Tag - japan

 
 

JAPAN

COMMENTARY
Mar 27, 2007
A Japanese sense of humor?
Japanese and Germans are thought by some "Anglo-Saxons" to have many similar qualities, including a lack of a sense of humor and a tendency to take themselves too seriously. I don't think the former is fair; the latter is closer to the mark.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 15, 2007
Defending Polish plumbers makes sense
PRAGUE -- Supporters of Europe's social model claim that what distinguishes it is the importance placed on "social cohesion." And, of course, it is as difficult to be against cohesion as it is to be against friendship. But the real question is which policies work best.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 11, 2007
Resentments sustain a moribund meat trade
Many environmentalists around the world hope that the whaling issue in Japan will simply fade with the now moribund industry. In Japan, though, the political prowhaling lobby has never been stronger.
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 2007
Mr. Abe's pitch to the Diet
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in a policy speech in his first regular Diet session as prime minister, pitched his top political goal -- changing Japan's postwar regime and revising the Constitution. But just what kind of nation he wants to build through such endeavors is not necessarily clear. In the short...
EDITORIALS
Jan 9, 2007
Driving a train under pressure
On the morning of April 25, 2005, a "rapid service" (express) commuter train derailed along a curve between Tsukaguchi and Amagasaki stations on the West Japan Railway Co.'s Fukuchiyama Line in Hyogo Prefecture, slamming into a nine-story condominium building near the tracks. The accident killed 106...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 9, 2006
Who out there cares about 'Cool Japan'?
These days the government is jumping on the bandwagon. The Foreign Ministry is singing in tune. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has hopped on, with a conductor's baton in his hand and a spring in his step that you don't even see when he's ascending the stairs to pay his public-private respects at Yasukuni...

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan