search

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2003

China leaves India in the dust

NEW DELHI -- While I was in India recently, the first phase of an underground railway was inaugurated in New Delhi. At about the same time, in Shanghai, the world's first magnetic levitation train was inaugurated between the airport and the city. This is a fitting metaphor for the two countries. China...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2003

Former NTT president Shinto dies at 92

Hisashi Shinto, who was president of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. when it was privatized in 1985, died of pneumonia Sunday morning, NTT officials said. He was 92.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2003

Shiokawa unsure about inflation peg

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa expressed caution Sunday about adopting a strict inflation target that would set a time frame for achieving a certain price level.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jan 27, 2003

Corporations cast a shadow on education

NEW YORK -- Did you know that Stanford University has a Yahoo! Chair of Information Management Systems?
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2003

Industrial revitalization body to rebuild local firms

The government has decided that a planned state-backed industrial revitalization body will help rebuild large, heavily indebted firms in each region of Japan, government sources said Sunday.
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2003

C&W IDC exec hands on challenge of making telecom regulations fairer

Changes in Japan's telecommunications industry over the past two years have been far-reaching and important, but much remains to be done to achieve a truly free and transparent market, according to Lisa Suits, outgoing vice president of the public policy division of Cable & Wireless IDC Inc.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 27, 2003

Onda to skip Games

The Associated Press Japanese figure skater Yoshie Onda will miss next month's Winter Asian Games because of a leg injury.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jan 27, 2003

Nutria

* Japanese name: Nutoria * Scientific name: Myocastor coypus * Description: The nutria, also called coypu, is a ratlike mammal with a long tail and broad, orange teeth. It has small eyes and ears, short legs and webbed hind feet that are much longer than the fore feet. The hind feet have five digits...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Jan 27, 2003

The god of small things

Nanotechnology researcher Istvan Varga is unique among the more than 6,400 participants in this year's JET program. While the majority work as assistant English teachers in Japanese public schools, the 34-year-old Hungarian-born electrical engineer spends his days exploring the secrets of magnetism....
EDITORIALS
Jan 27, 2003

Drug benefits vs. risks

New drugs often loom as a last hope for terminal-cancer patients who have exhausted without success all forms of conventional treatment available. Sometimes, though, drugs cause serious side effects and completely betray patients' expectations. Two such incidents have occurred recently, giving us reason...
SUMO
Jan 27, 2003

Asashoryu finishes in style

Mongolian Asashoryu put an exclamation point on his second straight Emperor's Cup on Sunday, shoving out Musoyama to improve to 14-1 on the final day of the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2003

Yokota trip to N. Korea nixed; U.S. visit planned

A group of the families of Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea said Sunday the group's representative, Shigeru Yokota, will not visit Pyongyang for the time being, but group members are planning to visit the United States to raise awareness of the abductions issue.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2003

Obituary: Gentaro Kawase

OSAKA -- Former Nippon Life Insurance Co. President Gentaro Kawase died of heart failure Friday at a hospital in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, his family said Sunday. He was 86.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 27, 2003

Trials of a singleton

When a man's been single for too long, he can start to exhibit strange symptoms.
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2003

Trend of rising interest rates no cause for optimism in U.S.

Long-term interest rates are on an upward trend in the United States. The yield on 10-year U.S. government bonds, which stood around 3.8 percent in December, has climbed to around 4 percent. But has the U.S. economy been strong enough to trigger a rise in interest rates?
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2003

U.S. pursuit of a second ASEAN track

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Analysts tend to classify U.S. policies toward Asia -- and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, in particular -- according to two irreconcilable stereotypes: the "unchangeable pattern," in which administrations come and go while fundamental American perceptions remain the...
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2003

Flu epidemic shuts down 500 schools

Japan is in the grip of a severe flu epidemic, causing nearly 500 schools nationwide to close down in one week earlier this month, the largest number in recent history, health ministry officials said Saturday.
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2003

Arrest made in Mexico City murder

MEXICO CITY -- Authorities on Friday captured a man who they believe shot and killed a Japanese national after the two were involved in a car crash last weekend, Mexico City's attorney general said.
EDITORIALS
Jan 26, 2003

Bananas on the brink

Bananas don't usually figure much in the news. True, there were a few occasions in recent years when the ubiquitous yellow fruit slipped off the health and food pages and onto Page 1. Mostly those stories concerned the long-running dispute between the United States and the European Union over barriers...
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2003

Philippine gunmen kidnap Japanese

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines -- Unidentified gunmen have kidnapped a Japanese man in the southern Philippines, local police said Saturday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 26, 2003

Watery worlds on show without a snorkel

Although the Kaiyukan Aquarium is located right on Osaka Bay, it is truly a case of "water, water everywhere, ne'er any drop to drink" for the 39,000 fish and 580 species of other sea creatures kept there in 15 large tanks.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 26, 2003

Stories about the storytellers

FIVE MODERN JAPANESE NOVELISTS, by Donald Keene. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003, 144 pp., $24.50 (cloth) In this new book, the doyen of Western scholars of Japanese literature introduces the writing of five novelists with whom he has worked and reminisces about his relationships with them....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jan 26, 2003

One trip to Never Never Land, and you're hooked

Hiroshi Matsusaki is not a big Disney-film fan. His imagination was captured, however, when he read a Japanese translation of "Peter Pan" -- understandable for a child whose life's adventures began in the lush natural reaches of Kyushu, before his family moved on to Saitama.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight