Search - about-us

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 2000

Protecting Japan's right to freedom of navigation

HONOLULU -- Japan's economic security depends on safe and secure passage of its oil imports and trade through the Malacca/Singapore Straits and the South China Sea. Yet a recent upsurge in piracy, "creeping" jurisdiction and possible conflict between rival claimants in the Spratly Islands threaten these...
COMMUNITY
Dec 28, 2000

Down's diagnoses defied

Hope was not in the prognosis that doctors gave to Chie Myo, after examining her first son, Shunsuke, at the age of 3 months. They diagnosed the baby as having been born with Mongolism, a derogatory term previously used for Down syndrome, and predicted that he would not live long, saying a mere cold...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 28, 2000

Looking back at the future

In honor of that particularly Japanese custom of creating instant tradition ("Since 1999"), this last column of the year peers forward by looking back. Here are just three of the many new places we have visited and enjoyed during the past 12 months but never got around to writing up.
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2000

Education panel hits individuality, stresses Japanese-language focus

An Education Ministry advisory panel is calling for increased Japanese-language study and reading opportunities for children, saying a good command of the language provides a solid platform for education and cultural literacy.
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2000

Evacuees face New Year gloom

The dawn of the 21st century will be little cause for celebration for some 3,800 evacuees from Miyake Island.
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2000

Household spending declines second month

Spending by Japan's wage-earning households fell an inflation-adjusted 2.3 percent in November from a year earlier to an average 312,376 yen per household, the Management and Coordination Agency said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2000

New framework for economic ties with U.S. eyed

With the launch of the new U.S. administration coming next month, Japan is considering introducing a new framework for bilateral economic talks, which would include the participation of experts from the private sector.
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2000

Chiyoda's debts likely much higher

Chiyoda Mutual Life Insurance Co.'s liabilities are estimated to have exceeded its assets by some 500 billion yen, about 15 times higher than its earlier publicized negative net worth of 34.3 billion yen, industry sources said Tuesday.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Dec 27, 2000

Reay for the end of the year?

www.nenga.co.jp One of the biggest New Year's traditions is entering your friends in a lottery by sending them special nengajo greeting cards printed by the post office. This year it moves to the Internet. Sort of. You're not gonna make any of your friends a millionaire, and the prizes come from the...
COMMUNITY
Dec 27, 2000

Thermal underwear comes out of the fashion closet

Until a few years ago, most young women abhorred long-sleeved undershirts, commonly derided as babashatsu (granny shirts).
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2000

Mitsui Sumitomo plans to repay public funds

Sumitomo Bank and Sakura Bank on Tuesday said the merged entity they will form in April, Mitsui Sumitomo Banking Corp., aims to repay by the end of fiscal 2007 all the 1.501 trillion yen in public funds they have received.
COMMUNITY
Dec 27, 2000

Hard for many to fight the big chill

Winter is a painful season for Satoko Kojima (not her real name), a Tokyo office worker who says she cannot tolerate cold temperatures.
LIFE / Travel
Dec 27, 2000

Running on Soviet time

In December 1991, Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian leaders met at a hunting lodge in western Belarus. There they signed the Belavezha Agreement, which had no small historical significance. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was being consigned to the dustbin of history -- the same contemptuous...
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2000

Heavy snowfall swathes Sea of Japan coast

The Sea of Japan coast early Tuesday recorded its heaviest snowfall this winter, the Meteorological Agency said.
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
Dec 27, 2000

Brewing up a winning formula: Starbucks hits it big in Japan

I admit it: I had a breakdown. It probably happened sometime after Starbucks Store No. 100 opened in the cavernous Tameike-Sanno subway station. My first reaction was: What, another one? How many more of these places, full of smiling, happy crowds, nursing "bold expressions" and munching on brownies...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2000

Signs of hope in Kashmir

LONDON -- Eleven years of killing, over 50,000 dead, and the highest ratio of soldiers to civilians in the world, with a nuclear war between India and Pakistan as the payoff if things get out of hand: The conflict in Kashmir dwarfs every other global confrontation in its potential for harm. But the prospects...
LIFE / Digital
Dec 27, 2000

PlayStation2 shortage buoys up Sega

Sega started off on the wrong foot when it launched its 128-bit Dreamcast game console in Japan Nov. 27, 1999, and has been unable to regain its balance ever since.
BUSINESS
Dec 26, 2000

U.S. policy-shift sparks stock market rally

Favorable U.S. monetary policy news has sparked a massive stock market rally in New York and elsewhere.
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2000

Foot cultists ordered to pay 150 million yen

The Tokyo District Court on Monday ordered top leaders of Honohana Sampogyo to pay 150 million yen in damages to 31 people who accused the cult of conning them into contributing huge sums of money in the name of religious training.
EDITORIALS
Dec 26, 2000

Take it easy, Mr. Clinton

U.S. President Bill Clinton does not seem to know the meaning of the phrase "lame duck." Although his successor will be sworn into office in less than a month, Mr. Clinton is pursuing a flurry of initiatives more worthy of a man taking office, rather than one packing his bags to go. His intentions may...
BUSINESS
Dec 26, 2000

Oji group to combine sales of cardboard

Oji Paper Co. said Monday that it will set up a joint firm with three of its group companies to integrate sales of corrugated cardboard components and improve delivery times.
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2000

Breeder raided over monkey sales

Officials in Gifu and Kumamoto prefectures suspect that Japanese monkeys are being bred and sold to researchers by firms that lack proper authorization.
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2000

Mobile phones big among high schoolers: poll

Roughly 60 percent of Japanese high school students have mobile phones and half of them exchange 10 or more e-mail messages a day using their phones, according to a recent 1999 poll on youth trends by the Management and Coordination Agency.
BUSINESS
Dec 26, 2000

Mycal to shut 45 stores, cut jobs in restructuring

OSAKA -- Major retailer Mycal Corp. plans to close some 45 struggling stores and cut about 1,500 jobs from its group workforce by introducing an early retirement program, company officials said Monday.

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