Search - 2003

 
 
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2004

Koizumi faces heavy APEC weekend

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi left Friday for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Chile, where he will have to juggle a wide range of diplomatic issues that span the Pacific.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2004

Asbestos use still widespread in Asia, as are its ills: expert

Asia needs to ban the use of asbestos and conduct studies on people who have become ill from exposure or asbestos-related diseases will never end, according to a specialist.
BUSINESS
Nov 19, 2004

Sanrio to issue BTM 20 billion yen in new shares

Sanrio Co. said Thursday it will issue about 20 billion yen worth of new shares to Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and other firms to prop up its capital base.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2004

Derailment mars shinkansen safety myth

Reverberations from the bullet train derailment in Niigata Prefecture on Oct. 23 continue to echo across Japan, as experts debate whether it was luck or skill that saved the day for the passengers roughed up by the series of strong earthquakes.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2004

Bribery nets ex-dental exec suspended term

The Tokyo District Court sentenced a former executive of the scandal-tainted Japan Dental Association to a suspended one-year prison term Thursday for bribing members of a government panel.
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Nov 18, 2004

The right way to teach values in school

How do you teach a child right from wrong? I certainly don't have all the answers. In our home, we're still working on why you can't hit your brother, even when he's being deliberately annoying -- as he has been all this week, answering any direct question with nonsense ("What do you want for dinner?"...
BUSINESS
Nov 18, 2004

Inpex fetches 549,000 yen in debut on first section

Inpex Corp., a government-affiliated oil exploration company, proved popular in its debut Wednesday on the first section of Tokyo Stock Exchange, ending the day at 549,000 yen, 18.1 percent higher than its initial public offering price of 465,000 yen.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 18, 2004

Tabuse a national team candidate

Phoenix Suns point guard Yuta Tabuse will be named to the list of candidates for the men's basketball national team next year, Japan head coach Zeljko Pavlicevic said Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 17, 2004

A new world order in a school gym

British sculptor Antony Gormley (born in London in 1950) is one of the foremost sculptors of his generation. A winner of the Turner Prize in 1994, Gormley is a conceptual artist working in a physical medium: He revitalized the sculptural vocabulary of the human form to articulate the universal abstract...
BUSINESS
Nov 17, 2004

U.S. steel company drawing a bead on Mitsui Mining

International Steel Group Inc., the second-largest U.S. steelmaker, has notified the Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan of its interest in buying Mitsui Mining Co., sources said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 17, 2004

Satire booms in dark dramatic fantasies

Darwin tells us that mutation is the motor of evolution, and in the theater world the young playwright Martin McDonagh and the dramatist Matsuo Suzuki are each bringing a completely new approach to their art in Britain and Japan respectively.
BUSINESS
Nov 17, 2004

Economy 'taking a breather'

The government has revised its assessment of the economy downward for the first time since June 2003, citing slowdowns in exports and production, according to a monthly report issued Tuesday.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 17, 2004

Mound relief almost backfired for MLB pitchers

The visiting Major League Baseball All-Stars left Japan Nov. 14 with a 5-3 series victory over their All-Japan opponents but, ironically, a change in the pitching mounds designed to help the big leaguers for the final three games of the tour almost resulted in disaster for the visitors. Let me explain....
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2004

Danish Queen Margrethe arrives for visit

Danish Queen Margrethe will help kick off celebrations marking next year's bicentennial of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen, the Danish fairy tale writer, during an eight-day visit to Japan that began Monday.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2004

Princess Nori to marry Tokyo metro bureaucrat

Princess Nori, the only daughter of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, will marry Yoshiki Kuroda, an official in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, a senior Imperial Household Agency official said Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 14, 2004

'Dirty bomb' threat rising

SYDNEY -- The day terrorists start blackmailing democratic governments with homemade "dirty bombs" is closer than people think. World leaders must act now to prevent such a demonstrable nuclear catastrophe.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 14, 2004

Strategy maximizes Iraqi civilian deaths

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The stunning revelations that postinvasion Iraqi deaths are three to 10 times higher than any previous estimates will be a major embarrassment for the Bush administration.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 13, 2004

Jol hoping to put a foot in Tottenham's revolving door

LONDON -- Tottenham Hotspur appointed a new man to take charge of the first-team this week -- so, no change there then.
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2004

Lawyers go after reformist debt collector

An American businessman who tried to improve the way debts are collected in Japan from the oft yakuza-linked intimidation route was arrested last week amid growing pressure by lawyer groups to crack down on unauthorized parties encroaching on their turf.
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2004

Chinese submarine intrusion considered an act of provocation

The Defense Agency said Friday the intrusion of a Chinese submarine into Japan's territorial waters was a highly provocative act by the Chinese Navy.
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2004

Mob boss ordered to compensate victims' kin

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the head of the nation's largest crime syndicate to pay damages to the family of a police officer who was gunned down by members of an affiliated gang.
JAPAN / BY THE NUMBERS
Nov 12, 2004

Credit card firms face one cold foe: hard cash

One credit card offers miles and points for clothes purchases. Another beckons with travel insurance and discounts at movie theaters and fancy restaurants.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2004

Yokota base joint-use plan irks residents

Ryuzo Fukumoto's house shakes and a roar can be heard overhead around 40 times a day on average -- sometimes even at night.
EDITORIALS
Nov 11, 2004

Rationale for a carbon tax

Thanks to Russia's ratification, the Kyoto Protocol on global warming is set to take effect in February. The treaty requires industrially developed nations to cut their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by specified degrees from 1990 levels in five years from 2008 to 2012. Japan...
BUSINESS
Nov 11, 2004

EBC upset over bill to ban prepaid cell phones

The European Business Community in Japan on Wednesday criticized a plan by Japan's governing coalition to present a bill to the Diet, possibly during the current session, to ban the use and sale of prepaid mobile phones on grounds that they are often used in crimes.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes