search

 
 
EDITORIALS
Aug 16, 2001

Rome's unseemly retreat

Determined to avoid another bloody fiasco like last month's Group of Eight summit in Genoa, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has asked the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization to move the World Food Summit, which is scheduled to be held in November in Rome, to Africa. That would be a mistake:...
COMMENTARY
Aug 16, 2001

Missed chance at Yasukuni

Japan's neighbors are expressing great indignation over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Aug. 13 visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, where the spirits of 14 convicted World War II war criminals are enshrined among some 2.5 million of Japan's war dead over the past two centuries. His decision to go early,...
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2001

Koizumi makes amity pledge at annual surrender day rites

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pledged that Japan will never again isolate itself from the world but will seek only amity with its neighbors, during a secular ceremony Wednesday marking the 56th anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2001

Stores battle loss of foreign tenants

With Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Hermes and other famed foreign fashion brands launching their own shops in Tokyo, department store chains are seeking ways to attract customers other than depending on foreign names.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2001

Trilateral talks on North Korea set for September

Japan, South Korea and the United States are planning to hold expert-level talks early next month in Tokyo to coordinate policies regarding North Korea, a Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2001

Government hopes to mend ties at APEC

The government plans to have Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi hold talks with his Chinese and South Korean counterparts on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in Shanghai in October to try to mend soured relations, government sources said.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2001

Bon finishes; return rush begins

The return rush from Bon midsummer holidays started Wednesday as vacationers jammed roads, railway stations and airports on the way back from hometowns and tourist resorts. According to airlines and Japan Railway companies, this summer's return rush is expected to last several days, and congestion will...
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2001

Ikeda school gets new building after June stabbings

OSAKA -- The elementary school in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, where eight children were fatally stabbed in June, completed construction of a temporary schoolhouse Wednesday for the resumption of classes this month.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2001

Thousands honor war dead at Yasukuni

About 3,000 people -- twice as many as last year -- gathered Wednesday at Yasukuni Shrine in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, to attend an annual memorial service to pay tribute to Japan's war dead.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2001

Odakyu worker fired over data leak

An employee of a Tokyo department store has been fired for divulging information on some 382,000 customers, the store operator said Wednesday.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 16, 2001

Japanese cheerleaders dance to beat of San Francisco 49ers gridiron drum

If you thought names such as Ichiro Suzuki and Hideo Nomo were the only Japanese on the American sports scene, think again.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2001

Legitimized foreigners urge more amnesty

A 15-year-old Iranian girl's first trip to her home country in 10 years last July began with a surprise welcome at Tehran airport by some 100 relatives.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 16, 2001

World Games 2001 open in Akita

Who is the best lifesaver in the world? Who is the most elegant performer at a height of 3,000 meters? And who throws a flying disc the most accurately?
SOCCER / World cup
Aug 16, 2001

Japan whips Australia for AFC/OFC Challenge Cup

AINO, Shizuoka Pref. -- A confident Japan team cruised past Australia 3-0 Wednesday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium to take the inaugural AFC/OFC Challenge Cup between the champions of Asia and Oceania.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2001

Koizumi facing rocky road to reform

Although calm has returned to the Tokyo stock market, share prices remain at a depressed level.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2001

New cafes offer broadband experience

With most homes in Japan not yet ready for high-speed access to the Internet, more and more "broadband cafes" are sprouting up to offer firsthand experience with the latest Internet services.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2001

Yamasaki heads for Southeast Asia

Taku Yamasaki, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, will leave Japan today on a nine-day visit to five Southeast Asian countries, LDP officials said Wednesday.
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
Aug 16, 2001

Yama-torikabuto (Japanese monkshood)

"Pipichari has given mea small quantity of the poisonous paste, and has also taken me to see the plant from the root of which it is made, the Aconitum japonicum, a monkshood, whose tall spikes of blue flowers are brightening the brushwood in all directions. The Ainos [sic] say that if a man is accidentally...
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2001

Decade-long district court trials highlight need for judicial overhaul

As calls for speedy trials mount following a blue-ribbon panel proposal in June to overhaul the judiciary, the pace of work at the Tokyo District Court probably serves as "exhibit A" in the argument for reform.

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