Search - information

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2002

Beijing's political reflexes still at war with modernity

HONG KONG -- In the 23 years since Deng Xiaoping opened China to the outside world, it has become one of the world's great trading nations. Now the further onrush of foreign trade is to be used as a forcible stimulant to hasten China's economic reform and to enhance modernization. So Dec. 11, the day...
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2002

Gloomy economic assessment left unchanged by government

The government left its bleak assessment of the economy unchanged in a monthly report issued Wednesday but said the decline in exports may be bottoming out.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2002

Tax Commission to examine ID code plan for taxpayers

The government's Tax Commission is to begin today studying ways of introducing a controversial system that would assign identification codes to taxpayers, commission sources said Wednesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Jan 17, 2002

Magic elfin adventures of Jak & Daxter land in Japan

Back in August, The Japan Times ran a feature about a company called Naughty Dog that specializes in 3-D adventure games.
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2002

Experts push government to protect intellectual property

A group of experts has called on the government to adopt a set of 100 drastic reform steps to protect intellectual property rights as part of efforts to make Japan a world leader in the knowledge-oriented economy by 2010.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jan 16, 2002

If at first you don't succeed

Teen idol Ami Suzuki is apparently on the verge of making a comeback after disappearing from the J-pop radar more than a year ago.
BUSINESS
Jan 16, 2002

Mobile phone shipments down again

Domestic shipments of mobile phones and personal handy-phone handsets dropped 24.2 percent in November from a year ago to 3,229,000 units, marking a sixth consecutive month of decline, an industry group said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2002

Fuchu trots out story of horse racing

Horses, once essential for farming and transport, have all but disappeared from modern Japan -- except to fuel our sense of competition at the track.
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2002

Bureaucrat breaking mold to give public more of a voice

Until six years ago, Nobutaka Murao says, he was just another central government bureaucrat. Then he was posted to the Mie Prefectural Government in July 1995, on loan from the Finance Ministry, and everything changed.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 13, 2002

No recovery in sight for Japanese book publishing industry

One often sees references in the Japanese media to the "lost decade" that followed the burst of the speculative bubble in the early 1990s, but the publishing world has only suffered a half decade of negative growth. After five consecutive years of falling sales, however, it can no longer ignore systemic...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 13, 2002

Why North Korea's people starved

THE GREAT NORTH KOREAN FAMINE: Famine, Politics and Foreign Policy, by Andrew S. Natsios. United States Institute of Peace Press, 2002, $19.95 (paper) This is a grim and troubling account of the 20th century's fifth great famine, a calamity that swept through North Korea during the 1990s, claiming an...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jan 13, 2002

Different strokes, different folks

Former Olympic swimmer Yasuko Tajima appears tonight on the exotic travel show, "Sekai Ururun Taizaiki (World Sojourn)" (TBS, 10 p.m.), the program on which she made her showbiz debut last year.
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2002

Japan-U.S. pact to expedite cooperation in crime probes

The government will conclude this year a criminal investigation cooperation treaty with the United States that would allow agencies to bypass diplomatic channels in exchanging information, government sources said.
BUSINESS
Jan 12, 2002

Chip makers drop dumping claim on South Koreans

Four Japanese chip makers have shied away from filing an antidumping petition against South Korean rivals that, the domestic makers say, export dynamic random access memory chips to Japan at unfairly low prices, according to industry sources.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jan 12, 2002

Keiko Otsu

HELP stands for House in Emergency of Love and Peace. This shelter for Asian women and children was established in 1986 on the 100th anniversary of the Japan Women's Christian Temperance Union.
BUSINESS
Jan 12, 2002

TSE moves into the education game

The Tokyo Stock Exchange is sponsoring seminars on stock trading for university students with the hope they will return to the market as investors in the future.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2002

NPOs make mark by preserving the past

Kyodo News Members of nonprofit organizations are making strenuous efforts to preserve traditional Japanese structures and townscapes and develop regional communities.
EDITORIALS
Jan 11, 2002

How to spell recovery

This is an important year for the international economy. Most crucial will be its path after the worst slump in decades. That trajectory depends, in large part, on developments in the United States. Initial signs are promising: The U.S. looks poised to recover, but the strength and durability of the...
SUMO
Jan 11, 2002

Konishiki making impact after sumo

Hollywood, home to some of the biggest stars on earth, soon may have to make room for the biggest star of all. Former sumo wrestler Konishiki on Thursday revealed his plans to make it big in Tinseltown.
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2002

Fujitsu work-share system to affect 5,000 employees

Fujitsu Ltd. said Wednesday it plans to have some 5,000 employees take leave from work for periods ranging from a few months to a year as part of a work-sharing plan to cut personnel costs amid a slump in the information technology sector.
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2002

Residential land prices decline again

The nation's land prices in eight major residential areas declined in 2001, a private-sector survey showed Wednesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Jan 10, 2002

Plants for all seasons bring us midwinter cheer

Little by little the days are starting to get longer, though with spring still a long way off this is a good time to do some armchair gardening. Whether you browse through gardening books or magazines, or search the Internet for your reading material, without stirring from your armchair there's plenty...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 10, 2002

Eco-tour program puts priority on people

First of two parts Stefan Ottomanski is a rare educator: He thrives on uncertainty and views obstacles as opportunities to teach both his students and himself lessons that were never part of the curriculum.
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 10, 2002

Forget agents, get a comedian

Yakult Swallows pitcher Kazuhisa Ishii obviously didn't know what to do.
BUSINESS / ON THE FRONT LINE
Jan 9, 2002

Positive TSE start masks long-term gloom

The Tokyo stock market has rung in 2002 on a positive note, stirring hope over the prospects of high-priced activity in the months ahead.
JAPAN
Jan 8, 2002

North Korean ship searched after refusing to be boarded

Coast guard personnel and police inspected an uncooperative North Korean freighter Monday in Chiba Prefecture but found nothing unusual and believe a tip about suspicious men in wet suits that led to the search was a hoax, a senior Japan Coast Guard official said.

Longform

It's back to the classroom for some residents as municipal governments across the country conduct lessons to learn how to use new technologies.
Can aging Japan go digital without leaving anyone behind?