Search - u_times

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2013

Fed's dark succession games

It's strange how, in the first half of the year, humans beat robots in the dark art of interpreting the gnomic utterances of the U.S. Federal Reserve chairman.
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.
Reader Mail
Aug 10, 2013

Real contribution of U.S. bases

There are many problems with Yoshio Shimoji's Aug. 1 letter, "Don't cry for Okinawa's economy." Suffice it to say that the figures that Shimoji cites from "an Okinawa Prefectural Government document" grossly underestimate the economic contribution of the U.S. military bases. Indeed, based on my preliminary...
Reader Mail
Aug 10, 2013

No official religion in Thailand

I wish to set the record straight on some inaccuracies in Pavin Chachavalpongpun's July 24/25 article, "Southern Thai separatists touch trust milestone." The writer cites the supposed rise of Buddhist chauvism as one of the reasons for the rekindled conflict in the Southern Border Provinces (SBPs) of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2013

'To the Wonder'

An intensely personal film by Terrence Malick ("The Tree of Life," "The Thin Red Line"), "To the Wonder" explores the lives and loves of four people, to the near complete exclusion of everyone else. The films revels in solitude and celebrates seclusion with what seems like voluptuous ardor.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2013

Businesswomen assemble in Odaiba to close gender gap

Hundreds of working women from Hokkaido to Okinawa gathered at the 18th International Conference for Women in Business in Tokyo's Odaiba district to discuss ways to close Japan's huge gender gap and help women play bigger roles in the workforce.
Reader Mail
Aug 7, 2013

Another view of China's strategy

In yet another of his denunciations of alleged Chinese territorial greed, Brahma Chellaney, in his July 26 article, "China's salami-slice strategy, "includes Chinese incursions across the claimed Line of Actual Control in the Ladakh portion of the Sino-Indian frontier.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 7, 2013

Cyndi Lauper is having a great year

Cyndi Lauper is at a loss for words.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Aug 6, 2013

Purchase harks back to age of newspaper titans

The Graham family's decision to sell The Washington Post to Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos underscores the re-emergence of wealthy individuals at the helm of major metro dailies as newspapers seek a refuge from the battering they have experienced on Wall Street.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 5, 2013

U.S.-style class action? Unlikely for Tepco suits

About 1,700 people from various prefectures filed four separate lawsuits against Tokyo Electric Power Co. and the government last March 11, exactly two years after the start of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 2, 2013

Housewife takes time to make a difference volunteering in Tohoku

Sometimes making a difference just means making the time. Kerry Shioya, 49, travels two or three times a month to the Tohoku areas hit by the March 11, 2011, disasters. Sometimes setting out alone, sometimes bringing one of her five children, interested English students or other volunteers, Shioya continues...
Reader Mail
Jul 31, 2013

Preventing another caste system

Extraordinary, insightful and humane: These are the words that came to my mind upon reading Kevin Rafferty's July 24 article, "Obama's blunder with Bangladesh."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 30, 2013

Long-living Japanese society needs better 'quality of death'

A quarter of a million bedbound elderly people are kept alive in Japan, often for years, by a feeding tube surgically inserted into their stomach. A few months ago, my 96-year-old grandmother became one of them.
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.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 28, 2013

Breakneck NSA growth fueled by insatiable demand for its product

Twelve years later, the cranes and earthmovers around the National Security Agency are still at work, tearing up pavement and uprooting trees to make room for a larger workforce and more powerful computers. Already bigger than the Pentagon in square meters, the NSA's footprint will grow by an additional...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2013

Taking stock of Burma, Japan and 'pivot to Asia'

Hope and change remain alive in Burma even as serious concerns continue about human rights violations and growing internal religious and ethnic tensions.
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."
Reader Mail
Jul 27, 2013

Nuclear safety example expected

I refer to The Japan Times' July 2 article "Nuclear safety rules put onus on utilities." While the Nuclear Regulation Authority has done well introducing more stringent requirements to ensure the safety of the nuclear power stations in Japan, on the basis of the Fukushima experience, the new rules seem...
Reader Mail
Jul 27, 2013

When will 'experts' get serious?

Regarding the July 23 front-page AFP-JIJI article "Tepco now admits radioactive water entering the sea at Fukushima": What is it about Japan's nuclear village and its continued defiance, lies and arrogant denial in the face of mounting radioactive contamination and the threat of crippling illness or...
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 26, 2013

Meiji will buy 15% of Thai Life Insurance

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co., the nation's third-biggest life insurer, said it agreed to buy a 15 percent stake in closely held Thai Life Insurance PCL to meet rising demand in the Southeast Asian nation.
Reader Mail
Jul 24, 2013

Racism, police budgets, reports

Regarding LukeCorrigan's July 14 letter, "Fueling a sensationalist pitch," from The Japan Times Online: Corrigan (in response to Debito Arudou's July 8 Community Page article, "Police 'foreign crime wave' falsehoods fuel racism") seems to be of the view that racists and people who oppose racism are as...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / BALANCING INTERESTS
Jul 24, 2013

High-end grape grower has no TPP gripe, just sees green

Grapes grown on Takanobu Watanabe's farm in Tomi, Nagano Prefecture, are still chartreuse this time of the year, as the summer heat boosts the berries' sugar content before veraison, the onset of ripening.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / BALANCING INTERESTS
Jul 24, 2013

Students getting down and dirty

School's out for summer — and students are leaving their books behind to hit the beach under the sun.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Jul 22, 2013

Restructuring wizard sets sights on Detroit

The man who has become the face of Detroit's historic bankruptcy planned to spend his weekend at home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, corralling the ferns that are overgrowing their planters and threatening his garden. Or maybe taking his two young children to the pool.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 21, 2013

'Motor City Madman' rocks political world

On the final morning of the 2013 National Rifle Association annual convention in May, the day was bright, the mood was festive and Ted Nugent was neither dead nor in jail.
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Jul 20, 2013

Tokyo homeless, Olympics cancelled, medals given for kindness, Mandela's birthday feted

Summer is generally a good season for employment-seekers of the laboring classes. This summer, however, there are twice as many unemployed men as usual. The Free Lodging House of Honjo, Tokyo, for instance, generally takes in about 20 lodgers nightly during the hot months, but this season some 45 are finding shelter there every night.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Jul 20, 2013

Social media becomes stalkers' tool

The first man who knocked on the Fauquier County, Va., woman's door told her they had been emailing and he was there for sex. Shocked and perplexed because they hadn't corresponded, the woman sent him away.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 20, 2013

Satirist's hilarious stories tenderly feature the deluded, feckless

These are golden times for American satirists. After years of relentless brilliance, George Saunders finally seems to have crossed into the mainstream with his absurdist short-story collection "Tenth of December." Now Sam Lipsyte seems to be making his move, backing up his smart and very funny 2010 novel...
Reader Mail
Jul 20, 2013

'Cool Japan' meme a nonstarter

The Chubu Connection article published in The Japan Times on July 12, titled "Students dealt real-life problems to broaden outlook," describes Tatsuo Hirase, head of the business promotion office of the Chubu branch of Mitsui and Co., leading a two-day marketing seminar at Aichi Prefectural University....
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Jul 20, 2013

Detroit renews urban policy debate

A national urban policy would not have saved Detroit, but the city's bankruptcy filing Thursday was a vivid reminder of how the problems of America's cities have long ceased to be a focal point of the political debate in presidential campaigns or on Capitol Hill.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat