search

 
 
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2000

BSC to take on 'Voice of the Andes'

The newly established digital radio broadcasting station BSC will take over the broadcasting of "Voice of the Andes" after the Ecuador-based Japanese-language radio service goes off air today.
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2000

Warbler recalls area's innocent days

Just when the doors of the Yamanote line train are about to close at Uguisudani Station during morning rush hour, alert passengers will hear the distinctive chirp of the "uguisu," or bush warbler.
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2000

J-Phone West's services disrupted

OSAKA -- J-Phone West Co., an Osaka-based major mobile phone service operator, on Saturday said a partial failure in its network center switchboard temporarily disrupted services until early morning that day.
EDITORIALS
Dec 31, 2000

Politicians fail to deliver

Japanese politics in 2000 was marked by two major milestones. One is the inauguration of the administration of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori following the late Keizo Obuchi's resignation due to sudden illness. The other is the July 25 Lower House election in which the governing Liberal Democratic Party...
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2000

Mohri leaves NASDA for museum

Japanese astronaut Mamoru Mohri, who participated in U.S. space shuttle missions in 1992 and in February this year, is retiring from the National Space Development Agency of Japan to head a science museum to be completed in July, NASDA officials said.
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2000

People jam transport as cities empty

Airports and railway terminals in urban areas were jammed with holiday makers Saturday as a record number of people headed overseas for the end of year holidays.
COMMUNITY
Dec 31, 2000

Michinoku Ginko chief banks on Japanese-Russian relations

Talk about a profitable end to the year. Invited to meet a Taisho man -- that is, someone born in the last year of what many consider to be Japan's most liberal period of the 20th century -- I was met in one location to be maneuvered into a taxi and delivered outside another: a nondescript utility block...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 31, 2000

One mighty orchestra, two mighty conductors

Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester Nov. 26, Mariss Jansens conducting in Suntory Hall -- "Oberon" Overture (Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber, 1786-1812), Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 99 (Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich, 1906-75) featuring Hilary Hahn; Symphony No. 8 in...
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2000

Currency scam puts police on alert

Police said they are on the lookout for criminals swindling cash from people with a scam involving old German currency notes and bonds that are now worthless.
COMMENTARY
Dec 31, 2000

Flaws are part and parcel of democracy

LONDON -- How democratic are the world's so-called democratic countries? Can there be totally fair elections?
CULTURE / Art
Dec 31, 2000

The art of being a farm village

"Grez was an idyllic little place," wrote a Swedish artist in 1884, "offering subjects wherever you looked . . . the river with its watermills and little waterfalls, the sun on white walls, old men in clogs, old women in coifs, girls in the sunshine, hens and ducks, grazing cattle, groves, fields and...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Dec 31, 2000

Minoru Akimoto

"For a college kid in a provincial town in the early 50s, there were not many options for learning English. My teachers were Hollywood movies. I memorized a script and then sat in a movie theater all day, watching and listening to the same movie time and again."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 31, 2000

Slithering on through the year of the snake

It's almost 2001, the year of the snake. I've done a little research using the Chinese "koyomi" calendar for the 13th year of Heisei, the year of the snake, in order to let you know what kind of year you're about to have.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2000

Solving the Kashmir dispute

Three of the world's most protracted conflicts are in Asia: the Palestinian-Israeli crisis in West Asia, Kashmir in South Asia and Korea in East Asia. The world's interest is engaged in South Asia because of the fate of over 1 billion people, the importance of India as the world's most populous democracy...
EDITORIALS
Dec 30, 2000

Economy still stuck in a rut

Looking back to 2000, the critical question hanging over the Japanese economy is: Has there been movement, or at least the preparations for a move, toward a new system befitting the start of a new century? The answer, unfortunately, is no.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

Aum ranks' rights compromised by fear

NAGAREYAMA, Chiba Pref. -- As night falls, all the houses in this quiet bedroom community melt into darkness.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

Nikkei flirts with two-year low as 2000 trading draws to gloomy close

The Tokyo Stock Exchange on Friday bid farewell to 2000 with the main gauge falling enough to flirt with a two-year low.
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 30, 2000

Antlers, S-Pulse reach Emperor's final

YOKOHAMA -- The Kashima Antlers moved one step closer to winning their third title of the season on Friday after advancing to the final of the Emperor's Cup with a 3-2 extra-time win over Gamba Osaka.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

Driver of credit union car killed in 46 million yen heist

A credit union employee was fatally shot when two men carjacked a credit union vehicle containing 46.6 million yen in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward on Friday, police said.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

Osaka homeless shelter opens

OSAKA -- The Osaka Municipal Government opened a controversial new homeless center Friday morning in Nagai Park.
BUSINESS
Dec 30, 2000

Haggling, fast turnover key to new fashion market

Young women browse through vogue clothes, leather jackets, accessories, wigs and colorful lingerie displayed at about 50 booths in Tondemun Sijan, a new fashion market in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

Children of Asahara forced to pay for guru's alleged crimes

RYUGASAKI, Ibaraki Pref. -- Watching them play on the floor amid scattered toys and books, it's hard to believe that these two boys were once hailed by thousands of Aum Shinrikyo members as holy children and heirs to their guru's legacy.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

Hearing-impaired to get subtitles over the Internet

Television program subtitles will be simulcast over the Internet starting in 2001 to audiences with hearing problems, a support group for the disabled said Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

LDP lawmakers try to quell non-Japanese suffrage moves

A group of Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers has urged local LDP chapters to revoke local assembly resolutions that favored a bill to give permanent non-Japanese residents voting rights in local elections.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 30, 2000

Korean owners cancel 2001 baseball season

The 2001 baseball season in South Korea has been canceled by the owners of the eight Korean Baseball Organization teams in retaliation for a surge in players' union membership.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji