Search - 2012

 
 
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Feb 22, 2012

Pick of the pixels from this year's CP+ show

One of the highlights of this month's CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging Show 2012 in Yokohama was Nikon's new D800 digital SLR camera, aimed at multimedia photographers and videographers. The 36-megapixel monster is once again spurring the debate over how many megapixels is too many megapixels.
COMMENTARY
Feb 22, 2012

Campaign finance reform fails to reach goals

The emergence of super PACs shows once again that "campaign finance reform" has failed abysmally. After nearly four decades, it has achieved none of its goals. It has not purged politics of big donations, nor cured public cynicism about the influence of the rich, nor made elected leaders more trusted....
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2012

January trade deficit hits new high

Japan logged a record ¥1.48 trillion trade deficit in January as an overseas slump, appreciating yen and a growing reliance on foreign energy slashed exporters' profits and boosted imports, the Finance Ministry said Monday.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 20, 2012

Clean poverty, clean living and love on a shoestring

Okane wa doko ni itteshimattanoka (お金はどこに行ってしまったのか, Where has all the money gone?). Until a few years back, the tone among Japanese business pundits used to go like this — a little humorous and slightly hopeful, almost as if we were all playing kakurenbo (かくれんぼ,...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2012

America's pivot to Asia is not just about countering China

"All right China, come out with your hands up; we've got you surrounded!"
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2012

Behind Obama's Mideast policy of capitulation

No sooner did U.S. President Barack Obama welcome home American troops from Iraq and laud that country's stability and democracy than an unprecedented wave of violence — across Baghdad and elsewhere — revealed the severity of Iraq's political crisis. Is that crisis an unfortunate exception or, rather,...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2012

Use law enforcement and fees to sink Net pirates

Last year, I told a colleague that I would include Internet ethics in a course that I was teaching. She suggested that I read a recently published anthology on computer ethics — and attached the entire volume to the email.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 16, 2012

Zulu Winter brings brains to their beats

"That sounds very English, doesn't it?" says Zulu Winter frontman Will Daunt of his refusal to get carried away by the fact his band has spent the start of 2012 as many critic's tip for the top. "I don't want to sound like a miserable git, but we really haven't done much yet."
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2012

Snow Revolution's orange shadow

Vladimir Putin's regime is warning Russians that their budding "Snow Revolution" will be as big a mistake as Ukraine's Orange Revolution of 2004. But, while the similarities between these two popular movements are palpable, their differences are essential, so comparing them might help the Russian opposition...
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2012

Haier to expand Japan operations

Chinese appliance maker Haier Group Co. said Wednesday it aims to have sales of ¥50 billion in Japan this year by reinforcing its product lineup with the Aqua brand.
BASKETBALL
Feb 16, 2012

JBA axes national team coach Wisman

Japan men's basketball coach Thomas Wisman was relieved of his duties on Wednesday, the Japan Basketball Association announced.
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Feb 15, 2012

Cosmetics review website goes public with IPO

Tokyo-based Internet company Istyle Inc. announced on Feb. 3 its intention to list itself on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Market (Tosho Mothers). The planned date of the IPO is March 8, 2012.
COMMENTARY
Feb 15, 2012

Disability program reveals U.S. budget quagmire

Social Security's disability program is a political quagmire — and a metaphor for why federal spending and budget deficits are so difficult to control. The numbers are too big; the details, too complicated; and the choices, when faced, too wrenching. President Barack Obama's new budget, estimated at...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 12, 2012

A future free from nuclear energy? Yakushima may be ready

I once took a ferry from Kagoshima on the southernmost tip of Kyushu to Amami Oshima, halfway to Okinawa. Just 60 km out from the massive Sakurajima volcano that dominates Kagoshima City, our ship passed a huge granite hunk of rock some 50,000 hectares, covered in forest.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 10, 2012

Camera show breaks SLR mystique

Digital mirrorless cameras with interchangeable lenses grabbed the spotlight Thursday at CP+2012 as the nation's biggest international camera and imaging show opened in Yokohama.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Feb 10, 2012

Despite new plan, Okinawans fear Futenma will remain in Ginowan

Wednesday's agreement between Tokyo and Washington to delink the transfer of U.S. Marines in Okinawa to Guam from the relocation of the Futenma air base in the prefecture was greeted by politicians and pundits in both countries as an acknowledgement that the original plan was obviously no longer viable....
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2012

U.S. likely to scale down plans for bases in Japan and Guam

The U.S. military will probably scale back plans to build key bases in Japan and Guam because of political obstacles and budget pressures, according to U.S. and Japanese officials, complicating the Obama administration's efforts to strengthen the presence of U.S. forces in Asia.
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2012

Plan for new marketplace on Tsukiji site gets mixed reviews

Moves by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to build a new marketplace on the site of the Tsukiji market have drawn mixed reactions, with some critics saying it is an attempt to bulldoze through the controversial relocation of the famed fish market to a new site.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Feb 8, 2012

Mao's push for third world title starts at Four Continents

Mao Asada ended last year with a month of triumph and tragedy that are hard to imagine.
COMMENTARY
Feb 8, 2012

World economy's uncharted territory

"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." — L.P. Hartley, English novelist
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2012

A strategy for Russia's budding snow revolution

Nonviolent revolutions do not always remain nonviolent, as the examples of uprisings in Egypt, Libya, and Syria in the Arab Spring have shown. But peaceful movements for regime change often do succeed. They have toppled illegitimate rulers, as with the post-Soviet "color revolutions" in Georgia and Ukraine,...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2012

Romney: the right's cup of tea

"Many tea party folks are going to find me, I believe, to be the ideal candidate," the Republican presidential contender said in a news conference in December. "I sure hope so."
COMMENTARY
Feb 4, 2012

The political hygienists' assault on free speech

Dina Galassini does not seem to pose a threat to Arizona's civic integrity. But the government of this desert community believes you cannot be too careful. And state law empowers local governments to be vigilant against the lurking danger that political speech might occur before the speakers notify the...
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2012

Genba, U.S. huddle anew over '06 base pact

Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba revealed Friday evening that Tokyo and Washington have been holding talks on reviewing the 2006 bilateral accord over the realignment of U.S. bases in Japan.

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