Search - 2014

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 20, 2014

The failed Turkish coup by 'Gulen' bureaucrats

Recent developments in Turkey reflect the widening rift between the Erdogan government and the so-called Gulen movement. Judicial reform must eliminate the possibility of organized cliques manipulating constitutional powers to advance their own narrow goals.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jan 20, 2014

'Mr. Basketball' back on court in new role

Putting his honorable nickname behind him, Kenichi Sako is beginning a new adventure, though it may not proceed as smoothly as it did when he was a player.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 20, 2014

Tepco to spend ¥2.67 trillion to grow

Tokyo Electric Power Co. is considering spending about ¥2.67 trillion on strategic investments through partnerships as it seeks to chart a path to growth beyond the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant disaster.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 19, 2014

Nago mayor wins re-election in blow to Abe, U.S.

Nago voters return Mayor Susumu Inamine for a second term, dealing a setback to Tokyo's plans to build a long-sought air base for the United States.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 19, 2014

Marketers succeed by generating hitto products

Japanese consumers and marketers alike certainly love their ヒット商品 (hitto shōhin, hit products). To understand how this term came about, we need to look back to the decade following World War II. When living standards gradually began to improve from the early 1950s, Japanese consumers eagerly...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 19, 2014

Time to speak up in defense of Thai democracy

Thailand, Southeast Asia's most developed and sophisticated economy, is teetering on the edge of the political abyss. Yet most of the rest of Asia appears to be averting its eyes from its anarchic unrest.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 19, 2014

Nago voters cast ballots on base fate

Nago voters head to the polls to pick a mayor who might be able to put the Futenma base relocation issue to rest.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 18, 2014

LDP dangles cash in Nago poll

In a last-ditch attempt to win votes for the pro-base candidate in Sunday's Nago mayoral election, Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba has promised voters Tokyo will set up a ¥50 billion fund to be used to revitalize the local economy.
Japan Times
SOCCER
Jan 18, 2014

Kimura eyes World Cup place

Kosuke Kimura may be Japanese soccer's best-kept secret, but the New York Red Bulls right back is hoping to announce himself on the biggest stage at this summer's World Cup.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2014

How U.S. won — and lost— the war on poverty

In reality, Americans both won and lost the War on Poverty launched 50 years ago this month. This is an ambiguous truth that the acrimonious U.S. political culture has trouble accepting.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2014

Why is Stalin honored despite killing millions?

It is impossible to imagine a Hitler statue anywhere in Germany, so why is it that statues of Josef Stalin have been restored in towns across Georgia (his birthplace) and that another is to be erected in Moscow as part of a commemoration of all Soviet leaders?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 16, 2014

'Ender's Game'

The sense of wide-eyed wonder and hopefulness that characterized Orson Scott Card's 1985 sci-fi novel "Ender's Game" is mostly absent in this adaptation, replaced by a knowing, slick competence. Very little rings true, despite Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley and Viola Davis delivering super-serious performances...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2014

Tepco business plan, including July reactor restart, gets official OK

The government approved Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s revised 10-year business plan Wednesday that includes its hope to restart reactors at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture this summer.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 14, 2014

Japan's Obama problem

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe does not appear to have considered the possibility that his pilgrimage to Yasukuni Shrine on Dec. 26 might end up helping China by deepening South Korea's antagonism toward Japan.
EDITORIALS
Jan 14, 2014

Lessons from the Diovan scandal

Fallout from the Diovan case in Japan suggests that clinical drug studies on patients should be financed either with public research funds or through formal funding contracts between pharmaceutical companies and the research institutions involved — rather than by pharma donations.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2014

Markets take a back seat under gesture liberalism

Building the Volt hybrid car was bailed-out General Motors' gesture of obeisance to its Washington masters when, in fact, U.S. auto sales have cruised back to 2007 levels thanks to Americans' fondness for pickup trucks and SUVs.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2014

Economic inequality by the click

Free markets are expected to distribute the fruits of some new technologies in dramatically unequal ways. Will the relative losers, satiated by computer games and Internet entertainment, and provided with the basics of a minimally acceptable life, be too docile to revolt?
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2014

Inequality nightmare continues to plague world

While demand for private jets is booming, 60 percent of the population lives on less than $1.25 a day. As the world overall grows richer, the benefits continue to flow overwhelmingly to a tiny elite.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 12, 2014

Americans showing sound isolationist instincts

American military intervention in Iraq has been the largest cause of the present chaos, and that makes the isolationist instincts of the American people, displayed recently when the president rashly wanted to bomb Syria, were and remain sound ones.
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
JAPAN / WEDGE
Jan 12, 2014

Pakistanis find niche in used car business

Led by Pakistanis living in Japan, exports of Japanese used cars are growing, thanks to their durability and high technology. In particular, Pakistanis at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU) in Beppu, Oita Prefecture, have been very active in the used-car business, using social networking services...
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
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 11, 2014

U.S. base at center of Nago poll

In a contest with major implications for the government and military ties with the U.S., campaigning is about to start in the city chosen to host the Futenma replacement base.
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.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Jan 10, 2014

Any Hosokawa presence in Tokyo race bad for Abe

The emergence of Morihiro Hosokawa as a potential candidate could be a game-changer for the Tokyo gubernatorial race and deal a severe blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?