search

 
 
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2000

Florine in water gains official support

In a major policy change, the Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to support local government efforts to introduce fluorine to public water supplies in order to prevent tooth decay, ministry officials said Saturday.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2000

War orphan reunited with brother 55 years after retreat from China

One of four war-displaced Japanese visiting from China found his brother on Saturday, the first of the four to identify a relative during their visit to Japan, the Health and Welfare Ministry said.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2000

Red Army terrorist visited Japan freely

Fusako Shigenobu, the arrested leader of the Japanese Red Army, has traveled to and from Japan eight times over the past three years using a false passport, investigative sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2000

Rodent population thrives on Tokyo's misfortunes

Noisy activists and girl-harassing scouts are not the only pests in Shibuya's Hachiko square. The presence of another rapidly flourishing group at this popular meeting place is about as welcome as the plague.
EDITORIALS
Nov 19, 2000

The real danger to democracy

Schadenfreude: a feeling of glee at someone else's misfortune. That sums up a considerable portion of international sentiment as the world watches the tortured proceedings of the U.S. election. Nearly two weeks after the vote to select the president of the United States -- the most powerful man in the...
COMMUNITY
Nov 19, 2000

A woman with universal appeal

Ines Ligron was not pleased with The Japan Times. In particular, she was unhappy with an editorial suggesting that the winners of the Miss Universe contest are "celebrities of the fluffier variety."
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2000

JCP won't back Kato as prime minister

The Japanese Communist Party would not support Koichi Kato as the nation's leader even if the heavyweight LDP member, who is trying to topple the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, revolts from the Liberal Democratic Party, according to JCP leader Tetsuzo Fuwa.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 19, 2000

Chaotic, comedic 'Ariadne' shows lighter side of Strauss

Wiener Staatsoper Oct. 22, Filippo Sanjust directing, Giuseppe Sinopoli conducting in Kanagawa Kenmin Hall -- "Ariadne auf Naxos" (libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, 1874-1929; music by Richard Georg Strauss, 1864-1949) featuring Waldemar Kmentt, Peter Weber, Agnes Baltsa, Jon Villars, Geert Smits, Heinz...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 19, 2000

Top 10 commandments for Shiraishi Island

I've been camped out here all day. I'm demonstrating against the recent change in an old Japanese tradition. I'm protesting the closing down of Japan's beer machines.
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Nov 19, 2000

Poetry readings in Okinawa

In Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture Oct. 15, Shuntaro Tanikawa read such scatological, contemporary poems as "Onara (Fart)" and "Unko (Crap)" from his collection "Hadaka" (the English edition, "Naked," is jointly published by Stone Bridge Press and Saru Press).
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2000

Buddhists hold fire rite in U.S.

The Agon Shu Buddhist Association, based in Kyoto and founded in 1978, held its first public prayer ceremony involving the kindling of sacred fire outside Japan earlier this month, the religious organization said.
COMMENTARY
Nov 19, 2000

U.S. credibility put to test

NEW DELHI -- Political scientist Samuel Huntington has aptly described the United States as the "sole state with pre-eminence in every domain of power -- economic, military, diplomatic, ideological, technological and cultural -- with the reach capabilities to promote its interests in virtually every...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2000

Awards lift expectations of Kim Dae Jung

SEOUL -- South Korean President Kim Dae Jung is more popular abroad than he is within his own country. This is the impression I have gathered after discussing South Korean politics with many people both in South Korea and beyond the shores of the peninsula.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 19, 2000

Chris Ishikawa

A new cookbook has recently been published by the Yokohama International Women's Club. Titled "Food for Furoshiki," it has been compiled from an unusual and interesting angle.
COMMUNITY
Nov 19, 2000

Abuse rife in culture with no rights for kids

Newly arrived and living on a "danchi" estate in 1986, I would often hear the heart-rending cries of small children standing outside in the cold and darkness pleading to be let back into their homes. In the West, the worst form of punishment is to be grounded. In Japan, it is the opposite, with children...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2000

Education yesterday, today and tomorrow

My four children have attended Japanese schools from kindergarten up. Over the years there have been innumerable positive experiences connected with this. Yet one thing has always struck me as, at best, blatantly incongruous. Virtually every principal addressing pupils and parents at the commencement...
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2000

Whaling commission denies Japan bid to host next talks

WASHINGTON -- The International Whaling Commission voted on Friday to deny Japan's request to host the group's next meeting amid continued threats of sanctions by the United States against Japan's whaling program.
CULTURE / Art
Nov 19, 2000

Wake-up calls to the subconscious

Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) is the great painter of the enigma in our era and his work is now on exhibit at Tokyo's Bunkamura in one of the most comprehensive shows seen yet in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2000

Scourge of child prostitution spreading

NEW YORK -- Their names are Chandrika, Hamida, Amod, Madhuri, Maria and Jenny. And as varied as these children's names are their nationalities: Indian, Bangladeshe, Nepalese, Nicaraguan and North American. What unites them is that they have been made to work as prostitutes and, in the process, have endangered...
EDITORIALS
Nov 18, 2000

APEC grapples with relevance

The recent summit meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum is proof of the value of low expectations. Growing concern about the group's relevance and doubts about its will to act lowered the bar for defining this year's meeting as a success. The final communique's call for a new round of...
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2000

Nursery chief admits killing baby

The 29-year-old operator of an unauthorized nursery in Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture, pleaded guilty Friday to fatally injuring a toddler at the facility but pleaded not guilty to another infant's death.
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2000

Blood tests set to determine relations of 'war orphans'

A war-displaced Japanese visiting from China will undergo blood tests to confirm whether a man from Hiroshima Prefecture is his uncle, Health and Welfare Ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2000

1,900 recipients of unheated blood dead

Of an estimated 2,600 people -- apart from hemophiliacs -- who received treatment with unheated imported blood products in the 1980s, some 1,900 have died, although not all causes of death have not been confirmed, according to Diet testimony Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2000

No-confidence motion to be voted on Monday

A showdown that may oust Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and split the ruling Liberal Democratic Party will come Monday, when the House of Representatives votes on a no-confidence motion against his Cabinet.
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2000

Prices flummox rail firms

The confusion among railway operators shows no sign of abating.
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2000

30% of nonprofit groups hire former public officials: report

About 30 percent of foundations and nonprofit groups in Japan that receive some form of public subsidy hire former public officials, according to a government white paper released Friday.

Longform

Capsule hotels were created as a way to deal with the amount of overwork employees tend to do in Japan. Can't commute home? Then spend the night in an tiny, affordable sleeping space.
Japan wakes up to the market for a proper sleep