Search - 2012

 
 
EDITORIALS
Feb 26, 2011

Toll system is seriously flawed

Under a system introduced by the former Liberal Democrat Party-Komeito coalition government, set to expire at the end of March, vehicles using the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system enjoy a variety of expressway toll discounts, including a ¥1,000 ceiling on weekends and holidays.
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2011

Public pension fund may sell bonds for payouts

The public pension fund said it may become a net seller of bonds to cover payments in the world's fastest aging society.
BUSINESS
Feb 25, 2011

Steel merger to save ¥100 billion in costs: analysts

Nippon Steel Corp. and Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd.'s deal to create the world's No. 2 steelmaker may shave as much as ¥100 billion off costs as the companies consolidate operations, according to analysts.
BUSINESS
Feb 22, 2011

UBS predicts Topix will break 1,200 by March '12

Tokyo's Topix index will rise to 1,200 in the year ending in March 2012, said UBS AG in a report dated Feb. 18.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 19, 2011

Bracing for Pakistan's 'Mubarak moment'

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's domestic situation is becoming increasingly precarious. Indeed, serious questions are being raised as to whether the country can survive in its present form.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 19, 2011

Arsenal's win impressive, but work remains

LONDON — One of the beauties of football is that at times you simply cannot explain how something happens.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Feb 18, 2011

Plan for 36-team league rejected by JBA board

It's back to the drawing board for the Japan Basketball Association.
EDITORIALS
Feb 17, 2011

Steel merger aims for survival

Nippon Steel Corp., Japan's biggest steel maker, and Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd., the nation's third-ranked steel maker, announced Feb. 3 a plan to merge in October 2012. The merger, if it materializes, will bring about the world's No. 2 steel maker after Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, which produces...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Feb 16, 2011

Sloan went out on his own terms after 22 years

NEW YORK — Apparently, there was a pact all along . . . Jerry Sloan came in around the same time with Hosni Mubarak, and damned if he isn't going out with him.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2011

Minding a world banker's conflict of interest

CHICAGO — When Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister, was appointed managing director of the International Monetary Fund in 2007, many developing countries objected — not to him, but to the tradition that gave the IMF's top job to a European, with the Americans installing one of...
COMMUNITY
Feb 12, 2011

For Kanagawa artist, past goods offer key to creation

View the sun through a shitajiki, those transparent, decorative pencil-boards ubiquitous to elementary school children in Japan, and you can gaze, squint-free, into its rays. The world transforms when you look directly at the sun because perceptions shift. Shoichi Sakurai, 49, artist, discovered this...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 12, 2011

Man City needs win over Man United to stay in race

LONDON — What a fabulous season this is.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 9, 2011

Marriage has little to do with romantic love

You want to know the truth about why fewer Japanese are dating, getting married or even splurging on the occasional French dinner for two? We can of course, blame it on the big bad fukeiki (不景気, recession) but that would be a big fat lie.
EDITORIALS
Feb 9, 2011

Ronald Reagan at 100

This week marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ronald Reagan. While Ronaldus Magnus (as he is known among some admirers) was not made president for life and beyond like North Korea's Kim Il Sung, 23 years after his term in office ended he remains the lodestar for U.S. conservatives and the Republican...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Feb 6, 2011

Threatening media not a wise move for league needing exposure

"I may be getting older but I refuse to grow up," someone once said.
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2011

Ex-BOJ exec fears 'bond bubble'

Japan is in a "bond bubble" that could burst in a few years if the government doesn't increase taxes to cut its debt burden, Masayuki Matsushima, a former executive director at the Bank of Japan, said Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2011

Citizen journalists playing big role in China

As China's state-run media works to boost its presence overseas, it is facing increasing competition from commercial media and citizen journalists who are providing more credible content than that disseminated by the government, award-winning journalist Yuen Ying Chan said at a recent lecture in Tokyo....
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Feb 4, 2011

Old faces appear in new places as camp opens

Hichori Morimoto has dressed as an alien, a muay thai fighter and a popular cartoon character over the past few years.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2011

Kyoto plan to boost visitors with aquarium irks locals

KYOTO — The ancient capital of Kyoto, already a major tourist destination, is moving forward with plans to further boost the number of domestic and international visitors.
COMMENTARY
Feb 2, 2011

Beijing should take a leaf out of Li Na's book

LOS ANGELES — A metaphor for our dramatic world geopolitical change occurred in Melbourne at the prestigious Australian Open. There, even as time-honored warriors Roger Federer and Raphael Nadal were eliminated, a Chinese woman slammed her way into history. The relentless Li Na became the first Asian...
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2011

Import rise in Japanese cars looms

Imports of Japanese-brand cars into Japan are expected to grow beyond the figure for 2010, the highest in a decade, thanks largely to Nissan's shift of production of the popular March compact to Thailand.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CAREER-SEARCH CRISIS
Jan 28, 2011

Foreigners solicited, hard-pressed to stay

Despite sending his resume to more than 15 companies, Bryan Cheng, a Taiwanese graduate student at Waseda University in Tokyo, hasn't received any positive replies.

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