Search - about-us

 
 
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2000

East Japan basking in record heat

Scorching sunshine beat down across eastern Japan on Saturday, with the mercury nearing 40 C in some parts as hot, humid air streamed into the Japanese archipelago from the south, the Meteorological Agency said.
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2000

Miyake islanders evacuated to Tokyo

Some 280 of the remaining residents of Miyake left the island aboard a ferry Saturday afternoon, in accordance with an evacuation order issued by local officials the previous day as fears rose that islanders could be injured by falling rocks superheated by volcanic activity and ash thrown out from Mount...
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2000

Osaka's beer summit draws microbrewed stately heads

OSAKA -- If you're tired of the bland, mass-produced, artificially carbonated barley water that too many companies are pushing as beer, relief will soon be at hand.
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2000

Five firms to integrate Tokyo cable TV businesses

Fujitsu Ltd., Secom Co., Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Marubeni Corp. have agreed to integrate their cable television (CATV) businesses to create the industry's second largest CATV operator, sources within the industry said Saturday.
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2000

Antistalking law seen falling short

KOBE -- An antistalking law that cleared the Diet in May and goes into effect in November is being called insufficient, and speakers at a recent symposium here are calling for new, tougher legislation and urging police to change their attitudes about stalking.
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2000

17 hurt by gas released in restaurant

OSAKA -- Seventeen people were treated at a hospital for minor throat injuries after pungent-smelling smoke suddenly filled a restaurant in Osaka's Ikuno Ward on Friday night, police said Saturday.
COMMUNITY
Sep 3, 2000

Extreme Goes Mainstream

SAN FRANCISCO As Cory "Nasty" Nastazio, 22, comes off his dirt jumping practice at the 2000 X-Games site in San Francisco, he pulls up to the ESPN cameraman on his little BMX bike and the first thing he does is remove his helmet.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2000

Crackdown keeps online China in line

The arrest of poet Huang Beiling in Beijing on Aug. 12 was reported by his brother Huang Feng, an independent publisher, who was himself arrested a week later. Going after writers and publishers with "political problems" is not a new sport in China, but an unfair one. Civil society has not yet produced...
COMMENTARY
Sep 3, 2000

New Zealand let down by laissez-faire

The collapse of the New Zealand dollar, now worth only a fraction of its former value, says a lot about the sorry state of economic punditry nowadays.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2000

Striving for a healthier, wealthier Asia

Institutions and concepts cause poverty and environmental degradation.
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2000

Shiseido unit failed to report blast

OSAKA -- Officials of Osaka Shiseido Co. failed to report an explosion in August at a factory in the city's Higashi-Yodogawa Ward that injured two employees, it was learned Saturday.
BUSINESS
Sep 2, 2000

Power developer eyes investment in Asia

The Electric Power Development Co. is about to sign contracts to build power generation facilities in Thailand and China, company officials said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2000

Foot cultist admits fraud during first trial hearing

A former member of the Honohana Sanpogyo foot-reading cult on Friday admitted during the first session of her trial that she conspired with cult leader Hogen Fukunaga, 55, to defraud two women of nearly 4 million yen.
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2000

Miyake Island faces full evacuation

Following two months of earthquakes and eruptions on Miyake Island in the Izu island chain, Miyake Mayor Ko Hasegawa on Friday effectively ordered all residents to evacuate the island within three days as the threat from Mount Oyama intensified.
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2000

Chronology of events on Miyake

The following is a chronology of events surrounding the recent series of eruptions of Mount Oyama on Miyake Island.
SUMO
Sep 2, 2000

Yokozuna favored in autumn tournament

Special to The Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 2, 2000

Kumagai seeks waiver of 450 billion yen in debts

The debt-ridden construction company Kumagai Gumi Co. will ask its five major creditors, including Sumitomo Bank and Shinsei Bank, to forgive debts totaling 450 billion yen as part of the firm's rehabilitation plan, company sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2000

GPS satellites enlisted to help predict earthquakes, eruptions

In their quest to accurately predict earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, Japanese scientists have discovered that the satellite-based system that helps motorists navigate is an invaluable -- though as yet imperfect -- aid.
EDITORIALS
Sep 2, 2000

A fragile outpost in space

There are three kinds of people in the world: those who are intrigued by and optimistic about the International Space Station; those who are outraged by and skeptical of it; and those who look blank and say, "What International Space Station?"
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2000

Mori, Putin unlikely to solve island row

Russian President Vladimir Putin will sit down with Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Monday, and while the two will try to settle a territorial dispute over a group of tiny islands north of Hokkaido, they are expected to end up in a decades-old deadlock.
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2000

Mori's house has odd occupants

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is less than happy about the state of his official residence, saying the many mice that scurry through the dwelling are not the aging residence's only unwanted visitors -- "Some say there are ghosts as well," he said.
BUSINESS
Sep 2, 2000

Daimler to dispatch MMC's next chief

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. will ask DaimlerChrysler AG to dispatch a top manager to replace its president, Katsuhiko Kawasoe, who is resigning over a scandal involving coverups of customer complaints over defective vehicles, industry sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
Sep 2, 2000

State finalizes sale of NCB to Softbank

The government said Friday it completed the sale of the nationalized Nippon Credit Bank to a consortium led by Internet investor Softbank Corp., ending 21 months of state control of the bank.
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2000

Absence of U.S. from U.N. confab said unfortunate

Environment Agency head Yoriko Kawaguchi on Friday called the absence of the United States at a United Nations' environment ministerial meeting in Kitakyushu unfortunate and urged both countries to address the whaling issue causing the rift rationally.
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2000

Emperor Showa took 'active' role in war, author says

The late Emperor Showa was anything but the military-manipulated pacifist he has been portrayed as in the United States since the end of World War II.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Sep 2, 2000

Historic Sogakudo still a home for music

At the edge of Ueno Park sits an elegant Victorian-style building. Designed by the pioneer Japanese architect Hanroku Yamaguchi, who studied at the Ecole Politechnique in Paris, the Sogakudo was constructed in 1890 as the first hall for the performance of Western music in Japan.
EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 2000

Myanmar's accidental tourist

The town of Dala is "a small but scenic and charming town which is a 10-minute boat ride down the Rangoon River from Yangon," reports the military junta that runs Myanmar. Maybe, but it is unlikely that Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and opposition leader, is enjoying her stay in Dala....
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2000

Group explores cross-cultural links

This summer, the usual revelers in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward encountered a group of apparently out-of-place people who were on a mission to explore the nocturnal life of this multicultural town.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2000

Tokyo disaster drill features SDF in big way

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's annual major disaster-relief drill Sunday will feature the participation of Self-Defense Forces troops on an unprecedented scale -- 7,100 service members, 1,090 vehicles, 80 aircraft and five ships -- at 10 venues throughout the capital.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes