Search - 2014

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2014

Western nations' mastery

A British scholar and former wartime army intelligence officer will tell you that there's nothing new about Islamic State, that it is in no way integral to the Islamic religion, and that it is a phenomenon that will pass.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 31, 2014

Hawks eliminate Tigers on bizarre game-ending double play, capture Japan Series title

It wasn't the ending anyone envisioned, but the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks aren't complaining.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Oct 30, 2014

Consistent Murry helps Hamamatsu get off to fast start

Four teams have opened the season with 7-1 records: Iwate and Toyama in the East and Hamamatsu and Kyoto from the West. Shiga, meanwhile, coming off a bye week, is 5-1.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 30, 2014

Funding scandals prompt veiled LDP threat to call snap election

Feeling the heat, Prime Minister Abe tells the opposition to stop revealing his Cabinet's fundraising violations and threatens to call a snap election over the 'obstruction.'
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2014

Will Hong Kong go beyond self-flagellation?

Hong Kong and mother China should be working together on ameliorating the social and economic pressures threatening to pull Hong Kong down far more dramatically and dangerously than today's governance dispute.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Oct 30, 2014

Thai junta's focus on school reforms raises eyebrows

Sixteen years old and studying 13 hours a day, high school pupil Worapot doesn't have time to waste meeting a military-led government's idea of what makes a good Thai.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Oct 30, 2014

[VIDEO] Motor Sport Japan 2014 Festival in Odaiba

Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 29, 2014

High drama at Festival/Tokyo

News in March that 38-year-old Chiaki Soma had suddenly been removed from the post of program director of Festival/Tokyo, which she had held since it started in 2009, set many theater lovers worrying about the future of the flagship drama event whose stature at home and abroad had only grown with her...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 29, 2014

Stretch your fright nights right into the weekend

This year, many people in Japan celebrated Halloween early. Last weekend saw parades, parties and trick-or-treating at special events across the country, but for those who grew up in places that historically celebrate the holiday, Oct. 25 may have been a bit too soon to get spooked.
Japan Times
Places
Oct 29, 2014

Dig into a smorgasbord of autumn food and drink events

Japan seems to always be celebrating food and drinks, whether it's classics like ramen and sake, or less-common fare like cheese and vegetarian dishes. Here is a roundup of tasty festivals that will leave you satiated and satisfied.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 28, 2014

Honda lowers 2014 forecast, predicting 1.6 percent less income than in previous fiscal year

Honda Motor Co. on Tuesday forecast its first profit decline in three years as deliveries to China and Japan weakened.
COMMENTARY
Oct 28, 2014

Time to end American financial repression

A generation of development economists owe Ronald McKinnon, who died earlier this month, a huge intellectual debt for his insight that governments like the U.S. that engage in free-market rhetoric to channel funds toward themselves hamper financial development.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2014

The Cold War and the cold shoulder

From the current Russian regime's perspective, declarations that EU and NATO expansion is about spreading values, accountable institutions and good governance — not military or economic competition — is beyond hypocritical.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2014

WTO check on 'consensus' poses risk to poorer nations

The U.S. and EU are said to be urging the World Trade Organization to move away from consensus-based decision making. That might boost efficiency, but it also could jeopardize the WTO's legitimacy in the eyes of its smaller and poorer members.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2014

Above all, Hong Kong wants good governance

Rather than demands for democracy, the recent massive public demonstrations by students and young members of Hong Kong's middle class are actually about poor governance by a succession of leaders who were picked by China's central government more for their loyalty than for their competence.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2014

Egypt rebuilding, backstage

Egypt is marching, slowly but surely, away from the omnipresent and omnipotent state that has dominated Egyptian economic life for many decades.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 27, 2014

Toyota's global sales rise 2.8% as it remains locked in tight race with VW

Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday its global sales climbed 2.8 percent in the first nine months of this year, as the carmaker battles Volkswagen AG for leadership.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 27, 2014

Hong Kong democracy protesters delay referendum amid differences

Hong Kong pro-democracy protest leaders shelved a vote on the movement's direction as concerns grow over the cost of the demonstrations, and the city's stock exchange said it doesn't know when a trading link to Sanghai, expected to start this month, will receive regulatory approval.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 27, 2014

Scenes from Tokyo Designers Week 2014

“Last year was not crazy enough; this year will be even more fun,” promised Design Association chair Kenji Kawasaki. We think the event has delivered on that project. The special themed exhibitions showed off strong suits in design, style and architecture in Japan and overseas.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 26, 2014

Moderate defense of what they call extremism

Few words are less meaningless in political discourse than 'extremism,' as people are extremists only in comparison to what is mainstream at the moment. Today's extremism becomes tomorrow's moderation under a different system.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 26, 2014

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo, as witnessed on social meda

The styles, the people, the looks of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo ... as witnessed on social media
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 25, 2014

Spooky tales from beyond the grave

Ghost stories are universal, but Japanese ghost stories, argues Zack Davisson in "Yurei: The Japanese Ghost," are unique. So much so that Davisson, a translator and essayist who is something of a specialist in the supernatural, uses yūrei, the Japanese word for spook, throughout the text. He also makes...
BASKETBALL
Oct 25, 2014

Veteran big man Moss joins Sendai after departure from Niigata

Adrian Moss, a member of the University of Florida's 2006 NCAA Division I championship squad, has switched teams in the Eastern Conference.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Oct 25, 2014

[VIDEO] Digital Content Expo 2014

EDITORIALS
Oct 24, 2014

Patent law must retain incentives

As the government drafts amendments to the patent law, the question is how effective the new rules will be in ensuring fair corporate remuneration to inventors so that they keep their engineering talent in Japan to enhance the nation's industrial competitiveness.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 24, 2014

The U.S. has done enough damage in the Middle East

The notion that Iraq will 'destroy' the Islamic State at American behest is an illusion, and so is the notion that the U.S.-formed coalition can do it. Only Muslims themselves can resolve the Islamic crisis overtaking the Middle East.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Oct 23, 2014

Traffickers use prison ships, abductions to feed Southeast Asian slave trade

When Afsar Miae left his home near Teknaf in southern Bangladesh to look for work last month, he told his mother, 'I'll see you soon' and said he expected to return that evening. He never did.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 23, 2014

Ukraine's vote, Russia's fate

When Ukraine's voters go to the polls on Sunday, not only the fate of their country will be at stake; so will the future of a significant part of Europe.
JAPAN
Oct 23, 2014

Wealthy Japanese quickest to get richer in Asia

Japan's millionaires increased their wealth at the fastest pace in the Asia-Pacific region last year as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's campaign for an economic revival drove the stock market higher.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.