Search - international-reports

 
 
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2002

Osaka seminar clarifies provisions of U.N. crime convention

OSAKA -- Twenty-one nations from around Asia concluded a two-day seminar here Friday in which they learned from experts about the specific provisions of the United Nations Transnational Organized Crime Convention.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 18, 2002

There's two sides to every story . . .

Despite his ubiquity in the media, the comedian Beat Takeshi is never asked to appear on NHK's sogo (general) channel, which is why his one-minute appearance last New Year's Eve on NHK's annual song contest received a lot of media attention. Considering that other popular comedians are also conspicuously...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 11, 2002

Days of the dead: O-bon and the ghosts of Japan

It's that time of year again. The whole of Japan seems to be on the move as people head to their hometowns for the mid-August O-bon festival. And it's not just the living who make travel plans this month. O-bon is the Buddhist holiday when the spirits of the dead are believed to visit the homes of their...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 6, 2002

Tussling over a stolen treasure

ATHENS -- In 1801, Thomas Bruce, the seventh Earl of Elgin and British ambassador to Constantinople, hit upon what he considered a splendid idea.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 27, 2002

Gov. Davis goes where Bush fears to tread

LIMASSOL, Cyprus -- A remarkable event occurred this week in California -- one that should cheer environmentalists around the world who were angered by the Bush administration's rejection of the Kyoto treaty on global warming.
EDITORIALS
Jun 23, 2002

What's 'Onion' in Chinese

You have to feel a little sorry for those fellows over at the Beijing Evening News. Here they are a global laughingstock, and they still don't get why. But was it altogether their fault? Those of us who have tried and failed to comprehend humor, let alone satire, in a foreign language are privately thinking,...
COMMUNITY
Jun 9, 2002

Seeing Japan from top to bottom

We both confess to complete and utter madness, but we've been having a whale of a time -- and not only down in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, where the International Whaling Commission had its recent roughhouse, and where we completely pigged out on kujira no niku (whale meat) before heading on to...
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2002

Fukuda tells Diet government is not rethinking ban on nuclear weapons

The government has no intention of abandoning the nation's three nonnuclear principles, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a Diet panel Wednesday, five days after causing an uproar by saying Japan's ban on atomic weapons could be reviewed.
COMMENTARY
Jun 4, 2002

Wake-up call on diplomacy

Shenyang, in northeast China, is a city of historical significance for both Japan and China. Formerly known as Mukden, it was the last battlefield in the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War. Imperial Japan, emerging as a modern power after the Meiji Restoration, won a do-or-die war with imperial Russia, which...
COMMENTARY
Jun 1, 2002

No easy answers for China as refugee problem grows

HONG KONG -- There was biting irony behind the episode of the five North Koreans' seeking asylum at the Japanese Consulate in Shenyang, China, as well as the lingering diplomatic Sino-Japanese impasse over whether China infringed on Japanese sovereignty by taking the North Koreans into custody.
COMMUNITY
May 9, 2002

Zeitgist

The foreigner needs only two words to bridge the language gap in Japan, says Matt Shea.
EDITORIALS
May 4, 2002

The general wins his vote

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has won overwhelming endorsement for five more years in office. The government claims that the vote gives the regime, which seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, a democratic stamp of approval. It does not: The election offers a veneer of legitimacy to a usurper....
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
May 2, 2002

The life and times of a Manchurian girl

NEW YORK -- The New York Times' recent reprinting of a cartoon showing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat gagged and bound to a chair while Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presses him to "say something! do something!" made me think of Rikoran, known today mainly as Yoshiko Yamaguchi.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2002

Le Pen's shocking win shakes France to the core

PARIS -- France's presidential election system is meant to ensure both a maximum of democracy and the emergence of a strong national leadership at the end of the two rounds of voting. That was the model set by Gen. Charles de Gaulle when he established the Fifth Republic four decades ago.
BUSINESS
Apr 22, 2002

