Search - u_times

 
 
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2002

Bogus forecasts yield mega-project fiascoes

Japan has seen a number of soured public works projects now grappling with snowballing debts, ranging from toll expressways, gigantic bridges, airports and empty ports with huge container facilities.
BUSINESS
Jul 19, 2002

PoweredCom, IIJ in tieup talks

PoweredCom Inc., a data communications firm owned by Tokyo Electric Power Co. and nine other utilities, is negotiating with Internet provider Internet Initiative Japan Inc. over a possible business integration deal, the two companies confirmed Thursday.
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Jul 19, 2002

Painting in the park is a lesson in creativity

One morning in June, my kids left for school without their usual leather backpacks. Instead, they each carried a knapsack with a water bottle, a ground cloth and a handful of my sentakubasami. Clothespins? Yup. Standard equipment for the Zenko Shasei Taikai (All-School Sketch Festival).
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2002

Refugee denied medical care: group

OSAKA -- A Kurdish asylum seeker detained at an immigration facility in Osaka Prefecture is being denied proper medical treatment, although he has symptoms of high blood pressure and heart trouble, a refugee aid group in Osaka said Wednesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 18, 2002

Trees' wondrous ways of turning over a new leaf

Now, at the height of summer, when the fresh green of the spring leaves has darkened, I will start this week's column with a question: "Why is it that northern Japan's Mongolian oak and Europe's common beech retain their rustling brown leaves all winter, while sharing their temperate forest habitat mainly...
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 18, 2002

'Factory' fishing threatens marine stocks

Ever evening at sunset, Maruyama Keizo, 64, and his brother Motoichi, 54, of Minabe, Wakayama Prefecture, take their boat out and return the next morning at dawn with their catch: either flatfish or sardines, depending on the season. In his 50-year working life, Maruyama has seen shrinking catches, the...
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Jul 18, 2002

'Wrestlemania X8': stone-cold fun

In America, every demographic has its own form of entertainment. For cultured people, there is opera and polo. For the teaming masses, there is World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), an entire league of behemoth men and scantily clad women brawling on a nightly basis to thrill and titillate the beer-and-pork...
BUSINESS
Jul 17, 2002

Japan prepared to intervene again in money market

The nation's currency policy remains unchanged, Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Tuesday, indicating Japan is prepared to intervene in the foreign-exchange markets to stem the rapid gains by the yen.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 17, 2002

MLB crisis: What can the market bear?

Man, Major League Baseball is really in a mess now. Following the All-Star tie-game fiasco last week in Milwaukee, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig was quoted as saying one big-league club may not be able to meet its payroll this week, and another team is sick with Tennessee Ernie Ford disease: "Another day...
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2002

Millions affected by mystery two-hour phone glitch in Osaka

OSAKA -- Phone services that had been disrupted for two hours in most of Osaka Prefecture were restored to normal a little past noon on Monday, said NTT West Corp., a regional unit of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2002

Dentists prosper from quest for winning smile

An increasing number of people -- especially young women -- are visiting dental clinics. They're not having cavities drilled, but having their teeth whitened.
MORE SPORTS
Jul 16, 2002

Japan qualifies for Rugby World Cup finals

SEOUL -- Japan maintained its proud record of having appeared at every Rugby World Cup finals when it beat South Korea 55-17 at Tondaemun Stadium, Seoul on Sunday to ensure it finished top of the Asian qualifying group.
EDITORIALS
Jul 14, 2002

The little cell phone that could

What is the single most annoying product of modern technology -- at least when other people use it? If letters to the editor of this newspaper are any indication, the clear winner is the cell phone. It seems that many, if not most, of us experience a surge of irrational irritation when we see people...
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 14, 2002

Powell, Matoyama lead PL revenge

MATSUYAMA, Ehime Pref. -- It turned out to be another great night for Kansai baseball.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 14, 2002

The name is Otaku, James Otaku

Don't go to Akihabara if you're looking to buy an Aston Martin with twin machine guns, or a pen that shoots poisoned darts. Aside from these, though, there's enough exotic spy goodies there to keep 007 -- or even the most discerning otaku -- supplied for years to come.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Jul 14, 2002

Skip the jazz club, it's festival season

Most jazz people are night owls who don't get much sun, so summer festivals give the music, players and fans all a good airing out.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 14, 2002

Keep your cool in the big heat

Every food has its season, and every season its food -- and the arrival of the big heat means that, more than ever, this is the time of year for noodles.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 13, 2002

HIV epidemic taking its toll on Myanmar

NEW YORK -- According to the latest statistics, the number of HIV/AIDS cases in Myanmar continues to rise, fueled by drug abuse, population mobility, poverty and a lack of effective government policies. Thai medical experts report that the epidemic, if not controlled, may soon eclipse the worst situation...
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2002

Report calls on banks to carry out risk assessment

A private advisory committee to Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa unveiled a draft report Friday that offered Japan's financial system a road map to a future radically different than its present.
SOCCER / World cup
Jul 13, 2002

With the World Cup over, J. League gets back to business

The World Cup may be over, but Japan's newly converted soccer fans will still have plenty to cheer about when J. League Division One action resumes Saturday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 13, 2002

Ciaran Murray

"I had to come to Japan, to sit in a garden and discover something of Japanese culture, in order to write the history of my hometown," Ciaran Murray said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 13, 2002

Nisei woodworker follows grain of ancestral roots

His mailbox in Kikoba, where the town of Hayama meets Yokosuka City in Kanagawa Prefecture, reads "toco," the Portuguese word for log. Lengths of bamboo lean against an outside wall.
EDITORIALS
Jul 12, 2002

Narrow the wage gap

The important fact about Japanese wages today is that pay scales for regular workers have not fallen despite declining prices. This "downward rigidity" in seniority-based wages may be partly responsible for the growing presence of part-time workers and for the nation's persistently high level of unemployment....
Japan Times
JAPAN / KANSAI BEAT
Jul 12, 2002

Traditional industries adapting to stay afloat

KYOTO -- Tango Orimono Kogyo Kumiai, an association encompassing the traditional textile industry in Kyoto's Tango district, has tasted success with its foray into the skin-care products sector.
BUSINESS
Jul 12, 2002

Uncertain times boost top gold retailer's sales 3.17-fold

The nation's top retailer of gold ingots said Thursday it logged a 3.17-fold surge in sales in the January-June period from a year earlier on a quantitative basis.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 11, 2002

Diving and biking to eco-awareness

Excuse me for a moment if I boast, but I am delighted with the progress my backyard is making in its quest for biological diversity. No doubt my neighbors view my garden as unruly and overgrown, but as it's no bigger than a parking space, I let it have its way.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Jul 11, 2002

Undead moving into town

Time is short and the enemy grows ever stronger. You have a small encampment outside of a large medieval city. The residents of the city would be your natural allies; but the Undead Scourge gave them poisoned grain, and now they are dying to join your enemy.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2002

Postal services bills clear Lower House

The House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon approved a package of postal services bills, paving the way for the enactment of the controversial legislation during the current Diet session.

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