Search - environment

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2004

Afghanistan three years on

WASHINGTON -- Three years after the Bush administration led a remarkably quick and bold military operation to overthrow the Taliban regime, how are things going in Afghanistan? The short answer is that there has been considerable progress. But that is largely because things were so bad under the Taliban,...
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2004

Panel backs 'flexible' defenses, arms trade

A government advisory panel recommended Monday that Japan scrap some of the basic principles that have guided the nation's postwar, self- defense-oriented security policy and be more flexible in drawing up a new defense strategy.
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2004

China aid to focus on ecology: Machimura

Japanese economic assistance for China will focus on environment conservation and human resources development, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Sunday in response to calls to stop aiding the rapidly growing neighbor.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 29, 2004

An Eastern art show to rival Venice

On May 18, 1980, the city of Gwangju, South Korea, hit the headlines with an explosion of civilian dissent against the military junta that had seized power the day before. The junta's brutal crackdown culminated in the Gwangju Massacre of hundreds of students and civilians. The uprising would spark South...
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Sep 28, 2004

Japanese mega-stores blazing trails in a brave, new publishing world

The Japanese bookstore world used to be one of "If you put it out, it will sell." But that comfortable age is over. Seven straight years of declining book sales have killed off some 1,500 bookstores.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 23, 2004

Good stuff, people and advice on how to tailor your consumption

It's back-to-school time again, and whether you are going back, sending your child off, or just getting swept up in the streams of backpack-wielding kids, change is in the air. Time for new books, new people and new gossip, and time to clear the desk even if only for a place to rest your head.
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2004

Japan's diplomatic might

In late August, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi visited four Central Asian states to build a new framework of regional dialogue. The creation of the "Central Asia Plus Japan" forum means that Japan is pushing strategic diplomacy in the geopolitically important Silk Road region, surrounded by Russia,...
Japan Times
Features
Sep 12, 2004

Heights of cleanliness

What must it be like to stand on top of the world's highest mountain? To battle through driving snow and across deadly glaciers, to scale icy rock walls and risk falling thousands of meters while being hit full-on by raging, freezing winds -- aware that an avalanche could, at any moment, swat you into...
Features
Sep 12, 2004

Mount Fuji: Symbol of beauty; mountain of shame

Thinking "green" may seem to be a modern notion, but in Japan it's as old as the hills -- at least those ones climbed by innumerable yamabushi ascetics on grueling mountain pilgrimages in search of enlightenment.
BUSINESS
Aug 28, 2004

Toyota still playing catchup in China with 'well-digging' VW

Last of five parts on problems Toyota Motor Corp. faces in China
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 25, 2004

No easy answers from Kore-eda

Directors who have been on the PR circuit long enough often have their answers ready before the interviewer's questions are halfway out of his mouth. Not Hirokazu Kore-eda. Despite the dozens of interviews he's given since "Nobody Knows (Daremo Shiranai)" screened in competition at this year's Cannes...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2004

Zushi residents up in arms over more U.S. military housing

Until about two decades ago, poet Mutsuo Takahashi considered the city of Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture, virgin territory.
EDITORIALS
Aug 19, 2004

Redeployment of U.S. forces

U. S. President George W. Bush this week announced the long-anticipated plan to restructure U.S. military forces abroad. The proposal, the largest redeployment of the U.S. military in half a century, is designed to reflect changes in the international security environment. The moves have implications...
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2004

Hokkaido firms try daylight-saving

It's a decades-old debate in Japan: whether to save energy by turning the clocks ahead an hour in the summer like the United States and Europe.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2004

Japanese bluefish being cut from restaurant menus

More and more restaurants are dropping Japanese "gin mutsu" bluefish from their menus as environmentally certified fishing and seafood products become popular in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2004

Going global with civic virtues

How do we instill civic virtue in the global marketplace to civilize and tame it so that we arrive at the place where the market serves the people instead of where people are served up to the market? Around half of the world's 100 largest economies are private companies. This gives the private sector...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 8, 2004

Renewable energy sources offer global chance to shed fossil fuels

As the leading national consumer of fossil fuels, the United States churns out almost a quarter of all the industrial carbon dioxide worldwide. Apologists say this is the price that must be paid in exchange for driving the global economy. Realists see such hubris as eventually undermining human viability...
EDITORIALS
Jun 25, 2004

Bringing science and society closer

The connection between science and technology, on the one hand, and our daily life, on the other, is growing closer and increasingly wide-ranging. To see that relationship, we have only to think of the example of advanced medicine, in which information and images obtained via cell phones or the Internet...
COMMENTARY
Jun 15, 2004

Strike a balance on defense

As the Self-Defense Forces prepare to greet the 50th anniversary of their founding next month, the prime minister's advisory panel on security and defense is updating Japan's "national defense program outline."
Japan Times
Features
Jun 13, 2004

Front-line fighters

Squeezed between stacks of files and computer equipment in a two-room apartment in Tokyo's Takadanobaba area, Chizuko Ikegami and several volunteers are manning the phones. Round the clock, day in, day out, PLACE Tokyo receives calls from people desperately seeking advice after being diagnosed with...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 12, 2004

Korean democracy passes test

NEW YORK -- Politics in Japan and South Korea are a study in contrasts. It is nearly impossible to identify the polic differences between Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition Democrats. In South Korea, on the other hand, the ruling Uri Party, which now controls both the presidency...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jun 6, 2004

Shinya Tasaki: Sommelier supreme

Shinya Tasaki was a teenager when he made his first solo trip to France in 1977. Even back then, he was so eager to learn about French food and wine that he visited as many wineries as he could -- only to be turned away from most. But his determination kept him from giving up -- and now nobody will turn...
BUSINESS
Jun 3, 2004

Eco-friendly convenience stores eyed

The government will help finance convenience stores' efforts to counter global warming, hoping their actions will encourage other entities to take similar steps nationwide, the Environment Ministry said Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 26, 2004

Lawyers, welfare experts to open private shelter for troubled youths

Lawyers and child welfare experts will open a private temporary shelter for about five teenagers on June 1 in Tokyo -- the first facility of its kind in Japan.
JAPAN
May 13, 2004

Princess' household may show more consideration

The head of the Crown Prince's Household said Wednesday that he takes seriously Crown Prince Naruhito's recently stated dissatisfaction with the environment surrounding his wife, Crown Princess Masako.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 9, 2004

Steve Kimock: more than a feeling

A friend of mine calls improvisational guitarist Steve Kimock "The Master," constantly marveling at his shimmering harmonics, dynamic swings and musical "feel." What does Kimock have to say to this straightforward sort of hero worship? (Think Wayne's World's "We're not worthy!")
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2004

Musicians back eco-friendly projects

A bank set up by three Japanese musicians to finance environmental-protection projects will start accepting applications for loans throughout May.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2004

Officials agree on global observation framework

Senior officials from more than 40 countries agreed Sunday in Tokyo on the framework of a 10-year plan to integrate global observation systems in order to address environmental threats such as climate change and natural disasters.
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2004

Almost 1 million graduates start work

Around 948,000 new graduates from colleges and other schools entered Japan's workforce Thursday, with companies and government agencies nationwide holding initiation ceremonies.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat