search

 
 
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 24, 2003

Samurais are in a league of their own

With the launch of the Top League (the new professional league for rugby union in Japan) just three weeks away and the World Cup due to start on Oct. 10, it is easy to forget that there are in fact two codes of rugby.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 24, 2003

Should Japanese history be rewritten?

HARING THE BURDEN OF THE PAST: Legacies of War in Europe, America and Asia, edited by Andrew Horvat and Gebhard Hielscher. Tokyo: The Asia Foundation & Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2003, 341 pp., 1,000 yen (paper). The legacies of war continue to dog Japan and are divisive at home and in Asia. Despite the...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 24, 2003

Keeping abreast of the boob tube's favorite idols

Can we talk about breasts? Specifically, the large kind, which in the United States are affectionately (or not) called "knockers" or "hooters." In Japan, the slang is more clinical : kyonyu (giant breasts), honyu (rich breasts), and even bakunyu (explosive breasts). These words are clinical because nyu...
COMMENTARY
Aug 24, 2003

Looking for a few bad men

LONDON -- Will Prime Minister Tony Blair's government fall as a result of the inquiry being led by Lord Hutton into the apparent suicide of weapons expert Dr. David Kelly? Unlikely.
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 23, 2003

Matsuzaka helps Lions down Ham

Daisuke Matsuzaka tossed four-hit ball over seven innings and two relievers held Nippon Ham scoreless the rest of the way as the Seibu Lions downed the Fighters 1-0 at Sapporo Dome on Friday for their sixth straight win.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 23, 2003

Bringing Alberto Fujimori to justice

Alberto Fujimori, Radovan Karadzic, Augusto Pinochet, Saddam Hussein, George W. Bush and Tony Blair all share a common, though dubious, distinction. All these heads or former heads of state have been charged with crimes against humanity.
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2003

Daiei units ordered to pay off loans Kyodo News

The Tokyo District Court on Friday ordered two Fukuoka subsidiaries of struggling retailer Daiei Inc. to repay 1.38 billion yen in overdue loans to a Cayman Islands investment firm.
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2003

Sugar refiners sweeten alliance deal

Shin Mitsui Sugar Co. and Fuji Nihon Seito Corp. said Friday they have agreed on a business tieup under which Shin Mitsui will handle sugar production to make up for the closure of a Fuji Nihon Seito sugar refinery.
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2003

Toyota declares most income for the fourth straight year

Toyota Motor Corp. has retained its spot as the biggest declared income earner in Japan for the fourth straight year, a private research firm said Friday.
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2003

Ito-Yokado cuts earnings outlook

An unseasonably cool summer has chilled the country's retailers, prompting sector leader Ito-Yokado Co. to cut its half-year earnings outlook by 41.4 percent.
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2003

Japan to wait longer for Power Macs

Apple Computer Inc. said Friday it will postpone the release of what it says are "the world's fastest personal computers" on the Japanese market by one month.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Aug 23, 2003

Polly Derby

LONDON -- For many years and for many people, the resort island of Bali in Indonesia conjured images of sun, sand and sea, coconut palms and mountains in the mist, batik shirts and early morning flower offerings to the gods. Last Oct. 12, terrorist attacks on nightspots in the Kuta tourist district destroyed...
COMMENTARY
Aug 23, 2003

Pawns for Tokyo's hardliners

Japan seems bound forever to want to embark on quixotic foreign-policy campaigns. Yesterday it was Tokyo's bizarre Northern Territories demands against Moscow. Today it is its equally bizarre abductee demands against Pyongyang.
COMMENTARY
Aug 23, 2003

U.S. a misunderstood giant

HONOLULU -- "Once the Bush administration is done attacking North Korea, will Vietnam be next?" This seemed to be the burning question in the back of many people's minds as I visited Vietnam for a series of lectures on U.S. foreign policy.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 23, 2003

Is Japan changing? Utterly, and not a bit

Japan is changing. Or is it? The young Japanese people are changing while the old Japanese are holding on to their traditions. Whether you witness the changes in Japan, and to what degree, largely depends on where you are.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2003

Bandai's sword-brandishing robot begets yet another corporate acronym

CEO, COO, CFO and even CSO (chief strategy officer) are part of today's simmering pot of corporate alphabet soup as Japan Inc. increasingly adopts U.S.-style management regimens.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 23, 2003

Imagine! Project approach child care in Japan

"I visited Japan for the first time three years ago," says Tina Peterson, director of the Imagine Child Development Center on the 13th floor of Yokohama's Landmark Tower. "I came to Landmark then, because the building's the highest in Japan. If anyone had predicted, 'In 2003 you will be working here,'...
EDITORIALS
Aug 23, 2003

Falling savings rate is a warning

Until not long ago Japan was criticized -- or praised -- for its extraordinarily high savings rate, depending on how one looked at it. The United States, for one, pointed out that Japan was saving too much and investing too little, and called for steps to stimulate domestic demand and boost consumer...
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2003

Tertiary industry activity up 1.2%

The index measuring tertiary industry activity climbed 1.2 percent in June, marking a fourth consecutive monthly rise, the government said Friday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 23, 2003

A sound bite of married life

On the morning of his son's wedding, Frank Gibbs, the neighborly physician in Thorton Wilder's "Our Town," confesses to his wife that his chief concern in the early days of their own marriage was how to make small talk with his bride.
EDITORIALS
Aug 22, 2003

The U.N. becomes a target

The suicide bomb attack on United Nations headquarters in Baghdad has laid plain the dilemmas the world faces in healing Iraq. The hatred and chaos that plagues the country threatens all who aim to help the shattered nation. Indiscriminate violence will continue until the international community musters...
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2003

Chuo Mitsui Trust to close 10% of branch network

Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. is planning to close seven branches of its subsidiary Chuo Mitsui Trust and Banking Co. in response to a recent order by the Financial Services Agency to improve management, officials at the financial holding company said Thursday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2003

Ripplewood to buy Japan Telecom unit

Japan Telecom Holdings Co. announced Thursday it has agreed to sell its fixed-line unit to U.S. investment fund Ripplewood Holdings LLC for 261 billion yen.
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2003

Rakuten posts record sales, profit

Internet shopping mall operator Rakuten Inc. said Thursday it posted record group sales and operating profit in the January-June first half of the current fiscal year.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’