Search - 2023

 
 
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 19, 2014

Want a one-way ticket to the red planet?

Since its announcement in May 2012, the Mars One project hasn't had an easy ride. Critics have questioned all aspects, from the technical feasibility to its funding model. But recent developments from the project seem to be bringing the goal of starting a human colony on Mars by 2025 a little closer....
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2014

Europe's prospects looked better in the 1930s

Unless policies change, economic stagnation in the eurozone is likely to persist, posing in some ways a bigger challenge to recovery than the Great Depression did in the 1930s.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 7, 2014

Japan, Turkey to pursue economic partnership agreement

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, agreed Tuesday in Tokyo that the two countries will work toward starting negotiations for a bilateral economic partnership agreement, hopefully before the end of this year.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Dec 15, 2013

China manages soft landing on moon

China completed the first soft landing on the moon's surface in 37 years Saturday, becoming only the third country to pull off the feat.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 5, 2013

Hitachi gets green for U.K. reactors

Hitachi Ltd. has gained access to a U.K. loan guarantee to build two nuclear reactors in Wales as the British government promotes a new generation of atomic power projects.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 3, 2013

Abe shelves effort to gain passage of Turkey, UAE nuclear export deals

Due to the clash in the Upper House over the contentious state secrets bill, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government will not pursue approval in the current Diet session of two deals signed earlier this year to export nuclear reactor technology and know-how to Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2013

Space industry faces choice for next direction

The air is so clear the mountains in the distance look almost fake, as if added digitally. The desert floor is runway-flat, with a few Joshua trees popping up randomly, like lost cowboys. The dominant feature is the sky, preposterously vast, beckoning test pilots, rocketeers and would-be space travelers....
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Oct 10, 2013

Earth's climate change tipping point to start in 2020, new model predicts

Locations around the globe will soon reach climatic tipping points, with some in tropical regions — home to most of the world's biodiversity — feeling the first impacts of unprecedented eras of elevated temperatures as soon as seven years from now, according to a study released Wednesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 7, 2013

Areva: New reactors to end uranium slump by 2015

Nuclear power plant operators benefited from a slump in uranium prices after the reactor meltdowns in the Fukushima No. 1 plant. Areva SA, the second-biggest producer of the metal, says that's about to end.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 22, 2013

Rajan's war on inflation puts onus on Singh

Indian central bank chief Raghuram Rajan's surprise move to raise the policy interest rate adds pressure on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take politically challenging steps to boost economic growth as elections near.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 25, 2013

NASA's mission improbable: corral an asteroid

NASA is looking for a rock. It has to be out there somewhere — a small asteroid circling the sun and passing close to Earth. It can't be too big or too small. Something 6 to 9 meters in diameter would work. It can't be spinning too rapidly, or tumbling knees over elbows. It can't be a speed demon....
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Aug 8, 2013

New tax-free investment scheme not likely to increase investment

New individual saving system creates a battleground for competing bureaucratic organs.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jul 6, 2013

'Water of life' helps to keep spirits up

Back in 1980, when I first settled in Kurohime, up in the hills of northern Nagano Prefecture, I often had to go to Tokyo to meet editors. They were good times, as those office-wallahs would take pity on young struggling authors and use them as an excuse to visit bars.
BUSINESS
Jun 17, 2013

Treasuries end longest losing streak since '09 as Fed taper bets ebb

Treasuries rose, breaking the longest streak of weekly losses since 2009, amid skepticism the Federal Reserve is about to slow its bond-buying program designed to hold down borrowing costs and spur the economy.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
May 1, 2013

A most dangerous spy

Ana Montes has been locked up for a decade with some of the most frightening women in America. Once a highly decorated U.S. intelligence analyst with a two-bedroom co-op in Washington, Montes today lives in a two-bunk cell in the highest-security women's prison in the nation.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 1, 2013

Defense cuts proving to be a paradox for U.S. liberals

Liberals are increasingly facing a conundrum as the Pentagon experiences the deepest cuts in a generation: The significant reductions in military spending that they have long sought are also taking a huge bite out of economic growth.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 30, 2013

Wanted: adult U.S. leadership

If the U.S. executive branch and Congress can't agree on a relatively simple thing like the budget, how can they hope to lead on important matters?
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2013

Testing times for U.S., China

It's easy to imagine the U.S. as a threat to China when the U.S. spends six times more on defense and has pacts with Japan, India and South Korea.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2013

Greek budget surplus could end up playing into the hands of the anti-austerity opposition

Greece reported recently that it has reached a primary budget surplus, the Holy Grail of austerity, meaning that once you exclude interest payments on the country's massive debts, the country is finally taking in more revenue than it spends.
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Dec 2, 2012

Japan's 'life-less' anti-stalking laws are costing lives to be lost

"To build a Buddha image but not to put in the soul (仏作って魂入れず/ Hotoke tsukutte tamashii irezu)" is a well-known saying stemming from a folk belief that statues of Buddhist deities are meant to have a spiritual presence. In other words, it's a metaphor for making something that's structurally...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 20, 2012

Beware of bureaucrats bearing student loans

The government is giving more and more loans to students who can't afford them.

Longform

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