Search - 2002

 
 
EDITORIALS
Aug 2, 2004

The alternative to Mr. Bush

U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president, is now officially embarked on what promises to be a close race for the White House. He made a good start at the party's national convention in Boston last week by pledging to restore "trust and credibility" to the presidency and rebuild Western...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 1, 2004

Atmospheres that transcend time

KAWASE HASUI: The Complete Woodblock Prints, by Kendall H. Brown, with essays by Amy Reigle Newland and Shoichiro Watanabe. Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, two volumes, 550 pp., 700 color illus., 2002, $265.00 (cloth). Kawase Hasui (1883-1957), sometimes deemed "the foremost 20th-century Japanese landscape...
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2004

Daiei rescue package calls for 300 billion yen

Struggling retail giant Daiei Inc. has worked out a new three-year rehabilitation package, including 300 billion yen in financial aid from three creditor banks, sources close to the plan said Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Jul 31, 2004

Winning battles, losing wars

The war against terror has forced governments to rethink national security. Protecting against invisible, anonymous threats requires extraordinary vigilance and exceptional measures. Ultimately, victory in this battle will rest on a broad consensus on what we are fighting for; only then can governments...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2004

Hashimoto to quit faction over shady dental donation

Former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto said Friday that he will resign as chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's largest faction because of a political donation scandal.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 31, 2004

Nepal's political woes have India worried

MADRAS, India -- There is growing concern about the state of political affairs in Nepal, where a Maoist insurgency is festering. Earlier this month, incidents in the royal household affirmed that not all was well between King Gyanendra and his son, Crown Prince Paras. Paras has been a headache for Gyanendra...
BUSINESS
Jul 31, 2004

Maxvalu share value up on debut on Tokyo bourse

Regional supermarket chain Maxvalu Tokai Co. fetched an initial price of 3,170 yen when it debuted Friday on the second section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, seven years after the collapse of its predecessor, Yaohan Co.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2004

Abductee update 'should precede talks'

Japan should not resume normalization talks with North Korea until Pyongyang issues a fresh report on the fate of 10 missing Japanese, Cabinet Secretariat adviser Kyoto Nakayama suggested Thursday.
COMMENTARY
Jul 30, 2004

Drawing the line with China

NEW DELHI -- India and China have held regular border-related negotiations since 1981 in the longest such process between two nations since the end of World War II. Yet, after 23 years of negotiations, the two Asian giants have not achieved the bare minimum -- a mutually defined line of control separating...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2004

Another round of warrants served in dental group scandal

Tokyo prosecutors served a fresh arrest warrant Wednesday on a former Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker suspected of buying votes with money from a scandal-tainted dentists' association before November's House of Representatives election.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2004

Accused deserter Jenkins reassigned to the U.S. forces based in Japan

The United States has reassigned accused U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins to the U.S. forces based in Japan from South Korea, where he was posted when he apparently defected to North Korea in 1965, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2004

Migrants' remittances home exceed ODA

Elisa Rey puts a wad of yen into a small, brown envelope at her home. Far away in Peru, her monthly remittances -- set aside from her job in an electronics factory south of Tokyo -- have already built a house that few could dream of in her poor suburb of Lima.
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2004

Aozora to boost overseas operations

Aozora Bank, the privatized successor of the nationalized Nippon Credit Bank, plans to expand lending and investing operations in foreign markets, mainly the United States and Europe, an Aozora Bank official said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2004

Accused deserter Jenkins reassigned to the U.S. forces based in Japan

The United States has reassigned accused U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins to the U.S. forces based in Japan from South Korea, where he was posted when he apparently defected to North Korea in 1965, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2004

Pyongyang wanted to lure Soga back, says Jenkins

North Korea wanted to use a planned reunion in Beijing between Charles Jenkins and his wife, repatriated abductee Hitomi Soga, to lure Soga back to Pyongyang, Jenkins has reportedly told Japanese officials.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2004

Mob figure owns up to overseeing loan-sharking enterprise

A mob figure accused of masterminding one of the nation's most extensive loan-sharking rings pleaded guilty Monday before the Tokyo District Court.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2004

Japanese director takes on Broadway

Japanese director Amon Miyamoto will bring the U.S. musical "Pacific Overtures" to Broadway on Nov. 12, becoming the first Japanese director to take on the Great White Way.
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2004

Like NTT phone fee, line brokers face extinction

Kanji in the window of a three-story building near JR Okachimachi Station in central Tokyo advertise "denwa tokubai" (discounted telephone lines).
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2004

U.S. relatives claim officials blocked visit for fear of complicating case

Family members of accused U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins said they were barred from seeing him in a Tokyo hospital because U.S. and Japanese officials want to settle the matter of the former sergeant quickly, possibly through a plea bargain.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 25, 2004

Cashing in on ideas

Thomas Edison's electricity, Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, the Wright Brothers' creaky biplane, H.G. Wells' time machine (OK, that last one hasn't happened yet), but through these world-changing discoveries, our daily lives have been made easier. Flick a switch and light banishes the darkness, pick...
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2004

Illegal foreign labor worries Japanese

More than 70 percent of Japanese are worried that an increase in the number of illegally employed foreign workers could undermine public safety and result in human rights abuses against the workers themselves, according to a government survey released Saturday.
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2004

Inmate dies after choking on meal

A man waiting on death row for killing three people in 1988 died this week after choking on his meal, sources said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Jul 24, 2004

Use and abuse of intelligence

Two official reports come to disturbing conclusions about intelligence failures in the United States and Great Britain. Both identify systemic flaws in the collection and analysis of critical intelligence that resulted in the invasion of Iraq. There is much to learn from these episodes, but the most...

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