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COMMENTARY
Mar 12, 2012

Foreign aid: sop to conscience and bad policy

When India selected 126 French Rafale fighter aircraft (£13 billion) over the U.K.-manufactured Typhoon involving a consortium of European countries, some British politicians and commentators demanded that aid to "ungrateful" India, a fast-rising economic power, be stopped.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 22, 2012

Can showbiz really sever yakuza ties?

Last August, comedian and TV emcee Shinsuke Shimada retired from show business following allegations that he'd been palling around with an underworld figure. His withdrawal came on the eve of the implementation of a well-publicized police crackdown on organizations that work with antisocial elements,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 12, 2012

U.S. overlooks the true tolls of its wars

As the United States officially ended the war in Iraq last month, President Barack Obama spoke eloquently at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, lauding troops for "your patriotism, your commitment to fulfill your mission, your abiding commitment to one another," and offering words of grief for the nearly 4,500...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 24, 2011

Asian powers scrambling for regional space

Asia is witnessing a jostling among its major powers — China, Japan and India — for regional strategic space, and a flurry of activity by these countries is focused toward the Southeast Asia region, once a stable region but now a potential area for conflict. China, which is already a permanent member...
MORE SPORTS
Oct 9, 2011

Black Caviar stretches streak to 14

Black Caviar raced to her 14th straight victory, winning the Schillaci Stakes on Saturday at Caulfield to match the feat of the great Australian thoroughbred Phar Lap.
COMMENTARY
Oct 7, 2011

Nuclear power's face looking rested

The catastrophic accident at Japan's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant earlier this year undermined confidence in, and support for, nuclear power around the world. The plant north of Tokyo on the Pacific coast was hit by a series of explosions, fires and serious radiation leaks after a massive earthquake...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2011

Do we rate state-run companies as heirlooms or dear luxuries?

Conventional wisdom, except in China with its plethora of state-owned enterprises, has become that governments should get out of business. Business knows best how to run things efficiently and to make money, whereas governments tend to tie up enterprise in bureaucratic red tape, or so the thinking goes....
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 31, 2011

Rail rivalry outcome hinges on speed vs. safety

Following the July 23 collision of two high-speed trains in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province — blamed on faulty signaling equipment — that killed at least 39 passengers and injured over 200, Japan's media, to their credit, suppressed any obvious overtones of shadenfreude. But in the weeks before the...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2011

U.S. dances on debt cliff edge

It was fascinating to watch U.S. President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner make their appeals to the nation in television addresses over their deadlock about whether and how to raise the $14.3 trillion ceiling on U.S. debts before the country runs out of money next week.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Jul 17, 2011

Tezuka on iPad represents shift in manga biz

Manga is an integral part of the entertainment industry in Japan, and has been for decades. There are numerous weekly and monthly manga anthologies. Series carried in those magazines often become bestsellers in paperback form and are adapted into anime, live-action TV shows and films. However, with fewer...
EDITORIALS
Jul 3, 2011

The dying oceans

Oceans are at dire risk, a consortium of scientists, the International Program on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), warned in early June. The interdisciplinary group of specialists gathered at the University of Oxford in April examined the synergistic effects of diverse factors on the oceans for the first...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2011

Fat, dumb profile-gazers

In his 2011 State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama said the United States needed to "out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world" to remain competitive and "win the future." In his short history, though, Obama has not proved very adept at turning brave words into action....
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2011

Feud over U.S. debt ceiling risks driving off investors

U.S. politicians are in the thick of a debate that is fascinating, urgent, passionate, stubborn and potentially highly dangerous both for the American economy and for the country's political reputation and standing in the world.
COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 2011

India's show of strategic autonomy flouts Washington's 'investment' in building ties

Finally, the Indian government seems to have convinced its domestic detractors that it is indeed "nonaligned" and that its foreign policy is not being crafted in Washington.
Reader Mail
May 8, 2011

Anti-nuclear medical experts

I am very disappointed in the May 3 front-page Kyodo article "U.S. doctors hit Tokyo radiation limit for kids."
LIFE / Digital
Dec 1, 2010

Amazon, Apple kick-start Japan's digital content-delivery business

Remember CCCD? Probably not, unless you collect outdated acronyms.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2010

Dreaming of a new Edo era

SEOUL — All eyes have shifted to Seoul as Group of 20 leaders convene Thursday and Friday for the first time in the South Korean capital. The choice is long overdue, as South Korea is a remarkable success story: In one generation, the South Koreans, formerly pummeled by civil war, under constant threat...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2010

Selling smart cities to the world

CHIBA — There were gadgets and robots galore at Japan's premier electronics show last week. But one of the biggest attractions wasn't anything you could touch — an energy efficient city of the future.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan