Search - member

 
 
EDITORIALS
Jun 29, 2002

Economic policy for East Asia

The future of Japan's economy is tied to that of East Asia. China, the "factory of the world," is rising rapidly while newly industrialized countries such as South Korea and Taiwan are catching up with Japan. The challenge for this nation is to define and secure its place in this region of vast economic...
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2002

Foundation to handle fund to fight Hansen's disease bias

A national council of former Hansen's disease patients living at sanitariums offered 5 million yen Friday to the Nippon Foundation to be used as a trust fund to fight social prejudice and bias against the disease worldwide.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2002

Growing minority blurs borders of Chinatowns

In 1919, 15-year-old Zeng Yaoquan from Guang Dong Province, southern China, arrived at Yokohama port to work as a servant at a trading house that imported rice and other crops from China, run by one of his relatives.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2002

Kawaguchi launches ODA reform panel

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi on Thursday launched a new standing panel of outside experts tasked with mapping out country-by-country strategies for official development assistance as part of the government's reform of ODA.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2002

Letter to Togo will again seek testimony

The House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee will again try to get former diplomat Kazuhiko Togo to give testimony in connection with a scandal involving a government-funded committee on Russia, panel members said Thursday.
COMMENTARY
Jun 27, 2002

Teetering on the edge of real democracy

ANKARA -- "The main obstacle to democracy is not Islam, but Kemalism," says Atilla Yayla, the unassuming head of Turkey's Association for Liberal Thinking. Turkey is a critically important country, but also an amazingly complicated and frustrating one. And while it has done better than most other Muslim...
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2002

Former vice farm minister reportedly took 2 million yen from Yamarin

Yamarin, the Hokkaido timber firm at the center of a bribery probe, in 1998 paid Toshikatsu Matsuoka, a former parliamentary vice farm minister, 2 million yen the same day it allegedly paid a 5 million yen bribe to Muneo Suzuki, a former lawmaker now under arrest on bribery charges, sources said.
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2002

Japan, Canada eye antitrust accord

Japan and Canada will begin negotiations in the near future on striking a bilateral antitrust cooperation agreement, the Fair Trade Commission and the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Jun 27, 2002

A temple, park and Heian pond in one

Daikakuji Temple in northwest Kyoto started life in the lyrical Heian Period as Saga-in, the Detached Palace of Emperor Saga, who reigned from 809 until he abdicated and went to live there permanently in 823. Then in 876, his daughter Princess Shoshi designated Saga-in to be converted into a Buddhist...
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2002

BOJ leaves monetary policy intact

The Bank of Japan's policy-setting panel voted at its one-day meeting Wednesday to maintain its ultra-easy monetary policy, according to the central bank.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jun 26, 2002

Stanley Smith: 'In the Land of Dreams'

These whiskey-voiced songs of riverboats, New Orleans nights and past loves will speak to you like mellow old friends. None will blow you away the first time through, but many will replay themselves in your head long after you've turned the CD off.
SOCCER / THE BALD TRUTH
Jun 25, 2002

Sour grapes do injustice to South Korea

Who on earth would have predicted a World Cup semifinal between South Korea and Germany this time last month?
COMMENTARY
Jun 23, 2002

Support for reshuffle builds

The regular Diet session has been extended for 42 days through July 31. On Wednesday, when the extension was approved, the Lower House voted unanimously to accept a request from the Tokyo District Court to issue an arrest warrant for legislator Muneo Suzuki. And later the same day, public prosecutors...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 23, 2002

Bursting illusions and facing a sometimes ugly reality

Ever since Takuya Kimura got married and became a father, his popularity among women has cooled. Fellow SMAP member Masahiro Nakai has apparently taken up the slack, though Nakai's female fans don't seem to want to sleep with him the way they wanted to with Kimutaku. The reason for Nakai's popularity...
EDITORIALS
Jun 22, 2002

Diet apathetic on political ethics

The regular Diet session, which was extended on Wednesday for 42 days through July 31, appears headed for further turmoil. The arrest of Lower House member Muneo Suzuki on the same day, immediately following a unanimous vote accepting a court request for an arrest warrant, has removed a big thorn in...
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.
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
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.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2002

Tanaka hit with suspension over LDP salary probe

The Liberal Democratic Party suspended former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka from the party for two years Thursday, effectively kicking the popular lawmaker out of the party.
BUSINESS
Jun 21, 2002

Restraint suggested for steel exports

Domestic steelmakers should voluntarily cut their exports to China in the wake of Beijing's decision to impose temporary curbs on steel imports, the chairman of the Japan Iron and Steel Federation said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2002

Parties agree to put Suzuki resignation to vote

The ruling and opposition parties officially agreed Thursday to vote on an opposition-sponsored motion demanding the resignation of arrested lawmaker Muneo Suzuki.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2002

Japanese tourists snub Mickey Mouse

As Japanese tourists put the events of Sept. 11 behind them and once again hit the package tour trail, one destination remains suspiciously absent from their itineraries: the United States.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2002

Suzuki denies taking money for favors

Embattled lawmaker Muneo Suzuki on Tuesday denied during his testimony before a Lower House committee session that the money he received from a Hokkaido-based lumber company in 1998 was in return for political favors.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jun 19, 2002

What's the real problem behind music file sharing?

Share and share alike -- that's what we were taught when we were kids.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb