search

 
 
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2001

Tanaka aired worry on U.S. missile plan

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka unofficially voiced concern over U.S. missile defense plans in a series of recent diplomatic talks with her counterparts from Italy, Germany and Australia, Japanese government sources said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 2, 2001

NATO's Budapest love fest

It has been a good week for NATO. There was more common ground than disagreement at meetings between member foreign ministers in Budapest and at the five-day NATO Parliamentary Assembly, which convened in Vilnius, Lithuania. There were even tangible accomplishments on such thorny subjects as Turkey and...
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2001

Tepco puts MOX debut on hold

Tokyo Electric Power Co. will postpone the debut of a contentious plutonium-based fuel at a Niigata Prefecture nuclear plant due to local opposition, Tepco President Nobuya Minami told reporters Friday.
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2001

General contractors reduce workforces

Eight major general contractors, all financially ailing, cut their workforces by a combined 2,898 during fiscal 2000 as part of their rehabilitation programs, according to their employment data released Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2001

Film office puts Tokyo in spotlight

A Tokyo Metropolitan Government office responsible for promoting filming in the city has received some 300 inquiries since its establishment about a month ago, according to metro government officials.
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2001

2000 taxation expected to top predictions

Tax revenues in fiscal 2000 will probably exceed the projected 49.895 trillion yen due to higher corporate and income tax receipts, Finance Ministry officials said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2001

AIDS in prisons: a spreading problem

NEW YORK -- Several investigations worldwide have shown that the human immunodeficiency virus responsible for AIDS is spreading rapidly in prisons, where the rate of infection has been found to be several times higher than in the general population. Prisons have become one of the most potentially dangerous...
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2001

Contractors in Tottori punished over scam

The central and Tottori prefectural governments on Friday ordered 14 contractors to suspend business due to their involvement in illegal subcontracting in a public works project.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 2, 2001

Wizard of Oz shares magic printing technique

Next Saturday, Australian print artist Dianne Longley provides the opportunity to hear about and see the demonstration of a new technique: photopolymer printing. The event will be held in Tokyo's Azabu-juban, and everyone is welcome, whether experienced or novice.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2001

Bar associations address dearth of legal resources

While Monbetsu in Hokkaido and Ishigaki in Okinawa are separated by thousands of kilometers, the efforts of bar associations in the two cities have garnered one common attribute — a supply of lawyers available to residents needing legal advice.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2001

Hun Sen to visit Japan for nine days

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will make a nine-day visit to Japan starting Wednesday, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Friday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 2, 2001

The missing link in your linguistic skills

Sometimes you just can't find the right word to describe something uniquely Japanese. Thus, I have created the following words for the first Japan Lite Dictionary for foreigners in Japan.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2001

Survey finds kids nod off later now than in the past

The number of children age 5 to 6 who go to bed at 10 p.m. or later has quadrupled over the past 20 years, according to a recent survey by an association on child health.
COMMENTARY
Jun 2, 2001

Tests for Koizumi's 'vision'

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi faces a tough diplomatic test as he braces for his first overseas trips since taking office. On June 30 he will meet U.S. President George W. Bush at Camp David. In late July, he will attend the summit of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations in Genoa, Italy....
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2001

End World Bank charity for bureaucrats

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Freedom of speech died a little death last week. The World Bank Group announced (on a Saturday, so that it did not get much attention) that it was canceling its annual European conference on development economics. The meeting was canceled because the global protest movement that...
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2001

Yamaichi ex-chief agrees to damages settlement

Tsugio Yukihira, former chairman of Yamaichi Securities Co., has agreed to a negotiated settlement in a damages suit over his responsibility for the November 1997 collapse of the major brokerage house, judicial sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2001

Greece hopes renewal of air links will spur bilateral ties with Japan

An agreement reached between Japan and Greece earlier this week to improve air links by code sharing will hopefully spur bilateral ties, Grigoris Niotis, Greek deputy foreign minister, said in Tokyo on Friday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jun 2, 2001

BlueWave edges Fighters 11-10

George Arias and Yasuo Fujii combined for seven RBIs as the Pacific League-leading Orix BlueWave topped the Nippon Ham Fighters 11-10 at Green Stadium Kobe and extended their lead to 11/2 games over the idle Daiei Hawks.
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2001

Local public works subsidies eyed for cuts

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Friday he hopes to reduce subsidies to local government public works projects in an effort to streamline the state budget.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2001

Tomobe challenges fraud ruling

Upper House member Tatsuo Tomobe filed an objection Friday against a Supreme Court ruling upholding his 10-year prison term for fraud, his lawyers said.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 2, 2001

Glen S. Fukushima

"To me, the U.S. and Japan are fascinating, as they stand at polar extremes in the way their societies are organized. Philosophy, culture, history set Japan apart from other industrialized countries, especially the U.S. Having spent many years in both the U.S. and Japan, I enjoy assisting the two peoples...
EDITORIALS
Jun 1, 2001

Nagging doubts about nuclear energy

In a landmark referendum on Japan's nuclear-fuel recycling program, held last Sunday in Kariwa, Niigata Prefecture, a majority of village residents voted against a Tokyo Electric Power Co. project to use plutonium as reactor fuel at its nuclear-power plant there. The so-called pluthermal program, which...
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2001

Disputes with foreign staff increase

Reflecting the prolonged economic slump, a record number of foreign workers and their Japanese employers consulted the Tokyo Labor Bureau in 2000 for advice on labor-related disputes, bureau officials announced Thursday.

Longform

Construction equipment sits idle in a park near Shiba Toshogu shrine in Tokyo's Minato Ward. While Japan has a history of treating its trees with reverence, green coverage is said to be lacking in most of the major cities.
Do Japan's trees no longer occupy the sacred space they used to?