Search - information

 
 
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2003

World will help Japan resolve abductions: Abe

Japan believes the world is becoming united in efforts to settle the issue of North Korea's abductions of non-North Koreans, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Thursday in reference to a statement by the leaders of the Group of Eight nations.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2003

World will help Japan resolve abductions: Abe

Japan believes the world is becoming united in efforts to settle the issue of North Korea's abductions of non-North Koreans, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Thursday in reference to a statement by the leaders of the Group of Eight nations.
BUSINESS
Jun 6, 2003

Pay raises average a meager 1.65%

The average monthly pay hike granted in the spring wage negotiations was 1.65 percent, the second-lowest level on record, according to a survey released Thursday by the nation's most powerful business lobby.
Japan Times
JAPAN / IN WITH THE NEW
Jun 5, 2003

Seiko Noda now a force in her own right — and name

Seiko Noda, a Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker in the House of Representatives, wrote in her elementary school composition class that her dream was to become a politician -- and ultimately prime minister.
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2003

Japanese hemophiliacs invited to join U.S. suit over tainted-blood sales

LOS ANGELES -- A class action lawsuit was filed in a San Francisco federal court Monday on behalf of 15 European hemophiliacs suing seven firms, including a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Pharma Corp., for selling contaminated blood products that exposed them to HIV and hepatitis C, their lawyer said Tuesday....
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2003

Japanese hemophiliacs invited to join U.S. suit over tainted-blood sales

LOS ANGELES -- A class action lawsuit was filed in a San Francisco federal court Monday on behalf of 15 European hemophiliacs suing seven firms, including a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Pharma Corp., for selling contaminated blood products that exposed them to HIV and hepatitis C, their lawyer said Tuesday....
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 5, 2003

Winged wonders of nature -- and more

We humans share the world with perhaps as many as 100,000,000 species, yet among the most conspicuous and best-loved of all these are the mere 10,000 species of birds.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jun 5, 2003

A few tasty tales I squirreled away

There was a very brilliant but rather eccentric biologist in Montreal who was convinced -- or perhaps he just convinced us that he was convinced -- that the squirrels were not only watching him, but were stealing his secrets.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 5, 2003

Losing your mind may produce great art

Inevitably, we learn a lot about ourselves when something goes wrong. By studying what happens to people afflicted by various forms of brain degeneration, for example, we have learned a lot about how the brain works. This generally means that by understanding what goes wrong when specific parts of the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Jun 5, 2003

National hygiene begins in the classroom

I always like to hear from readers, but it's especially nice when they provide ideas for my column. Several wrote in recently about severe acute respiratory syndrome.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2003

U.S. commander coming to speed up talks on missile defense

In a move to accelerate Japan's introduction of a missile defense system, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz announced Tuesday that Washington will soon send its top missile commander to Tokyo.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2003

U.S. commander coming to speed up talks on missile defense

In a move to accelerate Japan's introduction of a missile defense system, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz announced Tuesday that Washington will soon send its top missile commander to Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Jun 4, 2003

Myanmar shows its true colors

The arrest of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi and other top officials of the National League for Democracy, or NLD, should shatter any illusions about the Myanmar government's commitment to reconciliation in that country. The widespread popularity of Ms. Suu Kyi and the prodemocracy forces is a threat to the State...
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2003

Public weight to balance scales of justice?

Unlike Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administrative and economic reform initiatives, which have seen slow going, his efforts to overhaul the judiciary have made steady progress.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2003

Public weight to balance scales of justice?

Unlike Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administrative and economic reform initiatives, which have seen slow going, his efforts to overhaul the judiciary have made steady progress.
MORE SPORTS
Jun 4, 2003

Youth soccer school set to open

A weekly soccer academy for kindergarten and elementary school children will be held every Thursday afternoon beginning Sept. 11 at Komazawa Olympic Park in Setagaya, Tokyo, organizers have announced.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Jun 1, 2003

Looking back on a 'rudderless' land

In the four years since Howard French took the helm as The New York Times' Tokyo bureau chief, he has witnessed -- and covered -- the rise of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the fall of his former foreign minister, Makiko Tanaka, the scandalous accident at the uranium-processing facility in the village...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 1, 2003

Black Ships of 'shock and awe'

Whatever Washington would have the world think, many people will only ever believe that the recent U.S. invasion of Iraq was for oil. However, U.S. power diplomacy of the Bush administration's "neoconservative" type is neither a new phenomenon, nor one confined to the Muslim Middle East.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 31, 2003

Flower power and the heathen gardener

It's time to water your garden. What garden? You mean you haven't planted your garden yet? Oh, you're too busy? Don't have enough space? No more excuses. I'll tell you how you can make a Japanese-style flower garden in just 30 seconds a day. Heck, you learned Japanese in 10 minutes a day, right?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 31, 2003

Improve your English via e-mail correspondence

Studying French from age 11, it was exciting when my school in England teamed up with another in France for correspondence exchange. Francoise and I wrote to one another for five years before fading from one another's lives. But I have never forgotten her, or her impact on my life: opening up the world...
BUSINESS
May 30, 2003

IT outlays to top 27 trillion yen by '08

Investment related to information technology will expand to 27.4 trillion yen by 2008, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a survey released Thursday. The amount reached 24 trillion yen in 2001, but dropped 5.4 percent to 22.7 trillion yen last year amid the soft economy.
BUSINESS
May 27, 2003

JETRO, ministries opening 14 foreign investment offices

The Japan External Trade Organization and 13 other entities, including the trade and foreign ministries, were to each set up an office Monday aiming to boost direct foreign investment in Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 27, 2003

Painless driving instruction and a move to Japan

More on DIY trading "Gaijin" writes that further to my answer to Wilma Jay (Lifelines; April 29), there are around 60 Internet brokers through which she could do day trading. (Gaijin himself/herself makes a living through trading).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 25, 2003

Getting into hot water for health

In the hot-spring heaven that is Japan, there are a countless number of onsen from Hokkaido to Okinawa, from those of luxurious spas in nondescript concrete buildings to rotenburo set in pristine natural surroundings.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 24, 2003

Jury out on new bank's prospects

A new bank proposed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government appears to be good news for struggling smaller companies.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
May 21, 2003

Who, what, when, where -- why?

My good friend Tatsumi Orimoto, now one of Japan's best-known artists, has made his mother a central subject in his work for the last several years. This, he once explained to me, is because she always supported him in his creative efforts -- efforts that are, in a word, unorthodox: in one, he famously...
BUSINESS
May 20, 2003

Medical firm pins hopes on skin-graft technology

Masaharu Inami received a call in 1996 from a Nara doctor desperate to save the life of a 17-month-old girl who had fallen into a bathtub of boiling water and had been scalded over 65 percent of her body.
COMMENTARY
May 19, 2003

Strengthen Japan's deterrent

The ruling coalition and the top opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, have agreed to amend a package of government-sponsored war contingency bills, marking a turning point in Japan's security policy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
May 18, 2003

Kei Ogura has still got a lot to celebrate

Once known as the "singing bank manager," these days Kei Ogura could be called the "singing recovering cancer patient."

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