search

 
 
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Nov 3, 2002

Terror in our own backyard

A key phrase in my recent e-mail exchanges has been, "The world has gone crazy." The hostage drama in Moscow; the shooting spree in the Washington, D.C. area; the bombing of two nightclubs in Bali; the Finnish teenager who blew up himself and six other people in a suburban shopping mall; the killing...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 3, 2002

We'll have 'the usual'

Comme d'habitude. As any linguist knows, that's French for "as usual." As the name of a restaurant, it conjures up images of a run-of-the-mill bistro with standard-issue checkered tablecloths. But the name is both modest and misleading, because Comme d'habitude in Kami-Meguro stands head and shoulders...
COMMENTARY
Nov 3, 2002

Bush's legacy of cynicism and contempt

U.S. President George W. Bush and his henchmen stole the presidency. They threw thousands of innocent people into prison without even charging them with a crime. They're gearing up to invade Iraq without bothering to come up with a substantial justification. Now some Democrats and progressive Americans...
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2002

Fraud victims plan to sue broadcasters over TV ads

Lawyers for victims of a massive fraud involving the G.O. investment group plan to sue two broadcasters for airing TV ads featuring the group's president, Genta Ogami, who is now under arrest.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2002

Emergency bill includes stockpiling, requisitioning

A public protection bill now under consideration by the government would give prefectures the right to demand that businesses stockpile goods for rescue operations.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2002

Chiyoda Ward smokers start coughing up fines

A young man near JR Kanda Station on Friday became the first person to be fined under a smoking ban on some streets in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Nov 2, 2002

Tax income from firms, individuals declines 17.3%

Tax revenues in the first half of the fiscal year came to 13.03 trillion yen, down 17.3 percent from a year earlier, due to a decline in corporate and income tax revenues, the Finance Ministry said Friday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 2, 2002

Matsui, Cabrera named MVPs

Yomiuri Giants outfielder Hideki Matsui and Seibu Lions infielder Alex Cabrera, Japanese baseball's home run kings, were named the Most Valuable Players of the 2002 season.
BUSINESS
Nov 2, 2002

Takenaka hopes bank rules will be drawn up this month

Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka said Friday he hopes to specify the government's approach to changing accounting rules for calculating major banks' capital in a timetable to be drawn up in November.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2002

North Korea refused to allow reunion between abductees, family members

Pyongyang earlier this week refused to allow the families of the five surviving Japanese abductees now in Japan to leave North Korea and be reunited with them in a third country, as requested by Tokyo, sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2002

Report on Constitution released

A House of Representatives committee charged with reviewing the Constitution for possible amendment submitted an interim report Friday listing the outcome of its discussions.
BUSINESS
Nov 2, 2002

Sony, NTT may join free phone plan

Sony Corp.'s So-net and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.'s OCN Internet service providers are considering joining a proposed Web phone regime under which subscribers to Internet Protocol phone services would be able to communicate with each other without charge, officials of the two firms said Friday....
BUSINESS
Nov 2, 2002

DoCoMo pushing to expand use of FOMA mobile service

NTT DoCoMo Inc. is pushing to expand its FOMA third-generation mobile phone services into medical and nursing care, construction and other business areas to compensate for sluggish demand in personal communications, company officials said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / PREFECTURAL FARE
Nov 2, 2002

Miyagi serves up a healthy bounty in Tokyo -- and it's not just 'natto'

Department store basements and chic organic food shops are not the only places to get natural products: Miyagi Prefecture's pilot shop in Tokyo, for people in the know, is a good health-food shop with reasonable prices.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 2, 2002

Back to the future via broken promises

BRUSSELS -- Next year's crisis on the Korean Peninsula has come early. The year 2003 was to see an explosive conjuncture of events: a change of regime in South Korea, markedly less sympathetic to engagement with the North than that of current President Kim Dae Jung; the final failure of the United States...
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2002

EU 'withholds funds' for N. Korea reactors

The European Parliament has decided to temporarily withhold its 2003 funding to a consortium charged with building nuclear reactors in North Korea following Pyongyang's admission that it is developing nuclear arms, EU sources said Friday.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 2, 2002

Q-chan to run in Tokyo Marathon

Sydney Olympic champion Naoko Takahashi is among the 16 invitees to next month's Tokyo International Women's Marathon, officials of the Japan Association of the Athletics Federations (JAAF) said Thursday.
COMMENTARY
Nov 2, 2002

The Asia-Pacific odd couple

Japan and Australia make a rather odd couple in Asia. Yet their officials spend a lot of time talking to each other. Thursday will see yet another talkfest in Tokyo -- this time to discuss their "creative partnership." One reason for the talkativeness is that neither nation quite has the Asian credentials...
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2002

Postal agency didn't collect taxes

Tax authorities have discovered that the Postal Services Agency failed to collect taxes on about 3.5 billion yen in interest in 2000, sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
Nov 2, 2002

Targets for debt ratios to be part of rescue deal

The government is considering setting debt-ratio targets that companies in danger of folding will be required to meet before getting government help securing further financing, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma said Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2002

Union official arrested over coercion

A former railway union official from Saitama was arrested Friday for allegedly threatening and harassing a member into quitting the union and ultimately the company.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2002

Opposition lawmakers slam interim report

Lawmakers on a constitutional panel slammed a report issued by the panel on Friday, stating that the document had been edited to bolster pro-amendment views.
BUSINESS
Nov 2, 2002

Tax revenue shortfall worse than anticipated: Shiokawa

The shortfall in tax revenue will be worse than expected for the current fiscal year, Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Friday, without clarifying whether additional government bonds will be issued to make up the shortfall.
Japan Times
JAPAN / KANSAI BEAT
Nov 2, 2002

Pollution-weary Amagasaki pitches potato patches

AMAGASAKI, Hyogo Pref. -- It's hard to believe that the smoggy, traffic-laden industrial zone stretching from the Hanshin Line's Amagasaki Station to the shores of the Inland Sea was once a thriving sweet-potato belt.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 2, 2002

Cute, single, self-made millionaire girls

Japan wonders why the birth rate has plummeted. There are theories ranging from the fact that women aren't given painkillers during birth to the fact that women are waiting longer to get married. But the real reason women are not having babies is much simpler: This generation has grown up with Hello...

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear