Search - history

 
 
CULTURE / Books
Oct 3, 2000

U.S. alliances build peace in Asia

AMERICA'S ASIAN ALLIANCES, edited by Robert Blackwill and Paul Dibb. The MIT Press, BCSIA Studies in International Security, 2000, 143 pp., (paper). Asia is -- potentially -- a very dangerous place. Paul Dibb, one of Australia's leading security thinkers and co-editor of this valuable new book, explains...
COMMENTARY
Oct 1, 2000

Log on to network politics

Events can act often as an illuminating light. Predictions, warnings and expert forecasts of which no one took much notice suddenly become obvious to everyone.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Oct 1, 2000

Elizabeth Handover

Elizabeth Handover explains that when in 1989 she was instrumental in helping establish the Tokyo Actors Repertory Company, she was undertaking a commitment. That was to promote women's theater, and to work toward bicultural understanding. With clear guiding principles, the company makes its presentations...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2000

Make or break for the Oslo Declaration

The task of achieving a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians is at a critical crossroads.
EDITORIALS
Sep 30, 2000

Denmark says 'No, thank you'

The Danish people voted this week against adopting the euro. With nearly 90 percent of eligible voters going to the polls, Denmark rejected the European Union's single currency by a narrow 53-47 margin. The result is a bitter disappointment for the country's political and business establishment, which...
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2000

Nation remains at risk to nuclear disaster

A year after Japan's worst nuclear power disaster struck the village of Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, a nuclear safety critic said Friday that sufficient measures have yet to be taken to prevent a similar accident from occurring.
JAPAN / History
Sep 30, 2000

MacArthur Honor Guard to fete his exit

In March 1951, at the age of 21, U.S. soldier David Valley was ordered to immediately leave the Korean Peninsula -- where the war was raging -- and go to Tokyo to serve on the Honor Guard of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander of the allied powers.
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 30, 2000

Puppetry for the people

In Western countries puppetry is a form of entertainment aimed at children. From Punch and Judy to the Muppets, Western puppet theater has been small scale, emphasizing broad, slapstick humor and simple, if any, plots.
BUSINESS
Sep 29, 2000

Mizuho has big goals -- and hurdles

The Mizuho Financial Group, the world's biggest financial empire in terms of assets, takes shape today, integrating Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, Fuji Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan under a newly created holding company.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2000

Japan's nonprofits carve out a space of their own

When the Nature Conservancy's Lori Forman addressed the College Women's Association of Japan at a luncheon earlier this year, the topic was supposed to be nongovernmental organizations in Japan. But instead of providing a nuanced description of Japan's not-for-profit movement, Forman seemed more interested...
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2000

Cuba looks forward to expanding ties with Japan

Cuba hopes for strengthened relations with Japan in a wide range of areas and also wants to normalize ties with the United States, its longtime nemesis, sometime in the future, Vice President Carlos Lage said in a written interview with The Japan Times.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 27, 2000

Japanese scientists question mineral-accretion technique

A Japanese researcher who conducted a project in Okinawa to explore the effectiveness of growing reefs via mineral accretion in 1989, says he remains unsure of the effectiveness of the technique.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 26, 2000

Welcome return of four classics

THE IZU DANCER, by Yasunari Kawabata, translated by Edward Seidensticker. THE COUNTERFEITER; OBASUTE; THE FULL MOON, by Yasushi Inoue, translated by Leon Picon. Singapore, Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 2000, 144 pp., $14.95. Here is a new, reset quality-paperback edition of one of the staples of modern...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Sep 26, 2000

Voices of power and purity lilting out of Africa

I seem to see certain of my favorite African musicians whenever I take a trip away from Japan. I have now seen Senegal's Cheikh Lo in several European cities and in Co^te d'Ivoire, and am about to see him again at a festival in South Africa.
EDITORIALS
Sep 25, 2000

The Whitewater washout

The independent counsel investigating U.S. President Bill Clinton in connection with the Whitewater scandal has determined that neither the president nor his wife "knowingly participated in any criminal conduct . . . or knew of such conduct." The investigation, announced Mr. Robert Ray in a summary released...
OLYMPICS
Sep 25, 2000

Takahashi wins marathon gold in record time

SYDNEY -- Tiny Naoko Takahashi blitzed a big marathon field Sunday to win Japan's first-ever Olympic gold medal in women's athletics in a new Olympic best time.
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2000

Yurakucho Sogo closes shop

The Yurakucho store of ailing department store operator Sogo Co., located near Tokyo's posh Ginza district, drew the curtain on nearly 44 years of history Sunday as it closed as part of the Sogo's group's restructuring efforts.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2000

Japan's not ready for permanent UNSC seat

WASHINGTON -- Earlier this month, at the United Nations, Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono pressed Japan's case for a permanent U.N. Security Council seat. He argued that Japan's hefty financial contributions to the U.N., its other foreign assistance activities and its strong support for global nonproliferation...
CULTURE / Art
Sep 24, 2000

The powerful influence of Japan

Western artists of the mid-19th century were both entranced and distracted by their turbulent times. Many sought fresh ways to see the world around them, "savoir voir" as distinct from "savoir faire."
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 2000

Mr. Estrada takes the offensive

After nearly six months of fruitless negotiations, Philippine President Joseph Estrada has ordered military action to free kidnap victims and arrest their captors. Mr. Estrada's patience has run out. But if he thinks the army can fix what ails the southern Philippines, he is mistaken. Some of the kidnappers...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2000

Rebirth of Sino-Russian alliance unlikely

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- Chinese Premier Li Peng was having the time of his life. First, academics at Far Eastern State University bestowed a doctorate of law on him. Then women dressed in white and beaded caps like boyars' daughters on their wedding day danced to traditional music. And Yevgeny Nazdratenko,...
COMMUNITY
Sep 21, 2000

Hanae Mori's gems shine brightly

Let's begin with the keywords: graceful, feminine, sharp, inspired.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 20, 2000

Taiwan is worthy of a place in the U.N.

The United Nations' Millennium Summit in New York, attended by about 150 heads of state and governments earlier this month, pledged to make globalization a positive force for all the people of the world. It published a list of central values for 21st-century international relations. It also admitted...
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2000

Sogo shuts 11-year-old Tama store

Failed department store chain Sogo Co.'s Tama store in western Tokyo closed its doors for the last time Sunday evening, ending its 11-year history.
EDITORIALS
Sep 19, 2000

A welcome slowdown

The biggest concern among economists in the last year has been the prospect of a "hard landing" for the high-flying U.S. economy. They feared that either because of a crisis or by design, the United States would stall and knock the wind out of the global economy. That danger seems to be abating: The...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 19, 2000

Poetry that brings countries together

THE WEATHER IN JAPAN, by Michael Longley. Jonathan Cape, 2000, 70 pp., 8 British pounds. HAY, by Paul MULDOON. Faber & Faber, 140 pp., 7.99 British pounds. A SMELL OF FISH, by Matthew Sweeney. Jonathan Cape, 2000, 64 pp., 8 British pounds. Irland and Japan: two countries at the far extremities of the...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 19, 2000

Kwangju: a turning point for South Korea

THE KWANGJU UPRISING: Eyewitness Accounts of Korea's Tiananmen, edited by Henry Scott-Stokes and Lee Jai Eui. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2000, 268 pp. $18.95 (paper). "Covering the Kwangju uprising -- and writing of it in the aftermath," a Korean observer writes, "I was stuck for words. A reporter is supposed...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 19, 2000

Laos' fractured human map

LAO HILL TRIBES: Traditions and Patterns of Existence, by Stephen Mansfield. Images of Asia: Oxford University Press, 2000. 120 pp., 21 color plates, 24 monochrome, unpriced. In a sense, Laos remains closer to a conglomeration of tribes than it does to a conventional state composed of a unified people....

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic