Search - japan

 
 
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2001

Wholesalers still clinging on

While foreign retailers are seeking to trade directly with Japanese manufacturers in an effort to cut costs and prices, wholesalers will continue to play a key role in the domestic distribution chain, according to Seiichiro Kojima, president of nonfood wholesaler Chuo Bussan Corp.
EDITORIALS
Dec 19, 2001

EU readying for new challenge

Leaders of the European Union, meeting in Brussels last weekend, agreed to set up a broadly represented advisory body next March to draft recommendations for EU reform. The agreement marks another milestone on the road to an enlarged EU. Half a century following the creation of a common European market,...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 19, 2001

No Big Mac, no surprise

It should not be a surprise to anyone that Mark McGwire is not going to play for the Chunichi Dragons next season.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 19, 2001

2001 -- A sound odyssey

It was a year for rocking, for boppig, for grooving, for moshing, for swaying and of course, for listening. Taking one last spin through the sounds of the past 12 months, our music writers tell us what they heard.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2001

Obituary: Hiroshi Minami

Pioneer social psychologist Hiroshi Minami died early Monday of pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital, his family said. He was 87.
BUSINESS
Dec 18, 2001

BOJ vows action if bank crisis hits

Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami on Monday pledged the central bank would take action in the event Japan was threatened with another financial-system crisis.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2001

Ethics panel approves using fertilized eggs for stem cells

An ethics panel of the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology approved a revision to its guidelines to allow the use of fertilized eggs, left unused after fertility treatment, to obtain stem cells, officials of the society said.
BUSINESS
Dec 17, 2001

Discount chains thrive amid Ginza's chic boutiques

With the end of the year just around the corner, Christmas shoppers visiting Tokyo's posh Ginza commercial district may find a new aspect to the area this winter.
EDITORIALS
Dec 17, 2001

Sporting events require tight security

The 2002 Japan-Korea World Cup will kick off in about six months. As the two countries busy themselves with the final preparations, the people who are becoming most tense are those in charge of security. When one thinks of security at soccer matches, the notorious hooligans in European countries may...
BUSINESS
Dec 17, 2001

Think tanks negative on '02 economy

Eight of Japan's 10 major private-sector think tanks predict the nation's economy will shrink between 0.3 percent and 1.2 percent in fiscal 2002, painting a bleaker picture than the government's earlier forecast of zero percent growth.
COMMUNITY
Dec 16, 2001

Wright's modern masterpiece comes back to life

All too often in this country, modern buildings of architectural and historical value are bulldozed to make way for new commercial development. The "lucky" ones may be granted a stay of execution, if only to survive as unused and lifeless monuments.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2001

Nepalese man awaiting murder ruling sees wife for first time in eight years

Many foreign workers head for Japan with the promise of a better life. But for Govinda Prasad Mainali the dream turned to tragedy as he awaits a ruling by the Supreme Court over a murder charge.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 16, 2001

Bringing young and old together

GENERATIONS IN TOUCH: Linking the Old and Young in a Tokyo Neighborhood, by Leng Leng Thang. Cornell University Press, 2001, 209 pp., paper ($39.95) As Japan's traditional three-generation households go nuclear and fewer young couples have children, the care of the nation's elderly has become an increasingly...
COMMUNITY
Dec 16, 2001

Photo-news loses its focus

Last August's demise of Shinchosha's weekly photo newsmagazine Focus marked a major publishing milestone in Japan.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Dec 16, 2001

A voice echoing years of history

Imagine yourself in Edo (old Tokyo) during the mid-18th century. The streets bustle with activity -- almost all of which is accompanied by song: carpenters sing while working wood; mothers lull their babies to slumber; farmers till their paddies to rice-planting songs; and the boatmen's rhythmic melodies...
SOCCER / World cup
Dec 15, 2001

Troussier on the short list for Scotland

Japan coach Philippe Troussier has been placed on a short list by the Scottish Football Association as a candidate for manager of Scotland after the 2002 World Cup, a Scottish daily tabloid reported on Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2001

Financial entities' overhaul may be shelved, Fukuda says

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda hinted Friday that the government could establish a panel to decide on reforms of state-backed financial entities, a decision that would effectively postpone a conclusion on the contentious issue.
BUSINESS
Dec 14, 2001

MMC contracts IBM to manage its IT system

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. will outsource the management and maintenance of its information technology systems to IBM Japan Ltd. in 2002, the two firms revealed Thursday.
BUSINESS
Dec 14, 2001

Current account surplus up 14%

Japan's surplus in the broadest measure of foreign trade rose 14 percent in October from a year earlier to 865.1 billion yen, marking its second consecutive month of increase, the Finance Ministry said Thursday in a preliminary current account report.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2001

Ministry opens counterterrorism office

The Foreign Ministry said it set up a new division Wednesday to deal with the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States, centering around cooperating with the international community in the fight against terrorism.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2001

Readers reach out with fund

Total contributions to The Japan Times Readers' Fund in 2000 came to 3,401,372 yen.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Dec 13, 2001

If you go down to the woods today . . .

By this time of year, with temperatures dropping fast and the wind whipping up, the leaves of deciduous trees have almost all fallen. I love to see them coming down, revealing intricate networks of boughs and branches.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2001

Afghan NGOs explain obstacles to reconstruction

Nongovernmental organizations from Afghanistan on Tuesday explained the key issues facing their post-Taliban country at the start of a three-day conference in Tokyo to discuss rebuilding the war-torn country.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2001

Marrow bank struggles to meet demand

More bone marrow donors are needed to save the lives of people with deadly blood diseases, according to the Japan Marrow Donor Foundation.
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 12, 2001

Kyogen with a twist

KYOTO -- What do kyogen, noh, nihon buyo, the works of Samuel Beckett, W.B. Yeats and Woody Allen have in common?
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2001

Ministry denies role in pro-MBM report

The farm ministry on Monday defended itself against allegations by a weekly magazine that it encouraged farmers to feed cattle with meat-and-bone meal in the mid-1990s.
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 11, 2001

Jubilo scoops top two J. League awards

YOKOHAMA -- Jubilo Iwata may have missed out on the J. League Championship but Jubilo's efforts did not go unrewarded when midfielder Toshiya Fujita and manager Masakazu Suzuki were named the J. League's Player of the Year and Manager of the Year, respectively, on Monday.

Longform

A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped