Search - people

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2013

Divergence of policies in Europe, Italian style

Even if the eurozone's structure is modified to achieve the desired level of fiscal discipline, countries will continue to diverge in other important respects.
Reader Mail
Mar 24, 2013

It takes more than an English test

The March 19 article, "Higher English test hurdle awaits ministry applicants from fiscal '15," has caused me some anxiety about the attitude of some Japanese toward English.
Reader Mail
Mar 24, 2013

University rankings too sweet

The March 14 front-page article "Universities to boost classes in English" states: "According to Times Higher Education's World University Rankings, only two Japanese colleges make the top 100 — the University of Tokyo (No. 27) and Kyoto University (No. 54)."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 24, 2013

Abashiri astounds with its ice and convict connections

In April 1890, the Japanese government shipped more than 1,200 political prisoners from all over the country, including samurai insurgents from the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion against the government of Emperor Meiji. Nine years before, more than 250 years of rule by the Tokugawa shoguns had finally ended....
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 24, 2013

Gruesome death stalks the front lines of conservation

It is one of the most poignant photos I've taken during this CITES. We are in Khao Yai (literally, "Big Mountain"), Thailand's first and grandest national park. Peaks and plunges. Huge trees. Waterfalls. And there are elephants and even a few tigers out there. Also rangers and poachers and a largely...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2013

Shizuoka boy, 12, bags spelling bee

Daichi Hayakawa, 12, wins the 4th Japan Times Spelling Bee, booking a place at the National Spelling Bee to be held in Washington this spring.
EDITORIALS
Mar 24, 2013

Accident highlights nuclear peril

The daylong power outage last week at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant suggests that Tokyo Electric Power Co. is still skewing its priorities.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 24, 2013

Mandatory retirement takes a leap forward

The angels that guard you / When you drive / Usually retire / At sixty-five
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2013

Tipsters to face prison for insider-trading

The Financial Services Agency is seeking stiffer penalties for people who leak information used for insider-trading, including prison terms, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg.
WORLD
Mar 22, 2013

U.S. Congress approves temporary spending bill to keep government open

The U.S. Congress approved a short-term funding bill Thursday that ends the possibility of a federal government shutdown next week, but a broader budget battle about taxes and spending for 2013 is only just beginning.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 22, 2013

Kids with guns on film, blasting at the culture gap

Contemporary Japanese films are often extremely violent; the lives of ordinary Japanese, much less so. According to a multinational study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Japan's homicide rate in 2009 was 0.4 per 100,000 population, for a total of 506 deaths. Similar figures for...
EDITORIALS
Mar 22, 2013

Big repercussions from Cyprus

Compared with the Greek, Irish, Italian and Spanish crises, the financial problems of tiny Cyprus should have been a quick fix for European leaders.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 22, 2013

The Master

I can recall how when "Apocalypse Now" first came out, viewers almost universally loathed the ending. After the forward motion of the first two hours, the film seemed to just run out of steam; Brando's shadowy rambling seemed an anticlimax, and reports that Francis Ford Coppola had agonized for months...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 22, 2013

Surviving Progress

What is progress? The powers that be espouse an almost religious belief in ever-increasing wealth, productivity and technological advances. But what if these things come at the expense of the long-term habitability of the planet? Unlimited economic progress is impossible on a planet of finite resources....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Mar 22, 2013

Taste Spanish wines, listen to rakugo; share a night with art; rest in an artist-designed room

Rakugo and Spanish wine event
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Mar 21, 2013

Auto sales driven by gas mileage

Japanese carmakers compete over fuel efficiency.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
Mar 21, 2013

Dominicans overcome by emotion after WBC victory

Fernando Rodney bounded around on a hastily assembled stage with a fresh World Baseball Classic winner's medal and a plantain that was more than a few days past its expiration date both dangling around his neck.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
Mar 21, 2013

Friendly rivalry brings out color in WBC final

Rivalries are perhaps the superfine ingredient that works to spice up teams and athletes and make fans louder.
EDITORIALS
Mar 21, 2013

China completes its transition

With the transition to the so-called fifth generation of leaders complete, China faces formidable environmental, economic and diplomatic problems.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 21, 2013

Japan's influence on Grimes grows deeper

Grimes has never been shy to acknowledge the influence of Japan on her work. The Canadian electronic pop artist, born Claire Boucher, credits a wide and various list of Japanese inspirations, including Yayoi Kusama, Geinoh Yamashirogumi, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, "Akira," "The Legend of Zelda" video-game series,...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2013

The disenchantment of Iraq

Iraq is better off without Saddam Hussein, but if economic resconstruction and the establishment of democracy are considered, the Iraq war failed.
Reader Mail
Mar 21, 2013

Cruelty ingrained throughout

In her March 17 letter, "Odd condemnation of religion," Jennifer Kim unfairly accuses Robert McKinney of expressing "anti-religious rage" in his March 14 letter ("Giving compassion a chance").
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 21, 2013

'The Great Journey'

"Great journey" is how British archaeologist Brian M. Fagan described the early migration of homo sapiens some 200,000 years ago from Africa to the rest of the world and their progression to become a dominant species.

Longform

Tokyo Koon stands at the forefront of tackling the so-called 2025 issue, also known as the “Magnetic Tape Alert.”
The race to save 20th-century history