Search - about-us

 
 
LIFE / Travel
Jul 5, 2000

Japanese researcher chips away at an ancient mystery

PHONSAVAN, Laos -- Archaeologist Eiji Nitta dug and scraped. The answer to the puzzle of the giant stone vessels scattered throughout the Plain of Jars in northern Laos lay, he believed, not in their material or their contents, but in what lay under them.
LIFE / Travel
Jul 5, 2000

The Plain of Jars: A place of war and death

PHONSAVAN, Laos -- It should be hard to go missing on the Plain of Jars. But hundreds have.
BUSINESS
Jul 5, 2000

Japan to resume yen loans to Colombia

After nearly five years of suspension, Japan will resume official yen loans to Colombia to help the Latin American country rebuild its shattered economy, government sources said Tuesday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jul 5, 2000

Mind reading, or am I just predictable?

It is often said that long-time married couples grow so close they can actually read each other's minds, but either that's hooey or my wife and I are out of synch, ESP-wise.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jul 5, 2000

Species hidden in the mist of Tikal

TIKAL, Guatemala -- Early morning, and thin mist licks around the feet of Tikal's towering Mayan temples. It is that haunted time, not quite light, not quite dark, when one feels that the odds of seeing a jaguar padding golden-eyed through the ruins are at their highest.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jul 5, 2000

The tyranny of the square

When talking to Ted Nelson, strap in tight. It's quite a ride. Trained as a philosopher and film director, he is equal parts visionary and crank. Many consider him to be one of the fathers of the World Wide Web. He coined the word "hypertext" in 1965, but he has become a scathing critic of the Web and...
COMMENTARY
Jul 5, 2000

Advancing smartly backward

LONDON -- It is an old American saying that "the pioneer is the one who gets the arrow in his back." So when President Jacques Chirac of France recently proposed a "pioneering" project to bring France and Germany still closer together at the political level and, as he put it, to "move further and faster...
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 5, 2000

Migrants and vagrants under Teuri's crags

An hour and a half west of the small harbor town of Haboro, which is just three hours north of Sapporo, lie two small islands: Teuri and Yagishiri. Teuri is easy to visit and has fascinating seabird colonies and good walking. There is a ferry from Haboro, which goes via Yagishiri, and although there...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jul 5, 2000

Sometimes too late

Several readers have asked me to repeat my favorite column. That is quite difficult. Actually, there would be two but neither was ever written. There are many questions that are never selected to be in a column.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2000

A Japan-U.S. alliance for an altered world

The world is still trying to grasp the meaning of the summit between the two Koreas. Many are euphoric; wiser heads counsel that there is a long way to go before there's real peace on the Korean Peninsula. Nonetheless, if reconciliation and, eventually, unification do come about, the effects will be...
EDITORIALS
Jul 4, 2000

A step toward financial stability

The Financial Agency, which was launched Saturday in a major move to integrate the operating and planning roles of financial policymaking bodies, started actual operations on Monday. The new financial-watchdog body combines the Financial Supervisory Agency and the Finance Ministry's Financial Planning...
SOCCER / World cup
Jul 4, 2000

Japanese, Koreans study cohosting at Euro 2000

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- Senior officials from both the Japanese and Korean World Cup organizing committees said Saturday they expected to learn many things from the cohosted Euro 2000 Soccer Championship, but emphasized that the 2002 World Cup was a different kettle of fish with its own attendant problems....
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2000

Bacteria outbreak at Osaka hospital claims lives of seven elderly patients

OSAKA -- Seven elderly patients at a hospital in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, died between May 7 and Saturday after contracting serratia bacteria -- apparently inside the facility, officials said Monday.
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2000

Strong quakes continue to jolt Izu isles

Nine fairly strong earthquakes, all registering 4 on the 7-point Japanese intensity scale, jolted the islands of Niijima, Kozu, and Miyake in the Izu chain Monday, the Meteorological Agency said.
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2000

Diet members earn more despite slump

The average income among Diet members in 1999 was 30.44 million yen, up 1.94 million yen from a year earlier, according to a report released Monday.
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2000

Loto-Six -- win, lose or carry it over

The lottery association has announced it will start selling tickets for the highest prize-money lottery, Loto-Six, on Oct. 2.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jul 4, 2000

Festival fun for the young and those who just wish they were

The main excuses I've heard for not attending one of this summer's two international rock festivals in Japan are: "None of my favorite bands are coming" and "there's hardly any big names."
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2000

Japanese photographer documents lives of Korean A-bomb survivors

Images of Korean survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima who later returned to live in South Korea will be displayed in Japan this summer.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 4, 2000

Timeless jabs at the ordinary

LIGHT VERSE FROM THE FLOATING WORLD: An Anthology of Premodern Japanese Senryu, compiled, translated, and with an introduction by Makoto Ueda. Columbia University Press, 273 pp., 1999. My employer, a Japanese trade agency, holds an annual New Year senryu contest. One entry back in 1992, when Bill Clinton...
COMMENTARY
Jul 4, 2000

Japan is financially and morally bankrupt

Japan faces the danger of moral bankruptcy. It is difficult to rebuild a morally bankrupt nation, although it is possible to save a financially bankrupt nation with a package of drastic policy measures that could impose economic hardship on the public.
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2000

Detention of ex-minister Nakao extended

The Tokyo District Court has decided to allow former Construction Minister Eiichi Nakao to be detained for another 10 days through July 11, sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2000

Snow Brand shuts down factory after low-fat milk infected

OSAKA -- The Osaka Municipal Government ordered Snow Brand Milk Products Co. to halt operations at its Osaka factory, where processed low-fat milk has been found responsible for sickening nearly 7,000 people.
BUSINESS
Jul 3, 2000

Election results mean Diet must heed fickle workforce

The tripartite coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party have managed to win an "absolute comfortable" majority that will enable them to control all standing committees in the powerful Lower House and chair them as well.
EDITORIALS
Jul 3, 2000

Mr. Mugabe's choice

Zimbabwe is beginning a new era. Last week's elections mark an end to the unchallenged rule of President Robert Mugabe. The president now must make a historic choice. He can either be remembered as the man who led his country into independence or he can aspire to be the man who did that and led his country...
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2000

Japan looks to cleaner sources of energy

Tokai disaster prompts nation to take a new look at alternative power Staff writer
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2000

Repairs begin as Kozu quakes

Restoration work began Sunday as aftershocks continued to rattle the island of Kozu following a 6.4-magnitude earthquake Saturday afternoon that killed one local resident.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 3, 2000

Australia warily watches arc of insecurity

SYDNEY -- Once the world romanticized about the South Pacific paradise. Today, Australia is guardedly debating the Balkanization of the South Pacific.
SOCCER / World cup
Jul 3, 2000

Okano says Troussier's his man

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- Japan Football Association president Shunichiro Okano confirmed on Saturday that Philippe Troussier will stay on as manager of the Japan national team until the 2002 World Cup, pending contract negotiations.
COMMUNITY
Jul 3, 2000

It's a drink and a snack: black soybeans

Japanese health enthusiasts are pursuing another lead in their quest for healthi er living. Following the green-tea boom, they are now drinking a much darker "tea," prepared not from tea leaves but from black soybeans.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji