Search - 2002

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Nov 1, 2002

Gathering closes summer's curtain

HIWADAKOUGEN, Gifu Pref. -- I was inside my tent changing from damp clothes to dry when the whooshing thuds of a low-flying helicopter took the campsite by surprise. I thought little of it until the commotion started. News travels fast in a village of nylon walls. Clearly something was amiss.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Oct 25, 2002

"The Thief Lord," "The Witch Trade"

"The Thief Lord," Cornelia Funke, The Chicken House; 2002; 345 pp. "Who does this child belong to?"
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 20, 2002

Sommeliers ride high on Japan's wine wave

The last five years have seen an explosion in the number of certified sommeliers in Japan. Certain high-profile Japanese sommeliers have even achieved an almost rock star-like status, an unexpected development in a country where the title of sommelier did not even exist 30 years ago. Despite its lack...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 18, 2002

Soap maker gets healthy dose of mayo market

Some consumers unwittingly used mayonnaise to style their hair when, in the 1920s, this exotic condiment was first introduced in Japan.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 13, 2002

Composer Toru Takemitsu gets his turn in the spotlight

A WAY A LONE: Writings on Toru Takemitsu, edited by Hugh de Ferranti and Yoko Narazaki. Tokyo: Academia Music, Ltd., 2002, 258 pp. with musical examples and one b/w photo, 3,000 yen (paper) THE MUSIC OF TORU TAKEMITSU, by Peter Burt. Cambridge University Press, 2002, 294 pp., with 133 musical examples,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Oct 11, 2002

"Time Stops For No Mouse," "Hairy Bill"

"Time Stops For No Mouse," Michael Hoeye, Puffin Books; 2002; 262 pp. It's a mouse's world.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 10, 2002

Suzuka special for Sato

Expectations are blooming each day for the rookie at the Japan Grand Prix. But don't remind Takuma Sato of Jordan Honda that his Japanese fans expect more than his sub-par performance so far during the 2002 season.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Oct 10, 2002

All bets off on upcoming U.S. midterm elections

WASHINGTON -- We are just a few weeks from election day 2002. Usually, in a midterm election, especially one just after the redistricting of Congress, it becomes apparent how the races are shaping up. Trends set in as candidates begin to pull away in competitive races. But not this year; just the reverse...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Sep 27, 2002

"Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident," "Jake's Tower"

"Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident," Eoin Colfer, Puffin Books; 2002; 288 pp. The risk with sequels is that they don't always live up to the expectations generated by the first book. But this story is clearly an exception.
BUSINESS
Sep 23, 2002

Deflation and the Bank of Japan

I am treating this as a separate topic because several Japanese business leaders indicated to me during my July 2002 visit that they are lobbied hard by the Bank of Japan to accept the BOJ's current position, and that they are very concerned about these issues.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2002

Reform delays discouraging

Junichiro Koizumi was Japan's first prime minister to receive a mandate to push structural reforms by convincing the public that there would be no economic growth without painful reforms. It remains to be seen, however, whether Koizumi will succeed in his reforms. More than a year after launching his...
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2002

Major firms to trim capital outlays by 0.6%

Major Japanese firms plan to reduce spending on plant and equipment by 0.6 percent to 22.08 trillion yen in fiscal 2002, the governmental Development Bank of Japan said Tuesday.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 17, 2002

Tired Greene ends sprint season on a low in Yokohama

YOKOHAMA -- After a 12-hour flight from Paris, Maurice Greene couldn't get to sleep until the early hours of Monday morning. And during warmups for the 100-meter race at the Super Track and Field Meet 2002 on Monday, the body of the world's second fastest man didn't react quite like normal.
BUSINESS
Sep 16, 2002

Mortgage-lending confab aims to fire up European market

The movers and shakers of Europe's mortgage-lending industry are to attend an unprecedented conference that starts in Madrid on Sept. 22 in an effort to find solutions in light of globalization and ensuing difficulties they currently face -- including dilution within the financial services industry and...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 15, 2002

