Search - 2013

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 15, 2014

'Kaz' Kumagai brings tip-top tap to town

"Anyone can enjoy being be a tap dancer in their daily life; all you have to do is casually make a rhythm with your feet when you're walking down the street," Japan's leading exponent of the art, Kazunori Kumagai, insists — seemingly oblivious to the gulf between him and most of the rest of clod-hopping...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 15, 2014

JAL probes another 787 battery incident

Japan Airlines is investigating what caused a battery on a Boeing 787 to emit smoke during preflight maintenance, a year after a fire on one of the carrier's Dreamu00adlinu00aders helped spur the grounding of the global fleet.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / NBL NOTEBOOK
Jan 15, 2014

Coach Hill brings patience, positivity to Tsukuba Robots

Asked what brought him over to Japan to take a head coaching job, Donte' Hill assertively answered with one word: basketball.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 15, 2014

Honda retools tiny Fit to retake GM, Ford in U.S.

Honda Motor Co., trailing General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. in U.S. subcompact car sales, will try to boost deliveries with a new Fit hatchback that will be made in North America for the first time.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jan 15, 2014

Kusaka's All-Star selection a disservice to more deserving

Being picked as an All-Star starter should be reserved for players having All-Star-caliber seasons.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 14, 2014

Blue Hawaii surfs Net to an Asia tour

Though they hail from the same Montreal music scene that spawned crossover electronica star Grimes, the members of Blue Hawaii don't have any illusions about where they rank in the popularity stakes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 14, 2014

Girls' Generation "Love & Peace"

K-pop's golden days in Japan are over. The time when Korean groups could top the Oricon charts and (more importantly) monopolize media coverage is now a memory, in part due to an oversaturation of new acts. K-pop remains a strong niche market, though, even if the hallyu hype has fizzled out. Some groups...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 14, 2014

Will Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine beat Spotify?

Buying music is passe; nowadays it's all about renting. Billboard reports that sales of "album plus track equivalent albums" fell by 7.6 percent in 2013. (Among subcategories of both digital and physical media, only vinyl sales increased last year.) The new hot trends are monthly subscription services...
BUSINESS
Jan 14, 2014

Tepco burning twice as much coal

Tokyo Electric Power Co. burned twice as much coal for power generation in 2013 than it did in 2012 as the company spent the entire year without using any nuclear capacity.
EDITORIALS
Jan 13, 2014

Protecting consumers against fraud

The Diet has enacted a law that sets the procedure for class-action lawsuits aimed at helping consumers who have suffered financial damage from unscrupulous sales methods receive compensation from companies.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jan 13, 2014

The avant-garde of old and new, plus a quick reminder that the 'real' sales are nigh

In November last year, Issey Miyake opened an extra-large Omotesando shop called "Reality Lab," which features his more experimental lines all under one roof. These include 132 5., a wearable line of origami-folded clothing cut from fabric derived from recycled PET bottles, and IN-EI, a line of pleated...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 13, 2014

Novartis drug's data-tampering reflects unchecked collusion

Last week, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry filed a criminal complaint with prosecutors against Novartis Pharma K.K., the Japanese subsidiary of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, alleging the firm made exaggerated advertising claims for its blockbuster blood pressure drug Diovan.
WORLD
Jan 13, 2014

How affairs of the heart became fair game for the press

Twenty years ago, a French president could carry on extramarital activity in the knowledge that privacy laws and a respectful press would keep his secret. Editors and politicians colluded to ensure the public would never know. Love lives were strictly off limits to the media.
BASKETBALL
Jan 12, 2014

Shimane fires Vlaikidis, names ex-JBL star Hanson new bench boss

The Shimane Susanoo Magic, who have lost seven straight games, including their past three by a combined 59 points, made a coaching change on Sunday.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jan 12, 2014

Sunflowers reign supreme in Empress' Cup

The JX-Eneos Sunflowers captured the Empress' Cup, which, according to their veteran point guard Asami Yoshida, had always belonged to them.
EDITORIALS
Jan 12, 2014

Nuclear plant restarts on the table

While Japan goes through its first winter season with all of its 50 nuclear power reactors offline, the Nuclear Regulation Authority is considering utility companies' applications to restart 16 reactors under new post-3/11 safety standards.
COMMENTARY
Jan 12, 2014

Stories that enable us to make sense of our lives

How are we to make sense of ourselves and the world if not by reading stories? For isn't this how we've talked to ourselves — soothed, stimulated and improved ourselves — for thousands of years?
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jan 12, 2014

Deflation Watch: New Year's scorecard

It seems likely that the consumption tax increase will derail the government's economic boom train.
Japan Times
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Jan 12, 2014

Hatsu 2014: Now or never for Kisenosato

When he first shot through the ranks in the mid 2000s, more than a few fans and commentators had Kisenosato penciled in as a future yokozuna.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 11, 2014

Seasons come and go — but when?

Another new year has arrived and a Hokkaido blizzard is tearing past my window, drifting snow onto every surface as if it means to drown out the world in whiteness. Thankfully it also brings a muffling silence into which thoughts pop and crackle.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 11, 2014

A new-year Asian reading list to savor and inspire

At this time of year, many newspapers publish such lengthy lists of must-read books that it's daunting to even imagine them all piled up gathering dust on the bedside table. So let me narrow the field by sharing some amazing titles about or from Asia that I have enjoyed over the past year.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 10, 2014

Looming economic problems

The major uncertainty facing the world today, says George Soros, is not the euro but the future direction of China. The growth model that drove China's rapid rise appears to have run out of steam.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 10, 2014

Hidden consequences of Snowden's revelations

The most insidious consequence of the Edward Snowden affair and the NSA controversy may be the destruction of trust in closer collaboration between the private sector and government in protecting vital electronic systems.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 10, 2014

Xi Jinping facing three key challenges in 2014

Chinese President Xi Jinping has tightened the Communist Party's control over ideology, cracked down on official corruption, repressed dissent and championed a more nationalistic foreign policy. The world will soon find out whether this politically conservative course is intended to ease unusally bold economic reforms.

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