Search - people

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2013

The movie exposing the lies at the heart of U.S. capitalism

In one sense, "Inequality for All" is absolutely the film of the moment. We are living through tumultuous times. The economy has tanked. Austerity has cut a swath through our lives.
EDITORIALS
Feb 4, 2013

Suicide rate in decline

The annual number of suicides in Japan has fallen below the 30,000 level for the first time in 15 years, but suicide-prevention measures should not be slackened.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 4, 2013

Russians cast wary eye on volunteerism

A country doctor, a tiny, dilapidated village hospital, an indifferent health bureaucracy — and now, coming to the rescue, volunteers from distant Moscow, bringing furniture, equipment, money and, maybe most important, good cheer.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Feb 3, 2013

Hidetoshi Masunaga: making revolution through the Constitution

On Dec. 14, 2012, two days before the Lower House election in which the Democratic Party of Japan headed by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda was eclipsed as the conservative Liberal Democratic Party swept back to power in a landslide, a one-page advert with a huge banner headline appeared in a vernacular...
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 29, 2013

Policy speech by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the 183rd session of the Diet

Delivered Jan. 28, 2013
Japan Times
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2013
Jan 23, 2013

Lack of diversity hurts Japan: Saito

William H. Saito, who moved to Tokyo from California eight years ago, has had some splendid achievements in his 41 years of life so far.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 17, 2013

When the connections are as crucial as the art

Amid the hurry of daily life it is easy to forget what lies below our feet. To most of us, it may appear to be just cement or dirt, but to artist Kenji Yamada there are profound mysteries contained on the ground, in things as simple as our own footprints in the snow. His installation artworks are born...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 17, 2013

Patti Smith hopes 2013 is about rebuilding

By the time you read this, Patti Smith will have been in Japan for nearly a week. The iconic poet, author, painter and "Godmother of Punk" hasn't yet played a gig with her band; that will come later. First, Smith is reconnecting with a country with which her affinity runs deep.
EDITORIALS
Jan 13, 2013

Hiring more disabled workers

Japanese bureaucracy receives a lot of criticism, most of it appropriate, but the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry's imposition of regulations obliging private companies, as well as central and local governments, to employ a certain percentage of intellectually or physically disabled people is an entirely...
LIFE
Jan 13, 2013

What Japan needs to do

With its economy spluttering, large parts of its northeastern region still devastated by the effects of the mammoth Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 — and releases of radioactive materials that followed — its population shrinking and aging at unprecedented rates and its citizens despairing of...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 18, 2012

Building an inclusive society for the disabled

The 2012 London Paralympics captivated the world's attention with the strength of the human spirit demonstrated by people with disabilities. We were all moved by the determination and perseverance of the athletes to overcome the odds that defeat so many of us.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Dec 2, 2012

Michael Woodford: Japan's whistle-blower supreme speaks out

Michael Woodford glances out of the floor-to-ceiling window of his multimillion-pound loft apartment, which looks out across the River Thames toward the City of London, the so-called Square Mile that is among the world's leading financial and commercial centers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LIGHT GIST
Nov 27, 2012

I have a dream: a 'young first' Japan that works for all

It is a political season. Barack Obama was recently re-elected president of the United States, China has anointed Xi Jinping as its new leader, and Japanese politicians are jockeying for position in advance of a general election to be held on Dec. 16.
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 25, 2012

The Fish Tree

Once upon a time there was a child who, being a child, simply didn't know what to make of himself. "Look," said his mother. "I brought the sun out for you. Go out and play."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 20, 2012

Tackling the nihongo mountain, by strategy: from base camp to the plateau and beyond

For foreigners who arrive in Japan with little knowledge or preparation, the first encounter with the local lingo can be brutal. In the past, for instance, newcomers would have taken the train from Narita airport to Tokyo or Shinjuku station and promptly run up against a solid wall of indecipherable...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Nov 4, 2012

Yoshiko Tatsumi: Cookery guru serves wisdom with her soups

"Never fight a war with Chinese people, because we would lose," Yoshiko Tatsumi sternly warned, "with absolute certainty," a 40-strong group of mostly middle-aged women gathered recently in her spacious three-story residence set in gardens in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture.
EDITORIALS
Oct 27, 2012

A chance to pay pension arrears

At the beginning of October, a system started to allow people who are up to 10 years in arrears on premium payments for the kokumin nenkin pension to pay the unpaid premiums. Kokumin nenkin mainly covers self-employed or jobless people, but also serves as the basic pension for corporate workers. The...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Oct 9, 2012

Call to stop dolphin hunt in Taiji makes waves

Some of the many readers' letters The Japan Times received in response to the Sept. 11 Hotline to Nagatacho column, "Stop the annual Taiji dolphin massacre, make your children proud" by Deb Bowen-Saunders:
EDITORIALS
Oct 6, 2012

Future of senile dementia

The health and welfare ministry says that the number of elderly people suffering from senile dementia and in need of nursing care has topped 3 million this year. As Japan's population continues to gray, the number of such elderly people will inevitably increase.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / JAPAN-CHINA SYMPOSIUM
Sep 28, 2012

Media in Japan and China urged to help close perception gap

Just as Japan and China mark the 40th anniversary of the 1972 normalization of diplomatic ties amid ever-deepening economic relations, public sentiments toward each country appear to have fallen to the lowest point in decades. News over the past several weeks have been awash with reports of massive daily...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Sep 1, 2012

Patrick W. Galbraith: Willing prisoner of Akihabara

For better or for worse, some of contemporary Japan's most recognizable cultural products come from the ever-ebullient world of pop culture. If this country's heroes in the 1950s and '60s were such intellectuals as film director Akira Kurosawa and author Yukio Mishima, today Japan's calling cards —...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 26, 2012

Should the public trust Japan's leaders when the 'big one' hits Tokyo?

No two calamities are alike, yet the needs of victims vary only in scale, not in kind.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2012

What if no-benefit 'retirement' age is set at 40?

When a government panel's proposal that companies set their "retirement" age at 40 was released in early July, it made headlines and triggered hot debate on the Internet.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Aug 21, 2012

Meet Loco: blogger, author — and racist?

A glance of distrust on the sidewalk. A seemingly harmless question. An empty seat on an otherwise packed train.
EDITORIALS
Aug 6, 2012

New impetus for antinuke movement

Last year saw a new dimension added to the anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Unlike in the past, people and groups involved with the cause of abolishing nuclear weapons started calling for the phaseout of nuclear power generation, including dropping plans to build new...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Aug 5, 2012

David Atkinson: Ancient Japan captures money man's interest

David Atkinson was still in his 20s when he rose to fame as a Japan-based banking analyst with the U.S. investment bank Salomon Brothers, prior to him moving to Goldman Sachs.
EDITORIALS
Jul 28, 2012

Justice for all Minamata victims

An important date is approaching for people who are not officially recognized as victims of Minamata disease but have symptoms of the disease, Japan's worst industrial pollution-induced disease caused by methyl mercury contained in waste from Chisso Corp.'s factory in Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, and...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 17, 2012

Refugee groups slam Japan's struggling resettlement plan

Much fanfare greeted the arrival at Narita in September 2010 of the first Burmese refugees to take advantage of Japan's decision to join the U.N.'s third-country resettlement program. Japan was the first Asian country to join the program, it was emphasized, under which the country would take in "less...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jul 10, 2012

Scholar urges fresh look at rich Ainu heritage

Shunwa Honda, a renowned scholar of indigenous ethnic groups, emphasizes that the Japanese people need to create a stage for the nation's indigenous Ainu, who "still suffer from not having their voices heard properly in society."

Longform

Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?