Search - people

 
 
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 2006

No place for pension evasion

At a time when people's trust in the nation's pension systems is declining, some enterprises, especially small ones, are behaving in a manner that will weaken the reliability of social security. They deliberately choose not to join the corporate employees' pension system (kosei nenkin) while the number...
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2006

42.6% of traffic fatalities over 65

People aged over 65 accounted for a record 42.6 percent of traffic fatalities in Japan last year, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2006

Fewer visiting blood banks to receive HIV tests

Fewer blood donors tested positive for HIV in 2005 as the number of people who gave blood mainly to check if they were infected with the virus fell, a health ministry survey indicated Thursday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jan 27, 2006

New blood flows in city's heart

While Shibuya is becoming a boomtown for bars aimed at the young and casual, one small area -- right at its heart -- has been a hot spot for more than half a century.
EDITORIALS
Jan 26, 2006

Preventing a flu pandemic

The chances that the avian flu virus will mutate into a form that can be transmitted from human to human is high enough for the World Health Organization (WHO) to classify the present situation as a "pandemic alert." Should a pandemic break out it would likely do so in Asia. Therefore Japan needs to...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2006

Foreign-language skills can help Americans fight terror

SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- "Learning somebody else's language is a kind gesture," stated U.S. President George W. Bush, because it suggests "I care about you."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jan 24, 2006

Hisayo Takano

Hisayo Takano is the owner of Club Akasaka, a hostess bar in Tokyo that many of her customers call the best "clinic" they've ever known. It's where they come to regain their strength. Others compare it to the Shoukasonjuku, because, just like at that famous 19th-century school for young leaders, clients...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 21, 2006

DNAm, 'Third Ear' offer change and learning

Hong Kong is a jungle. Which is where fluent Mandarin-speaker Chris Lonsdale is an elephant spotter, and why he is in Tokyo to take a five-day right-brain drawing course.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 19, 2006

Director Yanagimachi explores the human condition

Mitsuo Yanagimachi is enjoying a moment in the sun after nearly a decade in the twilight: His new film "Camus Nante Shiranai (Who's Camus Anyway?)" was screened in the Director's Fortnight section at Cannes, picked up for distribution in the United States and showered with rave reviews from everywhere....
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 18, 2006

Half-truths to the aid of conservation

Let's just imagine for a moment that you are a conservationist. You discover, or become aware of, the breeding location of a rare mammal or bird, or of a site where there is an endangered plant growing. What do you do?
EDITORIALS
Jan 15, 2006

A psychedelic anniversary

'M ost human beings live nowadays in big cities, in a dead world. They go to the moon, but don't even know how to look at a starry sky." The Swiss scientist who made that remark in a television interview ahead of his 100th birthday last Wednesday certainly did his bit to promote star-gazing -- of a sort....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 15, 2006

NHK has a public duty so how about free streaming from its library?

Since last August the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan (NAB) has been running a nationwide TV ad campaign to promote television commercials.
EDITORIALS
Jan 14, 2006

Catching the kabuki spirit

Kabuki, which dates back some 400 years to Izumo no Okuni, the leader of a women's theatrical troupe that caused a sensation in Kyoto, now appears to be riding an upsurge. Recently, the kabuki world saw a series of events that have caught people's attention and increased their interest.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2006

EU favors more labs over stockpiles of flu drugs

International donors at a two-day rapid response conference in Tokyo said Friday they are ready to help poor Asian countries prepare for a potential flu pandemic, but a delegate from the European Union said it will not fund the stockpiling of drugs and instead focus on improving animal health measures....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 14, 2006

Helping new arrivals from India find their feet

There are some 5,000 expats from India currently in Japan, mostly working in the IT industry, and mostly in Tokyo. And if A.P.S. Mani is to be believed, the number will grow over the next few years.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2006

Nation's transport security still being tightened

Transport minister Kazuo Kitagawa and 13 counterparts agreed Friday in Tokyo to work together to fight terrorism, a threat Japan is already addressing by bolstering security to prevent attacks on its transportation networks.
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2006

Better ties sought through radio

A Japanese woman deeply worried about the growing antagonism between Japan and China wants young Chinese to tune into her radio program, tap into Japanese youth culture and eventually help expand the horizons for bilateral ties.
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2006

Coming-of-Age Day sees record low total

Some 1.43 million people across the country celebrated their coming of age on Monday, a figure equivalent to about 1.12 percent of the total population and tying a record low set in 1987, according to government statistics.
COMMENTARY
Jan 10, 2006

Legions of bloggers, not so many readers

MANILA -- Hardly any other industry has developed as dynamically in recent years as the media sector. The impact of the so-called digital revolution is particularly evident in the way we communicate. Sending and receiving digitized data has become faster and faster; at the same time the costs have fallen...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jan 10, 2006

What are the best and worst things about Japan?

Constantine Von Frogstein Intern, 29 I hate that the people don't lift their feet when they walk. The sound! I hate the sound! The vending machines are the best things about Japan. I don't care much about beer or cigarettes, but the corn soup is cool.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2006

Moot 'right' raises risk of dying at home

NEW YORK -- Under the slogan "If you have a weapon you have a problem," the Ministry of Justice in Argentina has initiated a campaign against gun ownership in the country. It began as a response to a request from several nongovernmental organizations concerned about the high levels of violent deaths...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jan 8, 2006

Shigeaki Hinohara: Doctor of reforms

Even at the age of 94, Shigeaki Hinohara's mind and memory are so clear as to put some of his medical students to shame. And even despite being Japan's best-known and most highly acclaimed physician -- and chairman of the board of trustees of prestigious St. Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo --...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 8, 2006

Unsparing view of Indonesia past

IN THE TIME OF MADNESS by Richard Lloyd Parry. London: Jonathan Cape, 2005, 315 pp., £12.99 (paper). This firsthand account of fin de siecle Indonesia, an era of widespread chaos and violence, takes us into the heart of darkness, searing our consciousness with images of deprivation, fear and mayhem...
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2006

TB hospitalizations of homeless probed

The health ministry is probing allegations of human rights abuse carried out through the forced hospitalization of homeless people under the Tuberculosis Control Law, the ministry said Thursday.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past