Search - 2012

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 24, 2013

With 'Desh,' Khan proves you can go home again

If art's purpose is to ask the relevant questions, then British-Bangladeshi dancer Akram Khan successfully interrogates humanity — and himself — with his latest production, 'Desh.'
SOCCER / J. League
Jan 24, 2013

Tokyo goalkeeper Gonda sets bar high for coming season

FC Tokyo goalkeeper Shuichi Gonda is far too modest to accept the plaudits that have come his way after a string of fine performances for club and country last season, but there is certainly nothing humble about his ambitions for the year ahead.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 23, 2013

Shortcake Collage Tape "Spirited Summer"

Creating music meant to purposely evoke the past can be tricky. Recreate the sounds of a specific decade too closely and the music becomes too nostalgic, pining for a time the artist never even knew existed. On the other hand, approach bygone times too cynically — as the Internet-born microgenre "vaporwave"...
Japan Times
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2013
Jan 23, 2013

Managing the Japan-China Row

At a time when official Japan-China dialogue has come to a standstill over conflicting territorial claims, the Tokyo Foundation hosted an important Track 2 meeting of foreign policy experts from Japan, China, and the U.S.
Japan Times
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2013
Jan 23, 2013

Aiming to take Japan's best onto the global stage

Japanese leaders in business, culture, politics and other fields should look abroad and take what Japan can do best to the world, said Yoshito Hori, president of Globis University and managing partner of Globis Capital Partners.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2013

Kim's second test is Xi's first

North Korea's new supreme leader Kim Jong Un conducted two missile tests last year. The first, in April, failed. The second, in December, was by all accounts a huge success. But it was not just a test of North Korea's ability to put an object into space. Kim's second test was also the first test of the...
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 23, 2013

BOJ agrees to uphold Abe's 2% inflation target

The Bank of Japan on Tuesday adopted a 2 percent inflation target, caving in to pressure from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, while calling for closer coordination and implementation of bold measures to fight deflation in a joint statement released with the government.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 23, 2013

DoCoMo pins hopes on a glitzy spring lineup

NTT DoCoMo Inc. on Tuesday unveiled its new products for the spring, vowing to catch up with rival carriers by releasing high-spec gadgets and promoting its shopping and content-related services.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jan 21, 2013

Parker shines as West wins All-Star Game

Recognized as a dynamic playmaker since entering the bj-league in the 2007-08 season as a member of the run-and-gun Rizing Fukuoka, Michael Parker hauled in four straight regular-season scoring titles into the fledgling circuit's eighth season.
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
Jan 19, 2013

Turnip-tossing turns up trumps for trader

Yoshio Otsuka's years of striving to revive a near-extinct strain of turnip known to have been grown some 400 years ago in the Shinagawa district of today's central Tokyo recently struck pay dirt in a most unexpected fashion.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 19, 2013

Meiji Japanese who sought to improve China

ASIA FOR THE ASIANS: China in the Lives of Five Meiji Japanese, by Paula S. Harrell. Merwin Asia, 2012, 407 pp., $35 (paperback)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 19, 2013

Epiphanies for characters, readers

WE, THE CHILDREN OF CATS, by Tomoyuki Hoshino, edited and translated by Brian Bergstrom with an additional translation by Lucy Fraser. PM Press, 2012, 266 pages, $20 (paperback)
EDITORIALS
Jan 19, 2013

Revitalizing rural Japan

A population decrease is the biggest crisis Japan is facing because it will threaten not only the existence of many local communities in Japan but also the existence of the nation as we now know it.
EDITORIALS
Jan 19, 2013

Waste undermines reconstruction

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has declared that he will scrap the ¥19 trillion cap the Democratic Party of Japan government had set on the reconstruction budget for areas devastated by the 3/11 triple disasters. He is intent on boosting the image of his administration and the Liberal Democratic Party before...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Jan 19, 2013

Lance Armstrong and the art of public confession

There are no free rides out of paradise. As a disgraced sporting legend, Lance Armstrong, who for the most part came clean to Oprah Winfrey on American television this week, could be forgiven for thinking he has trespassed in the Garden of Eden, or perhaps gone sunbathing on the rock usually occupied...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 19, 2013

Saudi treatment of foreign maids comes under fire

More than 45 foreign maids are facing execution on death row in Saudi Arabia amid growing international outrage at the treatment of migrant workers.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Jan 17, 2013

Fujiwara chases a scoop in news-themed thriller

There aren't many celebrities who would make good journalists, but something tells me Norika Fujiwara is one. She's well-traveled, socially active and not constrained by the mechanisms of public-relations strategies.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 17, 2013

Matsue: 'Goma's positivity left me revitalized'

Since his 1999 debut "Anyon Kimuchi (Annyong Kimchi)," a documentary about his zainichi (ethnic Korean) family, Tetsuaki Matsue has been interested in those on the margins of Japanese society — though he is hardly the director-as-crusader.
SOCCER / J. League / J. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jan 17, 2013

Promoted teams hoping to buck trend with J1 survival

Teams around the J. League have been busy parading their winter recruits this week, but if the recent travails of several promoted sides are anything to go by, this year's J1 new boys will need all the reinforcements they can get.
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 17, 2013

Soot ranked second-worst climate factor

Soot ranks as the second-largest human contributor to climate change, according to a new analysis released Tuesday, exerting twice as much of an impact as previously thought.
BUSINESS / NOTEBOOK
Jan 16, 2013

Canadian Embassy ceramics exhibit; Hello Kitty collaboration with Godiva

Exhibitions

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