'Socialism' goes shopping at Vuitton free-for-all

As an economic power, Japan is the ideal that the rest of Asia aspires to, but it isn't merely Japan's vast material wealth that everybody envies. There's a social aspect to Japan's success that many see as even more desirable.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 15, 2002

The science of fiction: telling history as it was, and as it wasn't

DECEMBER 6, by Martin Cruz Smith (published in Britain as TOKYO STATION). Simon & Schuster: New York, 2002, 352 pp., $26 (cloth) THE MASTER OF RAIN, by Tom Bradby. Doubleday: New York, 2002, 452 pp., $24.95 (cloth) Try to imagine, for a moment, if Rick Blaine, the hardened expat cafe owner portrayed...
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Sep 13, 2002

"Artemis Fowl," "Egg Drop"

"Artemis Fowl," Eoin Colfer, Puffin Books; 2002; 282 pp. "Stay back, human. You don't know what you are dealing with."
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 12, 2002

Agreeing to disagree makes no sense at all

The deluge of posters, pamphlets and platitudes that roared out of Johannesburg during the 2002 Earth Summit has ended, though to no one's surprise this summit's conclusions were much the same as those of the first Earth Summit in Rio a decade ago.
BUSINESS
Sep 10, 2002

Lending by banks dropped 4.5% in August: BOJ

Lending by Japanese banks fell 4.5 percent in August from a year earlier, marking the 56th consecutive month of decline, the Bank of Japan said Monday.
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2002

State to draw up new economic plan

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced plans Friday to come up with a fresh economic package aimed at preventing a further decline in Japanese stock prices, following their fall to a 19-year low.
BUSINESS
Sep 4, 2002

Ministry spending review chides universities, SDF

Taxpayer money can be used more efficiently in university research center construction and military computer systems development, according to a spending review released by the government Wednesday.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Aug 25, 2002

Emerson shines for East in All-Star Match

SAITAMA -- Urawa Reds striker Emerson came off the bench in the second half to strike the winner as the J. East team edged the J. West team 2-1 in the J. League All-Star Match on Saturday night at Saitama Stadium 2002.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Aug 22, 2002

When violence isn't enough

You know how moths like to fly into lights and fires, or how whales beach themselves. How about lemmings . . . those adorable creatures that follow each other off cliffs? You wouldn't think the American video game industry would fall into that category, but it's looking that way.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 22, 2002

Time to change, or find another planet

First of two parts Next week, tens of thousands of politicians, bureaucrats, activists and policy analysts will descend on Johannesburg, South Africa, for the largest conference in human history: the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Aug 16, 2002

Savage, Keane top scene as show begins

LONDON -- After almost 40 years of reporting the beautiful game nothing should come as a surprise.
BUSINESS
Aug 15, 2002

Corporate bankruptcies climbed 15.8% in July

The number of corporate bankruptcies rose 15.8 percent in July from a year earlier to 1,814, marking a postwar record for the month and the first increase in three months, Teikoku Databank Ltd. said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 14, 2002

'Structured finance market' to swell to 5 trillion yen: S&P

The active flotation of mortgage-backed securities and securities backed by loans to businesses is likely to expand the size of Japan's "structured finance market" to 5 trillion yen in 2002, a U.S. credit-rating agency has said.
BUSINESS
Aug 13, 2002

Delivery firm to launch new unit in China

Kintetsu World Express Inc., the nation's second-largest transport and delivery firm, said Monday it will set up a distribution unit in Dalian, northeastern China, on Oct. 1.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 11, 2002

Book industry cries murder

Although everyone agrees that the Japanese publishing industry is in trouble, there is less consensus as to the causes. Book and magazine sales have been declining for five years and book revenues for last year were at roughly the same level as a decade earlier; indeed, some say that if it were not for...

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