Search - 2003

 
 
EDITORIALS
Aug 25, 2003

In plainer language, please

Over the past two weeks, a new type of computer virus known as Blaster and its variants have attacked hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide, including in Japan. These viruses are different from those previously discovered. They expand rapidly across the Internet without any human intervention,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 24, 2003

Voices from the past help explain the present

SERVING OUR COUNTRY: Japanese American Women in the Military during World War II, by Brenda L. Moore. Rutgers University Press, 2003, $60 (cloth), $22 (paper). Building on her previous studies of racial issues, gender issues and military sociology, Brenda L. Moore has analyzed and documented an unusual...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 24, 2003

Should Japanese history be rewritten?

HARING THE BURDEN OF THE PAST: Legacies of War in Europe, America and Asia, edited by Andrew Horvat and Gebhard Hielscher. Tokyo: The Asia Foundation & Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2003, 341 pp., 1,000 yen (paper). The legacies of war continue to dog Japan and are divisive at home and in Asia. Despite the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 23, 2003

Imagine! Project approach child care in Japan

"I visited Japan for the first time three years ago," says Tina Peterson, director of the Imagine Child Development Center on the 13th floor of Yokohama's Landmark Tower. "I came to Landmark then, because the building's the highest in Japan. If anyone had predicted, 'In 2003 you will be working here,'...
EDITORIALS
Aug 23, 2003

Falling savings rate is a warning

Until not long ago Japan was criticized -- or praised -- for its extraordinarily high savings rate, depending on how one looked at it. The United States, for one, pointed out that Japan was saving too much and investing too little, and called for steps to stimulate domestic demand and boost consumer...
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2003

Chuo Mitsui Trust to close 10% of branch network

Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. is planning to close seven branches of its subsidiary Chuo Mitsui Trust and Banking Co. in response to a recent order by the Financial Services Agency to improve management, officials at the financial holding company said Thursday.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Aug 22, 2003

Arsenal plays rough, but F.A. going too far with Campbell charge

LONDON -- Arsenal struggled for the opening 25 minutes against Everton last Saturday. Then Sol Campbell was sent off and Arsenal clicked into top gear, playing some outstanding attacking football that saw it win more comfortably than the 2-1 scoreline suggests.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Aug 21, 2003

"Toad Heaven," "Ada Lovelace"

"Toad Heaven," Morris Gleitzman, Puffin Books; 2002; 192 pp. Humans are always complaining about how unfair life is. Limpy is a cane toad, but he thinks it's unfair, too. For starters, no one likes him (except his family). Female cane toads don't think he's much of a looker. (Cane toads are ugly enough,...
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2003

Victor wins clutch of Europe prizes

Victor Co. of Japan Ltd. said Wednesday it has won top prizes in three divisions in the 2003-2004 European Imaging and Sound Association awards.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FRONT-RUNNERS
Aug 19, 2003

Residents wake up to transparent need for security

Japanese used to say water and security are free, but with the rise in home burglaries, one of those commodities is no longer a given.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2003

Choosing human security

The notion of "human security" has gradually but steadily gained greater international currency. Canada and Japan, especially under former Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy and the late former Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, respectively, were prominent early advocates of incorporating the...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2003

Enronization of the Bush administration

WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush has become the new Kenneth Lay. As chief executive officer of the former juggernaut Enron Corp., Lay presided over a network of deception and malfeasance that led to one of the greatest investor ripoffs in U.S. corporate history. Enron inflated reported income and...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2003

A new tide of nationalism

SINGAPORE -- Leaders in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia have become increasingly vocal in calling for more independent policies and outlook in Southeast Asia, especially in the context of post-American military intervention in Iraq.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Aug 15, 2003

Usual suspects favored for Premier title

LONDON -- With the 12th Premier League season set to kick off on Saturday, here is a look at how the 20 teams shape up:
BUSINESS
Aug 15, 2003

BTM set to return pension assets

Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. said Thursday that the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi will return the portion of employee pension assets it manages on behalf of the government.
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 14, 2003

Saito racks up 16th win of season as Hawks whitewash Marines

Kazumi Saito scattered 10 hits over the distance to pick up his 14th straight win, and 16th overall, as the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks blanked the Chiba Lotte Marines 7-0 on Wednesday night at Fukuoka Dome.
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Aug 14, 2003

Manga culture ignites craze in media markets overseas

American boys can now read popular Japanese manga like "One Piece" in an English-language "Shonen Jump" and German girls can read girl's manga in the German-language magazine "Daisuki." Is this a passing fad or the start of a full-scale manga invasion?
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2003

Chaotic images of Indonesia

HONOLULU -- Turmoil in Indonesia was underscored Tuesday when a terrorist bomb exploded in a hotel in Jakarta killing at least 14 people and wounding about 150 more. It has added to the already surging concern of American officials in Washington and at the U.S. Pacific Command's headquarters in Hawaii,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 10, 2003

Pulling away the curtains from the 'Princes of the Yen'

PRINCES OF YEN: Central Bankers and the Transformation of the Economy, by Richard A. Werner. London: M.E. Sharpe, 2003, 362 pp., $27.95, (paper). Richard A. Werner has written a rare book. "The Princes of the Yen" is a scholarly, thoroughly researched treatise on economics that reads like a detective...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 10, 2003

Foreign visitors who found the old in a new Japan

THE GREAT WAVE: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Old Japan, by Christopher Benfey. New York: Random House, 2003, 534 pp., with monochrome plates, $25,95 (paper). In the middle of the century before last, Japan was -- as the West termed it -- finally opened up. The mysterious...
COMMENTARY
Aug 9, 2003

Political world prepares for fall showdown

The first half of 2003 was volatile both internationally and domestically. Severe acute respiratory syndrome hit China, other Asian countries and Canada at the beginning of the year and spread around the world. Then, in the Middle East, war broke out when the United States and Britain invaded Iraq, overthrew...
BUSINESS
Aug 9, 2003

Softbank logs 34.73 billion yen loss in first quarter

Internet-related business investor Softbank Corp. said Friday it incurred a group net loss of 34.73 billion yen in the first quarter of fiscal 2003.
BUSINESS
Aug 9, 2003

Current account surplus shrank 8% in fiscal first half

Japan's current account surplus shrank 8 percent from a year earlier to 7.24 trillion yen in the first half of 2003, marking the first decline in three half-year periods, the Finance Ministry said Friday in a preliminary report.
BUSINESS
Aug 8, 2003

Fuji TV posts 9.02 billion yen profit

Fuji Television Network Inc. said Thursday its group net profit in the April-June period came to 9.02 billion yen, or 51.51 percent of its net profit projection of 17.5 billion yen for the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2004.
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2003

Toyota rating unaffected by weak earnings: S&P

Standard & Poor's said Wednesday that Toyota Motor Corp.'s weaker earnings results for the April-June quarter will not affect its AAA long-term debt rating with a negative outlook or its A-1-plus short-term rating.
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Aug 7, 2003

A tale of two Afans reborn

Two thousand years ago, my native Wales had 98 percent forest cover. By 1950, when I was a little lad, woodland in Wales was down to 5 percent. I was born in Neath, where coal-mining wasn't particularly heavy, and where there were still wooded parks and groves of wild trees so I didn't really feel the...
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2003

2003 rice crop headed for 10-year low in yield

Due to the prolonged rainy season, Japan's rice crop this year will be the poorest since 1993, when unseasonably cool weather adversely affected the harvest, the Rice Databank said Wednesday.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji