Search - about-us

 
 
COMMENTARY
Dec 17, 2001

Britain's NHS shows how not to fund health care

LONDON -- Some high-powered Japanese experts recently were in London looking at British systems of welfare and social support, and at health and medical provisions in particular.
COMMENTARY
Dec 17, 2001

Can Koizumi avoid Hosokawa's fate?

It has been nearly eight months since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi took office, yet he remains hugely popular. Approval ratings for his administration are above 80 percent and show no sign of falling. How long will this continue?
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2001

Museum weaves tale of Tokyo's role in history of dyed-goods

Even for Tokyoites, it may come as a surprise that the dyeing industry once flourished in the capital -- just as it did in the ancient cities of Kyoto and Kanazawa.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 17, 2001

A reason to invest in Japan

What is the true nature of the current recession in Japan? Is it cyclical, a result of asset deflation, or has it been caused by the deteriorating competitiveness of this country as an industrial location? These questions must be answered to formulate an effective economic policy. In my view, the economic...
EDITORIALS
Dec 17, 2001

Sporting events require tight security

The 2002 Japan-Korea World Cup will kick off in about six months. As the two countries busy themselves with the final preparations, the people who are becoming most tense are those in charge of security. When one thinks of security at soccer matches, the notorious hooligans in European countries may...
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2001

Shiodome development to spruce up center of Tokyo

The southern half of central Tokyo is teaming with development projects aimed at reviving a city long criticized for its lack of space and greenery.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2001

Ex-publisher, drug smuggler Kadokawa gets medical jail

Haruki Kadokawa, a former publisher convicted for smuggling cocaine from the United States, has been moved into detention at a medical prison after spending about a year in a hospital, sources close to the case said Sunday.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2001

Robbers break into Tokyo home, steal 100 million yen

Four or five men broke into a house in Tokyo's Adachi Ward early Sunday and stole about 100 million yen in cash after tying up the owner, his wife and daughter, police said.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2001

Special loan program in Asia may be extended

Japan may extend a special yen-loan program worth 600 billion yen beyond its planned expiration next spring to help Asian neighbors hit by a global slowdown and the economic fallout from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
EDITORIALS
Dec 16, 2001

Would you believe? e-mail@30

When Alexander Graham Bell sent the first telephone message on March 10, 1876, he was not only well aware of the date, he had someone on hand to record his words ("Mr. Watson, come here. I want you.") The man knew he was making history.
COMMENTARY
Dec 16, 2001

Film focuses again on Japan's war guilt

Japan's war guilt gets yet another airing in the Japanese-made film "Riben Guizi (Japanese Devils)" (reviewed on Dec. 5). The film provides on-camera interviews with 14 former Japanese soldiers who committed atrocities during the 1937-45 war with China. Its two hours of horror have an honesty that, like...
COMMUNITY
Dec 16, 2001

From 'shashin' to snapshots

Shashin, the Japanese word that came to mean "photograph," was used quite differently when it first entered everyday language here. Derived from the two characters for "reflect" and "true," it arrived in the early Edo Period from China, where it was used to refer to portraits that were thought to express...
COMMUNITY
Dec 16, 2001

Photography provides new angles on art

Maybe the world of painting seemed too old-school, too much turpentine-and-sweat -- or maybe the impatient daughters of the bubble era simply wanted a quick, easy expressive medium. Whatever triggered the phenomenon, there was an unprecedented surge in the number of young women entering the photography...
COMMUNITY
Dec 16, 2001

Wright's modern masterpiece comes back to life

All too often in this country, modern buildings of architectural and historical value are bulldozed to make way for new commercial development. The "lucky" ones may be granted a stay of execution, if only to survive as unused and lifeless monuments.
COMMUNITY
Dec 16, 2001

From pinholes to pixels, photgraphy keeps evolving

The camera on a tripod outside Edward Levinson's countryside home in Chiba Prefecture is deceptive in its simplicity. It has no lens or viewfinder, no focusing dial, and no shutter-release button.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2001

Nepalese man awaiting murder ruling sees wife for first time in eight years

Many foreign workers head for Japan with the promise of a better life. But for Govinda Prasad Mainali the dream turned to tragedy as he awaits a ruling by the Supreme Court over a murder charge.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Dec 16, 2001

Tazukuri: an acquired taste worth acquiring

The o-sechi foods of the New Year exemplify traditional Japanese cuisine, utilizing the fruits of the mountains and the bounty of the ocean to celebrate all of the gifts that nature provides. Nowhere is this land-and-sea pairing more evident than in the classic sanshu-zakana triumvirate of black beans...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 16, 2001

The final downfall of a hard-boiled harridan

Just audible under the cheers that greeted the birth of the new princess was the tip-tapping of bored fingers coming from the direction of the "wide shows," where smiling faces and mandatory keigo barely masked acute impatience. Nine months of being forced to keep quiet about the crown princess's pregnancy...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 16, 2001

Japan's maverick monk

LETTING GO: The Story of Zen Master Tosui, translated and with an introduction by Peter Haskel. Honolulu: Hawaii University Press, 2001, 168 pp. with woodcuts, $45 (cloth), $19.95 (paper) Tosui Unkei, the beloved and eccentric 17th-century Zen master, was, like Ikkyu Sojin 200 years before him, a decided...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 16, 2001

Young Japanese struggle to find their way

As another year comes to an end, the Japanese media continue to wonder at the new generation at school and at work. The term "shinjinrui" (new species) seems to have fallen out of use but the prevailing attitude is still one of bemusement and even dismay.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 16, 2001

Bringing young and old together

GENERATIONS IN TOUCH: Linking the Old and Young in a Tokyo Neighborhood, by Leng Leng Thang. Cornell University Press, 2001, 209 pp., paper ($39.95) As Japan's traditional three-generation households go nuclear and fewer young couples have children, the care of the nation's elderly has become an increasingly...
JAPAN / Media / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 16, 2001

Living life to the fullest in fields of dreams

This week's "Sunday Big Special" (TV Tokyo; tonight, 7 p.m.) revisits six families it has featured in the past on its occasional "Back to Nature" specials. These programs explore the burgeoning self-sufficiency movement by profiling families that have given up the rat race and moved to isolated rural...
COMMUNITY
Dec 16, 2001

Photo-news loses its focus

Last August's demise of Shinchosha's weekly photo newsmagazine Focus marked a major publishing milestone in Japan.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Dec 15, 2001

A sinister Afghan 'deja vu'

MOSCOW -- The last major stronghold of the Taliban, the city of Kandahar, has fallen, though Osama bin Laden is still hiding in the entrails of Tora Bora mountains. Russians are among the few nations for whom news about the surrender of Kandahar rings a special bell. The city still occupies a prominent,...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’