Search - about-us

 
 
EDITORIALS
Sep 17, 1999

Eyes on the ball at APEC

Ever since 1993, when U.S. President Bill Clinton turned the annual meeting of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation forum into a gathering for heads of state, critics have had a field day. Expectations have usually outpaced results, forcing participants to justify their attendance at what has been...
JAPAN
Sep 17, 1999

Nail salons ringing up cell phone profits

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 17, 1999

Insurers to sell Aoba Life to Artemis of France

The Life Insurance Association of Japan will sell Aoba Life Insurance Co. to Artemis, a holding company of major French retailer Pinault Printemps Redoute, for 25 billion yen, the association announced Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 1999

Nuclear utilities' Y2K assurances difficult to sell

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 17, 1999

Inclusion of flag, anthem in grad ceremonies up

Twenty-eight prefectures and four specially designated cities had all their public elementary, junior high and high schools hoist the Hinomaru and sing "Kimigayo" during graduation and entrance ceremonies this spring, the Education Ministry said Friday.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Sep 17, 1999

Chari Chari's evergreen sound

The term legend is often used lightly in music journalism. Kaoru Inoue, known as Chari Chari, is one of the few Tokyo DJs who could reasonably be called legendary.
EDITORIALS
Sep 16, 1999

New skills, old skills

New communications technologies pose unique dilemmas for parents. While a substantial majority of adults believe that familiarity with the Internet is an essential skill for children in the 21st century, they also fear the hazards lurking in cyberspace. They worry that adventurous youngsters will be...
JAPAN
Sep 16, 1999

Stag beetle hunter casts doubt on reported 10 million yen deal

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 16, 1999

Protesters slam WTO trade as Keidanren sets council

Carrying placards and handing out leaflets, more than 20 protesters gathered Thursday outside the Foreign Ministry, demanding that the government oppose the next round of World Trade Organization negotiations slated to begin in November.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 1999

Miyazawa and Hayami huddle over yen

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami held an emergency meeting Thursday afternoon in a bid to curb the yen's surge against the dollar but failed to achieve an immediate halt to the yen-buying trend.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 1999

Execs' arrest to reveal Kofuku's idea of 'family business'

OSAKA -- The arrest of former top executives of the failed Kofuku Bank is expected to unveil the dubious nature of the bank's "family-run" business, which is believed common among many second-tier regional banks.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 1999

Kanazawa to get wired in experiment

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Matsushita Communication Industrial Co. will begin a one-year joint experiment on a community-based information network in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, from April 2000, the companies said Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 1999

Road to closed captions no freeway for hearing impaired

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 16, 1999

Nikkei drops 700 at one point as dollar tumbles

Tokyo share prices plummeted broadly Thursday amid concerns about a preceding tumble in New York share prices and the yen's rise against the dollar.
EDITORIALS
Sep 15, 1999

Cautious optimism on the economy

Japan's economy in the second quarter of this year, April through June, expanded slightly at an annualized rate of 0.9 percent. This is a far cry from the 8.1 percent surge in the first quarter. But two consecutive quarters of positive growth make it reasonably clear that the protracted economic slump...
JAPAN
Sep 15, 1999

Report on faulty MOX fuel slow to reach Japan

Four days passed before concerned parties in Japan were told that mixed plutonium-uranium oxide fuel pellets to be shipped to Japan were improperly checked in Britain, it was learned Wednesday.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 1999

Office Depot tinkering to get it right

Staff writer
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ARCHIPELA-GO
Sep 15, 1999

Scarecrows are sprouting in Shitamachi

Over one hundred jauntily clad figures line the street where the Koto Ward Office once stood.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 15, 1999

Turn-of-the-century frolic shows nothing new under the sun

Postmodernism is a publisher's dream. Copy out "Don Quixote" verbatim and you get a cultural reinterpretation, joked Jorge Luis Borges; give an old book a new cover and you get a tribal reclamation, proclaim the editors of this Race in the Americas imprint.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Sep 15, 1999

The family that surfs together ...

There is something mildly unsettling about the cyberpolice's fixation with child pornography. At the Internet Content Summit, held last week in Munich and hosted by the Bertelsmann Stiftung, kiddie porn was repeatedly denounced by participants. To judge from the general tone of the comments, it embodied...
JAPAN
Sep 15, 1999

Don Quijote sees itself as lord of discount 'jungle'

Staff writer
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 15, 1999

Roaming the world's watery dunes

As the typhoon season cuts between summer and autumn, many species are on the move. This is the season of migration for land birds and seabirds. While the land birds island-hop between Northeast and Southeast Asia, some of the seabirds are embarking on journeys that may span entire oceans. Streaked shearwaters...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 15, 1999

Young at heart, but never free of Johnny

On Aug. 30, former idol singer and tell-all autobiographer Hiromi Go staged an unannounced live show from the back of a tractor trailer parked near the Hachiko intersection in Shibuya. The five-minute performance, which featured four other dancers, stopped traffic and clogged up the area as pedestrians...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 15, 1999

Obtrusive nails, squeaky wheels

Not so very often I recall the following words of advice from my dear old mother, a tiding of the heart delivered straight from parent to child.
COMMENTARY
Sep 15, 1999

A growing appetite for safety

LONDON -- Genetic biologists -- especially those working for big U.S. companies such as Monsanto -- and U.S. trade negotiators are furious with Europeans because they are not prepared to accept that hormone-injected beef and gene-modified soybeans, rape-seed oil and other genetically modified crops are...
JAPAN
Sep 15, 1999

Runners hit by heatstroke in Tachikawa relay

Fifteen men and women fell victim to heatstroke Wednesday while running in an "ekiden" relay marathon in Showa Kinen Park in Tachikawa, western Tokyo, shortly after noon. Thirteen were taken to the hospital.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 1999

Ford to focus on image rather than numbers

In a move to change its marketing strategy, Ford Japan Ltd. will concentrate on building its brand image rather than pursuing numerical sales targets, senior officials of the company announced Tuesday.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 1999

Regional Focus: Hokkaido

Otaru pins revival hopes on mega-mall complex> Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 14, 1999

Airlines prove Y2K-compliance with test flights

Test flights conducted at midnight Monday proved Japan's major airlines and aviation control systems can cope with the Year 2000 computer problem, Transport Minister Jiro Kawasaki said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 1999

Japan, China consider upgrading security forum

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