Tag - explainer

 
 

EXPLAINER

Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 15, 2013
Nintendo brought arcade games into homes 30 years ago
On July 15, 1983, Kyoto-based Nintendo Co. launched the Family Computer video game console, or "Famicom." Priced at ¥14,800, more than 63 million units of the iconic white, red and gold machine were sold worldwide, laying the foundations for today's gaming industry.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 8, 2013
As new UNESCO site, Fuji set to beckon to masses
The official climbing season for Mount Fuji kicked off July 1 amid added fanfare over the iconic peak's inclusion as a UNESCO World Heritage cultural site in late June.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 2, 2013
Nuclear safety rules put onus on utilities
The Nuclear Regulation Authority on July 8 will begin enforcing new safety standards at atomic power stations, more than two years after Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 plant experienced three reactor core meltdowns.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 25, 2013
Unpaid overtime excesses hit young
Some companies are compelling their younger employees to work more than 100 hours of uncompensated overtime a month to maximize their profits.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 18, 2013
'Big data' — a digital sea of personal info ripe for the taking?
Shop at Amazon.com and one automatically receives recommendations on books and other items based on previous queries and purchases. Similarly, checking a Facebook entry causes ads for local products and services to pop up.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 11, 2013
New ID system for keeping tax tabs, finding cheats
The Diet passed the "common number" bill May 24, paving the way for every resident, including foreigners, to be assigned a personal identification number.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 4, 2013
A term for Abe's ilk? Well, nonliberal
Foreign media and overseas Japan experts largely use 19th- and 20th-century labels to describe Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and current Japanese politics led by his Liberal Democratic Party — "right-wing," "hawkish," "conservative" and "nationalist."
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 28, 2013
Tokyo's Koreatown emerged from the flow of bilateral ties
Diplomatic friction between Tokyo and Seoul over territorial and historical disputes is making headlines once again, and Tokyo's right-wing protesters know just where to go to get in the face of its Korean residents: Koreatown in Shinjuku Ward's Shin-Okubo district.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 21, 2013
Fukushima No. 1 can't keep its head above tainted water
More than two years into the triple-meltdown crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, workers continue to wage a desperate battle to keep the stricken reactors cool while trying to contain the 400 tons of radioactive water produced by the process each day.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 14, 2013
New thugs on block sidestep the usual suspects
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Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 8, 2013
Spring fever hits workers, students hard after Golden Week
It's now a month since freshmen, finally freed from the stressful life of studying to pass rigorous university entrance exams, began their new lives at their new schools.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 30, 2013
People's award: glittering honor or political tool?
The People's Honor Award, bestowed on those who have made tremendous achievements in their careers, has often drawn criticism for its vague nomination criteria and opaque selection process.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 23, 2013
Is legislation weighty enough to rebalance election system?
While the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe enjoys high support rates, hovering around 70 percent, its very legitimacy is being questioned.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 16, 2013
Startups find there's financing in numbers
In a country where a stubbornly stagnant economy has turned the adventurous away from high-risk investment, fundraising has become one of the highest hurdles a startup can overcome.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 9, 2013
Japan's foreign trainee system said still plagued by rights abuses
Last month, a Chinese trainee went on a stabbing rampage at a Hiroshima Prefecture seafood company where he worked, killing the president and an employee and wounding six others.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 2, 2013
Resurgent rubella raises fetus threat
The rubella epidemic is spreading quickly, particularly in the Kanto region.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 26, 2013
Curse or cash cow: Japan ready for casinos?
Lawmakers are seriously considering legalizing casinos so Japanese can roll the dice without having to travel to gambling houses in the United States, East and Southeast Asia.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 19, 2013
Ginza stage set for Kabukiza's fifth coming
The venerable Kabukiza Theater in Tokyo's Ginza district reopens April 2 after three years of renovations and the addition of a 29-floor attached office tower.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 13, 2013
In Abe's future, a nationalist rewrite of the past?
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has kept a diplomatically low profile, particularly over historical issues, focusing instead on economic and other domestic matters ahead of the July Upper House election.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 5, 2013
Down syndrome blood test draws interest and ire
Last summer, news that Japan was getting ready to introduce a new type of prenatal examination that requires only a simple blood test to detect whether a fetus has Down syndrome made headlines. News reports suggested hospitals were ready to start using the test in September.

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’