search

 
 
SOCCER / J. League
Jul 30, 2002

Gamba closes gap

Third-placed Gamba Osaka thrashed Vegalta Sendai 3-0 on Sunday to close the gap on the first-division leaders in the J. League first stage.
COMMENTARY
Jul 30, 2002

Asian multilateralism takes on new energy

HONOLULU -- Multilateral dialogue seems to be taking on new energy in Asia. Not since 1993 -- when foreign ministers attending the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference held a separate breakfast session to discuss security issues and decided to establish the ASEAN Regional Forum, or ARF, and the Asia Pacific...
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

680,000 beetles imported in 2001, trade monitor says

At least 680,000 beetles were imported into Japan last year, according to a study recently released by Traffic East Asia-Japan, a Tokyo-based group monitoring trade in wildlife.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

Tokyo-area highway toll hike to 800 yen in the pipeline

Metropolitan Expressway Public Corp. said Monday it may hike expressway tolls in the Tokyo area by about 100 yen to 800 yen as early as December.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

Opposition parties to bring no-confidence motion to vote

The four main opposition parties agreed Monday to jointly submit a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet.
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Jul 30, 2002

Fans now flocking to J. League games

The J. League is savoring the World Cup carry over. Since league action was resumed (Division Two on July 10 and Division One on July 13) following the World Cup, the J. League has so far drawn high attendance figures to its games.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

Motorists rebel against exorbitant expressway fares

Hidenori Wago used to get angry when faced with the exorbitant fees exacted at the nation's expressway tollgates. Now, he has a solution: Drive through, don't pay.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

Mandatory community work gains favor

An advisory panel to education minister Atsuko Toyama recommended Monday that schoolchildren be required to take part in community activities, and that this be part of a student's evaluation, ministry officials said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

Japan, Uzbekistan to pursue aviation pact, antiterror steps

Japan and Uzbekistan agreed Monday to strengthen economic and political cooperation by launching negotiations over a bilateral aviation pact, taking measures against terrorism and working toward the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 30, 2002

Kaneko powers Fighters

Makoto Kaneko, Hiroshi Narahara and Pacific League batting leader Michihiro Ogasawara each drove in two runs and the Nippon Ham Fighters came from behind to defeat the Pacific League-leading Seibu Lions 9-3 Monday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 30, 2002

A race against cultural oblivion

Like minority groups the world over, the hill tribes of Laos are facing unaccustomed pressures on their traditional way of life. The depletion of protective, life-giving forest and wilderness, the upward migration of more lowland Laotians, growing pressure on the hill tribes to settle closer to accessible...
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2002

Government clamps down on pork imports with tariffs

Japan will raise tariffs on pork for eight months beginning this week in an attempt to slow soaring imports, the government said Monday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ARCHIPELA-GO
Jul 30, 2002

Going slow and easy in a land of plenty

In vino veritas. In wine there is truth. And in Hokkaido there is wine. Living in Hokkaido has its perks, and I set out recently seeking my truth on a long-weekend getaway with my family in central Hokkaido's wine region.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

New law may raise prospects for homeless

In the Kamagasaki day-laborer district of Osaka, news about the soon-to-be passed bill to provide aid for the nation's homeless has been greeted with a mixture of hope and indifference.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

Tepco says it cut CO2 emissions by 5.2% in '01

Tokyo Electric Power Co. reduced its carbon dioxide emissions to 87.4 million tons in fiscal 2001, down 5.2 percent from a year earlier, a Tepco official said Monday.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2002

JEITA Web site markets surplus stock in English

An industry group comprising major electronics makers has launched an English-language Web site to market surplus semiconductor manufacturing equipment and facilities, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association said Monday.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2002

METI upgrades industrial activity assessment

The government on Monday upgraded its overall assessment of industrial activity for the first time since April, saying production is on "a slight rising trend," despite figures showing Japan's industrial output in June fell 0.7 percent from a month earlier.
COMMUNITY
Jul 30, 2002

JET membership up in numbers, diversity

For the past 15 years, the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program has greatly helped promote Japan's internationalization.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 30, 2002

Counting the cost of marketing tradition

The archaeologist, picking over the dust of the past, will unearth few items to help him reconstruct a history of the Laotian hill tribes. Here there are no monuments to cultures or civilizations past: no temples, stupas, ancestral halls, foundations of lost villages or images of deities carved into...
LIFE / Travel
Jul 30, 2002

A race against cultural oblivion

Like minority groups the world over, the hill tribes of Laos are facing unaccustomed pressures on their traditional way of life. The depletion of protective, life-giving forest and wilderness, the upward migration of more lowland Laotians, growing pressure on the hill tribes to settle closer to accessible...
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

Subcontractor mystery clouds airport expansion

OSAKA -- The bulk of subcontract work for the second phase expansion of Kansai International Airport has been given to a group believed incapable of handling airport construction, according to documents on subcontracted work and sources familiar with the matter.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2002

Honda sees group net profits grow 20% to 107.6 billion yen

Honda Motor Co. said Monday its group net profit rose 20.4 percent to a record 107.6 billion yen in the April-June quarter from a year earlier on strong sales and a weaker yen.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

Osaka phone service disrupted

OSAKA -- NTT West Corp. said Monday that phone services were temporarily disrupted after a massive number of calls were placed by a firm suspected of operating a "wangiri" callback scam.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2002

U.S. rebound would dispel global gloom

Tokyo stocks, as measured by the Nikkei average of 225 major issues, are hovering around 10,000.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

Court sets bail for hijacking suspect's wife at 20 million yen

The Tokyo District Court set bail of 20 million yen Monday for Emiko Akagi, whose husband is wanted in connection with the 1970 hijacking of a Japan Airlines plane to North Korea by the Red Army Faction.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2002

Toyota raises outlook for global sales by 5%

Toyota Motor Corp. has raised its 2002 global sales projection from 5.3 million units to 5.5 million, up 5 percent from last year, Toyota President Fujio Cho said Monday.
COMMUNITY
Jul 30, 2002

Learning goes both ways in JET program

I first came to Japan in 1991 as an English instructor with the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program and ended up staying twice as long as I originally planned. Here are some recollections from that period.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

Imports shunned for domestic food: survey

The overwhelming majority of Japanese consumers tend to buy domestic food products rather than imports, according to a Cabinet Office survey released Monday.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2002

Nippon Steel wins contract to build steel plant in China

Nippon Steel Corp. said Monday it has won an order from major Chinese steelmaker Baoshan Iron & Steel Co. for facilities to produce steel sheet for automobiles.

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