Search - 2002

 
 
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 11, 2002

Motorists driven round the bend by license laws

In May 2002 the Tokyo District Court rejected a suit by freelance journalist Yu Terasawa in which he claimed 1.2 million yen in compensation for driving license renewal fees.
EDITORIALS
Oct 11, 2002

Japanese science shines again

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which is responsible for awarding the Nobel prizes in physics and chemistry, probably said it best when it described this year's physics laureates as having "used [the] very smallest components of the universe to increase our understanding of the very largest, the...
EDITORIALS
Oct 10, 2002

Put a stop to rising crime

Spurred by a spate of vicious crimes and a sharp rise in crimes by foreigners, the number of criminal offenses in Japan last year reached a record postwar high of 2,735,612 cases. The arrest rate, which is a barometer of public safety, fell to 19.8 percent, the first time since 1945 that it had dropped...
COMMENTARY
Oct 7, 2002

Political reform the only option for China

HONG KONG -- China's late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping deserves much credit for trying to modernize the country and remove it from its Maoist ideological straitjacket. He emphasized pragmatism, not ideology. He put China on the path to a market economy. And, perhaps most important, he tried to lift...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 6, 2002

No looker, but a great personality

BANGKOK, by William Warren. Reaktion Books, 2002. 160 pp., with monochrome photos, £14.95 (paper) Thailand's ebullient capital is many things, but it is not beautiful. True, there are many lovely things in it, but it can no more be considered comely than can Tokyo, a city it in some ways resembles....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 6, 2002

Postmodern tales of the unexpected

"NEW JAPANESE FICTION," The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Summer 2002: Vol. XXII, No. 2. 262 pp., $8. Japanese literature, at least as it is known to those of us who cannot read it in the original, is in a position similar to that of Western classical music. Just as classical music lovers are likely...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 6, 2002

Tuning into the changing face of higher education

Japan's universities are at a crossroad. The notion has been voiced in some quarters for many years, but now -- by common consent -- the fact of the matter is impossible either to deny or to ignore.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Sep 29, 2002

Ishii, Tuto lead Reds' rally

SAITAMA -- Urawa substitutes Toshiya Ishii and Brazilian Tuto scored for the Reds, helping the home team rally past Shimizu S-Pulse 2-1 in extra time at Saitama Stadium 2002 on Saturday afternoon.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 29, 2002

Modernism goes East

MODERNISM IN THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST AND JAPAN: 1918-1928, edited by Toshiharu Omuka, Kyoji Takizawa, Yoshiko Tachibana and Tsutomu Mizusawa. The Tokyo Shimbun, 2002, 254 pp., trilingual (Japanese/English/Russian), profusely illustrated, 2,500 yen (paper) In the autumn of 1920, two Russian artists arrived...
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2002

Scouting out the Next Big Thing

At this very moment, thousands of young musicians throughout Japan are busy pursuing the same elusive goal: pop stardom. Some are driven by the need to express their artistic vision; others by the perks of stardom; and still more of them by the simple desire to support themselves by playing the music...
BUSINESS
Sep 28, 2002

NKK, Kawasaki Steel set up holding company

NKK Corp. and Kawasaki Steel Corp. on Friday set up JFE Holdings Inc., a joint holding company, as the first step toward forming the JFE Group and becoming the world's fourth largest integrated steelmaker.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Sep 28, 2002

Plague of smoke and scandal

MOSCOW -- The last few months have been tough on the people of Moscow. The exceptionally hot, dry summer resulted in peat fires in the capital's suburbs.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 27, 2002

Outlook grim for Sunderland's Reid

LONDON -- If the grapevine is to be believed, Sunderland manager Peter Reid will be fired should his team lose to Aston Villa on Saturday, making the former England midfielder the ignominious winner of the Premiership sack race.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 26, 2002

Ozone hole? Soon it could be . . . 'what hole?'

Despite the international set-to over Iraq and caustic reviews for the recent U.N. Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, there is still some good news on cooperation and the environment.
SOCCER / World cup
Sep 25, 2002

FIFA to pay up for ticket troubles

The Japanese World Cup Organizing Committee will receive a compensation fee for the damages that the local organizer suffered with the World Cup ticketing process, JAWOC general secretary Yasuhiko Endo said on Tuesday in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2002

BOJ Policy Board feared impact of stock fall

Several members of the Bank of Japan Policy Board were concerned over the negative effects that Japan's stock market decline is having on the financial environment during meetings Aug. 8 and 9, according to minutes released Tuesday.
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.

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