Search - 2002

 
 
COMMENTARY
Dec 16, 2002

Highways amid the shambles

In its final report submitted Dec. 6, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's advisory commission for privatizing four road-related public corporations called for a halt to runaway highway construction. The report warns against the "triangle of collusion" among "road tribe" legislators, related bureaucrats...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 15, 2002

Fight poverty by closing education gaps

NEW YORK -- Among the issues highlighted by the 2002 "State of World Population: People, Poverty and Possibilities," released by the United Nations Population Fund on Dec. 3, is the impact of poverty on education and, consequently, health -- particularly that of women of reproductive age. According to...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 15, 2002

On the trail of a killer in ancient Kyoto

RASHOMON GATE, by I.J. Parker. St. Martin's Minotaur: New York, 2002, 336 pp., $24.95 (cloth) Scholars who pen historical mystery fiction must tread a fine line between being faithful to the materials they research and creating stories and characters that will appeal to contemporary readers. It's by...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 15, 2002

Bookbites

MITFORD'S JAPAN: Memories & Recollections 1866-1906, edited and introduced by Hugh Cortazzi. Japan Library, 2002 (revised edition), 307 pp., paper ($33) "I jumped out of my palanquin more quickly than I ever in my life jumped out of anything, and rushed forward. There were pools of blood in the street,...
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Dec 15, 2002

Ann Lewis in driver's seat with new single

What happens to idols after their popularity has waned?
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 11, 2002

BayStars acquire foreign pair

The Yokohama BayStars agreed Monday to terms for the acquisition of Tampa Bay Devil Rays infielder Steve Cox and Tyrone Woods, an infielder from South Korean pro league club Doosan Bears.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 11, 2002

All I want for Christmas is the third of the tonic chord

As 2002 draws to a close, public halls are bracing themselves for the regular flood of yearend classical music concerts featuring Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 "Choral."
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 10, 2002

Tigers want Nakamura to make up his mind

OSAKA -- The Hanshin Tigers will push Norihiro Nakamura for a prompt answer on whether the free-agent slugger wants to join the Central League club, manager Senichi Hoshino said.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 8, 2002

Irabu, Rose return to Japanese baseball

The Hanshin Tigers on Saturday announced the acquisition of right-hander Hideki Irabu, while the Chiba Lotte Marines have signed former Yokohama BayStars infielder Bobby Rose to a one-year, 80 million yen deal.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 8, 2002

Where West met East

A HISTORICAL GUIDE TO YOKOHAMA: Sketches of the Twice-Risen Phoenix, by Burritt Sabin. Yokohama: Yurindo, 2002, 304 pp., 176 pp. of plates, illustrations and maps, 2,500 yen (cloth) Isabella Bird, that sharp-eyed, tart-tongued early traveler to Japan, opined that Yokohama had irregularity without picturesqueness,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 8, 2002

Expat writers shoot from the lip

FACES IN THE CROWDS: A Tokyo International Anthology, edited by Hillel Wright. Printed Matter Press: Tokyo, 2002, 254 pp., 2 yen,500/$25 (cloth) "Faces in the Crowds" is a hyperkinetic grab bag that brings work by a cross section of Tokyo's expat writers, and Japanese writers working in English, together...
MORE SPORTS
Dec 7, 2002

Yawara-chan, Tani to tie the knot

Judoka Ryoko Tamura is set to announce her engagement to baseball player Yoshitomo Tani of the Orix BlueWave, sources close to the Olympic and world champion said Friday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Dec 7, 2002

NATO's Balkanization begins

MOSCOW -- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was established after World War II to protect Western Europe from a possible Soviet invasion. Once the Soviet empire crumbled, it was left without a purpose. In the euphoria of 1989-1991, it seemed that democracy and humanism had triumphed throughout Europe,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 6, 2002

New washoku comes of age

Trends are only ever truly visible in retrospect, but all the indications are that 2002 will be viewed as the year in which washoku -- Japan's native, homegrown food -- finally made its big comeback.
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Dec 3, 2002

