Search - japan

 
 
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Jul 27, 2004

Publishers bid to halt reading slump with flood of new youth-oriented titles

"Reading at Risk," a report published in the United States this month by the National Endowment for the Arts, deplores the decline of reading. Now, fewer than half of American adults read fiction, with the rate of decline especially sharp among those who are 18 to 24 years of age. Newsweek (7/19) notes...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 25, 2004

Cashing in on ideas

Thomas Edison's electricity, Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, the Wright Brothers' creaky biplane, H.G. Wells' time machine (OK, that last one hasn't happened yet), but through these world-changing discoveries, our daily lives have been made easier. Flick a switch and light banishes the darkness, pick...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2004

Jenkins' condition not serious; stress main cause for concern

Accused U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins' illness is not serious, but he will need to stay hospitalized due to severe stress, his doctor said Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2004

DPJ to publish English booklet of campaign pledges

The Democratic Party of Japan will publish an English version of its latest platform to promote its policies worldwide, sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2004

New system fails to rally overseas voters

Six years after a system was introduced to allow Japanese living overseas to cast ballots in national elections in Japan, their voter turnout remains extremely low.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 24, 2004

Morio Matsui

In times of difficulty and pain, Morio Matsui says he has always been saved by his painting.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDEN PATHS
Jul 24, 2004

Down by the watersides

In the heat of summer we are naturally drawn to water, and for centuries water has been a vital element in Oriental gardens. In the ninth century, the Chinese poet Po-Chu-i (known as Hakurakuten in Japan) wrote about a small pond in his garden, and his words still evoke the timeless pleasures of the...
JAPAN
Jul 23, 2004

Opposition to wage fresh war on pension reforms

Opposition parties have renewed their offensive against the recently enacted pension reform legislation, demanding Thursday that the government correct the 40 typographical and other minor errors in the package when the extra Diet session convenes at month's end.
EDITORIALS
Jul 23, 2004

The Philippines' choice

The government of Philippine President Gloria Magapagal-Arroyo has withdrawn its forces from Iraq to save the life of a kidnapped Filipino. The gamble worked. The hostage, Mr. Angelo de la Cruz, was released unharmed this week and the nation -- like much of the world -- has rejoiced in his freedom. Unfortunately,...
JAPAN
Jul 23, 2004

Nine Japanese go to China for fetal cell transplants

Nine Japanese with damaged spinal cords underwent cell transplants in China with cells taken from aborted fetuses, Japan Spinal Cord Foundation officials said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2004

Anger builds over EEZ violations

The government is planning to lodge a stronger protest with Beijing over the repeated presence of Chinese survey ships in Japan's exclusive economic zone, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2004

Kono hits Keidanren arms trade push

House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono on Wednesday blasted the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) over its suggestion that the government should lift its ban on arms exports.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 21, 2004

Reversal by owners likely to keep two-league system in place

Two weeks ago, it appeared Japanese pro baseball was surely headed for a 10-team, one-league restructuring for next season.
COMMUNITY / LIFELINES
Jul 20, 2004

More credit and readers need help

More free credit Reader "Tokyo Angel" got a no-charge credit card after hunting around for a while. She currently has a Nicos Visa card through the post office (application forms are available from all post offices) that has no annual fee and which includes full travel insurance aswell, even if you don't...
Japan Times
Features
Jul 18, 2004

Woe betide the accused

Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Jul 18, 2004

Candela rise above definitions of East and West

Japanese culture is famed for importing artistic forms and converting them to new patterns, but one local group of foreign musicians is trying to reverse that trend. Candela, a group of four American musicians with diverse musical backgrounds, creates jazz-based music with Japanese melodies; folk tunes...
OLYMPICS
Jul 17, 2004

Takahara misses out

Feyenoord midfielder Shinji Ono and teenage striker Sota Hirayama were included in Japan's final squad for next month's Athens Olympics, but Naohiro Takahara's faint hopes of playing in Greece ended after he was omitted from the 18-man party named by the Japan Football Association on Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 17, 2004

UFJ, MTFG agree to start merger talks

UFJ Holdings Inc. and Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. -- two of Japan's four major banking groups -- said Friday they have agreed to start merger talks, aiming to integrate their operations during the first half of fiscal 2005.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 17, 2004

Benjamin Lee

Six years ago when the Chen Kaige movie "First Emperor" was being made in China, celebrity photographer Benjamin Lee went along from Tokyo for the filming. "I had the chance to meet the producer, and in an interesting way followed the crew around," he said. He did more than look on. He spent six months...
COMMUNITY
Jul 17, 2004

Designing and touring Japanese gardens in U.K.

Robert Ketchell, a designer of Japanese gardens and a guide to gardens in Japan, is at full stretch when we first talk. He is off to meet Princess Anne in Spalding, on Lincolnshire's east coast, where she is due to visit a garden he and his business partner, Jacquie Blakeley, have created.
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2004

South Koreans blast 'distorted' textbook

A group of South Korean residents here urged the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's board of education Thursday not to adopt a controversial junior high school textbook -- which critics say glosses over Japan's wartime atrocities -- for use in a public secondary school that will open in April.
EDITORIALS
Jul 15, 2004

AIDS can be beaten

AIDS has become the worst pandemic in human history, eclipsing even the Black Death of the 14th century. Unlike the plague, AIDS often kills the descendants of victims who have passed on. There is no excuse for the failure to tackle this scourge; there is ample evidence of effective ways to respond to...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2004

Forces pact should underscore Japanese lack of rights: lawyer

Attorney Annette Eddie-Callagain has had to defend people subjected to closed-door interrogations, limited access to lawyers and lengthy detention during which they are pressured to confess.
Japan Times
JAPAN / BY THE NUMBERS
Jul 14, 2004

Brewers hope to bask in suds sales as mercury rises

The mood at breweries goes up with the mercury -- when it's blazing hot, ice-cold beer is irresistible and sales skyrocket.
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2004

Postal privatization talks to resume next week

Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Heizo Takenaka said Tuesday the government will resume postal privatization discussions next week and draw up a final report on the issue in September.
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2004

Cabinet Office says recovery 'solid' for first time since 1997

The government on Tuesday upgraded its assessment of Japan's economy for the first time in six months, using the strongest words to describe an improvement in personal spending since the burst of the asset-inflated bubble economy in the early 1990s.
EDITORIALS
Jul 13, 2004

A message for Mr. Koizumi

Voters gave a cold shoulder to the governing Liberal Democratic Party and a big boost to the opposition Democratic Party of Japan in Sunday's triennial Upper House election, which was contested mainly over pension reform and Self-Defense Forces participation in the multinational force in Iraq. With the...

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers