Search - about-us

 
 
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2000

Shots fired during bank robbery

A man armed with a handgun on Tuesday attacked two employees of a "shinkin" bank branch office in Tachikawa, western Tokyo, and made off with $10,000 (1,076,800 yen) in cash, police said.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2000

Costly Kansai airport plagued by pullouts, rivals, debts, sea

OSAKA -- Six years after opening, Kansai International Airport is struggling to stay above water -- literally and figuratively.
JAPAN / COP6 AGENDA
Nov 15, 2000

NGO submits greenhouse gas solution

Citizens left disillusioned by the government's attempts to curb greenhouse gas emissions have come up with an alternative plan.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2000

Bust of father of Japanese chemistry installed in Osaka

OSAKA -- A bronze bust of Koenraad Wolter Gratama, a 19th-century Dutch chemist considered the father of Japanese chemistry, has been installed near the site where a state-run chemistry school was once located in Osaka.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2000

Three nabbed for stock manipulation

Three investors in Chinese restaurant chain Totenko Co. were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly trying to manipulate the price of its shares by spreading unfounded news that it would be the target of a takeover bid.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2000

Heo faces 71/2-year term over collapse of Itoman

OSAKA -- Prosecutors on Tuesday demanded a 71/2-year prison term for Heo Young Joong, who is standing trial at the Osaka District Court for allegedly conducting shady deals leading to the 1993 collapse of trading house Itoman Corp.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 15, 2000

Timeless tales reflect the times

SANSHO DAYU, by Dudley Andrew & Carole Cavanaugh. BFI Film Classic Series. London: British Film Institute, 2000, 80 pp., with b/w illustrations, $20. Kenji Mizoguchi's 1954 film, "Sansho Dayu" (Sansho the Bailiff), is based upon the well-known 1915 Ogai Mori narrative, which was in turn taken from...
LIFE / Travel
Nov 15, 2000

Hard reality of a not-so DMZ still divides the two Koreas

The troops of North Korea's crack invasion units are shorter than the average Western tourist.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 15, 2000

Textbooks in the service of the state

CENSORING HISTORY: Citizenship and Memory in Japan, Germany and the United States, edited by Laura Hein and Mark Selden. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2000, 301 pp., $24.95. History loomed over the recent visit of Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji like a threatening storm cloud. But other than some scattered...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 15, 2000

Developing a finer sense of pace: the evolution of a party animal

When I was younger, I used to be a party animal.
SOCCER / World cup / SPORTS SCOPE
Nov 15, 2000

Reasons to be fearful: Part 1

For Calvin in the cartoon Calvin and Hobbes there are always monsters under the bed. You can't see them, but you know they're there.
CULTURE / Art
Nov 15, 2000

Taking inspiration where you find it

TOKUSHIMA -- Californian furniture maker Cynthia Kingsbury works in a 100-year-old timber storage building at the foot of a lushly forested mountain in Tokushima Prefecture. Dried sticks are piled like kindling beneath her worktable. Her dog Tingi, a black Labrador-Doberman mix, is sprawled across a...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 15, 2000

New-look forum heralds peace in paradise

SYDNEY -- Nobody, least of all any of the troubled South Pacific nations, is calling last month's Pacific Islands Forum in the island country of Kiribati a decisive victory. Yet all 16 nations that attended the historic summit see the Biketawa Declaration as the best framework yet for ensuring stability...
COMMENTARY
Nov 15, 2000

Right move, wrong reason

As U.S. President Bill Clinton was getting ready to head for Asia for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' meeting in Brunei, the White House confirmed that he would not be visiting North Korea on this trip after all, since the recent U.S.-North Korean missile talks in Kuala Lumpur, while "detailed,...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Nov 15, 2000

Whassup on the Web

It hasn't made it into Webster's Dictionary yet, but you already know this word. In fact, it's already in your head. It's that jingle, that logo, that look, that idea. It's called a meme, and there's a whole branch of social science devoted to it. Richard Dawkins, the man who coined the word in his book,...
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Nov 15, 2000

The secretive rabbits of Amami

Hunting rabbits is something I have only ever done on one island. When I say hunting, I don't mean with a gun; I mean armed with a spotlight, binoculars and notebook. The rabbits I hunt stay alive. That's rather crucial, because I am talking about the rabbits to be found marooned on an isolated island...
EDITORIALS
Nov 14, 2000

JRA arrest seals the end of an era

Last week's arrest of the top leader of the Japanese Red Army marked the virtual end of decades of terrorism by Japanese leftist extremists. Ms. Fusako Shigenobu, who had been on the international wanted list for a series of terrorist acts, is charged with, among other things, masterminding the occupation...
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 14, 2000

MLB stars leave Japan on winning note

Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants cranked out a solo home run in the sixth inning Sunday afternoon as a touring team of Major League Baseball All-Stars scored a 5-4 win in the eighth and final game of a goodwill series against their Japanese counterparts.
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2000

Banker held for taking millions from accounts

A former employee of Higashi-Nippon Bank, a medium-size regional bank based in Tokyo, was arrested Monday for allegedly withdrawing money from customers' savings accounts without their consent, police said.
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2000

Wanted Japanese leftists met Shigenobu in recent years

Japanese Red Army founder Fusako Shigenobu, who was arrested in Osaka Prefecture on Wednesday, since 1998 had met in China and Russia with fellow fugitive members of the leftist guerrilla group in apparent efforts to revive the group, public security sources said.
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2000

Rightist held in alleged bid to blackmail Giants

Police on Monday arrested a member of a rightwing organization for allegedly attempting to blackmail Yomiuri Giants Corp. by threatening to disclose embarrassing information about third baseman Akira Eto.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 14, 2000

Reasons for hope in Kosovo

Global efforts are under way to raise democratic principles to new levels. But a critical question remains: How effective are democratic principles, such as free and fair election and government by consent, in resolving ethnic and religious oppression and conflict, social discrimination (including contempt...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Nov 14, 2000

The last of the best from Cuba

Even after 10 years, I still find it difficult to predict what actually turns Japanese world-music fans on.
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2000

Panel OKs fertilization with donated ova, sperm

A panel of experts commissioned by the Health and Welfare Ministry has agreed to conditionally allow infertile couples to undergo in vitro fertilization using donated ova or sperm, as well as transplants of donated fertilized ova, panel members said.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 14, 2000

Dub mix-meister Sherwood back on a musical roll

Thanks and praise for some of the most challenging and innovative dub music of the '80s and '90s should go to Adrian Sherwood. From his label, On-U Sound, spring the likes of Tackhead, African Head Charge, Bim Sherman and a host of other dub renegades.
EDITORIALS
Nov 12, 2000

Through a glass creatively

"Truly, though our element is time," said the English poet Philip Larkin, "we are not suited to the long perspectives/ Open at each instant of our lives./ They link us to our losses."
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 12, 2000

Ichiro, Kinjo are the talk of the town

Talk on the Nagoya Dome field prior to Game 6 of the NTT Communications All-Star Series 2000 on Nov. 9, besides the chaotic U.S. presidential election results, centered around the news that some major league team had offered 14 oku yen ($13,125,000) for the rights to negotiate with soon-to-be-former...

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’