Search - world

 
 
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2001

Yen hits 17-month low on fears that economy is losing steam

The yen has come under fresh downward pressure on world currency markets amid lingering worries about the flagging Japanese economy.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 6, 2001

The movie's the thing

Who do you think you are, the Prince of Denmark? Such is the complaint I'd like to lodge with wordy, lordly, self-obsessed people whose introverted grievances often manifest themselves in extroverted acts of harm. Hamlet had always struck me as a curious choice for a hero. It's true he gave some great...
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2001

'Anime' invade Akihabara's electronics monopoly

The Akihabara district of Tokyo appears to be changing in response to the increasing number of discount computer shops, previously a district mainstay, that have opened in other areas. Considering Electric Town's old reputation as a testing ground for new products, some say the future lies in "otaku."...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 6, 2001

Gentility of famed Wedgwood

Despite fears that England is increasingly becoming an unpleasant and vulgar country with an antisocial yob culture, internationally it is still blessed with an image of civilized gentility.
EDITORIALS
Jan 5, 2001

Familiar faces in Washington

President-elect George W. Bush has completed his Cabinet nominations. He has assembled a diverse group that has ample experience in Washington and in dealing with the bureaucracy. They are competent, capable and conservative. Taken as a whole, however, the group raises questions about Mr. Bush's claim...
BUSINESS
Jan 5, 2001

Top broker plans seminars for undergraduates in Hyogo

Nomura Securities Co. will offer securities business seminars at Kwansei Gakuin University in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, starting in April.
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2001

New Year travelers swamp Kansai and Narita airports

Japan's two major international airports -- Narita in Chiba Prefecture and Kansai in Osaka Prefecture -- were strained to capacity Thursday as travelers returned home from New Year's vacations abroad, airport officials said.
JAPAN / STAGING A COMEBACK
Jan 4, 2001

Information disclosure could give power to citizens if they get involved

Satoru Ienishi felt overwhelming anger as he watched a newscast at his Tokyo office on June 13, 1998.
LIFE / Style & Design / BEAUTY EAST AND WEST
Jan 4, 2001

Festive citrus delights to brighten up the new year

If there is a companion plant to the evergreen that is so characteristic of this time of year, it must be the orange or one of its immediate relatives: the tangerine, the clementine, the mandarin, or even the citron or grapefruit.
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2001

Emperor rings in new century

More than 70,000 well-wishers gathered Tuesday at the Imperial Palace to offer New Year's greetings to the Emperor and other members of the Imperial family.
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2001

State manual outlines food-crisis scenarios

The government has drawn up a manual for a potential food crisis sometime this century on the basis of the new basic agricultural law, which came into force in July 1999, government sources said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jan 3, 2001

Let Aibo tell you about brand image

Ku-Ku the kitten was top cat in the battle of the robo-pets in 2000, but guess which bionic beast got to snuggle up to Janet Jackson?
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2001

Asian women's fund to seek out businesses, labor unions

The cash-strapped Asian Women's Fund, which collects contributions for women forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, has decided to call on businesses and labor unions for financial assistance, informed sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2001

Five-year, muscle-pumping defense plan passed easily

The Cabinet approval last month of the 25-trillion yen medium-term defense buildup program came without heated debate among lawmakers or the public, to the apparent surprise of some Defense Agency officials.
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2001

Unresolved issues linger for Japan

Japan greets the new century with two major diplomatic issues unresolved since the end of World War II -- concluding a peace treaty with Russia and normalizing diplomatic relations with North Korea.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jan 3, 2001

Kicking up a stink about smelling as natural as a skunk

While beauty traditionally belongs to the beholder's eye, correct hygiene might be better ascribed to his or her nose.
JAPAN / STAGING A COMEBACK
Jan 1, 2001

Carrying out reform is only the beginning for politicians

The final 10 years of the 20th century have been called a "lost decade" for Japan, which continues to suffer woes from the burst of the late-1980s bubble-economy. Japan's comeback as a globally competitive economic powerhouse will require fundamental reforms not only in the industrial and financial sectors...
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2001

Merit seen in gradual opening of Japan to overseas workers

Foreign workers will help Japanese companies to not only make up for a future labor shortage but help create a more diverse and dynamic corporate environment in the current trend of globalization, according to Yotaro Kobayashi, one of the nation's top business leaders.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2001

Progress alone won't be enough

IT, shorthand for information technology, was a buzzword in Japan in 2000. Never before had computers and the Internet caused such a furor in the media. To be sure, IT had created a boom several times in the past, but its impact had been confined to the corporate sector. In contrast, the latest boom...
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2000

BSC to take on 'Voice of the Andes'

The newly established digital radio broadcasting station BSC will take over the broadcasting of "Voice of the Andes" after the Ecuador-based Japanese-language radio service goes off air today.
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2000

Warbler recalls area's innocent days

Just when the doors of the Yamanote line train are about to close at Uguisudani Station during morning rush hour, alert passengers will hear the distinctive chirp of the "uguisu," or bush warbler.
EDITORIALS
Dec 31, 2000

Politicians fail to deliver

Japanese politics in 2000 was marked by two major milestones. One is the inauguration of the administration of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori following the late Keizo Obuchi's resignation due to sudden illness. The other is the July 25 Lower House election in which the governing Liberal Democratic Party...
COMMUNITY
Dec 31, 2000

Michinoku Ginko chief banks on Japanese-Russian relations

Talk about a profitable end to the year. Invited to meet a Taisho man -- that is, someone born in the last year of what many consider to be Japan's most liberal period of the 20th century -- I was met in one location to be maneuvered into a taxi and delivered outside another: a nondescript utility block...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 31, 2000

One mighty orchestra, two mighty conductors

Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester Nov. 26, Mariss Jansens conducting in Suntory Hall -- "Oberon" Overture (Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber, 1786-1812), Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 99 (Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich, 1906-75) featuring Hilary Hahn; Symphony No. 8 in...
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2000

Currency scam puts police on alert

Police said they are on the lookout for criminals swindling cash from people with a scam involving old German currency notes and bonds that are now worthless.
COMMENTARY
Dec 31, 2000

Flaws are part and parcel of democracy

LONDON -- How democratic are the world's so-called democratic countries? Can there be totally fair elections?
CULTURE / Art
Dec 31, 2000

The art of being a farm village

"Grez was an idyllic little place," wrote a Swedish artist in 1884, "offering subjects wherever you looked . . . the river with its watermills and little waterfalls, the sun on white walls, old men in clogs, old women in coifs, girls in the sunshine, hens and ducks, grazing cattle, groves, fields and...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Dec 31, 2000

Minoru Akimoto

"For a college kid in a provincial town in the early 50s, there were not many options for learning English. My teachers were Hollywood movies. I memorized a script and then sat in a movie theater all day, watching and listening to the same movie time and again."

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight