Search - 2002

 
 
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2003

Maintaining diversity said key to building Asian bloc

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Japan will try to value Asia's diversity in a bid to create an East Asian Community.
BUSINESS / FRONT-RUNNERS
Dec 9, 2003

Purifier firm had rough patch but overall well-oiled

After facing bankruptcy less than five years ago, Sanmi Corp. has fought back to become the nation's leading producer of oil purifiers for power plants and home appliance companies, according to its president, Hisayoshi Tamaru.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2003

Panel seeks better treatment for inmates

An advisory panel to the justice minister will call on the government to improve correctional policies, and medical and human rights conditions inside prisons, according to a draft proposal unveiled Monday.
BUSINESS
Dec 9, 2003

Keidanren chief willing to stay on

Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), expressed willingness Monday to continue serving in the post beyond the end of his two-year term in May.
EDITORIALS
Dec 8, 2003

A disquieting waste of money

A national audit report makes for dismal reading, since it is always a reminder of waste in government. So it is with the latest report, which says that government offices and agencies "mismanaged" about 45 billion yen in 2002 -- the largest amount in 20 years. That is particularly disquieting at a time...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 7, 2003

Traditions of fiction that can liberate and stifle

VIRTUAL LOTUS: Modern Fiction of Southeast Asia, edited by Teri Schaffer Yamada. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2002, 332 pp., $29.95 (paper). Though novels are not unknown in Southeast Asia, it is the short-story form that has been chosen here to represent the area. Neither novels nor...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 7, 2003

Woman for the world

Back in 1957, a young woman of 23 with few qualifications, and little to sustain her but her courage and some money saved from waitressing, set off from her native England in pursuit of her dream to live and work for wildlife.
EDITORIALS
Dec 6, 2003

Go slow on troop relocation

The United States, in an attempt to realign its military forces abroad, is planning to relocate its troops in South Korea. However, talks between the two countries do not appear to be going smoothly. A recent meeting in Seoul between U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and South Korean Defense...
COMMUNITY
Dec 6, 2003

Folktales of days gone by fly off the gallery walls

There is so much energy bouncing around Ginza's Gallery Yougen that just to step inside is uplifting. There are the images on the walls -- 17 woodcut prints created to illustrate the book "Tales of Days Gone By," stories selected from 1,000 folktales compiled in the 12th century for the classic literary...
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2003

Tokushima inn warned for barring blind with guide dogs

The Justice Ministry's local chapter in Tokushima Prefecture issued a warning Thursday to a semipublic hot spring hotel in Ichiba for its refusal to allow two blind people to stay there with their guide dogs last month.
EDITORIALS
Dec 5, 2003

Wiretap charges clip highflier

Takefuji Corp., Japan's largest consumer finance company, is at the center of an unfolding wiretap scandal. Earlier this week, the Metropolitan Police Department arrested the company's founding chairman, Mr. Yasuo Takei, on charges of ordering his employees to wiretap a freelance journalist who had criticized...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Dec 4, 2003

Alarm mars a runaway success story for salmon

In October, I spent some time in Vancouver. I have grown-up children there, as well as grandchildren and a lot of old friends, most of whom I met while working for the Environmental Protection Service. Even though I left Canada in 1978 to come to Japan and pursue the often dubious course of a writer,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2003

Balanced diet eludes kids of junk food age

Getting kids to eat their vegetables is not easy. And in fast-paced urban Japan, where both parents usually work and the landscape is dominated by convenience stores overflowing with junk food, the chore is ever more difficult.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 3, 2003

In between art and life

"Gokann," the umbrella name given to three exhibitions of contemporary Finnish art now showing in Kyoto, is an accommodating term. The Japanese title was chosen for its multiplicity of meanings, all derived from typing in "g-o-k-a-n-n" on a computer then pressing the kanji-convert key. Those varied meanings...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2003

Takefuji wiretapping scandal unfolds

More than a year after journalist Shunsuke Yamaoka first accused Takefuji Corp. of tapping his home phone, police have finally reached the top echelons of the country's leading consumer loan firm.
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2003

High court for intellectual property considered

The government is studying the creation of a high court devoted exclusively to creations of the mind.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 2, 2003

Could fear derail bold tourism bid?

There's a great irony in the Japanese government's "action plan" to double the the number of tourists who come to these shores by 2010.
BUSINESS
Dec 2, 2003

Jittery JT to launch six new products next month

Japan Tobacco Inc. said Monday it will launch six new cigarette products simultaneously early next month in a bid to sustain revenue amid a rapidly shrinking market.
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2003

Crime rate sees a slight decrease

The number of reported crimes nationwide has edged down after seven consecutive years of record highs, National Police Agency chief Hidehiko Sato said Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2003

Kimpo, Haneda shuttles take off

Japanese and South Korean airlines began shuttle flights Sunday between Tokyo's Haneda airport and Seoul's Kimpo in a bid to boost tourism and exchanges between the two capitals.
BUSINESS
Dec 1, 2003

Amino sports drinks gaining strength

Reflecting higher health consciousness and an ever-rising number of fitness enthusiasts, sports drinks containing amino acids are continuing to enjoy brisk sales in Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 30, 2003

all systems GO!

In the game of go, there are no cards, no dice, no tricky moves like chess or complicated formulas to remember as there are in poker or mah jongg. And though in principle the game is simplicity itself, go is in a mathematical stratosphere all of its own.

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