J. League experiencing minor changes

The 2002 J. League season was completed on Nov. 30 after Jubilo Iwata won the league title for the third time by sweeping the two stages, and Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Consadole Sapporo both got relegated to Division Two.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Unemployment at 5.5%

Japan's seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose to 5.5 percent in October after remaining at 5.4 percent for five straight months, matching the record high posted last December, the government said Friday in a preliminary report.
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2002

Ministry to prop up sinking Kansai airport

To save debt-ridden Kansai International Airport Co., the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry has drawn up a bailout plan to provide the semipublic airport operator with about 9 billion yen in subsidies a year and offer government guarantees on short-term bonds to be issued by the company.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 30, 2002

WTA drops Princess Cup

The Toyota Princess Cup, one of three official tournaments played in Japan on the women's professional tennis circuit, has been dropped off the WTA Tour calendar for next year, Japanese tennis officials said Thursday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 30, 2002

Randolph Stensen

Refugees International Japan will hold its annual ceremony "Light Up the Life of a Refugee Child" at noon on Dec. 5. The ceremony transforms Tokyo Station's north hall, the Marunouchi exit, into a glittering, pulsating Christmas scene, with the illuminating of a giant decorated tree, sales of cards and...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 29, 2002

Venables needs divine intervention at Leeds

LONDON -- Terry Venables has been in football long enough to know that his days at Leeds United are almost numbered before they have really begun.
BUSINESS
Nov 28, 2002

Vehicle exports accelerate 6.8%

Exports of cars, trucks and buses rose 6.8 percent in October from a year before to 402,608 vehicles, up for the 10th straight month, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2002

World Cup spurs South Korea exchanges

Following Japan and South Korea's cohosting of the World Cup soccer finals last summer, 36 prefectural governments have held or will hold 123 sports exchanges with South Korean teams in fiscal 2002, according to a survey conducted by the sports ministry.
BUSINESS
Nov 28, 2002

Orient plans to liquidate four more subsidiaries

Struggling consumer credit firm Orient Corp. said Wednesday it will liquidate four more financial subsidiaries to bolster the rehabilitation efforts of the parent company.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 28, 2002

Irabu close to signing deal with Hanshin

OSAKA -- Right-hander Hideki Irabu, who was released by American League club Texas Rangers earlier this month, is on the verge of signing for the Hanshin Tigers, Hanshin sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2002

Diet enacts law on intellectual property rights

The Diet enacted a basic intellectual property law Wednesday that the government hopes will promote the emergence of eminent scientists like Koichi Tanaka, who won the 2002 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
EDITORIALS
Nov 28, 2002

Staving off banking disaster

The latest financial reports from Japan's major commercial banks tell more of the same story: The huge overhang of nonperforming loans continues to block a return to health. To be sure, banks made a profit in their main lines of business in the first six months of fiscal 2002, as they did in previous...
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2002

Top life insurers' results reveal inability to reverse their decline

The nation's major life insurance companies have had little success reversing a decline in business, while their capital remains under pressure by depressed share prices, according to half-year financial results posted by the firms by Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / THROUGH THE DOOR
Nov 27, 2002

Education for some refugees is ray of hope

The men in uniform white shirts and dark shorts sitting in the classroom looked too old to be junior high school students; some had gray hair, close-cropped.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 27, 2002

Wonderful Parade 2002

Every year, the pholks at Philter Records, Japan's phearless purveyors of phoreign indie pop, bring a phleet of artists to these shores for a special showcase called Wonderful Parade. Last year, the pheatured artist was Of Montreal, which has nothing to do with Canada and everything to do with the Elephant...
BUSINESS
Nov 26, 2002

Cybird chief honored by Time magazine

Time magazine has picked Kazutomo Robert Hori, president and chief executive officer of Cybird Co., a mobile Internet-content provider in Tokyo, as one of the magazine's 15 "Global Influentials" for 2002.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building