Search - information

 
 
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 11, 2012

For Santa's little stand-ins, 'tis the season for cash gigs

At a salon in Rockville, Maryland, as a beautician carefully combed bleach through his beard and eyebrows, John Parks sat with the patience of a saint — St. Nicholas, to be exact. Parks was halfway through his annual transition from black-haired information-technology specialist to white-whiskered...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 9, 2012

Chernobyl factored in the fall of a corrupt regime — Fukushima may too

There are approximately 7,000 exhibits in Kiev's Ukrainian National Chornobyl Museum. (The location of the nuclear plant that exploded on April 26, 1986 is spelled this way in Ukrainian.) Among the documents, photographs, maps and objects at this museum that opened on the sixth anniversary of the accident...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 9, 2012

Globe-trotting acrobat left a mark on Japan

PROFESSOR RISLEY AND THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE TROUPE: How an American Acrobat Introduced Circus to Japan — and Japan to the West, by Frederik L. Schodt. Stone Bridge Press, 2012, 336 pp., $35 (hardcover) When a storyteller wields a scholar's pen, history truly comes alive. When that history crosses the...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 8, 2012

In era of skyscrapers, group lobbies to keep Tokyo's traditional buildings

Sitting at a wooden table in the glass-enclosed sun room of the miraculously preserved 95-year-old Yasuda House, Sumiko Enbutsu, a very youthful 78, radiates enthusiasm.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2012

Panel set up to monitor new nuclear watchdog

The government set up a panel Friday to monitor whether the nation's new nuclear administrative and regulatory bodies are following the recommendations made by the two committees set up by the state and the Diet that investigated the causes of the Fukushima catastrophe.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 8, 2012

In era of skyscrapers, group lobbies to keep Tokyo's traditional buildings

Sitting at a wooden table in the glass-enclosed sun room of the miraculously preserved 95-year-old Yasuda House, Sumiko Enbutsu, a very youthful 78, radiates enthusiasm.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2012

Kada hit for playing two roles

As Nippon Mirai no To (Tomorrow Party of Japan) leader Yukiko Kada tours Japan drumming up support for her new group's candidates in the Dec. 16 election, she is facing a growing backlash in Shiga Prefecture, where she's the governor.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 7, 2012

Geisha to perform yearly dance

It may be a bit touristy to hunt for geisha in Kyoto, but head to Fukuoka and they're there for all to see.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 7, 2012

Celebrate an underdog military commander at a festival in Uzumasa

Military commander Sengoku Hidehisa (1552−1614) will forever be remembered as a Japanese warrior who messed up the worst but redeemed himself the most. Sengoku was quick to be promoted to the role of daimyo (feudal lord), but due to his lack of chivalry and perceived depravity, historical records harshly...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 7, 2012

Classical music concert raises cash for charity

Got a spare ¥4,000? With that small sum you could not only enjoy a live rendition of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Christmas Oratorio" or George Frideric Handel's "Messiah" but at the same time you could provide four Sudanese refugee families each with a set of tools for farming. If you've got a spare ¥10,000,...
WORLD / Politics
Dec 7, 2012

Dark-matter detector using DNA conceived

That wonder molecule of life on Earth, DNA, is being enlisted in the search for an exotic species dwelling in the cosmos: dark matter.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 6, 2012

Matthewdavid and Anenon

Two up-and-coming electronic musicians, Matthewdavid and Anenon, are in Japan to support the local branch of Los Angeles-based, nonprofit Internet radio station Dublab and they'll tour five cities with some of this country's next big dance acts.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Dec 5, 2012

Pocket Geiger counter is a breath of fresh air

It's so small that it could easily be mistaken for a small pack of mints. In fact, if you actually have a packet of Frisk on you hang on to it, it'll come in handy.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Dec 4, 2012

Softbank's policies on foreign customers hard to pin down

Some of our non-Japanese readers are wondering why, when trying to sort out a phone and contract with Softbank, they often seem to be subject to different rules than Japanese customers — and even fellow foreign residents.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 2, 2012

Motobu: A stopover in paradise on the way back home

An enjoyable experience is worth repeating. So when I finished teaching a two-week Summer Intensive at a university in Tokyo and was ready to return home to Okinawa, I decided to again take the ferry from Kagoshima as I had done the year before.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 2, 2012

Why is the potential turning point of 3/11 being allowed to slip away?

Dried Anpo persimmons from Fukushima Prefecture are famed for staying fresh and juicy. However, for the second successive autumn, 90 percent of the crop has had to be discarded due to it registering radioactive contamination levels above legally set limits.
EDITORIALS
Dec 2, 2012

Bullying and more bullying

Reported incidents of bullying nearly doubled between April and September this year, reaching 144,054 cases, compared with 70,000 cases for the entire previous school year, according to the education ministry.
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...
WORLD / Politics
Dec 2, 2012

China says vehicle seen at N. Korea military parade just a 'timber truck'

New York KYODO
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 1, 2012

Martial artist credits his achievements to the philosophy of kendo

Alex Bennett was 18 years old when he first read the wisdom — "From one thing, know 10,000" — in Miyamoto Musashi's "The Book of Five Rings." Now living this maxim, Bennett is a scholar, teacher, translator, writer, coach and active competitor in the martial arts.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Dec 1, 2012

Shame game in Oita: Players rip team, allege fraud

The on-the-verge-of-bankruptcy Oita HeatDevils will field an undermanned team this weekend at home, a squad that's a cheap imitation of the 12-man unit that had the potential to reach the Final Four this season.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 1, 2012

Obama hosts Romney at lunch with white turkey chili

At long last, Mitt Romney made it to the White House on Thursday, though not in the way he once imagined.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 1, 2012

Martial artist credits his achievements to the philosophy of kendo

Alex Bennett was 18 years old when he first read the wisdom — "From one thing, know 10,000" — in Miyamoto Musashi's "The Book of Five Rings." Now living this maxim, Bennett is a scholar, teacher, translator, writer, coach and active competitor in the martial arts.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 1, 2012

DPJ's promise to change the system failed

The Democratic Party of Japan rode to power in 2009 and ended decades of Liberal Democratic Party rule by promising to turn politicians into the true decision-makers and end the practice of bureaucrats calling the shots on behalf of ministries instead of the people.

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go