search

 
 
COMMENTARY
Jun 22, 2002

Media: bulwark of democracy

LONDON -- The British prime minister's chief of communications has publicly accepted that the overuse of "spin" in government has led to cynicism and that the emphasis should now be on policy and delivery. Most British observers would agree. But government ministers, who have spent much of their life...
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2002

Book offers anecdotal glimpse at those on the bench

Few Japanese outside the legal community may be able to name even a single Supreme Court justice. Lower court judges are equally anonymous.
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 22, 2002

Ronaldinho goal sinks England

SHIZUOKA -- It was billed as the three R's (Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho) of Brazil against the defense and organization of the England side. Fortunately for Brazil, two of the famed R's showed up to send England packing after an absorbing 2-1 come from behind win at the Shizuoka Stadium on Friday....
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2002

Lower House demands that Suzuki quit

The House of Representatives passed a motion Friday demanding the resignation of lawmaker Muneo Suzuki, who was arrested earlier in the week on corruption charges.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
Jun 22, 2002

Sumida venue showcases accessories made from hawksbill turtle shells

Along the Sumida River in Tokyo's old "shitamachi" district, a small, no-frills museum with three generations of tradition behind it is waiting to be discovered.
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 22, 2002

Germany edges past valiant U.S.

ULSAN, South Korea -- A single goal by Michael Ballack was enough to see Germany squeeze past a spirited United States team here Friday evening, although not without several nasty scares from a U.S. side who refused to be over-awed by its opponents' reputation.
BUSINESS
Jun 22, 2002

Honda, Nissan increase sales as rivals' pace slows

Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. posted increases in domestic auto sales in May, while the three other major Japanese automakers saw their sales slip, according to data released Friday by the carmakers.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2002

Brazilian win provides diversion from hard knocks

OIZUMI, Gunma Pref. — Cheers and car horns echoed through this rural industrial town, home to thousands of Japanese-Brazilian and Latin-American residents, heralding Brazil's 2-1 victory over England on Friday in a World Cup quarterfinal match.
BUSINESS
Jun 22, 2002

Reforms seen weak in short-term

Although a package of reforms finalized by a key government panel on Friday may point Japan's economic and fiscal systems in the right direction in the long term, pundits are skeptical whether it can deliver the boost of confidence necessary now.
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2002

A judiciary ruled by conscience or politics?

The Constitution states that all judges must exercise their conscience in an independent manner and be bound only by the charter and the laws of the land.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 22, 2002

Islanders ward off cholera the rite way

Out the window, I caught a glimpse of the yellow silk tails of a Shinto priest's robes. He was walking up the stone staircase behind my house, followed by men in black suits. I grabbed my camera and ran after them.
COMMUNITY
Jun 22, 2002

Don Carmine: a great team for food and attitude

Welcome to Don Carmine in Tokyo's Nishi-Azabu, opened April 10 and described by its founders as an Italian restaurant with attitude.
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2002

Road panel to include controverial writer

A long-awaited list of members of a key government panel that will discuss proposed privatization of road-related public bodies was released Friday, controversially naming the well-known nonfiction writer Naoki Inose.
BUSINESS
Jun 22, 2002

Ex-Mizuho chiefs' allowances eyed

Former top officials of Mizuho Holdings Inc. should either repay their retirement allowances or have them reduced as a means of accepting responsibility for the massive computer debacle that threw operations at the firm's two banks into chaos in April, Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa said...
BUSINESS
Jun 22, 2002

Government wastes money, study says

Wasteful spending of taxpayer money is a common problem at both the central and local governments, according to preliminary data from a government-spending review released Friday by the Finance Ministry.
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2002

Council finalizes basic reform policy

The government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy on Friday finalized a basic economic reform policy that features such revitalization and tax reform measures as corporate tax cuts and consolidation of government expenditures in the fiscal 2003 budget.
BUSINESS
Jun 22, 2002

Pensions face possible reductions

Chikara Sakaguchi, minister of health, labor and welfare, said Friday that his ministry will conditionally agree to lift a freeze that has kept pension payments from matching price declines during the past three years.
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2002

'Spy ship' salvage to begin next week

The government said Friday it will start a monthlong effort early next week to salvage a suspected North Korean spy ship that sank in the East China Sea in December after a gunbattle with the Japan Coast Guard.
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2002

Suzuki policy secretary arrested in bribe case

Prosecutors on Friday arrested the policy secretary of scandal-hit lawmaker Muneo Suzuki, who himself was recently arrested on suspicion of taking a bribe in 1998.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 22, 2002

Shilpa Gandhi

A country of many different regions, India displays a panorama of diversity in many ways. Even the sari, the national dress for women, presents myriad differences in materials and styles. India has a long history of love for brilliant fabrics and the dazzling uses to which they are put. Old paintings,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 22, 2002

Meet Mama, in the name of art

Tatsumi Orimoto has a theory about his recent popularity. "After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, so many people wanted art that was warm and funny," he says as he shows me around an exhibition of his graphic art and objects at his hometown art venue, the Kawasaki City Museum.
EDITORIALS
Jun 21, 2002

Mr. Chirac gets a second chance

The resurgence of the French right is complete. Conservatives won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections held last weekend; coming on the heels of President Jacques Chirac's re-election in early May, the right now has a chance to rule unconstrained. The victory is tainted, however, by massive...
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2002

Yamarin escaped illegal logging penalties

Yamarin, the Hokkaido logging firm that allegedly bribed arrested lawmaker Muneo Suzuki in 1998, escaped punishment for unauthorized logging in national forests in 1997 and paid some 6 million yen in political donations to him that same year, sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2002

Accidents involving electric wheelchairs on the rise

The number of traffic accidents involving users of electric wheelchairs more than doubled to 207 in 2001 from 89 in 1996, the year in which the National Police Agency started collecting such data, the NPA said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2002

Defense Agency to punish 29 over background checks

Defense Agency Director General Gen Nakatani said Thursday that he will relieve two senior officials from their posts for their role in compiling background checks on people requesting information under the information disclosure law.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan