Search - about-us

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2003

A silver lining to the SARS epidemic

SINGAPORE -- The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, is sending shivers down the spines of Asian governments and citizens alike. China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam have been the most affected by this scourge, while other Asian countries are desperately trying to prevent the disease...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Apr 28, 2003

Time for Japan to return to reality and give us safer reasons to invest

"Wonderful thing, death. So uncontroversial," said Jim Hacker, the hero of BBC TV's highly successful 1980s political sitcom "Yes Prime Minister."
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Apr 28, 2003

America is the greatest abuser of WMD

NEW YORK -- One duplicitous aspect of the United States' war on Iraq has been the use of the term "weapons of mass destruction" (WMD). No, I am not talking about the kinds of weapons that are assumed in the question raised by the conservative Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak on April 7 -- "Where...
COMMENTARY
Apr 28, 2003

Fair, transparent foreign aid

Last September the Japanese government was stunned by a lawsuit filed with the Tokyo District Court by 3,861 residents of Indonesia's Sumatra Island. The plaintiffs said their life had been disrupted by a dam for hydroelectric power and flood control built with Japan's official development assistance....
EDITORIALS
Apr 27, 2003

Iraqis and their antiquities

The looting, ransacking and burning of Baghdad's great repositories of historical antiquities came as a shock to many -- including, apparently, U.S. troops in the field -- even though scholars all over the world had warned that a war could cause catastrophic cultural damage in Iraq. But now the damage...
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2003

Research into diagnosis, cure for illness considered

Japan is to look for ways to efficiently diagnose and treat SARS, with several research projects scheduled to begin by the end of May, a science ministry official said Saturday.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 27, 2003

Time after time, show after show

Though Cyndi Lauper is much more than a one-hit wonder, her sudden stardom in 1984 made the subsequent lack of fireworks in her career seem as if she'd put everything she had into her debut album, "She's so Unusual." It's not entirely true, but in any case that LP went platinum five times in the United...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 27, 2003

Canine care groups life spirits of sick and needy

There was a buzz of excitement in the pediatrics ward at St. Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo. Children were milling around in their pajamas with impish gleams in their eyes. Soon, they were all jostling near the door to the playroom, the little ones standing on tiptoes to peek inside.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Apr 27, 2003

The wandering laptop minstrel

With his long black hair pulled back in a tight, neat ponytail and his pale complexion, electronica musician Nobukazu Takemura has an otherworldly quality somewhere between a computer geek and a monk.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 27, 2003

Life is one big show -- at least for Mino

On April 18, TV Asahi premiered a new quiz show called "Thumbs Up," hosted by Monta Mino. Until this show, Asahi was the only commercial network that hadn't hired Mino to helm a regular series, which means the gruff emcee is now approaching omnipresence. He hosts eight prime-time programs a week in addition...
COMMUNITY
Apr 27, 2003

Japan slow to get in the swim

In Japan, DAT is still a newcomer.
COMMUNITY
Apr 27, 2003

Dolphin 'treatment' defies science

Michael Williams was born severely autistic. Even when he was in his teens, he was unable to communicate, other than through screeching, and his parents had to be constantly on the alert for violent behavior. Without warning, he would bang his head against objects, bite into his own fingers or lash out...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 27, 2003

War vindicates U.N. stance

Are not the scenes of joy and jubilation from Iraq an embarrassing indictment of the United Nations' failure to support the war? Well, no, not really. On the contrary, the course and outcome of the war is a strong vindication of the U.N. stance. To argue that military victory bestows legitimacy is to...
Events
Apr 27, 2003

KANSAI: Who & What

Photos, poems reveal children's school days: An exhibition of photos and poems depicting the school lives of children in Asia and countries bordering the Mediterranean will be held between April 30 and May 4 at the Kyoto City International Center in the city's Sakyo Ward.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE EXTRA
Apr 27, 2003

Japan rugby needs to act now before it is too late

For followers of Japanese rugby, the last few weeks have not made for happy reading.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 27, 2003

University exam pressure

JAPANESE HIGHER EDUCATION AS MYTH, by Brian J. McVeigh. M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, NY, 2002, 301 pp., $25.95 (cloth) In this withering critique, Japanese universities are portrayed as an educational Potemkin village. McVeigh's excellent analysis of institutional dysfunction focuses on how learning is sacrificed...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 27, 2003

A shorter leash on China's Communists

LONDON -- Governments and political parties habitually find it hard to admit to having made mistakes. Ministers and party officials who resign after getting things wrong cover their tracks with talk of seeking new horizons or spending more time with their families. The more authoritarian a regime, the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 27, 2003

Animal 'doctors' deliver health and well-being

At the Helsinki Olympics in 1952, Danish rider Liz Hartel became the first woman to ever win a medal in dressage. What was also historic about her achievement, though, was that her legs had been paralyzed since she was stricken with polio as a teenager.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 27, 2003

Horse power helps handicapped surmount life's daily obstacles

Yukie Yamaguchi stands at the edge of the ring, intently watching the man being led around on horseback at the Yokohama Riding Club. He is clasping a bright-yellow Pikachu to his chest with both hands. Slowly he takes one hand off the stuffed toy and lightly slaps the horse's neck.
EDITORIALS
Apr 26, 2003

Lessons of a cult guru's trial

In the marathon trial of Aum Shinrikyo cult leader Chizuo Matsumoto (also known as Shoko Asahara) at the Tokyo District Court, prosecutors on Thursday demanded the death penalty. "The accused promoted teachings that even approved of murder," they said in a closing argument. "He planned and ordered indiscriminate...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2003

Downsize, get out of China's way and rebuild: business chief

Japan should aggressively create new businesses to regain its global competitiveness, according to Kakutaro Kitashiro, new chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai).
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2003

Missile defense system debate heats up

As concerns mount over the threat posed by North Korea, the debate over Japan introducing missile defense systems is heating up.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2003

Youth unemployment rockets to record 13.2%

The unemployment rate hovered at a near-record 5.4 percent in March, as joblessness among the young peaked at its highest levels in half a century, the government said Friday.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2003

Nikkei plumbs new depths

The Nikkei index closed Friday at a fresh 20-year low, battered by sales of technology stocks that were pushed down by Sony's bearish earnings outlook released the previous day.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 26, 2003

Jiro Hirano

When he was poised between high school and university in the late 1950s, Jiro Hirano had a vague idea that in life he wanted to do "something international." He knew he didn't want to study at the University of Tokyo, as his father and brother and cousins had before him. "I wanted to have a way of my...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 26, 2003

How to tell if your neighbor is a yakuza

Several years ago as I was taking a taxi to work, the taxi driver took a shortcut down a small side street through an old neighborhood. When we rounded a corner, we were met by about 50 men dressed in suits lining both sides of the street and making deep bows. The taxi driver stopped behind a large black...
COMMENTARY
Apr 26, 2003

An opportunity for APEC

HONOLULU -- The rapid spread of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, is a compelling demonstration of the need for a truly global health network to fight future epidemics. The particulars of this outbreak also highlight the role that the Asia-Pacific region will have to play in this effort. The...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2003

Yankee-Mariner games only bright spot for travel industry

Causing yet another made-in-Japan sensation on the other side of the Pacific, New York Yankees slugger Hideki Matsui is providing a bit of much-needed relief for the nation's travel industry.

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers