Search - about-us

 
 
JAPAN
Oct 6, 1999

Police raid Tokai plant; agency revokes license

MITO, Ibaraki Pref. -- Police on Wednesday raided the headquarters of JCO Co. in Tokyo and its nuclear fuel processing plant in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, as the repercussions of last week's nuclear accident continued to reverberate throughout the country.
JAPAN
Oct 6, 1999

Cleanup project sign of closer Japan- Cuba relations

Staff writer
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Oct 6, 1999

Nature nurtured by the Dead Sea

"There is nothing, absolutely nothing alive in this sea; neither fish nor algae nor molluscs, only rocks and salt, candid saline formations that rise from the water like ghostly coral."
COMMUNITY
Oct 6, 1999

Widow recalls 'Japan's Schindler'

YOKOHAMA -- Yukiko Sugihara, 85, still recalls the huge crowd outside the Japanese Consulate in Nazi-occupied Lithuania one cold summer morning in 1940 -- hundreds of European Jews desperate to escape persecution.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 1999

Back to the brink in Indonesia

"What we have now in Indonesia is the same old New Order without Suharto. Nothing is really changing."
JAPAN
Oct 6, 1999

Widow recalls consul's effort to aid Jews

Staff writer
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 1999

Grim lessons from East Timor

"Promising too much can be as cruel as caring too little" was the truly mind-boggling statemen of U.S. President Bill Clinton before the United Nations Sept. 21. Now he tells us. So much for the "Clinton Doctrine" of humanitarian intervention. Yet as international peacekeepers pour into a devastated...
LIFE / Travel
Oct 6, 1999

Fall in Kyushu unique after all

AKIZUKI, Fukuoka Pref. -- "Japan," I am frequently informed, with looks of grave importance, "has four seasons." I always wonder if I should feign amazement at this fact, or be silly and ask whether this is because Japan is an island country and all foreigners hate natto. But I can never be told enough...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 6, 1999

The years of our lives spent in meetings

It's true that things have changed. In America, for example, we used to say any child could one day grow up to be president. Yet, Bill Clinton has now proved growing up isn't really necessary.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Oct 6, 1999

The future is in the air

I have written and read e-mail during my commute, beamed my virtual meishi to new acquaintances, played cards in taxis, and once in a shameless display of computing on my feet I consulted a database of Tokyo restaurants, which I had downloaded from www.bento.com, and located a great Indonesian joint...
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Oct 6, 1999

When trappers outfoxed the Bering islands

The red fox is a familiar creature here in Japan, but travel northward and it is soon replaced by another species. At higher latitudes, the arctic or polar fox is the ubiquitous hardy scavenger and predator. It is better adapted to the colder conditions, with a shorter muzzle, smaller ears and a thicker,...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 1999

The world as policeman

LONDON -- U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has rightly drawn attention to the "need for timely intervention by the international community when death and suffering are being inflicted on large numbers of people, and when the state nominally in charge is unable or unwilling to stop it." He has pointed...
EDITORIALS
Oct 2, 1999

A last chance for Indonesia

Nearly four months after the first free and fair elections in four decades, Indonesia's new Parliament, the People's Consultative Assembly, convened Friday. The opening session marked a new era in the nation's politics. The MPR, as the Parliament is known, is being seated at a difficult time. Indonesia...
COMMENTARY
Oct 2, 1999

Blair touts 'the vision thing'

LONDON -- Watching British Prime Minister Tony Blair is like watching a religious phenomenon. He has stepped off his platform on the backs of members of the Labor Party and has ascended into the clouds, where he hopes to be borne along by the rushing winds of the future. As he lifts off, he kicks away...
CULTURE / Art
Oct 2, 1999

The duality of light and shadow at the crossing of diverging roads

At first glance, the photographs of Ralph Gibson and those of Robert Mapplethorpe appear to have little in common. Gibson (b. 1939) is a graduate of the school of "straight photography" (the term applies to a classic approach, not one's sexual orientation, although further differences between the two...
CULTURE / Art
Oct 2, 1999

Winged labors of love

Bird carvings have typically been thought of as a Western art form, but Haruo Uchiyama is challenging this assumption. Even the birds that have come into contact with his carvings have been made believers.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Oct 2, 1999

New audiences for Japanese music

It takes a lot of planning and creative effort to successfully present a public concert, and hogaku is no exception.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 1999

Taiwan quake shakes China's mandate

BEIJING -- Chinese news coverage of the killer earthquake in Taiwan has been both muted and sporadic, ranging from solicitous concern for the rogue province to no news at all. When the earthquake did get print or air time in the week following the temblor, coverage tended to focus on what mainland authorities,...
JAPAN
Oct 1, 1999

COP5 gathering to set rules for emissions goals

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Sep 30, 1999

Russia's Chechen scapegoat

A wave of terrorist bombings in Moscow is pushing Russia once again toward war. No government can permit its citizens to be terrorized, and the scale of the recent attacks suggests that a formidable enemy is at work. Still, Moscow's response to the bombings seems ill-planned and desperate. Just as troubling...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 1999

More reform needed to underpin Japan's economic recovery

Japan has made important progress in recent years in the area of regulatory and other structural reforms, but there is an urgent need for further and more rapid progress to strengthen future Japanese growth and prosperity.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 1999

Chinese students embrace lessons of Japanese advertising

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 30, 1999

Cut in broker commissions to bring unheralded competition

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 30, 1999

Tokai nuclear accident goes critical; remains out of control

A nuclear accident at a uranium-processing plant 125 km northeast of Tokyo on Thursday reached criticality, injuring three and pushing radiation levels up to 20,000 times beyond normal in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 1999

Campaign for Anti-Aum law to continue

The government remains committed to its plan to draw up a new law to specifically restrict the activities of Aum Shinrikyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 1999

Pressure on Jakarta urged to head off Timor debacle

Regional correspondent
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 30, 1999

Iron stomachs and chefs give it their all

Japan has produced a fair number of marathon stars. It's an achievement that probably has less to do with genetically bound physical attributes than with culturally bound psychological ones. The "gambaru" mentality that governs so many endeavors in Japan, especially in the world of sports, is central...
JAPAN
Sep 30, 1999

Aum cultist given death sentence for part in subway attack

A senior Aum Shinrikyo member was sentenced to death Thursday for releasing deadly nerve gas on the Tokyo subway system in March 1995 and for illegally manufacturing a rifle.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 1999

Washington consensus cracks, but what is next?

WASHINGTON -- Is the so-called Washington consensus coming to an end?
JAPAN
Sep 30, 1999

Japan to tighten ties with Libya, send ambassador

Staff writer

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