Search - 2012

 
 
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 25, 2012

Mariners, A's begin preparations for opening series

The first day of the major league season is only a few days away, and the Seattle Mariners and Oakland A's arrived in Japan ready to get things started.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 25, 2012

A woman of wisdom among the energy mandarins

Ask me who should facilitate Japan's energy dialogue and the choice is easy: Junko Edahiro.
BUSINESS
Mar 24, 2012

Kono's BOJ nomination slammed

The government on Friday nominated BNP Paribas economist Ryutaro Kono to join the Bank of Japan's Policy Board, drawing criticism from lawmakers concerned that he won't support bolder action to end prolonged deflation.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 23, 2012

African artists join culture fest

Thanks to the Internet, African musicians have been getting a growing amount of attention from outside their own borders. Blogs such as Awesome Tapes from Africa have been working to get artists known overseas, while some bands, such as Pasichigare Mbiras, continue to rely on cultural organizations for...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Mar 23, 2012

Parmer says Phoenix primed for third straight title run

Attempting to win a third consecutive championship, the Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix remain the beast of the East.
COMMENTARY
Mar 23, 2012

Bowing out with a farewell of great expectation

What was most amazing to Westerners at least -and perhaps, especially, to the Chinese people — was that his comments were broadcast live on official China TV. After all, his official observations weren't exactly pretty. Here is the back-story.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 23, 2012

Yearly anime fairs a must for die-hard fans

Tokyo's otaku (geek) hub of Akihabara might be empty for the next two weekends as two major anime events hit the capital.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 23, 2012

Ichiro in spotlight as MLB opens '12

Yu Darvish leaving Japan was the major story of the MLB offseason. When the season begins later this week, the headlines will all be about Ichiro Suzuki coming back.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 22, 2012

NATO's Libyan war lessons

NATO's intervention in Libya one year ago helped to avert a humanitarian catastrophe and created the conditions for Libya's citizens to end Col. Moammar Gadhafi's dictatorship. The military operation highlighted important improvements in European leadership since the Bosnian debacle in the 1990's, but...
COMMENTARY
Mar 22, 2012

Pinpointing the causes of the U.S. economic crisis

Four years after the onset of the financial crisis — in March 2008 Bear Stearns was rescued from failure — we still lack a clear understanding of the underlying causes. Hundreds of studies and books have given us an increasingly detailed picture of what happened without conclusively answering why....
COMMENTARY
Mar 22, 2012

China's military buildup breeds distrust

Since China announced another big rise in its military spending earlier this month, Chinese officials in Beijing and diplomats posted in Asia-Pacific countries have been trying to spread an orchestrated message to the region: Don't be alarmed.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2012

Testing times for U.S.-South Korean alliance

The United States is now wrestling with the nuclear fears of two close allies — Israel and South Korea. Israel's alarm at the prospect of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon is existential in nature. The same is true of South Korea, whose capital sits only 40 km from the border with the North.
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2012

Copper producers eye boost in exports

Japan's copper producers may increase exports in the coming years to make up for shrinking domestic demand as manufacturers head overseas to avoid higher costs and the impact on sales of a stronger yen, according to Pan Pacific Copper Co.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2012

Whose sovereignty is it anyway?

Despite the huge sums expended to write down Greece's foreign debt, there has been an outcry of censure against "interference" with the country's national sovereignty.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2012

Authoritarian democracy looking less Asian

The world is being shaken by tectonic changes almost too numerous to count. The economic crisis is accelerating the degradation of international governance and supranational institutions amid a shift of economic and political power to Asia.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Mar 17, 2012

Terry's influence crucial for Chelsea

Maybe it was Roman Abramovich's instruction to the players to improve.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 16, 2012

'Take Shelter'

If there's one thing that's certain about predictions of the apocalypse, it's that none of them have been correct to date. The mother of all end-of-the-world predictions was 2012 — according to all that Mayan calendar mumbo-jumbo — and yet, here we are.
SOCCER / J. League / J. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Mar 15, 2012

Opening day gives hint of things to come in 20th season

The future is hardly set in stone after one round of matches, but as the J. League kicked off its 20th season on Saturday, there were some tantalizing glimpses of what lies ahead.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2012

Europe's trust deficit undermines crisis resolution

There is no shortage of talk nowadays about Europe's deficits and the need to correct them. Critics point to governments' gaping budget deficits. They cite the southern European countries' chronic external deficits. They highlight the eurozone's institutional deficits — a single currency and a central...
SOCCER / World cup
Mar 15, 2012

Japan punches ticket to London Olympics

Japan Under-23 manager Takashi Sekizuka allowed himself a moment to savor qualification for the London Olympic men's soccer tournament on Wednesday night, but the 51-year-old insists the real work begins now.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 15, 2012

capsule "Stereo Worxxx"

While electronic duo capsule's hit 2011 album "World of Fantasy" was undoubtedly a development of ideas introduced in earlier songs such as "The Music," it was also a discrete (if frequently indiscreet) work in its own right: a near-concept album linked by a uniform 128 bpm tempo, a relentlessly hedonistic...
BUSINESS
Mar 15, 2012

Civic has 'ammunition' to remain top compact

Honda Motor Co.'s Civic, despite being stung by critical reviews and tight supply in the U.S. in 2011, rebounded to outsell its rivals so far this year and the carmaker has enough "ammunition" to hold onto the top spot, an executive said.

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