search

 
 
EDITORIALS
Jul 19, 2003

'Kenpo' deficit widens

Japan's health insurance system for private-sector employees (Kenpo) is sinking deeper into deficit. It is estimated that eight of 10 health insurance associations booked losses in fiscal 2002. At this rate, an increase in insurance premiums seems inevitable.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 19, 2003

Matsuzaka, Takahashi on Nagashima's wish list

Seibu Lions right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka and Yomiuri Giants outfielder Yoshinobu Takahashi were among 33 professional players recommended Thursday for the Japanese national baseball team for the Olympic qualifying tournament in Sapporo this fall.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2003

Suicidal kidnapper collected nude photos

Police have confiscated photographs of naked women and a list of women's names from a Tokyo condo in which a 29-year-old man had allegedly confined four elementary schoolgirls, investigative sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jul 19, 2003

Execs call for political manifestos

KARUIZAWA, Nagano Pref. -- Business executives called Friday on the nation's political parties to show voters their manifestos so that they can compete on the basis of concrete policy goals in the next general election.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 19, 2003

Yuki Horibe

COCOS ISLANDS -- When Yuki Horibe was planning a university break in order to gain some overseas experience, she looked at a world map. She said: "I wanted a small, tropical island. I wanted to learn English. I wanted diving. I found Christmas Island, and thought, 'Every day is Christmas. That should...
BUSINESS
Jul 19, 2003

Insurance policyholders warned to wise up, do their homework

In a bid to prevent frailty in the life insurance sector from potentially exploding into the political and banking scenes, the House of Councilors on Friday enacted legislation allowing troubled life insurers to lower their promised payouts to policyholders.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 19, 2003

Tigers prey on Carp

Shinjiro Hiyama led off the eighth inning with a solo roundtripper for the go-ahead run as the red-hot Hanshin Tigers comfortably picked up from where they left off before the All-Star break, beating the Hiroshima Carp 4-3 at Koshien Stadium on Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2003

Tsujimoto arrested over fraud

Tokyo police on Friday arrested former Diet member Kiyomi Tsujimoto on suspicion of committing fraud by skimming government salaries for her policy secretaries.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2003

Top court rules against moneylender

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that commercial moneylender Lopro Corp. effectively charged too much interest on loans that its affiliate charged fees to guarantee.
BUSINESS
Jul 19, 2003

Tepco to launch wireless network

Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to launch in the Tokyo metropolitan area later this year, a fiber-optic communications service using high-speed wireless access, company officials said Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2003

Cemetery for war dead has identity crisis

Summer for many Japanese is a time that conjures up bitter memories of the nation's Aug. 15, 1945, defeat in the war -- a conflict that claimed millions of lives and left a number of cities devastated.
COMMENTARY
Jul 19, 2003

No assault on U.S. morality

WASHINGTON -- For more than a year American politics has focused on war in Iraq. But the Supreme Court's decision voiding state antisodomy laws has inflamed the culture war in America. Conservative religious groups prophesy a moral apocalypse; Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is calling for a federal...
BUSINESS
Jul 19, 2003

Honda looks to shape brighter future by remodeling the past

Honda Motor Co. hopes to recover from a slump in domestic car sales by launching redesigned models of popular vehicles, according to Honda President Takeo Fukui.
BUSINESS
Jul 19, 2003

Mori looks out for foreign children

Mori Building Co. has announced it will open a kindergarten for 180 international school children in January adjacent to the Roppongi Hills complex in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Jul 19, 2003

'Competitive' NTT fees promised

Telecommunications minister Toranosuke Katayama said Friday his ministry will maintain a policy of ensuring that the interconnection fees Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. charges other carriers for access to its lines will remain competitive.
COMMENTARY
Jul 19, 2003

Hong Kong's democratic hopes vs. authoritarian fears

HONG KONG -- July 1, 2003 -- when at least 500,000 Hong Kongers marched in nonviolent protest -- will live long in memory, provided that Hong Kong remains an oasis of freedom set in China's authoritarian sea. But it was also a day that will almost certainly be expunged from the Chinese collective memory...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 19, 2003

Cosmo fashion takes over the classroom

Some of the biggest changes in Japan over the years have taken place in the world of academia. Over 10 years, for example, my university classroom has changed from reserved, plain-dressed girls who used to hide behind their bangs to a group of miniskirted, sexy, breasty teens who wiggle and jiggle their...
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2003

12 cultural envoys to pitch Japan abroad

The Cultural Affairs Agency has recently appointed 12 people as cultural ambassadors who will live abroad to help spread Japanese culture and art, including films and "rakugo" comic storytelling, agency officials said.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2003

Eel package labels face inspection

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry will start inspecting packaged eels nationwide next Tuesday to verify their point of origin.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 19, 2003

The lesson: don't lift weights with precious hands

Snatching a quick bite of sushi in Shinagawa Station one Friday evening in late June, a young man slips in beside me and after a quick glance to either side, hisses conspiratorially, "Tell me what to do . . ."
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2003

Diet approves bill to let lawmakers practice law

The Diet passed a bill Friday that allows current and former lawmakers to practice law, even without undergoing normal legal training, if they pass the bar exam and have served in the legislature for at least five years.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2003

Disabled allowed to vote by proxy

Physically disabled people who cannot write by themselves will be allowed to let a proxy fill in their mail-in ballots under a law passed Friday by the Diet.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past