Search - opinion

 
 
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Apr 6, 2008

Tom Maschler: A storied life of luck and literary passions

Regardless of whether you take it with a pinch of salt or think this consummate professional is simply being modest, Tom Maschler says that throughout his celebrated publishing career, "luck" has often played a significant role.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Apr 5, 2008

Sensational Ronaldo clearly best player in the world

LONDON — It can be said with confidence Manchester United will play Barcelona in the Champions League semifinals after its away wins over AS Roma (2-0) and Schalke 04 (1-0), respectively.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Apr 5, 2008

Home is where the family is for Japanese-German couple

Annette and Ken Uematsu met in 1981 while attending a party for people in Japan learning German. They started dating, moved in together and decided to marry.
EDITORIALS
Apr 3, 2008

New strategy in Pakistan

The new government in Pakistan could bring about important changes in the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban. The Cabinet of new Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, sworn in Monday, will not give the United States the free hand that it has enjoyed in Pakistan since the months after 9/11.
Reader Mail
Apr 3, 2008

Better environment for foreigners

Let China and India be, let them grow. The more broad-minded people and governments of India and China are not as likely to create the bias-based problems for foreigners working there as Japan's government and society have done.
EDITORIALS
Apr 2, 2008

Stay the course, Mr. Lee

It did not take long for North Korea to test South Korea's new president, Mr. Lee Myung Bak. After Mr. Lee warned the Pyongyang government that he would condition economic cooperation on dismantlement of its nuclear-weapons program, North Korea expelled South Korean officials working at a joint industrial...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2008

Youngsters hold labor meeting ahead of G8

Ahead of the Group of Eight Labour and Employment Ministers' Meeting in May, youngsters from each G8 country exchanged opinions on labor-related issues at the Junior Labour Summit 2008 held Friday in the city of Niigata.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2008

Fukuda offers to untie road tax income in '09

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda hoped to break the Diet deadlock by declaring Thursday he is willing to allow revenue from road-related taxes to be freed up for purposes other than road projects in fiscal 2009, which starts in April next year.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2008

When natural beauty just isn't cutting it . . .

Ines Ligron is the ultimate Miss Universe insider, and she does not believe much in secrets. One of her favorite stories is of a contestant who could have won but opted for last-minute cosmetic surgery, and thus was barely able to lift her arms when she went before the judges.
COMMENTARY
Mar 26, 2008

Why this foreigner supports Obama

WATERLOO, Canada — Barack Obama's speech on race and politics on March 18 came from and spoke to the heart. It was brutally, searingly honest. Nothing he said or could have said will appease the detractors and the naysayers. But their sniping and carping will diminish them and betray their smallness...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2008

Turkey's secular fundamentalist threat

NEW YORK — The chief prosecutor of Turkey's High Court of Appeals recently recommended to the country's Constitutional Court that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) be permanently banned.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Mar 25, 2008

How much of an impact will the Tibet issue have on the Beijing Olympics?

Jennifer Kennedy Mother (Canadian)
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Mar 19, 2008

New-look Swallows embrace changes

It seems like everything about the Yakult Swallows is new these days.
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Mar 16, 2008

Why some of Japan's top cars can't be found here

Ever wondered why some of the best automotive achievements from Japanese carmakers never make it to Japan?
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 16, 2008

Poetic reasons to take a card game seriously

ONE HUNDRED POETS, ONE POEM EACH: A Translation of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, by Peter McMillan with a foreword by Donald Keene and an afterword by Eileen Kato. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007, 280 pp., with line drawings, $39.50 (cloth) This is a new translation of one of Japan's most famous...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2008

G8 offers forum for territory dispute

NEMURO, Hokkaido — Hirotoshi Kawata hopes the Group of Eight summit in July will be an opportunity to tell the world about his 62 years as a displaced person, banished from a Soviet-seized island when he was a preteen.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 14, 2008

Noriko Tujiko: not merely sweet, cute and aggressive

N oriko Tujiko meets me in Shibuya wearing a multicolored outfit of clashing greens and reds. On her feet are velvet slippers.
Reader Mail
Mar 9, 2008

An activist's means to an end

Regarding Debito Arudou's March 4 article, "Dusting off the A-word": In reading through this latest bit of self-promoting preaching, I tried hard to keep from laughing out loud at some of the lofty claims. Arudou claims to be "doing what other fellow Japanese (however few), working within the law and...
Reader Mail
Mar 9, 2008

The money issue with surrogacy

Regarding the article about a surrogate mother who gave birth to "her own grandchild": This is painful to read. Why didn't the family just choose adoption instead of a surrogate birth? I can't figure out why a couple gets so obsessed with the idea that a baby must have their own DNA. Isn't it possible...
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Mar 8, 2008

Pair practice art of collaboration in life, work

Designers Yoshiko Tajima and Ansgar Vollmer met and fell in love while students at Koeln International School of Design in Cologne, Germany.
Reader Mail
Mar 6, 2008

True heart of land development

I have to agree with Kevin Rafferty's opinion in his Feb. 28 article, "Why's Japan grown so ugly?" The myth of the Japanese love for nature is supported by the continuing degradation of the rural and coastal landscape. Rafferty refers to Alex Kerr's lament, but the reasons for this degradation is the...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / SOUTH KOREAN JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Mar 6, 2008

High-growth targets may widen divisions in S. Korean society

The South Korean economy faces a host of structural challenges that were left unattended as the nation managed an export-led recovery from the Asian financial crisis a decade ago, the journalists told the Feb. 22 symposium.
EDITORIALS
Mar 6, 2008

Cloud over key appointment

The steering committees of both Diet chambers have laid down a new rule for Diet approval of the appointment of officials for four important organizations — the governor and two deputy governors of the Bank of Japan, the three top-ranking officials of the Board of Audit and the National Personnel Authority,...
COMMENTARY
Mar 2, 2008

Will 'rebirth' of China level the field?

HONG KONG — At precisely eight minutes past 8 p.m. on Aug. 8 — the eighth day of the eighth month of the year 2008 — the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, this year's summer Olympics, will officially open in Beijing. It is widely seen as China's debut party after an eclipse of a couple of centuries....
Reader Mail
Mar 2, 2008

Fear of foreigners holds Japan back

Regarding the Feb. 27 article (from Sentaku magazine) "Wanted: world's best minds": The writer evidently believes that Japan is largely unable to attract the best young minds from abroad for studies and employment because politicians and bureaucrats have been unwilling to institute the necessary measures,...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 2, 2008

Will Japan's insular mindset ever be inclusive of others?

First of two parts
Reader Mail
Feb 26, 2008

Larger questions about Ishihara

In his Feb. 21 letter, "The root of national identity" (a response to the Feb. 16 Japan Times article "Ishihara laments loss of national identity"), Timothy Khaki makes a number of valid points. But, actually, rebutting quotes by Shintaro Ishihara is like shooting fish in a barrel. Most of what the...

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?