Search - 2002

 
 
SOCCER / J. League
Apr 22, 2005

Manchester United to play Kashima, Urawa

English Premier League club Manchester United will play Kashima Antlers and Urawa Reds on a preseason tour of Japan this summer, officials of the J. League clubs said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Apr 22, 2005

Japan settles for 'low-risk, low-return' FTA goals

Prudish about bilateral free-trade agreements just five years ago, Tokyo is now fielding partnership requests from 25 economies and regional blocs.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 2005

DVD rivals hope to unify standard by end of month

Corporate groups led by Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. are mulling joint development of a unified standard for next-generation DVDs, sources said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2005

Narita to extend runway, but which way?

The transport ministry is in a dilemma over whether to extend Narita International Airport's "interim" second runway northward or pursue its original southward plan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 20, 2005

'S wonderful: Wiling away the time with Caetano Veloso

Caetano is here. Caetano Veloso. The man who has been hailed for decades in his native Brazil as a singer, composer, poet and revolutionary, and commonly celebrated abroad as the 'Bob Dylan of Brazil,' despite his dislike for such labels.
COMMENTARY
Apr 18, 2005

Japan, China wasting time

Recent mass anti-Japanese protests in Chinese cities have plunged Sino-Japanese relations to their lowest since diplomatic ties were normalized in 1972. Stones thrown by demonstrators damaged the Japanese Embassy in Beijing on April 9. Japanese-owned businesses in other cities were likewise attacked,...
SOCCER / J. League
Apr 15, 2005

Juventus to tour Japan this summer

Italian side Juventus will face J. League champion Yokohama F. Marinos and FC Tokyo in a tour of Japan this summer, organizers said Thursday.
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2005

Mishaps keep JAL on ministry watch

The transport ministry said Thursday it will subject the Japan Airlines Group to special safety inspections through the end of the year, following a spate of safety-related problems involving the nation's largest carrier.
BUSINESS
Apr 15, 2005

Toyota boosts car wireless service

Toyota Motor Corp. on Thursday announced a beefed up wireless system for cars that can call an ambulance when an air bag opens, play thousands of karaoke tunes and send a mobile-phone message when a car door is left unlocked.
EDITORIALS
Apr 14, 2005

A victory for human rights

The decision by the United Nations Security Council to send war-crimes suspects from the Darfur region of Sudan to the new International Criminal Court (ICC) is an important victory for human rights. Even the United States, which has been implacable in its opposition to the ICC, agreed to the final resolution....
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 14, 2005

Righting past humiliations

SINGAPORE -- China, South Korea and Indonesia have seen a rise of nationalism commensurate with their increasing economic confidence. The rise in national- ism can also be traced to historical humiliations suffered by China and South Korea a century or more ago, and to Indonesia's ordeal in the Asian...
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2005

Kin sue to have woman recognized as abductee

The family of a Chiba Prefecture woman who has been missing for more than 30 years filed a lawsuit against the state Wednesday, demanding that she be officially recognized as having been abducted to North Korea.
BUSINESS
Apr 14, 2005

Lawson, FamilyMart post robust growth in earnings

Lawson Inc. said Wednesday its net profit for the year that ended in February rose 10 percent to a record 20.44 billion yen, buoyed by strong sales and aggressive store-openings.
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2005

Woman's long-lost brother confirmed in Russia

A DNA test has confirmed that a Japanese man who had stayed on on Sakhalin after the Soviet Union took control of the island at the end of World War II is the elder brother of a Hokkaido woman, the health ministry said Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Apr 11, 2005

Intellectual property disputes

Japan's efforts to bolster the legal system for protecting intellectual property (IP) rights reached a major milestone with the recent establishment of the Intellectual Property High Court. The new court, which is housed in the same building as the Tokyo High Court, will handle a broad range of disputes...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 10, 2005

An English waking of 'Winter Sleep'

WINTER SLEEP, by Kenzo Kitakata. Vertical, 2005, 282 pp., $14.95 (paper). In a recent article for the Society of Writers, Editors and Translators, D. Patrick Dimick has defined the great trade deficit in literary translation between Japanese and other languages: "In 2002 the ratio of foreign books translated...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2005

Prolific director Nomura of 'Castle of Sand' fame dead at 85

Movie director Yoshitaro Nomura, whose 1974 suspense thriller "Castle of Sand" ("Suna no Utsuwa") has been ranked by critics as one of the country's best films ever, died Friday at 85.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2005

Palestinian struggle: reality vs. rhetoric

DOHA, Qatar -- No other national struggle in the world has assimilated itself, or has been inadvertently assimilated, to symbolize so many things to different people as has the Palestinian struggle. And yet, despite the intricate layers of sense and understanding that have sought to encapsulate the Palestinian...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2005

Prime minister's new quarters a step up

Built more than 70 years ago, it had only three rooms for private use that get little sunshine and was inhabited by mites and cockroaches. A previous occupant had been assassinated there.
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2005

City off hook over bathhouse barring of foreigners

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an appeal by a naturalized Japanese seeking damages from a city government in Hokkaido in connection with a bathhouse's policy of barring foreigners from the facility.
EDITORIALS
Apr 6, 2005

Dying in peace with dignity

The death of Terri Schiavo has focused attention on euthanasia. With her feeding tube removed, the 41-year-old American woman died in Florida last week after 15 years of living in a "vegetative state." The long and bitter dispute, in and out of court, that continued through her last days suggest the...
JAPAN
Apr 5, 2005

Four music firms deny forming ring-song cartel

Inc. and three other major record and music software companies have denied to the Fair Trade Commission that they are blocking other firms from entering the new "ring-song" mobile phone business, company officials said Monday. Sony Music issued a statement denying the FTC's allegation. Avex Network Inc.,...
JAPAN
Apr 5, 2005

Koizumi meets Gadhafi's second son

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi met with the second son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Monday and pledged to support Libya's economic reforms after its 2003 decision to scrap its weapons of mass destruction.
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2005

Ex-Defense Agency engineer suspected of leaking sub info

Police have questioned a former senior Defense Agency engineering officer and searched his home on suspicion he gave copies of confidential submarine documents to an acquaintance who may have leaked the information to China, according to informed sources.

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