Search - japan

 
 
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2001

Slaying the 'monsters' of Meiji Era modernity

CIVILIZATION AND MONSTERS: Spirits of Modernity in Meiji Japan, by Gerald Figal. Duke University Press, 1999, 290 pp., $49.95 (hardback); $17.95 (paperback). In his prologue to "Civilization and Monsters," Gerald Figal defines Meiji modernization within the context of the fantastic and supernatural...
EDITORIALS
Jul 7, 2001

The world cannot afford to wait

The prospects for the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol remain cloudy as the United States continues to reject the world climate agreement. In his talks this week with British and French leaders following a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told them Japan...
EDITORIALS
Jul 5, 2001

The danger of further monetary easing

The U.S. Federal Reserve Board's decision last week to cut interest rates for a sixth time is a sobering reminder that there is a wide gulf in freedom of monetary action between the world's two largest economies. While the Fed can make further cuts if necessary, the Bank of Japan has practically no elbowroom...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2001

Lee remains in the limelight

Cornell University, standing like a fortress atop a verdant hilltop in upstate New York, is isolated and serene, far from war and the worries of the world.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 5, 2001

Beauty versus the environment

Concerns over the introduction of alien species to environments that have no protective mechanisms against them are beginning to filter through the bureaucratic system in Japan to the point where action is being contemplated -- or even taken.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 1, 2001

1910 Exhibition remembered

THE BRITISH PRESS AND THE JAPAN-BRITISH EXHIBITION OF 1910. Edited by Hirokichi Mutsu. With a preface by Yonosuke Ian Mutsu and an introduction by William H. Coaldrake. Production: The University of Melbourne: Curzon Press, London. 212 pp., with b/w illustration. Unpriced. This is an enlarged and...
COMMENTARY
Jun 30, 2001

Koizumi: a new type of leader

Two months have passed since the inauguration of the popular administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Thanks to the prime minister's enormous popularity, the Liberal Democratic Party easily triumphed in this week's election for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, which was the first test for...
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2001

Foreign suffrage bills carried over

Two bills aimed at granting permanent foreign residents in Japan the right to vote in local elections will be carried over to the next Diet session, a Diet committee said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2001

Ruling tripartite coalition to continue: Koizumi

The present three-way coalition government led by the Liberal Democratic Party will be maintained beyond the July 29 Upper House election, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jun 29, 2001

Bad-loan disposal urged over profits

How many bad loans did banks write off in fiscal 2000? How many years will it take for banks to dispose of all their bad loans?
EDITORIALS
Jun 29, 2001

No winners in this trade dispute

China last week slapped special tariffs on Japanese cars, mobile phones and air conditioners in retaliation for Japan's "safeguard" import restrictions against Chinese farm products. It is the first time that the two nations have openly engaged in a trade row, although in the past there have often been...
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2001

Foreign firms have hard time finding help

Foreign companies operating in Japan face greater difficulties recruiting people, procuring funds and resolving civil disputes outside court than in the United States and three European countries, according to a report released Wednesday by the Japan External Trade Organization.
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2001

Takebe rejects Seoul's demand over fishing zone

Fisheries minister Tsutomu Takebe on Tuesday rejected Seoul's demand that Tokyo provide alternate fishing venues if it maintains its ban on South Korean fishing operations in waters off the Sanriku region of northeastern Japan.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2001

TV celebrity Ohashi to run for Upper House

TV personality Kyosen Ohashi announced on Tuesday his intention to run in next month's Upper House election on the Democratic Party of Japan ticket.
SPORTS / TALK OF THE TIMES
Jun 26, 2001

Horan gives Japanese rugby a lift

His mates call him "trucky" because when he first hit the international scene he used to eat a truckers breakfast when everyone else would be eating a healthy pre-match breakfast of fruit and yogurt. Others call him "helmet" because of his immovable hair style, a 25-knot south-westerly blowing off Moreton...
EDITORIALS
Jun 25, 2001

Supporting the nation's scientists

Professor Shuji Nakamura, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, is known as the inventor of a semiconductor diode, an electronic element that emits a bluish purple color. Of course, he is one of the most noted Japanese scientists in the world. He is also the hero of the scientific equivalent...
BUSINESS
Jun 25, 2001

Commercial Code revision threatened by old mind-set

Japan is changing from a society tightly ruled by proactive laws into one where economic activities are supervised only on a retrospective basis. This is the result of progress in administrative and fiscal reforms, and it is one reason behind the proposal to overhaul the judicial system.
BUSINESS
Jun 21, 2001

State tries to get nation online

In a desperate attempt to boost Japan's cyberspace population to numbers more closely resembling those of other industrialized nations, the government is struggling to draw attention to its online exposition, said Taichi Sakaiya, a special adviser to the prime minister and former chief of the Economic...
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2001

Campaign ads on TV hit as fluff

Could Japanese politics finally be getting interesting or are things just getting out of hand?
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 21, 2001

The early frog gets the reproductive success

Travel out of almost any of the major cities of Honshu on an overcast, rain-threatening evening, and head toward rice country.
BUSINESS
Jun 20, 2001

Nation must be aggressive on patents, white paper says

Japan must devise an aggressive strategy to obtain patents abroad so the nation's inventions can be recognized internationally, according to a government white paper released Tuesday.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’