Search - 2002

 
 
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2002

Cloud of population decline may have silver lining

"Rabbit hutch" is a stereotypical term coined years ago by outsiders referring the cramped dwellings of crowded, urban Japan.
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 23, 2002

Seibu's Pacific League crown ends four-year drought

This year the Seibu Lions cruised to their first Pacific League crown in four years -- a result expected by many.
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2002

Banks to cut 10 trillion yen in bad loans by March 31

Japan's major banks will dispose of 10 trillion yen in bad loans during fiscal 2002, Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa said Saturday.
COMMENTARY
Sep 22, 2002

Label that foils compromise

Sept. 11, 2002, brought us no closer to sensible thinking about the causes of events a year earlier. The United States concentrated on its own sufferings, and plans for revenge against "terrorists." In Japan, a high-level NHK roundtable dragged out that favorite of aid agencies seeking bigger budgets,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 22, 2002

Author takes a trip into darkness

THE SHORE BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL: A Report from Inside Burma's Opium Kingdom, by Hideyuki Takano. Kotan Publishing, 2002, 264 pp., $23.95 (cloth) "The Shore Beyond Good and Evil" is a book about a little-known region called Wa. "The name 'Wa' is not indicated on maps," writes author Hideyuki Takano. "Yet,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Sep 22, 2002

Recession? What recession?

For many, the mere thought of Champagne is enough to make the pulse race and the tongue tingle. Josephine de Beauharnais, the wife of Napoleon and Empress of France 1796-99, once remarked that "making love without a bottle of Champagne alongside my bed is merely silly." For those looking to indulge in...
MORE SPORTS
Sep 22, 2002

Serena, Clijsters advance to Toyota Princess Cup final

Kim Clijsters hit the ball so hard, it almost landed in the top deck of Ariake Colosseum. She had just hit a forehand beyond the baseline and her opponent, Jelena Dokic, instinctively returned the ball to Clijsters' side.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 22, 2002

Soseki's later years

INSIDE MY GLASS DOORS (156 pp.); THE 210TH DAY (96 pp.); SPRING MISCELLANY (184 pp.), by Soseki Natsume, translated by Sammy Tsunematsu, with introductions by Marvin Marcus. Tuttle Publishing (Boston, Rutland, Tokyo), 2002, all volumes 2,300 yen (paper) with black-and-white photos In 1915, having just...
MORE SPORTS
Sep 21, 2002

Serena wastes little time getting into semis

This one didn't resemble a best-of-three tennis match. Apparently, a 1-hour, 3-minute match in the second round of the Toyota Princess Cup wasn't short enough for Serena Williams.
BUSINESS
Sep 21, 2002

Nippon Ham takes cleaver to earnings forecasts

Scandal-racked Nippon Meat Packers Inc. said Friday it has sliced its interim and full-year group earnings forecasts for the 2002 business year in response to falling sales and profits in the wake of its involvement in a beef-mislabeling scam.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 20, 2002

Ronaldo's greed becoming legend indeed

LONDON -- Next Wednesday -- thighs, hamstrings, knees and transfer request permitting -- Ronaldo will make his belated debut for Real Madrid when the European Champions play Belgium's KRC Genk in a Champions League tie at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2002

Yamaha raises profit forecast to 17 billion yen

Yamaha Corp., a major maker of musical instruments and special semiconductor chips, said Thursday it has revised upward its group profit forecast for the 2002 business year, citing personnel-cost cuts and brisk sales of mobile phone chips.
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2002

OPEC leaders defy demands for oil production increase

OSAKA -- OPEC oil ministers rebuffed calls from Western countries and Japan to increase oil production at their meeting here Thursday, deciding to keep its official crude oil output intact for the October-December quarter.
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2002

Auto lobby urges pressure on Hanoi

The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association urged the government Thursday to press Vietnam to lift its restrictions on imports of motorcycle parts.
Japan Times
JAPAN / BABY BUST
Sep 19, 2002

Birthrate suffers as women face unattractive choices

Mayumi Shinde, 40, has worked for seven years as a system engineer at a Tokyo firm, at one stage attaining a job capability assessment of S -- one special level higher than A, the normal top ranking.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2002

Temp work seen striking happy medium

According to Shinya Sato, an executive director at Japan Staffing Services Association, the CIETT meeting held in Tokyo in April provided momentum to help spur the Japanese temp industry toward further deregulation.
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Sep 17, 2002

Reds fans need to be patient

In a post-match press conference at the Sept. 8 J. League game between the Urawa Reds and Vegalta Sendai at Saitama Stadium 2002, a seemingly irritated local reporter voiced an opinion to Reds manager Hans Ooft.
EDITORIALS
Sep 15, 2002

Make way for manga

A merican popular culture: We hear that phrase and immediately think of a juggernaut, a one-way tide rolling round the globe bearing its fatally attractive, tradition-squelching icons. It used to be John Wayne and jazz and Audrey Hepburn and Mickey Mouse. Then came McDonald's and Snoopy. More recently...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Sep 15, 2002

Pro Music Nipponia gives new life to contemporary hogaku

For the past 40 years, Pro Musica Nipponia has taken an active role in the contemporary hogaku music scene by commissioning and performing new works for traditional instruments. The highly professional and talented ensemble has premiered dozens of works by both Japanese and foreign composers and has...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 15, 2002

Life in the fast lane

STANDARD DEVIATIONS: Growing Up and Coming Down in the New Asia, by Karl Taro Greenfeld. New York: Villard, 2002, 272 pp., $23.95 (cloth) The new Orientalist finds adventure in the "wicked sorcery in Asia," discovers "sexual magic in the fleshpots where girls and boys stand behind glass partitions with...
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2002

Writer slams Iraq attack via petition

OSAKA -- Writer Makoto Oda is waging a petition drive, seeking people who support his opposition to the threatened U.S. attack on Iraq and his call for the Japanese government to act as an intermediary to prevent a war.
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2002

Management-labor cooperation urged

The heads of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) and the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) agreed Thursday that management and labor need to cooperate in areas such as pensions and medical care, Rengo officials said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2002

U.S. plants tree as symbol of appreciation

Nancy Kassebaum Baker, wife of U.S. Ambassador Howard Baker, thanked the Japanese people Wednesday for their support following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
BUSINESS
Sep 12, 2002

Last quarter's GDP revised up to 0.6%

The government said Wednesday that the nation's economy grew a real 0.6 percent in the April-June quarter, marking an upward revision from an earlier estimate of 0.5 percent growth.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Sep 12, 2002

Super Monkey's on my back

You'll have to excuse me if this week's column is a bit short. Sega has just released "Super Monkey Ball 2" (SMB2) and I am having a hard time tearing myself away from the television.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Sep 11, 2002

Japan and Asia: facing the troubled past is a prerequisite to forging a better future

In two previous columns I quoted from one of the writers whom I most greatly admired, referring to him as the "late Shigeto Tsuru." It has been drawn to my attention that I was misinformed, as Mr. Tsuru, I am embarassed but really delighted to report, is alive and well. I offer my most sincere apologies...
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2002

Health minister warns of higher welfare costs

Welfare minister Chikara Sakaguchi said Tuesday that the nation's workforce will have to shoulder higher welfare costs in light of Japan's declining birthrate and its graying society, while the aged will also need to share these burdens.
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2002

Ministry still mystified by BSE outbreak

The source of the mad cow disease outbreak that has thus far claimed five animals remains a mystery and must be determined through further investigation, the farm ministry said Tuesday in a report that sums up its policy responses since the discovery of the first case last September.
SOCCER / J. League
Sep 10, 2002

Reds leave it late to sneak past Sendai

SAITAMA -- Substitute forward Yuichiro Nagai struck the winning goal in the 113th minute, giving the Urawa Reds a 1-0 extra-time win over Vegalta Sendai on Sunday afternoon at Saitama Stadium 2002.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2002

Space only the first frontier for H-IIA

The government and industry alike are pinning their hopes on the successful launch of the third H-IIA rocket, due to be sent into space Tuesday on its first full-scale operational mission.

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