Search - 2002

 
 
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2004

Crackdown has publishers running scared

Yasunori Okadome last month suspended publication of his profitable monthly gossip magazine Uwasa-no-shinso (The Truth Behind Rumors), due to fears that a lawsuit could put him out of business for good.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Apr 3, 2004

F.A. gives Eriksson new deal, but how long will he stay?

LONDON -- "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him."
BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2004

Senior executive of MMC leaves firm under a cloud

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Friday that Steven Torok, executive vice president in charge of overseas sales, left the company the same day to return to the Chrysler Group.
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2004

Drug offender to serve rest of term in U.K.

Japan will for the first time allow a foreign prisoner to serve the remainder of a sentence in the inmate's home country, Justice Minister Daizo Nozawa said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2004

Hirasawa exits post over secret talks with Pyongyang

Katsuei Hirasawa, parliamentary secretary to the home affairs ministry, resigned that post after drawing flak for a secret trip he made to China to apparently hold talks with North Korean officials about resolving the abduction issue, the ministry said Friday.
OLYMPICS
Apr 2, 2004

JOC angered over domestic row

responded negatively Thursday to sending taekwondo fighter Yoriko Okamoto to the Athens Olympics after rival domestic bodies administering the sport failed to form an umbrella organization by the deadline. Last month, the JOC said it will allow the participation of no athletes in taekwondo at this summer's...
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2004

Casio, Hitachi launch belated mobile venture

Casio Computer Co. and Hitachi Ltd. launched a mobile-phone joint venture Thursday in another marriage between high-tech heavyweights pursuing cost effectiveness in a cutthroat market.
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2004

Nintendo trims earnings estimate

Nintendo Co. said Thursday it has revised downward its fiscal 2003 earnings estimates because it suffered a larger-than-expected 68 billion yen exchange loss due to the yen's appreciation against the dollar.
EDITORIALS
Apr 2, 2004

Lessons from the Okamoto case

The Tokyo High Court earlier this week rejected a U.S. request to extradite a medical researcher to face charges of industrial espionage in the United States. The court ruled that Mr. Takashi Okamoto, a former employee of the Japanese government-affiliated Institute of Physical and Chemical Research,...
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 1, 2004

Agreement expected on World Cup tourney

Baseball's chief labor negotiator expects an agreement soon with the players' association on a World Cup tournament, putting aside for now the larger issue of drug tests during the regular season.
BUSINESS
Apr 1, 2004

Banks get backing on insurance product sales

The Financial Services Agency said Wednesday it will allow banks to sell all types of insurance products within three years.
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 1, 2004

Matsui rips homer as Yanks win

Now that's more like it. A day after dropping the season opener to A.L. East doormat Tampa Bay, Hideki Matsui and the Bronx Bombers came out with all guns blazing, bashing out 11 hits and four homers as the New York Yankees demolished the Devil Rays 12-1 Wednesday night at Tokyo Dome.
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2004

High court rescinds weekly's injunction

The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday revoked a lower court injunction against the publication of a magazine that carried a story on the divorce of former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka's daughter, citing freedom of expression and the public's right to know.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2004

Kids to learn about North Korea abductions, Sept. 11 attacks

The abduction of Japanese nationals to North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States have been included for the first time in elementary school textbooks.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2004

Court rejects U.S. request for extradition in industrial spy case

The Tokyo High Court on Monday turned down a request to extradite a researcher to the United States to stand trial on industrial espionage charges, marking Japan's first rejection of an extradition request from American authorities.
Japan Times
JAPAN / SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT
Mar 30, 2004

Universities face brave new world of autonomy, competition

The academic year that begins Thursday will mark a new era for national universities, which will be cut loose from the fetters of the education ministry and gain independent administrative institution status.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2004

GSDF inaugurates undercover antiterrorist squad

A special operations unit debuted Monday in the Ground Self-Defense Force in response to growing fears of terrorism and guerrilla attacks on Japan.
BUSINESS
Mar 30, 2004

Nissan begins leasing fuel-cell vehicles

Nissan Motor Co. began leasing the X-Trail FCV fuel-cell vehicle on Monday, following rivals Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. to promote the commercial use of environmentally friendly cars.
BUSINESS
Mar 29, 2004

Organic EL displays creep closer to reality

At an exhibition at Makuhari Messe in Chiba in 2002, a crowd at the Sanyo Electric booth gawked as they were treated to a demonstration of a trial version of an organic electroluminescent (EL) display, the first time such a panel had ever been shown to the public.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Mar 29, 2004

Fear and loathing in the U.S. workplace

NEW YORK -- A friend wrote to say that a professor both of us know was summarily fired on charges of sexual harassment. Not long afterward it was found that the accusation had no basis, but by then it was too late. Our friend had moved out of the region with his family.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2004

40% worried domestic security is waning

Nearly 40 percent of people responding to a survey said they feel that security in Japan is deteriorating, the government said Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 28, 2004

History behind a rocky democracy

INDONESIAN DESTINIES, by Theodore Friend. Cambridge: Belknap/Harvard University Press, 2003, 628 pp., $35 (cloth). INDONESIA: People and Histories, by Jean Gelman Taylor. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003, 420 pp., $39.95 (cloth). These two books complement each other nicely and contribute greatly...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 28, 2004

Filling in the template for a changing Cambodia

CAMBODIA, by Michael Freeman. London: Reaktion Books, 2004, 198 pp., 43 color photographs, £19.95 (paper). With Angkor as its capital, the Khmer empire ruled over what is now central and southern Vietnam, southern Laos, Thailand and part of the Malay Peninsula. Now dwindled to Cambodia, Angkor's colossal...
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2004

Kepco inks accord with COGEMA on MOX supply

OSAKA -- Kansai Electric Power Co. reached an agreement Friday with COGEMA, France's state-owned nuclear fuel reprocessing company, to sign a contract possibly this summer for manufacturing mixed oxide-uranium fuel.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2004

Asylum-seeker prefers death before detention

An Afghan asylum-seeker suffering depression and posttraumatic stress disorder tried to kill himself last week while being moved from a hospital in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, to a detention facility, it was learned Friday.
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2004

Deflation maintained grip on Tokyo in fiscal '03

A key gauge of consumer prices in Tokyo edged down 0.3 percent in fiscal 2003 for the fifth straight annual decline.

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