Eric Johnston - The Japan Times

November 22, 2024

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Eric Johnston

Events

Jan 8, 2002

Osaka hopes concerns ease in 2002 over economy, crime, the homeless

OSAKA -- From concerns over the economy to renewed hopes for the pro baseball Hanshin Tigers, here are some local issues, in no particular order, that many people in the Kansai region are focusing on for the coming year.

JAPAN

Dec 24, 2001

Sun shines on USJ theme park as rest of city basks in gloom

OSAKA -- At first glance, major Osaka news stories over the past year would give even Santa Claus a bout of depression.

JAPAN

Dec 20, 2001

Kin of missing slam Pyongyang move

OSAKA -- The families of 10 people who Tokyo believes were abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s were outraged at Pyongyang's announcement this week that it was suspending an investigation into the case.

Events

Dec 11, 2001

Kobe Hash House joggers chalk up white powder snafu to experience

KOBE -- The recent anthrax attacks in the United States have caused panic throughout the world over the deadly bacteria.

JAPAN

Dec 8, 2001

U.S. code said cracked in '41

KOBE -- In mid-1941, as tensions between Japan and the United States mounted, Washington took extreme precautions to protect coded diplomatic messages between the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and the State Department from being intercepted by the Japanese.

JAPAN

Nov 30, 2001

Ohta angered by calls for Kansai airport delay

OSAKA -- Kansai officials were angered Wednesday upon hearing that the central government wants to delay completion of the second phase of Kansai International Airport, which was initially scheduled to be built in 2007.

Japan Times

Events

Nov 13, 2001

Purse-snatching capital not image Osaka seeks

OSAKA -- Yoko Sumino (not her real name) was scared and angry. One evening last winter, the 34-year-old journalist was walking back to her apartment in the city's Joto Ward when the unexpected happened.

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 2, 2001

U.S. courts move forward on POW claims

A ruling by a California judge late last month is a major defeat for U.S. State Department and Japanese government officials who argued that former American POW slave laborers cannot sue Japanese firms for compensation because of the 1951 Peace Treaty, and a major victory for the ex-POWs and their growing...

Events

Oct 30, 2001

Scare stops Kobe beef in its tracks

KOBE -- It's a warm, sunny day at the Okaba cattle ranch in Kobe's Kita Ward.

JAPAN

Oct 26, 2001

Products using beef extract not exempt in mad cow scare

OSAKA -- Despite the government's repeated assurances, it is not clear how soon domestic beef consumption will recover to levels before the nation was hit by the mad cow scare in September. But consumer advocates have warned that the threat of the disease does not come from beef alone.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Sep 23, 2001

Striking out at playtime on a plate

OSAKA -- It's a hot and humid night in the Kujo district, but nobody seems to mind. That's because just a few blocks away, at the Osaka Dome, the Kintetsu Buffaloes are locked in a battle with the Seibu Lions for the Pacific League pennant.

CULTURE / Books

Sep 23, 2001

The struggle for a strategic prize

THE ORIGINS OF THE BILATERAL OKINAWA PROBLEM: Okinawa in Postwar U.S.-Japan Relations, 1945-1952, by Robert D. Eldridge. Garland Publishing, Inc., New York & London, 2001, 280 pp., $85.00 (cloth) Of all the issues plaguing Japan's relationship with the United States, none is as contentious as the U.S....

JAPAN

Sep 22, 2001

Vivre's demise will leave a gap in Osaka

OSAKA -- The bankruptcy of the Osaka-based Mycal group earlier this month sent shock waves through the business and financial worlds.

Events

Sep 18, 2001

Matsushita woes mean more pain for Kansai

OSAKA -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.'s announcement that it will post operating losses of 38.7 billion yen in the April-June quarter and begin restructuring shocked the Kansai business community and prompted worries about what it would mean for the region's economy.

JAPAN

Sep 11, 2001

Tanaka apology seen as a start

Former American POWs and their supporters greeted Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka's apology delivered to them Saturday in San Francisco with mixed reactions, saying it was a good start but still a long way from a solution.

Events

Sep 4, 2001

Fukushima area's face-lift puts it back on Osaka map

OSAKA -- Once a backwater in the shadow of Osaka's highly developed Umeda district, the area around Fukushima station is slowly being transformed from a slightly run-down neighborhood of cheap ramen shops to a gentrified area of French restaurants and Internet cafes.

JAPAN / History

Aug 30, 2001

A half-century of media pigeonholing

Japan is a nation of children who were led astray by their military, re-educated under the benevolence of the United States, and rose to become America's important ally. It became a nation of salaried men and office ladies gaining, for a few brief years, through international trade what it had failed...

JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM

Aug 26, 2001

Looking for beauty and utility in other people's garbage

SETTSU, Osaka Pref. -- Not a few people would agree that modern art is garbage.

Events

Aug 21, 2001

Kansai airport ignoring feasibility concerns

OSAKA -- As Kansai International Airport approaches its seventh birthday Sept. 4, a number of serious problems are casting clouds over the occasion.

Events

Aug 7, 2001

Toxic island may be turned into foreign enclave

OSAKA -- What do you do with an island far from the center of town on which no one wants to live because methane gas leaks from landfill boasting high dioxin levels?

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.

A boom for business tourism in Japan?

By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

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