Search - 2012

 
 
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 27, 2013

Can you really train your brain to be more intelligent?

My week has been pretty hectic so far. On Monday, I manned a busy beach bar and had to remember a range of ice-cream and pizza orders for a constant stream of customers.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 27, 2013

What will allow the last Briton in Guantanamo to come home?

Shaker Aamer remembers the frantic knocking on the door, the voices screaming for him to get out. Outside, in the dark streets of Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan, the soldiers stripped him of his belongings at gunpoint and marched away their latest prisoner.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 26, 2013

Emergency meeting pays off for Marines

The Marines erased a four-run deficit over the final four innings, taking the lead on Josh Whitesell's tiebreaking solo home run in ninth, and got themselves back on track with a win over the Lions.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 26, 2013

Young Gree chief loses $2.6 billion to smartphone boom

In five years, Yoshikazu Tanaka became Japan's youngest billionaire as investors piled into Gree Inc., valuing his controlling stake in the early maker of phone-based games at $4 billion. Just 18 months later, that has shriveled to about $1.4 billion.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 26, 2013

'Wara no Tate (Shield of Straw)'

Takashi Miike has hit the director career sweet spot, being both feted at major festivals abroad and scoring at the box office at home, often with the same film.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 25, 2013

CIA asked that bomber be put on terror watch list

The CIA pushed to have one of the suspected Boston bombers placed on a U.S. counterterrorism watch list more than a year before the attacks, U.S. officials say.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2013

Sequestration-linked furloughs spur U.S. airport mayhem

After months of inside-the-Beltway drama, the impact of sequestration cutbacks moved to center stage America on Monday as the aviation system was slowed by the furlough of 1,500 air traffic controllers.
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2013

LDP plans expansion of JET program

The number of teachers hired for the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program would be doubled in three years under a proposal drafted by the Liberal Democratic Party to boost Japan's global competitiveness and nurture international talent.
BASKETBALL
Apr 24, 2013

Ex-Apache post player Tyler making big strides in D-League playoffs

Jeremy Tyler has played a significant role in helping the Santa Cruz Warriors advance to the NBA Development League Finals, a best-of-three series that begins on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2013

The Chechen connection

Beginning in the mid-1990s under the regime of President Boris Yeltsin and continuing into the early part of the 2000s under Vladimir Putin, Russia fought a so-called "dirty war" against Chechen separatists in a region of the world that military strategists have long considered among the most indomitable....
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2013

LDP looks to double JET Program's ranks in three years

The number of teachers in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program might double in three years under a new economic proposal.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Apr 23, 2013

Renter guarantor system a headache for foreigners

Things were going well for Patrick after a year in Japan. He had found a job he liked, met a girl he planned to marry and was ready to move out of the small room his older brother, a longtime resident, was letting him use.
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Apr 23, 2013

Early trouble will test Golden Eagles' mettle

The grind of a 144-game season will usually, over time, weed out the pretenders from the contenders, often with ruthless precision.
EDITORIALS
Apr 23, 2013

Employing the mentally ill

The government plans to submit a bill to expand the scope of current law regarding corporate obligations to increase employment of mentally disabled people.
BASKETBALL
Apr 22, 2013

Golden Kings warm up for championship tilt with easy win over Cinq Reves

The Ryukyu Golden Kings are gearing up for a run at another title. The Tokyo Cinq Reves are closing out their inaugural season.
EDITORIALS
Apr 22, 2013

Wider Minamata relief needed

The Supreme Court upholds the recognition of a Minamata disease victim who showed only a single symptom of the disease before she died 36 years ago at 77.
WORLD
Apr 22, 2013

Brothers' bond may have played key role in plot

By all accounts, the paths traveled by the Tsarnaev brothers in their new American lives had begun to diverge. Tamerlan, 26, the elder brother, turned more deeply to his Muslim faith as once-promising boxing prospects faded. Dzhokhar, seven years his junior, won a college scholarship, gained U.S. citizenship...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 22, 2013

Why making Europe 'German' won't fix crisis

It's now common to hear analysts say Europe must become 'German' to exit from its crisis, adopting Teutonic approaches to policy. This is a wrongheaded idea.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 21, 2013

Saving Japan: promoting women's role in the workforce would help

Christine Lagarde, director of the International Monetary Fund, believes women can save Japan. Some would argue they already are, taking on as they do all sorts of responsibilities ranging from mother, wife and caregiver for elderly relatives to employee, volunteer and household finance minister.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 21, 2013

Views of Japan through Western films

Most readers encountering a book called 'Under Foreign Eyes: Western Cinematic Adaptations of Postwar Japan' will expect it to contain an interesting claim or claims about these Western representations of Japan, and that the claim or claims will be buttressed by sophisticated analysis of the films.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 21, 2013

Local media must play a bigger role in alerting public on product recalls

Last week, four Japanese carmakers announced a worldwide recall for vehicles with faulty airbags. According to USA Today, "Toyota, Honda and Nissan need to track down 3 million vehicles around the globe," and with Mazda later added to the roster, the number rises to almost 3.4 million. The defect has...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 21, 2013

Fearing the worst if Japan joins the TPP

Here is Shukan Josei magazine's nightmare scenario of a typical Japanese salaryman's TPP future, if in fact Japan joins the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement currently being negotiated among 12 countries. After a genetically-engineered, chemical-drenched breakfast, he hops into his American-made...

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