2013

Japanese indie bands to watch out for in 2014

While the Oricon charts tend to look more or less the same (perhaps a little worse) year in year out, the indie scene remains a haven of small delights, with new discoveries constantly cropping up to brighten your day. Here are five discoveries from 2013 that would be well worth keeping an eye out for...
PRESS / Publications
Dec 20, 2013

無料iPhoneアプリ&MP3音声先行リリースのお知らせ

株式会社ジャパンタイムズ(本社:東京都港区、代表取締役:堤丈晴)は、TOEICテスト頻出シーン別に構成された新しいタイプのTOEIC教材『TOEIC® TEST 鉄板シーン攻略シリーズ』を12月下旬に発売します。本シリーズには効果的な学習を促進させるiPhoneアプリとMP3形式のダウンロード用音声ファイルがついており、本日より無料配信がスタートしました。...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 17, 2013

Some of the year's best music was free

Variety wasn't something the Oricon Charts delivered much over the course of 2013. With few exceptions, the biggest sellers were the same as they ever were — Johnny's boy bands such as Arashi, Kanjani 8 and Kis-My-FT2; AKB48 and their affiliated projects; and a variety of rock 'n' roll fossils. Not...
WORLD
Dec 2, 2013

Weak hurricane season puzzles researchers

It was a hurricane season almost without hurricanes. There were just two, Humberto and Ingrid, and both were relatively wimpy, Category 1 storms. That made the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, which ended Saturday, the least active in more than 30 years — for reasons that remain puzzling.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2013

This Thanksgiving let's pardon these turkeys

This Thanksgiving, give thanks for 2013, a year the future might study more for amusement than for edification.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 18, 2013

Politics explain Russia's stagnation

For Russia's political elite, a big piece of a shrinking economic pie is preferable to no piece of a growing one.
Reader Mail
Nov 13, 2013

Sri Lanka's political leadership

I wish to state that much of the information in The Observer article published in The Japan Times on Oct. 27, titled "Rajapaksa: Sri Lanka's affable authoritarian?," is based on hearsay and unfounded information. It is baseless propaganda provided by supporters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 2, 2013

Japan and Korea slide down gender-index ranking

The Swiss-based nonprofit World Economic Forum recently released its Gender Gap Report for 2013, in which Japan ranked 105 out of 136 countries — a plunge of 25 places from its ranking when the report was inaugurated in 2006. South Korea rates even worse, coming in at 111 in 2013, down from 92nd place...
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 28, 2013

Toyota sales top GM's during third quarter

Toyota Motor Corp. outsold General Motors Co. and all other carmakers for the second time in three quarters, in the latest example of how Japan's largest manufacturers are benefiting from "Abenomics."

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.