Search - about-us

 
 
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 12, 2000

Robert Whiting

For the last 50 years Japan has come under intense Western scrutiny from many quarters. Scholars, writers, professional men and women in different pursuits have contributed observations and analyses of Japanese thoughts and lifestyles and behavior. Bob Whiting crafted a way of his own to add to the body...
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2000

Kono, Downer agree on policy

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN -- Foreign Minister Yohei Kono and his Australian counterpart, Alexander Downer, agreed Saturday to continue working to bring North Korea into the international fold, a Japanese official said.
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2000

Money-strapped NPOs must learn to use Internet: expert

KYOTO -- The proliferation of the Internet is spurring many groups to aggressively try to keep up with sweeping changes, and nonprofit organizations are no exception.
COMMENTARY
Nov 12, 2000

Don't be fooled by N. Korea

LONDON -- I watched with dismay the recent pictures of U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright hobnobbing with Kim Jong Il, the communist dictator of North Korea. I admire Albright and guess that she was unhappy at having to be seen in such company. She was only doing her job and no doubt justified...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 12, 2000

Japan's not-so-silent media conspiracy

Some months ago I went up to Tohoku to give a public lecture sponsored by a television station. After the talk there was a delightful, informal dinner, during which I chatted with an old friend, a producer at the station.
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2000

Investigators get access to terrorist suspect

The Tokyo District Court on Saturday gave investigators permission to detain Fusako Shigenobu, the founder of the Japanese Red Army guerrilla group who was arrested Wednesday after almost 30 years on the run, for 10 days.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 12, 2000

On taking the eightfold path to environmental awareness

Environmentalists are a hard breed to pin down, much less to classify. They come in all shapes and sizes, and some even reject the name.
EDITORIALS
Nov 11, 2000

Taiwan's democratic growing pains

The impeachment controversy thickens. Politics has descended into name-calling and threats of lawsuits. The currency is slumping, share prices are plummeting and investors are fleeing in droves. The established political order is lining up against the president and threatening to impeach him. But this...
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

University head wants gender reflected in education reform

Japan's first woman president of a major coed university said Thursday that national policies being drawn up for education reform should cover gender issues to create a society where all individuals are respected.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

Kato turns up heat on embattled Mori

The fate of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's administration looked questionable Friday as his party rival Koichi Kato implied he might not support the Cabinet against a no-confidence motion being threatened by opposition parties.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

Women give each other boost at business forum

SASEBO, Nagasaki Pref. -- Female business leaders from 10 countries shared their experiences Friday and encouraged each other with the knowledge that their roles in business and society will be more important in the coming century.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

Science and politics expected to clash at COP6

Scientists agree that the Earth's atmosphere is getting warmer. There is consensus too that this warming will be the paramount environmental threat in the next century, as predictions see oceans swallowing beaches, tropical diseases spreading north and more species facing extinction.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

Sasaki pitches in for kids in need

Pitcher Kazuhiro Sasaki, who was recently named the American League's Rookie of the Year, will fund a scholarship for children living in Bangkok's slums for a third consecutive year, it was learned Friday.
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 11, 2000

Art transcends time in 'Julius Caesar' production

A talented theater director can breathe new life into an old play, and David Lan, the new artistic director of the Young Vic Theater in southeast London, has done just that.
CULTURE / Art
Nov 11, 2000

Capturing private moments of a gritty London

"Point and Shoot" -- an exhibition of gritty black-and-white photographs of nothing in particular, the work of the inimitable Henry Bond and his shots of the streets, people and places of London -- his home -- is now on show at the Taro Nasu Gallery.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

Bureaucrat loses appeal of conviction for bribery

The Tokyo High Court on Friday upheld a lower court ruling sentencing former Vice Health and Welfare Minister Nobuharu Okamitsu to two years in prison for accepting about 60 million yen in bribes from a nursing home operator.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Nov 11, 2000

And the confusion begins

I said that this was going to be a historically close election, that it was quite possible that one presidential candidate would carry the popular vote while the other won the presidency by capturing the Electoral College vote, and that the counting would not be conclusive on election night.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2000

Where information is only for the rich

PHNOM PENH -- In an information-technology world, the vast majority of Cambodians remain deprived. While the amount of information in the country has been growing significantly, compared with the dark past, as with everything else here information is being hoarded by the rich and powerful.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

Yamamoto admits to bilking state

Former House of Representatives member Joji Yamamoto pleaded guilty Friday to defrauding the state of more than 25 million yen when he pocketed the state-paid salary of a woman fictitiously registered as his policy secretary.
EDITORIALS
Nov 10, 2000

Down to the wire and beyond

We knew that the U.S. election was going to be close, but no one could have dreamed up the drama that has unfolded in the last 36 hours. The American public is as neatly divided as is possible: With over 96 million people going to the polls, the two candidates are separated by less than 1 percent of...
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

Political aides held for loan deals

Tokyo prosecutors Thursday arrested an aide to House of Representatives lawmaker Taichiro Nishikawa and an aide to Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly member Tai Yamazaki for allegedly playing key roles in the illegal brokering of loan guarantees to small businesses.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

New Komeito, Soka Gakkai to be tougher on Mori

New Komeito and its main base of support, Soka Gakkai, Japan's largest lay Buddhist organization, said the party will more aggressively push its agenda in the ruling coalition in response to supporters' growing dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's administration.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

Politician arrested in teen-sex probe

The Metropolitan Police Department has arrested a 48-year-old Tokyo ward assembly member on suspicion of paying to have sex with teenage girls, in violation of the law banning child prostitution.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Nov 10, 2000

Alomar keeping eye on the future

Picture this: It's the year 2010 and the Yomiuri Giants are gunning for their first title in 10 years. It's late in the season and they desperately need a win. With two out in the bottom of the ninth, an aging batsman strolls to the plate. You've seen him a million times before on both sides of the Pacific....
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Nov 10, 2000

Kobe's FBI investigates improvisation

Improvisation is a tricky business. In mediocre hands, it is interminable at best, masturbatory at worst. But with skilled practitioners, improvisation becomes the haute couture of the music world, each piece tailored on the spot to a particular confluence of musicians, audience, time and place.
COMMENTARY
Nov 10, 2000

Mori's nine lives are almost used up

The coalition government of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is clearly in a delicate situation. Should he make another serious mistake, Mori will be forced to resign. I had some hopes for Mori as prime minister, since the late Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe, a friend of mine, had praised his political acumen....
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

Japan, U.S. hold base-disaster drill

Japanese and U.S. military forces held a joint disaster-relief drill Thursday at the U.S. Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo, the first exercise of its kind between the two nations.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years