Search - article

 
 
BUSINESS
Jul 22, 2002

Education key to boosting Japan's competitiveness

The Switzerland-based Institute for Management and Development releases an annual report on the international competitiveness of major countries.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 13, 2002

Eliminate the major source of inter-Korean naval clashes

SEOUL -- As a result of the latest North-South naval clash on the West Sea, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung's "sunshine policy" is now in shambles. But it need not have been so. Even before the defense ministers of the two Koreas sat down almost two years ago in Cheju following the 2000 Pyongyang...
COMMENTARY
Jul 11, 2002

China holds Taiwan independence card

HONG KONG -- Beijing's unremitting struggle to keep Taiwan from straying onto the independence path continues unabated, with Lions Club International, or LCI, providing the latest battleground.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Jul 8, 2002

Great country; pity about the institutions

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- My good friend Philippe Pons, the Japan correspondent for the leading French daily Le Monde, wrote an excellent article, "Au Japon, la crise n'est pas ce que l'on croit" (In Japan, the crisis is not what people think), for the newspaper's June 19 edition. Pons rectifies many...
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...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 2002

Reserved but hardly remote

The June 8 article "A right royal celebration," by former British Ambassador to Japan Sir Hugh Cortazzi, described the Golden Jubilee celebration for Queen Elizabeth II. I was happy to read that the celebration was a great success, that the respect and affection of the British people for the queen were...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2002

Lawyers defend poisoning suspect's silence

Legal experts and journalists in Japan sometimes forget that defendants in criminal cases are guaranteed the right to remain silent.
COMMENTARY
Jul 1, 2002

Tough talk is no key to success

LONDON -- An article in the June 10 Nikkei Weekly by a deputy editor of political news at the Nihon Keizai Shimbun had the headline "Foreign Ministry diplomacy failing nation on all fronts." The Foreign Ministry was criticized for not being tough enough in support of national interests. And praise was...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Jul 1, 2002

Scapegoat seekers fuel nation's decline

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- It is natural when one has domestic problems to look for foreign scapegoats. The United States' paranoia over Japan's trade surplus and foreign-investment binge in the 1980s is a good example. While most nations reflect this general syndrome up to a point, the Japanese seem to...
EDITORIALS
Jun 30, 2002

'An honorable man'

There is a professor at New York's Vassar College who clearly knows his Shakespeare, perhaps not as well as he thought he did until a week or so ago, but at least well enough to recall Touchstone's advice in "As You Like It": "Let us make an honorable retreat, though not with bag and baggage, yet with...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 28, 2002

Flawed peace plan reflects U.S. illusions

AL-BIREH, West Bank -- Monday's long-awaited speech by U.S. President George W. Bush was to set the pace for the Palestinians and Israelis to step back from the vicious and bloody cycle of violence that has gripped them for nearly two years. Instead, Bush and his administration have publicly adopted...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 27, 2002

Chinese invasion making waves in Japan

The other day, I happened to be on the platform of JR Kichijoji Station as a Sobu Line express pulled in. Wanting to be certain it would stop at the next station, Nishi-Ogikubo, I inquired to the young man standing next to me. In halting Japanese, he said that he was Chinese and didn't understand my...
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2002

JGC, other firms hit in bid-rigging raid

Prosecutors raided engineering firm JGC Corp., the consultancy Nippon Koei Co. and other locations Wednesday in connection with alleged bid-manipulation over the construction of a Japanese-funded building on Kunashiri, a Russian-held island claimed by Japan.
COMMUNITY
Jun 20, 2002

Pedal pushers cop a load on Yasukuni Dori

I hail from Sapporo, and since I travel a lot around Japan on business, one of my pastimes is borrowing a bicycle from local friends and seeing the sights.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2002

Prosecutors seek warrant for Suzuki

Prosecutors sought an arrest warrant Monday for lawmaker Muneo Suzuki for allegedly taking a 5 million yen bribe from a Hokkaido lumber firm in 1998.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 16, 2002

The accessory of the season

Tsuyu. It's that wet and dismal time of year, the rainy season, when no matter what the skies look like, you have to prepare for the inevitable.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2002

Suzuki faces arrest over lumber bribe

Public prosecutors may question senior lawmaker Muneo Suzuki next week on allegations he received 5 million yen in bribes from a Hokkaido lumber firm when he was deputy chief Cabinet secretary in 1998, and seek his arrest, law enforcement sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2002

Diet mulls fate of mentally ill criminals

The Diet is now debating a bill that would create a system whereby medical doctors and judges would decide together whether someone with a psychiatric disorder who commits a serious crime should be hospitalized.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2002

Suzuki allegedly received cash from firm that logged illegally

Lawmaker Muneo Suzuki in 1998 received around 5 million yen from executives of a Hokkaido logging firm who were apparently enlisting his help after the company was caught cutting down trees in a national forest without permission, sources close to the case said Monday.
COMMENTARY
Jun 3, 2002

Time to leave European defense to Europe

WASHINGTON -- The 19 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have gathered in Rome to initiate a new partnership with Russia; they are also planning to add several new members to the alliance. The usual fatuous rhetoric emanating from the meeting cannot hide the fact that NATO is an organization...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Jun 3, 2002

Can a nation learn from Nissan's success?

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The twin announcements that Nissan made a record profit of 372 billion yen last year and that Carlos Ghosn has been appointed chief executive officer of the parent company, Renault, as well as retaining the presidency of Nissan, are an extraordinary landmark.
JAPAN
May 30, 2002

Hermes denies Japanese sales block

French luxury brand Hermes on Wednesday denied a recent report by an Austrian weekly magazine that its boutique in Vienna is limiting the number of handbags that can be purchased by Japanese customers to two per person.
BUSINESS
May 25, 2002

DIC spends 9.05 trillion yen covering bad-loan losses

The government-run Deposit Insurance Corp. spent a combined 9.05 trillion yen in the four years to March 31 to enable dozens of failed banks to fully refund depositors, the Financial Services Agency said in a report Friday.
COMMENTARY
May 22, 2002

Asylum policy the real scandal

HONOLULU -- Japan is indulging in righteous indignation over the incident involving North Koreans who tried to take refuge in the Japanese consulate in Shenyang, China, earlier this month. Targets of the mounting fury include the Chinese police, the consular staff and, by extension, the entire Japanese...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
May 19, 2002

When musical blood is backed by the heart

There are generally two types of professional hogaku musicians: those who are born into a musical family and learn from an early age and those who encounter the music later in life and apply themselves to its study.
EDITORIALS
May 13, 2002

Conditions for SDF mobilization

National defense bills now before the Diet are drawing a mixed reaction from the public. In a Kyodo News poll earlier this month, nearly 50 percent said Japan needs emergency legislation to deal with military attacks from abroad, but when asked whether the package should be passed in the current Diet...
COMMENTARY / World
May 13, 2002

Prime minister or nationalist puppet?

CAMBRIDGE, England -- The ink was barely dry on my April 21 Japan Times article "Koizumi trade pitch misses," which stated Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was thinking of going to pray at Yasukuni Shrine, when the news came that he had gone. We were told that he had felt the need "to mourn those who...
BUSINESS / ON MANAGEMENT
May 13, 2002

Training for success -- crash and learn

Car wrecks always draw a crowd, as every driver knows, and that's true for the equivalent in business, too. Rubber-necking at someone else's trouble, many executives thank their stars that they're not caught in the pileup; most take the opportunity to remind themselves to be extra careful to stay out...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji