Search - u_times

 
 
MORE SPORTS
Jun 4, 2003

Youth soccer school set to open

A weekly soccer academy for kindergarten and elementary school children will be held every Thursday afternoon beginning Sept. 11 at Komazawa Olympic Park in Setagaya, Tokyo, organizers have announced.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2003

Convicted Philippine woman awarded 2 million yen

CHIBA -- Chiba Prefecture was ordered Monday to pay some 2 million yen to a Philippine woman who was illegally detained for questioning by prefectural police prior to being convicted of a 1997 murder.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FRONT-RUNNERS
Jun 3, 2003

Sanyo charging ahead in cell phone battery sector

Chances are if you use a mobile phone equipped with a camera, it's powered by a Sanyo battery.
BUSINESS
Jun 3, 2003

Kobe Steel eyes 20-fold profit growth by 2005

Kobe Steel Ltd. said Monday it aims to expand its group net profit by more than 20 times by fiscal 2005 to 36 billion yen from 1.7 billion yen in fiscal 2002, which ended March 31.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2003

From language to food, things Korean seen finding favor in World Cup wake

A year after the historic cohosting by Japan and South Korea of the 2002 World Cup finals, Japan's embracing of things Korean appears to have gone beyond being simply a one-time fad.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2003

From language to food, things Korean seen finding favor in World Cup wake

A year after the historic cohosting by Japan and South Korea of the 2002 World Cup finals, Japan's embracing of things Korean appears to have gone beyond being simply a one-time fad.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 1, 2003

Plagued by military politics

MILITARY POLITICS AND DEMOCRATIZATION IN INDONESIA, by Jun Honna. London: RoutedgeCurzon, 2003, 300 pp., $904 (cloth). With the collapse of a fragile ceasefire in Aceh, the Indonesian government has decided on a military solution to this long-festering problem. The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has fought...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jun 1, 2003

The desert domain where the rhinos rule

Last of two parts We are in the Kunene wilderness region of northwest Namibia, with former F-1 star Ukyo Katayama, an NHK documentary team, a bunch of bloody-minded camels, several battered off-road vehicles, about 50 local tribesmen and Namibian wildlife artist Blythe Loutit, founder of The Save the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 1, 2003

Shame and the pious pioneer

Commodore Matthew Perry pried open the door to Japan, and the first American to pass through it was Townsend Harris.
COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2003

Hollingworth affair can frazzle Australia's royal links

SYDNEY -- Sex, religion, politics -- what an explosive combination to hit Australia! And just as everyone is welcoming home troops from the Iraq war and the economy is looking good.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 30, 2003

Is Resona the tip of the iceberg?

The whistle-blowing erupted a few days before May 17, the day Resona, the nation's fifth-largest banking group, announced its capital had tumbled below regulation levels.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 30, 2003

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon: Is it worth the wait? Mais bien sur!

As soon as the hype and crowds at Roppongi Hills subsided (a bit, anyway), we ventured in. Not to mill around alongside the gawping multitudes, but to make a beeline to the door of L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon. It's not every day that a new restaurant opens from the man who was hailed in his native France...
COMMENTARY
May 29, 2003

Change hasn't halted decline

LONDON -- I was invited recently to Japan to speak to two Japanese audiences about the Japanese economy as seen from London and what should be done to ensure Japanese economic recovery. I prepared a speech that was pessimistic. This was inevitable as British reporting on the Japanese economy is full...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 29, 2003

Best to remember this

A couple of years ago the British artist Damien Hirst explained why he now lays off alcohol: "Blackouts. I used never to get blackouts. . . . I was walking around in the morning, and they'd be going, 'You did this.' Did I? I couldn't even remember the violence."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 29, 2003

Targeting nature on a Texas shootout

Texas summons up images of cowboys and longhorn cattle, Western boots and horses, Stetsons, vast ranches, oil and gas -- and that Texan drawl.
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2003

Slander poses a greater danger than SARS itself

EDMONTON, Canada -- Outside of Asia, Toronto has been the city hardest hit by severe acute respiratory syndrome. Canadian Chinese living there, as well as Canadians of Japanese and Korean ethnic origin, have felt the chill of blame.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 28, 2003

Four Tet: "Rounds"

Whether through dewy-eyed computer-animation's marvels or Sony's Aibo, today's "digerati" yearn to simulate real life through hardware. The same goes for "laptop musicians," but few sound as warm and organic as the one-man band Four Tet, which is Kieran Hebden. Using extensive samples of instruments...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 28, 2003

An icon of her times

In the history of Russian icons, one image is pre-eminent as the most copied, most decorated and most adored: "Our Lady of Kazan."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / NOTES FROM THE SMOKE
May 27, 2003

Japan's cup, it runneth over

This week, Notes From the Smoke features a saucy deviation from the usual format.
COMMENTARY
May 26, 2003

High cost of the farm lobby

The outlook for the World Trade Organization's new round of trade negotiations is uncertain after member nations failed to agree on farm-trade "modality" before the March 31 deadline. The U.S.-European split over the Iraq war has slowed the momentum for talks. The initial goal of reaching a comprehensive...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 25, 2003

Kansai rides the onsen wave

It's a sunny Saturday afternoon, and Spa World in Osaka's Naniwa Ward is crowded with people of all ages drawn to its 16 different kinds of baths. True to its name, it's an onsen theme park with a global approach.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
May 25, 2003

Classic country without the hair spray

Neko (pronounced like Nico) Case certainly has the tresses to make it in Nashville. Her long luxurious auburn locks would need only a little coaxing and a lot of hair spray for a Loretta Lynn do.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 25, 2003

Anthropology through the lens

GUNMA: Life and People. by Greg Davis. Tokyo: IPJ, 2002, 107 pp., 5,000 yen (cloth). Greg Davis had lived in Japan since 1970, working as a photojournalist throughout Asia. His sudden death on May 4 of liver cancer at the age of 54 is a major loss to his profession and those whose lives he touched all...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 25, 2003

The boy bachelor

Last week, the National Tax Bureau released its annual list of the country's top tax-payers, and at the summit of the pile of show business personalities was Masahiro Nakai, the self-effacing leader of the boy group SMAP. Nakai's high salary is easy to understand: He appears in at least a half-dozen...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 25, 2003

The rise and fall of the Romanovs remembered

First of two parts At its height, in the middle of the 19th century, the Russian Empire ruled by the Romanovs covered more than one-sixth of the surface of the globe. It was a glorious era for a dynasty that had sprung from obscure beginnings, when in 1613, in a bid to end years of civil unrest at home...
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2003

Marooned Argentines trust in Kirchner

NEW YORK -- The election of Nestor Kirchner as Argentina's new president offers hope for a national economic and social recovery following decades of government mismanagement. Kirchner will need to back his intentions with prompt implementation of effective policies to convince Argentines that he will...
BUSINESS
May 23, 2003

Broadband mart seen growing fivefold in five years

The telecommunications ministry expects the value of the nation's broadband market to post a fivefold surge to 10.2 trillion yen over the next five years, according to a copy of a draft 2003 white paper made available Thursday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 23, 2003

Akebono lives life to the full

"It was," my dining companion recalls with a sigh, "a diet with just one purpose: to get you to put on weight."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 22, 2003

Katydid

* Japanese name: Sesuji tsuyumushi * Scientific name: Ducetia japonica * Description: Katydids (also known as bush crickets) belong to a family of grasshoppers and crickets called the Tettigoniidae. The insects in this family have very long antennae, like threads, sometimes two or three times the...

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