Search - u_times

 
 
COMMENTARY
May 29, 2003

Change hasn't halted decline

LONDON -- I was invited recently to Japan to speak to two Japanese audiences about the Japanese economy as seen from London and what should be done to ensure Japanese economic recovery. I prepared a speech that was pessimistic. This was inevitable as British reporting on the Japanese economy is full...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 29, 2003

Best to remember this

A couple of years ago the British artist Damien Hirst explained why he now lays off alcohol: "Blackouts. I used never to get blackouts. . . . I was walking around in the morning, and they'd be going, 'You did this.' Did I? I couldn't even remember the violence."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 29, 2003

Targeting nature on a Texas shootout

Texas summons up images of cowboys and longhorn cattle, Western boots and horses, Stetsons, vast ranches, oil and gas -- and that Texan drawl.
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2003

Slander poses a greater danger than SARS itself

EDMONTON, Canada -- Outside of Asia, Toronto has been the city hardest hit by severe acute respiratory syndrome. Canadian Chinese living there, as well as Canadians of Japanese and Korean ethnic origin, have felt the chill of blame.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 28, 2003

Four Tet: "Rounds"

Whether through dewy-eyed computer-animation's marvels or Sony's Aibo, today's "digerati" yearn to simulate real life through hardware. The same goes for "laptop musicians," but few sound as warm and organic as the one-man band Four Tet, which is Kieran Hebden. Using extensive samples of instruments...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 28, 2003

An icon of her times

In the history of Russian icons, one image is pre-eminent as the most copied, most decorated and most adored: "Our Lady of Kazan."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / NOTES FROM THE SMOKE
May 27, 2003

Japan's cup, it runneth over

This week, Notes From the Smoke features a saucy deviation from the usual format.
COMMENTARY
May 26, 2003

High cost of the farm lobby

The outlook for the World Trade Organization's new round of trade negotiations is uncertain after member nations failed to agree on farm-trade "modality" before the March 31 deadline. The U.S.-European split over the Iraq war has slowed the momentum for talks. The initial goal of reaching a comprehensive...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 25, 2003

Kansai rides the onsen wave

It's a sunny Saturday afternoon, and Spa World in Osaka's Naniwa Ward is crowded with people of all ages drawn to its 16 different kinds of baths. True to its name, it's an onsen theme park with a global approach.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
May 25, 2003

Classic country without the hair spray

Neko (pronounced like Nico) Case certainly has the tresses to make it in Nashville. Her long luxurious auburn locks would need only a little coaxing and a lot of hair spray for a Loretta Lynn do.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 25, 2003

Anthropology through the lens

GUNMA: Life and People. by Greg Davis. Tokyo: IPJ, 2002, 107 pp., 5,000 yen (cloth). Greg Davis had lived in Japan since 1970, working as a photojournalist throughout Asia. His sudden death on May 4 of liver cancer at the age of 54 is a major loss to his profession and those whose lives he touched all...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 25, 2003

The boy bachelor

Last week, the National Tax Bureau released its annual list of the country's top tax-payers, and at the summit of the pile of show business personalities was Masahiro Nakai, the self-effacing leader of the boy group SMAP. Nakai's high salary is easy to understand: He appears in at least a half-dozen...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 25, 2003

The rise and fall of the Romanovs remembered

First of two parts At its height, in the middle of the 19th century, the Russian Empire ruled by the Romanovs covered more than one-sixth of the surface of the globe. It was a glorious era for a dynasty that had sprung from obscure beginnings, when in 1613, in a bid to end years of civil unrest at home...
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2003

Marooned Argentines trust in Kirchner

NEW YORK -- The election of Nestor Kirchner as Argentina's new president offers hope for a national economic and social recovery following decades of government mismanagement. Kirchner will need to back his intentions with prompt implementation of effective policies to convince Argentines that he will...
BUSINESS
May 23, 2003

Broadband mart seen growing fivefold in five years

The telecommunications ministry expects the value of the nation's broadband market to post a fivefold surge to 10.2 trillion yen over the next five years, according to a copy of a draft 2003 white paper made available Thursday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 23, 2003

Akebono lives life to the full

"It was," my dining companion recalls with a sigh, "a diet with just one purpose: to get you to put on weight."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 22, 2003

Katydid

* Japanese name: Sesuji tsuyumushi * Scientific name: Ducetia japonica * Description: Katydids (also known as bush crickets) belong to a family of grasshoppers and crickets called the Tettigoniidae. The insects in this family have very long antennae, like threads, sometimes two or three times the...
EDITORIALS
May 20, 2003

On the brink of another recession

Japan's economy appears on the brink of yet another recession -- the fourth in a decade. The nation's gross domestic product -- the total value of goods and services produced at home -- remained flat in real terms, not including price effects, in the first three months of the year, according to data...
BUSINESS
May 19, 2003

C&W IDC chief upbeat about prospects in Japan

Phil Green makes no bones about it: he's an optimist.
SUMO
May 19, 2003

Wakanosato upsets Chiyotaikai

Sekiwake Wakanosato upset ozeki Chiyotaikai on Sunday to give leader Asashoryu some breathing room in the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament.
COMMENTARY
May 18, 2003

Arms sales hinder S. Asian peace effort

ISLAMABAD -- U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage, concluding his visit to India and Pakistan, extended Washington's support for a new peace process between the two nuclear-armed neighbors without a direct role for the United States in settling the drawn out dispute over the divided Himalayan...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 18, 2003

Dusty wellspring of a 'cultural gem'

Chen Village's simple appearance belies something profound. This dusty hamlet of fewer than 3,000 people has had an impact on Chinese culture far out of proportion to its size, since this is where Taijiquan was born.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 18, 2003

Heavens above: a job from hell

Most reporters would have jumped at the assignment, with gusto.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 18, 2003

Living the papermaker's art

Tsutomu Kono's life is all wrapped up with washi, the handmade Japanese paper made of pure, natural fiber.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 18, 2003

Bees in the honey pot

In the nation's political epicenter -- Nagatacho, in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward -- cynics might be excused from regarding its most productive workers to be its honey bees.
COMMENTARY
May 17, 2003

Let Asia resolve the North Korean crisis

WASHINGTON -- The Iraq war is over, but the Korean Peninsula is growing hotter. Obvious disagreement over policy toward the North has clouded South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun's visit to the United States, while Washington's recent nuclear talks with North Korea ended in acrimony. U.S. President George...
COMMENTARY
May 17, 2003

Long march back to China

LOS ANGELES -- History is full of irony for former empires. Historians of East Asia have maintained for some time that it was the Japanese war of aggression in China in the 1930s and 1940s that eventually drove the Chinese people into the arms of the Chinese Communist Party. After that, the equally forceful...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 17, 2003

Defensive perfume: to use, just fling it

It was a bad Japan day. After a full day of teaching into the evening, the train was too crowded to find a seat on the way home, and just as I was taking up the old Japanese horse tradition (sleeping while standing), a drunk "salaryman" sidled up and accosted me with bad English for an entire 30 minutes....
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 16, 2003

Strachan looking to complete Southampton's transformation

LONDON -- To mull over a defeat the previous day when he was manager of Coventry City, Gordon Strachan went for a Sunday morning walk.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
May 15, 2003

Perspective often a casualty after a big win or loss

LOS ANGELES -- Experience testifies it's not a particularly good idea to get bent out of shape by either alarming defeats or elating victories.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji