Search - about-us

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2001

Spy-plane incident continues to shake Sino-American ties

HONG KONG -- As he left Beijing after 18 months as United States ambassador to China, Adm. Joseph Prueher, while hoping Sino-American relations were on an upswing, still warned that the continued detention of the U.S. Navy's EP-3E reconnaissance plane was having a "corrosive effect" on relations. "It's...
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

Court nixes compensation suit by radish farmers

The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday dismissed a 2.2 billion yen suit against the government filed by farmers of "kaiware" daikon sprouts.
SOCCER / J. League
May 31, 2001

Troussier wants all charges to take on leadership role

NIIGATA -- Japan manager Philippe Troussier is asking for better decision-making, strong leadership and commitment to the game from each of his players in the Confederations Cup, which begins Group B action Thursday in Japan.
EDITORIALS
May 31, 2001

Courage in South Asia

This week marks the third anniversary of Pakistan's nuclear tests. Those blasts followed India's own tests by a few days. Although both governments denied that the explosions posed a threat to regional peace and stability, the tit-for-tat exchanges marked a dangerous escalation in the situation in South...
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

New curriculum sees parents push English for infants

Second of two parts Staff writer Yukiko Wada left her Tochigi home at 8 a.m. one Saturday with her 2-year-old daughter, Hinami. While their journey to Tokyo's Eifuku-cho in Suginami Ward seemed a bit long, it became worthwhile when they encountered an American acquaintance near their destination.
EDITORIALS
May 30, 2001

Toward a basic law on human rights

The Council for Human Rights, an advisory panel to the justice minister, has submitted a report calling for the creation of an independent organization to provide relief for victims of discrimination, child abuse and other human-rights violations. The proposed body, tentatively called the "human-rights...
JAPAN
May 30, 2001

Ogi plans 160 billion yen outlay to cut train time to Narita

The government is ready to allocate money in fiscal 2002 for a new railway track that would reduce the time to get to Narita airport in Chiba Prefecture from Nippori station in Tokyo by 15 minutes, Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Chikage Ogi said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Film
May 30, 2001

The ecstasy and the agony

Quills Rating: * * * * Director: Philip Kaufman Running time: 123 minutes Language: EnglishShowing at Hibiya Scalaza and other theaters The face of a beautiful woman appears in intense close-up, her fair skin offset by the clear blue sky behind her. The faint sighs of her soft, heavy breath are amplified...
BUSINESS
May 30, 2001

Industrial production declines 1.7%

The nation's industrial production fell a seasonally adjusted 1.7 percent in April from the previous month for the second straight monthly dip, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a preliminary report released Tuesday.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2001

Fate of Nikkei tied to Koizumi's policies

Although the stock market has reacted positively to the inauguration of the reformist Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, doubts linger.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2001

Major traders Mitsui, Sumitomo eye alliance

Trading houses Mitsui & Co. and Sumitomo Corp. have agreed on a wide-ranging business tieup that includes integrating their sales of construction materials and steam coal, a Mitsui spokesman said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2001

Seed makers won't sow growing vegetable imports

In another move to cope with soaring vegetable imports, domestic seed makers have begun curbing exports of vegetable seeds that return to Japan as produce, officials of the Japan Seed Trade Association said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2001

Dire straits hit Tokyo Metallic

Tokyo Metallic Communications Corp., an Internet access service provider specializing in digital subscriber lines, faces a management crisis due to fundraising problems, the company's president said Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 30, 2001

Elementary school teachers to run English gantlet

Offering English language education in an entertaining, communicative way sounds just fine. In theory.
SOCCER / World cup
May 30, 2001

Blatter: ISMM trouble won't affect World Cup

SEOUL -- FIFA president Sepp Blatter put a positive spin on the problems surrounding the collapse of its marketing partners ISMM/ISL on Tuesday to emphasize the positive aspects of a big year ahead in the world soccer calendar.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2001

MMC to cut up to 1,200 jobs

Struggling automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Tuesday it will introduce an early retirement program to phase out up to 1,200 jobs.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2001

Monthly BOJ bond reports aim to up liquidity

Moving again to increase monetary liquidity, the Bank of Japan said Tuesday that it will begin publishing the issue-by-issue balances of its outstanding government bond holdings once a month.
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
May 30, 2001

The names are insane and I like it like that

What's in a name? Well, when it comes to Japanese bands, a lot, actually. Japanese rock groups, like Western psychedelic bands of 30-some years ago, have been coming up with some extraordinarily creative and just plain nutzo band names of late.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 30, 2001

'Lovers Leap': Dan Bryk

In art, confession treads a fine line between catharsis and showing off. A subset of current punk bands like Wheatus and Blink 182 utilizes the geek mode to comment on classic macho-rock poses, but since they have nothing original to say (girls ignore you at school? figure it out), geekiness turns out...
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2001

Futura 2000 is now

A graffiti legend from the very earliest days of New York's underground hip-hop movement, Futura 2000 is presently being elevated to iconic status by his progeny. At 46, he is old enough not only to be their father but also to know better.
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2001

How a legend is born

Born Lenny Hilton McGurr, he first picked up a spray can in 1970, aged 15. An only child from a lower-middle class Manhattan home, graffiti provided him with "a solution to my identity crisis" -- a crisis brought on by the news he was adopted.
JAPAN
May 30, 2001

3,708 fewer visa violators deported

There were 51,459 foreigners deported for violation of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law in 2000, down 3,708 from the previous year, Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2001

Inside angle on the subcontinent

From the scowl of a Calcutta street kid to the prayer-locked, wrinkled face and hands of Mother Theresa; from the quiet orange of a Taj Mahal sunrise to the bustle of a Delhi bazaar -- it seems the full breadth of India's people and places live in the photographs of Raghu Rai.
COMMENTARY
May 30, 2001

Monarchy makes a comeback

LONDON -- The Crown Prince of Japan visited Britain last week and was warmly received all round.
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2001

Transcend the frame

About 30 landscape monochromes by up-and-coming Italian photographer Lorenzo Nenchioni are currently on display at the Polaroid Gallery in Tokyo.
JAPAN
May 30, 2001

Postwar Croatia looks to Japan

It was a surprise contact from the Croatian Foreign Minister in October that led the 62-year-old Drogo Buvac, formerly a journalist specializing in economics and international relations, to bethe new Croatian Ambassador to Japan.
JAPAN
May 30, 2001

Koizumi to meet Bush June 30 at Camp David

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. President George W. Bush will hold their first summit on June 30 at Camp David, Md., Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda announced Tuesday.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan