Search - 2012

 
 
Japan Times
WORLD / TICAD V SPECIAL
Jun 1, 2013

Yokohama continues to foster close African ties

Africa returns to Yokohama in the form of the fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD V), which is being held through June 3.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2013

Obama no friend of free press

Barack Obama's tendency to bypass the press for social media and friendly bloggers amounts to the White House reporting on itself, thus avoiding tough questions.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jun 1, 2013

Broncos fire Williams, name Ishibashi new coach

The Saitama Broncos' annual coaching change was on the agenda on Friday.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 27, 2013

Record as Newark mayor weighs heavily on Booker Senate bid

Cory Booker has become one of the most famous mayors in the nation with the help of a careful political campaign that cast him as a unique talent willing to forgo better opportunities to save this crime-ridden and poverty-plagued city.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
May 22, 2013

Apple used 'complex web' to avoid taxes, Senate inquiry finds

Apple used a "complex web" of offshore entities — with no employees or physical offices — that allowed it to pay little or no taxes on tens of billions it earned overseas, according to a Senate investigation unveiled Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2013

Five myths about Benghazi

The events surrounding the deaths of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012, look dramatically different depending on your politics. Republicans tend to see a cover-up and a scandal. Democrats see an attempt to damage President Barack Obama and...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
May 21, 2013

Ambivalent Japan turns on its 'insular' youth

Japan's decision to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade negotiations shows that at least some in government have accepted the fact that 'opening up' Japan is in the nation's best long-term interests.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 15, 2013

China's cyberspies outwit model for James Bond's Q

Among defense contractors, QinetiQ North America is known for spy-world connections and an eye-popping product line. Its contributions to national security include secret satellites, drones and software used by U.S. special forces in Afghanistan and the Middle East.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 12, 2013

Death penalty: Systemic failings add to risk of wrongful executions

Japan's continued resort to the death penalty raises a number of troubling questions.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2013

Lose your house, collect $300

The U.S. government's settlement of the foreclosure scandal shows how things work in America: The criminals get the big payoffs and the people whose lives they destroyed get $300.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Apr 16, 2013

Mad court rush could brake or bless Abe's vision

As Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Cabinet rush to diminish the Bank of Japan's bothersome independence, join the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations (sort of . . .), start pouring lovely, popular concrete before the summer House of Councilors elections and (sotto voce) maybe even amend the Constitution,...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 14, 2013

Power numbers increasing in NPB this season

Happy days are here again — or so it would appear — for the hitters in Japanese baseball. The ball is flying once more, as shown by the number of home runs being hit in the early going this season. No one is saying anything, but the long ball has apparently snuck back into the game here after two...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 13, 2013

Bowker bashes two home runs as Giants end offensive slump

More than a few fans probably came to Tokyo Dome wondering when the Yomiuri Giants would score again. By the end of night, the Tokyo Yakult Swallows just wanted them to stop.
BUSINESS
Apr 11, 2013

Tepco boosts coal capacity to cut need for costly oil

Tokyo Electric Power Co. may cut its oil purchases by more than one-third as it boosts its reliance on coal plants to reduce an energy bill that's ballooned since the Fukushima nuclear crisis started.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Apr 9, 2013

Whatever happened to the Goldman Sachs union?

In February 2012, a small band of sacked workers in Japan took on one of the world's biggest investment banks, Goldman Sachs, unionizing in a bid to keep their jobs and win a better deal from a firm they believed had treated them unfairly.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Apr 1, 2013

Have U.S. political parties lost their purpose?

The Democrats and Republicans may be worlds apart on most things, but at their headquarters just two blocks away from each other on Capitol Hill, each is confronting the same question: Have political parties lost their purpose?
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Mar 30, 2013

Defending champion Giants usher in new season with victory over Carp

Ryota Wakiya's two-run single in the seventh inning gives the Yomiuri Giants a season-opening win over the Hiroshima Carp.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2013

Signs indicate the U.S. economy is strengthening

Traditional economic labels lose their meaning for many Americans when they're told that the U.S. economy has been in a recovery since mid-2009.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
Mar 18, 2013

Dutch prospect Profar aiming to prolong WBC fairy tale

Depending on whom you ask, Jurickson Profar, an infielder in the Texas Rangers' system, is either the best middle infield prospect in baseball, or simply the best prospect in baseball.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Mar 5, 2013

Child's quibble with U.S. 'poverty superpower' propaganda unravels a sobering story about insular Japan

Last November, a reader in Hokkaido named Stephanie sent me an article read in Japan's elementary schools. Featured in a sixth-grader magazine called Chagurin (from "child agricultural green") dated December 2012, it was titled "Children of America, the Poverty Superpower" (hinkon taikoku Amerika no...
EDITORIALS
Mar 4, 2013

Tourism in Japan and the world

Japan remains an untapped tourist destination, although it saw international tourism revenue rise 37 percent in 2012, higher than most nations.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2013

Ballast for Australia-India relations

As long as India focuses on consolidating national aspirations, and not on developing global governance norms, it will remain an incomplete power.
EDITORIALS
Feb 27, 2013

Making sense of cosmic coincidences

Two extraterrestrial objects intruded into the presumed order of our daily lives this month, one sideswiping the planet, the other impacting in Russia.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 21, 2013

The nations that make it easier for bands to leap overseas

At the end of last November, a flock of Canadians descended on concert venue Duo Music Exchange in Tokyo's bustling Shibuya district. It wasn't an attack of any sort; the Canuck invasion was only peppered with spirited calls to "Clap with us!"
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 2013

Stopping the economy's slide

The reported decrease in Japan's real GDP for October-December, compared with the previous quarter, marks the third consecutive quarterly decline.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 10, 2013

Gold rush: Japan Inc. flocks to Myanmar

Political reforms are happening because the military/political leaders wanted to end their nation's isolation and benefit from having a more prosperous economy.

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