Japan's deflation a puzzling issue for Europeans

BRUSSELS -- Viewed from Europe, there are some signs that the Japanese economy might be starting to emerge from its 10-year slumber, but it remains essential that Tokyo focus on far-reaching structural reforms and antideflation measures rather than short-term policy lurches if the economy is to avoid...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 21, 2002

A force to be reckoned with

THE JAPANESE POLICE SYSTEM TODAY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY by L. Craig Parker, Jr.. London: M.E.Sharpe, 2001. 266 pp., $22.95 (paper) The Japanese police system has come under increasing pressure in recent years. Crimes have become more horrific, and the high level of professionalism generally ascribed to...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 21, 2002

And don't come back another day

ARTHRITIC JAPAN: The Slow Pace of Economic Reform, by Edward J. Lincoln. Washington, D.C.:Brookings Institution Press, 2001, 247 pp., $18.95 (paper) Japan's agonizingly slow attempts to resuscitate its ailing economy have left many observers bewildered. The policy failure is plain: the lowest growth...
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2002

Tokyo-Seoul history panel holds first meeting

A Japan-South Korea panel tasked with selecting members for and supporting the activities of a planned joint history research committee held its first meeting Monday afternoon in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2002

Obituaries: Keizo Takahashi and Hideki Nakazono

Keizo Takahashi, a former popular announcer at NHK and ex-member of the House of Councilors, died Thursday night of kidney failure at a hospital in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, his family said Friday. He was 83.
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2002

FSA's bank probe sparks downgrades for large borrowers

The Financial Services Agency on Friday officially disclosed the results of its latest inspections of major banks, downgrading credit assessments of 71 of the banks' 149 large corporate borrowers.
COMMUNITY
Mar 24, 2002

Living national treasures

Three is an auspicious number. Things grouped in threes are believed to acquire prestige by virtue of the number's magic. Likewise, a ritual action repeated three times is considered to bring good luck.
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2002

U.S. airlines set to switch Narita slots

Transport minister Chikage Ogi indicated Friday that Japan will allow Delta Air Lines to transfer some of its slots to FedEx Corp. at Narita airport, as the United States has requested.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 17, 2002

The global village: small, but not always beautiful

The current No. 1 best seller in Japan is the cheery picture book "Sekai ga moshi hyakunin no mura dattara" ("If the World Were a Village of 100 People"; Magazine House), a retelling of a bit of "Netlore." Several years ago, the environmentalist Donella Meadows wrote a newspaper column on the global...
BUSINESS
Feb 23, 2002

Japan Metals throws in towel, seeks protection from creditors

Japan Metals & Chemicals Co., the nation's top ferroalloy manufacturer, on Friday afternoon stopped trying to rehabilitate itself and filed for court protection from creditors.
EDITORIALS
Feb 22, 2002

His own worst enemy

There are many reasons to object to U.S. President George W. Bush's "axis of evil" comment in his State of the Union address last month. Including Iran in this unholy triumvirate may be the most troubling, since it could undermine elements in that country that have been trying to move Tehran toward some...
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2002

Find something worth saying, then build skills: translator

Natsuko Toda, a leading writer of Japanese subtitles for English-language movies, said Wednesday that Japanese people should learn how to be more expressive in their own language before worrying about learning English.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Feb 18, 2002

Hopeful bond sellers should strike while the iron is hot

Long-term interest rates are on an upward trend both in Japan and the United States. The yield on the 10-year Japanese government bond has recently been in the 1.5 percent range, while market rates on 10-year U.S. government bonds have been hovering at around 5 percent — the same as at the beginning...
COMMUNITY
Feb 9, 2002

Chef's Table event to aid street children projects

Karen Lewis is wary of placing herself in the spotlight. She is part of a team -- a committee -- so finds it embarrassing to be singled out. There again, she recognizes that publicity is good for the cause she serves: protecting and caring for street children in seven facilities in the Philippines, Vietnam,...

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami