Search - sports

 
 
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Aug 1, 2002

Prepare to enter the real pod race

In "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace," little Anakin Skywalker, a preteen slave on Tatooine, entered a futuristic sport called pod racing.
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2002

Panel calls for universities to be involved in foreign aid

A government panel proposed Tuesday the creation of a government-run institution to involve universities in international development assistance projects.
BUSINESS
Jul 31, 2002

As plasma-display TVs come down in price, sales go up

After an inauspicious debut just a few years ago, plasma-display TVs have become one of the hottest home appliances around.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 31, 2002

Will Ham hire foreign skipper in Sapporo?

Nikkan Sports newspaper, in its July 24 edition, ran a story speculating who would be the manager of the Nippon Ham Fighters when the team moves to Sapporo in 2004. The headline read, "Oya ka? Gaikokujin ka?" meaning it could be former Yokohama BayStars manager and Yakult Swallows catcher Akihiko Oya...
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

Mandatory community work gains favor

An advisory panel to education minister Atsuko Toyama recommended Monday that schoolchildren be required to take part in community activities, and that this be part of a student's evaluation, ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2002

Theme parks fail to buoy domestic leisure market

Japan's leisure market shrank 2.3 percent in 2001 to 83.07 trillion yen, the third consecutive year of contraction, a semipublic institute said Wednesday in an annual report.
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2002

Koizumi slams 'amakudari' gravy train

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi ordered his Cabinet ministers Tuesday to take steps to halt "amakudari," the practice of senior bureaucrats retiring early to join government-affiliated organizations as highly paid executives, because of the corruption that can result.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 21, 2002

A rollicking romp through ancient Edo

THE PILLOW BOOK OF LADY WISTERIA, by Laura Joh Rowland. St. Martin's Minotaur: New York, 2002,292 pp., $24.95 (cloth) While sports fans' attention is focused on Ichiro Suzuki of Seattle Mariners baseball fame, the exploits of Ichiro Sano, the Tokugawa shogunate's "Most Honorable Investigator of Events,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / HONING ENGLISH
Jul 20, 2002

Japan experiments with Super English Schools

Principal Katsutoshi Wakabayashi gives a speech in English through the school's public address system at Gunma Prefectural Chuo High School every Wednesday morning, and all notices around the school are now in English.
COMMUNITY
Jul 18, 2002

Japan's strange brand of (non) nationalism

The subject of 9/11 came up while I had dinner with a group of friends last autumn.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Jul 11, 2002

Osaka's peaceful heart

In 1972, two years after the Japan International Exposition in Osaka, redevelopment work began on the site. The result, eight years later, was the 260-hectare Expolands Green Oasis, which has now matured into a wonderful parkland with a wide range of attractions and facilities.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 7, 2002

We love Korea (we just love Beckham more)

According to an Internet survey conducted by an Osaka polling service, 57 percent of Japanese people ages 18 to 49 feel that the recent World Cup tournament helped improve relations between the two co-hosting countries, Japan and the Republic of Korea. The media, both here and abroad, and FIFA, are making...
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 6, 2002

Passing of 'Pancho' a loss for baseball

Our good friend, Kazuo 'Pancho' Ito, one of the most colorful characters on the international baseball scene over the past 40 years, died in Tokyo on July 4 after a long illness. He was 68.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2002

Nakata stars in U.N. antidrug commercial

The National Police Agency will air a U.N. antidrug advertisement featuring soccer star Hidetoshi Nakata on big-screen street TVs in major cities, NPA officials said.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Jul 4, 2002

Summertime fun to seek, avoid

It's been more than a year since Nintendo released Game Boy Advance -- a much, much more powerful Game Boy with a bigger, color screen and several times more processing power.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 3, 2002

Baseball steps back up to the plate

Let's begin the first baseball column following the World Cup with some words of congratulations and praise to everyone involved in that spectacular event. It was an exciting tournament that mesmerized most of Japan and South Korea, especially during the first half of June prior to the elimination of...
SOCCER / World cup
Jul 2, 2002

Sky the limit for Ronaldinho

YOKOHAMA -- His haircut may be a bit outdated, but make no mistake about it, Ronaldinho's game is about as vogue as they come.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2002

Asian students face slim job prospects

As the decade-long economic slump grinds on, non-Japanese Asians studying in Japan face diminishing job prospects amid language and cultural barriers, a lack of information, a hermetic corporate culture and competition from native students.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2002

Koizumi backs Kim's stance on shootout

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday told South Korean President Kim Dae Jung that he supports his demand that North Korea apologize for starting the recent maritime shootout near their border in the Yellow Sea.
BUSINESS
Jul 2, 2002

Toyota to market fuel-cell car by end of year

Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday it will begin limited marketing of its fuel-cell hybrid car by the end of this year, a year earlier than originally planned, in order to raise social awareness of the clean-running vehicle.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2002

Colleges sued over tuition fees scam

OSAKA — Fifty-six individuals who took entrance exams for institutes of higher learning filed lawsuits Friday with three district courts in the Kansai region against 22 private universities and 6 vocational colleges.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 29, 2002

Cheering on Special Olympics, seeking volunteers

It is confusing to discover that Kayako Hosokawa has three offices in a building in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki. Two are neighbors -- "so convenient," she observes, nipping to and fro. The other is on the fifth floor, below. It is even more confusing to learn she has a fourth office, in Kumamoto, close to the...
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 27, 2002

Maradona to arrive on Friday

Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona will arrive in Japan on Friday for a weeklong visit to watch the World Cup final in Yokohama on Sunday and participate in other events, diplomatic sources in Havana said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2002

Experts sought to halt loan words

Education chief Atsuko Toyama said Tuesday her ministry will set up a committee of experts in July to propose ways to prevent too many imported words from entering the Japanese language.

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