Search - life

 
 
BUSINESS
Oct 13, 2004

Workers see benefits in performance-linked pay

Aika Momma is a financial adviser at Nikko Cordial Securities Inc. with a renewable one-year contract and he -- along with a growing number of young professionals -- is happy with his situation.
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2004

Spaniard wins world Monopoly title

A Spaniard captured the World Monopoly Championship after building up a fortune from just $1,500 -- in fake money -- and ruthlessly forcing three other would-be tycoons from Europe into bankruptcy.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 9, 2004

Extraordinary Diet session likely to be fiery affair

A war of words between the ruling and opposition camps over political funding is expected when the extraordinary Diet session kicks off Tuesday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 9, 2004

Gone fishin' and fishin' and fishin' . . .

I've never understood why people go fishing -- why would you go fishing if there is the possibility of not catching anything? Would you buy a ticket to the movies if they told you that you might not be able to watch the movie? Of course no one would buy a ticket, unless maybe it was to see a movie about...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 9, 2004

Real Madrid already on defensive over signing of Owen

LONDON -- It usually means the kiss of death for a coach and it is almost unprecedented for a player to be given a vote of confidence, but Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has spoken up for his non-striking striker Michael Owen, who has come under fire after failing to score since his arrival from...
EDITORIALS
Oct 8, 2004

Kyoto Protocol comes to life

In a surprise move, the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to endorse the ratification of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Environmentalists worldwide hailed the move, which allows the Kyoto agreement to go into effect. In fact, the Russian decision owes less to environmental calculations...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Oct 7, 2004

A 'theme park' that's an eco-friendly dream

I recentl went down to Nagasaki Prefecture to spend time with a dear old friend, Takekuni Ikeda, who lives on a little wooded peninsula jutting into Omura Bay. He's an incredible man.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Oct 7, 2004

"The End of the Beginning," "Change Your Room"

"The End of the Beginning," Avi Harcourt, Dorling Kindersley; 2004; 140 pp. "Hmmmm," said the ant. "You'll need a lot of questions answered."
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2004

Obituary: Kanji Kuramoto

Kanji Kuramoto, honorary president of the 800-member Committee of A-Bomb Survivors in the United States, died Monday of heart failure at a hospital in Oakland, Calif. He was 78.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Oct 7, 2004

A prince in time saves nine

When a young prince steals a magic dagger, he inadvertently empowers an evil magician with dark powers. In "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time," a three-dimensional adventure game from Ubi Soft finally making it into the Japanese market, the eponymous prince must find his way through his ruined palace...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 6, 2004

Poor, mad, bad king

During the five years he was Artistic Director of Setagaya Public Theatre, 61-year-old Makoto Sato began calling and e-mailing his old friend and stage colleague Renji Ishibashi, 63, in an attempt to persuade him to take the role of King Lear, with him (Sato) as director.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 6, 2004

Heart music in 'Big River'

It is a tale that many of us know, that of a young boy's adventures on the Mississippi River while helping a slave, named Jim, to escape. One of the greatest novels of American literature, Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is set in the 1840s, long before the Civil War, and is a touching...
COMMENTARY
Oct 4, 2004

CCP eyes reforms while sustaining Hu

HONG KONG -- A key policy document endorsed by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party at the same time that it approved Hu Jintao as Jiang Zemin's successor as the country's top leader calls for urgent steps to enhance the party's ability to govern while outlining a cautious strategy of...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 3, 2004

TBS's "Around the World! Dream and Romance and Money" and more

Popular boy band Tokio is on an economic kick this week. On the Oct. 3 installment of their weekly Nihon TV show "Tetsuwan Dash," three members are dropped off in Zurich, Switzerland. Each armed with only 10,000 yen in cash, they have to see how far that money can take them.
EDITORIALS
Oct 3, 2004

A Starbucks-saturated planet

A re we tired of Starbucks yet? Apparently not in Japan, where, after a dip into the red last year, the company reported a higher-than-expected surge in profits this past summer, fueled by cost-cutting strategies and a boom in sales of Strawberry Cream Frappuccinos. While a few unprofitable stores have...
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2004

Living wills need legal recognition: conference

Living wills created by terminally ill patients need to gain greater legal recognition in order to ensure their effectiveness, participants at the opening of an international conference on the right to die said Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2004

Kids tutored on fear-, anger-management

Naoto Araki, a 15-year-old Yokohama high school student, persistently kicked the chair Bill Pozzobon was sitting on, just to make him mad.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 29, 2004

Takenaka vows to get LDP members on board for Japan Post privatization

Heizo Takenaka, just named to the brand-new post of minister of postal reform, said Tuesday he will "keep talking" to Liberal Democratic Party politicians until he wins their support for privatization.
EDITORIALS
Sep 29, 2004

The road to 'sports citizenship'

The good news about Japanese professional baseball last week was that the players averted a second weekend strike following a last-minute agreement with management. A week earlier, an unprecedented walkout had been staged in protest against a merger deal between the Kintetsu Baffaloes and the Orix BlueWave...
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2004

Reform-oriented shuffle

Just as he indicated he would do before Monday's Cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi filled major party-executive posts and Cabinet posts with politicians loyal to his postal-reform policy. Prior to the naming of the new Cabinet lineup, Mr. Koizumi appointed Mr. Tsutomu Takebe, a former...
COMMENTARY
Sep 28, 2004

No sense of proportionality

I was intrigued by two recent U.S. antiwar movies -- Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 911," and "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara," directed by Errol Morris. The former denounces U.S. President George W. Bush's justification for the Iraq War; the latter is based on an interview...
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Sep 28, 2004

Japanese mega-stores blazing trails in a brave, new publishing world

The Japanese bookstore world used to be one of "If you put it out, it will sell." But that comfortable age is over. Seven straight years of declining book sales have killed off some 1,500 bookstores.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 27, 2004

Debating the life of a long-deceased poet

NEW YORK -- Inuhiko Yomota, one of the most well-read and prolific writers I know, was in town, and when I said I am working on a new book on the poet Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933), he told me that his friend, Masahiko Nishi, has written a book arguing that Miyazawa expressed strong anticolonialism through...
EDITORIALS
Sep 26, 2004

Google: mirror or lamp?

Google, the world's most popular search engine, hasn't even been around for a decade -- it was founded in 1998 -- yet it is already hard to remember life without it. It has its rivals, notably Yahoo, Microsoft, Ask Jeeves, which launched a test version in Japan last month, and now Amazon, whose fancy...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 26, 2004

Mourinho's method wins many games, not many friends

LONDON -- Returning from Chelsea's 3-0 Champions League win over Paris Saint-Germain in France last week this correspondent was the last passenger to leave the team's plane. A police officer at Gatwick Airport asked: "Did they win?"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 26, 2004

Kora Jazz Trio: "Kora Jazz Trio"

This trio of kora (African harp), piano and percussion must rank as the most unusual in jazz, African jazz and even African music. It's made up of three West African virtuosos who have each led successful careers of their own for several decades. Senegalese pianist Abdoulaye Diabate played with Salif...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 25, 2004

Joan Burk

This year, the Association of Foreign Wives of Japanese celebrates its 35th anniversary. Founder Joan Burk says she has a special bond with the unique organization. "I think of AFWJ as my baby," she wrote from her present home in Canada. "I will always be interested in everything about AFWJ and its members....

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?