Search - 2014

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2014

Can a nuclear-weapons state champion disarmament?

India should be the one to step forward to champion a phased, regulated and verifiable global nuclear disarmament governed by a universal, nondiscriminatory nuclear weapons convention.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2014

Recep Erdogan's pyrrhic victory

The triumph of Turkey's beleaguered Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party in last week's local elections is unlikely to ameliorate the country's internal conflicts, much less revive its tarnished international standing.
BASKETBALL
Apr 6, 2014

Akita coach Nakamura won't return to team for 2014-15 season: reports

Kazuo Nakamura's coaching tenure with the Akita Northern Happinets will conclude at the end of this season, according to published reports.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2014

French polls show extreme right moderating

The French municipal elections held late last month have demonstrated that the extreme right is not a threat in today's Europe.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 5, 2014

Umeno has chance to make presence felt

One of the more interesting young players in Japanese baseball this season and in years to come should be Hanshin Tigers rookie catcher Ryutaro Umeno. The 24-year-old native of Fukuoka Prefecture was Hanshin's No. 4 choice in the autumn 2013 amateur draft but got some playing time during last month's...
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 5, 2014

U.S. election donations cap removed by ruling

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down the overall cap on federal election contributions is sending ripples across American politics, as states have begun backing away from their own restrictions on donations and lawyers are forecasting a new wave of challenges to campaign finance laws nationwide....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2014

Japan's image hurt by Abe's militarist facade: Nye

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's nationalistic views on history are hurting Japan's chances in an increasingly public PR battle with China and South Korea, a Harvard professor says.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Apr 4, 2014

Japanese game developers create immersive virtual worlds with Oculus Rift

Oculus Rift is the true people's choice in the virtual-reality community. From its grassroots upbringing through crowdfunding to its multibillion dollar buyout by Facebook last week, Palmer Luckey's immersive headset, which tracks the head movements of the wearer to plunge them into virtual environments,...
EDITORIALS
Apr 4, 2014

Opportunity to rethink whaling

The government should take the International Court of Justice's ruling against Japan's Antarctic whaling activities as a cue to work out ways to balance declining consumer demand for whale meat with the desire of some to preserve the nation's whaling tradition.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 4, 2014

Japan's Russian dilemma

For the Japanese, President Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea was an unsurprising return to Russia's historic paradigm. Thus it is understandable that many now consider the recent hopes for serious talks between Putin and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the Northern Territories as stillborn.
COMMENTARY
Apr 4, 2014

Wary West caught off guard by Putin's wild ways

At this point, the West has no idea what Russia is willing to do to restore its influence, but Russia knows exactly what the West will — and, more important, will not — do. This has created a dangerous asymmetry.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 4, 2014

The New Yorker is bad for cartooning

Writer-cartoonist says The New Yorker magazine prints a lot of awful cartoons, yet uses its reputation in order to elevate terrible work as the profession's platinum standard.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 4, 2014

Lebanon marks "devastating" milestone with millionth refugee

The number of Syrian refugees who have fled to Lebanon officially topped 1 million on Thursday, highlighting the growing humanitarian catastrophe caused by Syria's civil war and the huge burden placed on its poorly prepared neighbors.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 3, 2014

'Sanbun no Ichi (One Third)'

Caper movies have their conventions, one being that the crook anti-heroes may get to run their fingers through their loot, but they hardly ever get to keep it. The prototype is Stanley Kubrick's "The Killing" (1956), in which elaborate planning and clockwork execution pay off in a blackly comic reversal...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2014

Will Ukraine's new boss be like the old boss?

The question facing Ukrainians is whether Petro Poroshenko, the man who seems poised to win the presidency on May 25, will prove that all their recent efforts to put an end to decades of corrupt, oligarchic rule have been in vain.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 3, 2014

Kanye West cancels Fuji Rock headline spot

Kanye West has canceled his headline appearance at this year's Fuji Rock Festival "due to artist circumstances," according to festival organizers.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 2, 2014

West stumbles as autocratic forces trumps economics

A quarter-century after the fall of the Soviet Union, authoritarian rulers such as Vladimir Putin and Bashar Assad are showing they can and will defy international norms, suppress dissent and use military force. American policymakers are struggling with how to respond.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2014

Calculating a nation's well-being instead of GDP

As leaders in Germany, France, the U.K. and U.S. call for a new, more comprehensive policy target to replace gross national product, a group of economists see promise in the measurement of 'wellbeing' or life satisfaction.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2014

Russia's natural gas weapon looks overblown

On close inspection, the threat that Russia could use its natural gas as a doomsday weapon involves much bluff. If used, it would probably do less damage than imagined while imposing long-term costs on Russia.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2014

Gulf widens between Qatar and its neighbors

Saudi Arabia's recent decision to withdraw its ambassador from Qatar has revealed the gravity of the crisis in the Gulf Cooperation Council, composed of Saudia Arabia's most immediate neighbors. Gulf politics is shifting.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 30, 2014

Failed 'resets' with Russia allow for a cold peace

The ideological antagonism of the Cold War may be gone, but Russia now defines itself as an alternative civilizational and social model. A cold peace is possible.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 29, 2014

Fashion Week Tokyo: opposites attract womenswear designers

Collections reflect the antithetical nature of fashion in Japan

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.