Search - 2002

 
 
EDITORIALS
Mar 4, 2008

Preventing forced confessions

False charges leveled in a 2002 rape and attempted rape in Toyama Prefecture and the acquittal of all defendants of vote-buying allegations in the 2003 Kagoshima Prefectural Assembly election were widely reported in 2007 and caused controversy.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2008

Lee gives Japan hope for united front against North

The inauguration of a new South Korean administration this month will bring Tokyo, Seoul and Washington closer to a unified position on how to deal with North Korea, while Japan's concerns that it might be left behind by the U.S. diminish as Pyongyang delays disclosing its nuclear programs, experts and...
EDITORIALS
Jan 8, 2008

A stronger recycling system

The trade and environment ministries plan to submit a bill to the Diet this year to revise the Home Appliance Recycling Law. Violations of the law by retailers and the illegal dumping of used appliances by resellers of secondhand articles make the revision necessary. It is hoped the revision will make...
COMMENTARY
Jan 7, 2008

Hope and betrayal in Kenya

LONDON — More than two years ago, when Kenya's current opposition leader, Raila Odinga, quit President Mwai Kibaki's government, I wrote the following: "The trick will be to get Kibaki out without triggering a wave of violence that would do the country grave and permanent damage. . . . Bad times are...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jan 6, 2008

Rock climbing rehabilitation, celebrity life stories, taking care of parents

Yasushi Yamanoi is one of Japan's most famous rock climbers. In 1994 he made it to the top of a Himalayan peak that stands 8,201 meters above sea level. He did it alone and without oxygen.
Japan Times
JAPAN / THIS FOREIGN LAND
Jan 5, 2008

Assistant language teachers in trying times

Last of four parts
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 29, 2007

Watami empire built on concept of family 'izakaya'

Until Miki Watanabe opened his first Watami "izakaya" pub in April 1992 in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, such eateries were considered places for business workers and college kids to have a cheap drink and a few side dishes.
LIFE
Dec 9, 2007

Japan's love affair with Oma's tuna

On Jan. 5, 2001, a 202-kg Pacific bluefin tuna sold at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market auction for $173,000 ($860 per kilogram), making it the most expensive single fish transaction ever recorded.
EDITORIALS
Dec 7, 2007

Hugo Chavez, democrat

Fears about the future of Venezuela's democracy have abated, at least for now. Despite pre-vote threats about the potential cost of opposing his wishes, President Hugo Chavez has accepted the defeat of his constitutional reform package. The outcome has the potential to rejuvenate a dispirited and divided...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 2, 2007

Forever passing on ancient secrets of strategy

The Art of War: Sun Zi's Military Methods, foreword by Arthur Waldron. New York: Columbia University Press, 208 pp., with frontispiece, 2007, $19.95 (cloth) Here is a new translation of the sixth-century-B.C. Chinese military manual that has been long seen as the definitive work on strategies and tactics....
COMMENTARY
Nov 30, 2007

Culture as a common asset

Politics (political phenomena) has become disconnected from culture (cultural phenomena) in East Asia.
BUSINESS
Nov 8, 2007

Quick profits, yes, but merger mania has its share of failures

Mergers and acquisitions are making headlines as companies increasingly seize on consolidations to generate quick profits to reward shareholders and cope with intensifying competition in a saturated domestic market.
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2007

Recidivism rate reached an all-time high in 2006

Despite an overall decline in reported crimes nationwide, those committed by repeat offenders reached a record high in 2006, according to a Justice Ministry white paper released Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Oct 14, 2007

Framed by the police

In a retrial of a man who had been found guilty of rape, the Takaoka branch of the Toyama District Court acquitted him Wednesday. Noting that his pretrial oral statements on which investigators had based their case against him were not trustworthy, the court ruled that the man is not the perpetrator....
BUSINESS
Oct 12, 2007

Moody's raises Japan's rating

Japan's local currency debt rating was raised one level to A1 from A2 by Moody's Investors Service, Moody's said Thursday, citing confidence that the government will pursue debt-cutting measures.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2007

Videotaping interrogations worth a look?

When the Toyama Prefectural Police announced in January they had found the real culprit in two rape cases in 2002 — for which 40-year-old Hiroshi Yanagihara had already been convicted and served time — it was no surprise to legal experts.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Sep 23, 2007

Japanese: A language in a state of flux

Languages are never static. They change and evolve with people over time. They also interact with other languages, and through an endless cycle of loaning and borrowing of words, ideas and concepts are shared, exchanged and nurtured across national and cultural boundaries.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Sep 20, 2007

Soccer pitchman scores big in small-market Niigata

Sunny but not too hot, the weather on the afternoon of May 6, 2001, was perfect for watching a soccer match. But there were only 4,800 people on hand to see Albirex Niigata take on Yokohama FC in the 18,671-seat Niigata City Stadium.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami