Search - u_times

 
 
EDITORIALS
Jan 9, 2001

Ministry shakeup just a beginning

The government reorganization that took effect last Saturday is designed to create an administrative system more responsive to the needs of the times, with politicians, not bureaucrats, taking the initiative in shaping public policy. In the most drastic bureaucratic reform in half a century, the number...
CULTURE / Film
Jan 9, 2001

A peep inside the otaku cocoon

Writing about Japanese films in English, I am usually flying below the radar of the local industry -- I can skewer a director's latest triumph on this page and meet him laterat a party secure in the knowledge that he has not the foggiest idea of what I've said about his movie. Once in a while, though,...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Jan 9, 2001

Hitting the high notes of jazz

At the age of 5 or 6, Cassandra Wilson recalls hearing the music of Miles Davis for the first time. "Sketches of Spain" was part of her father's record collection, himself a jazz musician and was one of the records he would often play in their home in Jackson, Mississippi.
BUSINESS
Jan 8, 2001

Microsoft shows off the Xbox

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- Attendees at the 2001 Consumer Electronics Show on Saturday were given the first public viewing of Xbox, the new 128-bit video game console being developed by computer software giant Microsoft.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 8, 2001

Enjoy a meander down the magnificent Mekong

THE MEKONG: Turbulent Past, Uncertain Future, by Milton Osborne. Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, 2000, $24. This elegiac tribute to the Mekong River is an occasion for a comfortable chair and a languorous afternoon. The intrepid armchair traveler is transported to this magnificent locale and can almost...
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2001

Primatologist fears for future of greedy, destructive mankind

Over the course of the coming year, The Japan Times will publish on the front page of Sunday editions interviews with people who have unique stories to tell, in the hope that their experiences will provide food for thought on the many facets of Japan.
SUMO
Jan 7, 2001

Takanohana, Kaio favored in New Year sumo tourney

The 21st century for sumo gets under way at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan today.
EDITORIALS
Jan 7, 2001

Road safety requires enforcement

Rational observers of the chaotic traffic conditions on Japan's crowded highways and busy urban areas long ago concluded that improvements were overdue. So the surprise yearend announcement by the National Police Agency that it is proposing stricter penalties for drunken driving, hit-and-run accidents,...
CULTURE / Film
Jan 6, 2001

The movie's the thing

Who do you think you are, the Prince of Denmark? Such is the complaint I'd like to lodge with wordy, lordly, self-obsessed people whose introverted grievances often manifest themselves in extroverted acts of harm. Hamlet had always struck me as a curious choice for a hero. It's true he gave some great...
BUSINESS
Jan 6, 2001

Young information technology execs join social revolution

The role played by young people in promoting information technology in society was highlighted in early December when a teenage company executive was recognized and won an award for being the person most representative of the IT revolution.
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2001

'Anime' invade Akihabara's electronics monopoly

The Akihabara district of Tokyo appears to be changing in response to the increasing number of discount computer shops, previously a district mainstay, that have opened in other areas. Considering Electric Town's old reputation as a testing ground for new products, some say the future lies in "otaku."...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Jan 6, 2001

Japanese music gets support from New Year's tradition

New Year's in Japan is a period when Japanese suddenly seem to "rediscover" their traditional music. Radio and television stations, which, except for NHK, practically ignore traditional music for most of the year, get into the seasonal spirit and air programs of the classical performing and theatrical...
COMMENTARY
Jan 6, 2001

China and Taiwan fight over the WTO

WASHINGTON -- The changing of the political guard will soon be under way in Washington. Despite disquiet in many foreign capitals, few dramatic changes in U.S. foreign policy are likely.
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2001

Asahi, IHT to jointly publish daily

Major national newspaper Asahi Shimbun Co. will jointly publish an English-language newspaper in Japan with the International Herald Tribune, the Japanese daily said Thursday.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 5, 2001

A film genius in his own mind

Harmony Korine -- screenwriter of "Kids," director of "Gummo" -- fancies himself the enfant terrible of contemporary cinema. Well, he is . . . terrible. Certain critics have been calling him "the new Godard," and I'd agreewith that too. But when was the last time Godard made anything that played better...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 5, 2001

Have Japanese novelists lost touch with readers?

The fading interest in reading among younger Japanese first caused alarm several years ago in Japan, but I was recently startled to see a full page devoted to the topic in The New York Times' Book Review section (Dec. 10).
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2001

State manual outlines food-crisis scenarios

The government has drawn up a manual for a potential food crisis sometime this century on the basis of the new basic agricultural law, which came into force in July 1999, government sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2001

Reform fledgling offspring of 'lost decade'

During the bubble economy of the late 1980s, few could have predicted the acute banking crisis and long economic malaise that have typified the past decade.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jan 3, 2001

Kicking up a stink about smelling as natural as a skunk

While beauty traditionally belongs to the beholder's eye, correct hygiene might be better ascribed to his or her nose.
JAPAN / STAGING A COMEBACK
Jan 1, 2001

Carrying out reform is only the beginning for politicians

The final 10 years of the 20th century have been called a "lost decade" for Japan, which continues to suffer woes from the burst of the late-1980s bubble-economy. Japan's comeback as a globally competitive economic powerhouse will require fundamental reforms not only in the industrial and financial sectors...
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2001

Reporters following Mori find him blunt, hot-tempered

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has often lost his temper during his nearly nine months in office and expressed himself too bluntly, resulting in a number of controversial remarks, according to reporters who cover the prime minister's every move.
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2001

Emperor encourages all to overcome difficulties

As the Imperial family prepared to mark the first New Year's Day of the 21st century at the Imperial Palace, the Emperor expressed hope that the Japanese people will pull together to deal with difficulties such as the economic slump and the aging society and create a better future for all.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2001

New opportunities for Japan-U.S. ties

The administration of U.S. President-elect George W. Bush will include many pro-Japanese officials. This reflects U.S. political history. Many officials of President Bill Clinton's administration had served under President Jimmy Carter, who came to power 12 years earlier. For example, former Secretary...
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2001

Millennial launch prompted more couples to get married

The number of marriages registered in Japan in 2000 rose by an estimated 26,000 from the year before to 788,000, with couples apparently wanting to tie the knot in a year billed as the start of the new millennium, the Health and Welfare Ministry said Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2001

A question of hegemony

An implicit alliance has emerged in Washington since the Cold War's end between avowedly "Wilsonian" liberals, anxious to extend American influence and federate the democracies, and unilateralist neoconservative believers in U.S. power projection, who call for American world leadership, aggressively...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2001

Progress alone won't be enough

IT, shorthand for information technology, was a buzzword in Japan in 2000. Never before had computers and the Internet caused such a furor in the media. To be sure, IT had created a boom several times in the past, but its impact had been confined to the corporate sector. In contrast, the latest boom...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2001

The true meaning of civilization

History shows that on the eve of the collapse of the Roman Empire, its denizens reveled as if they were crazy. Just before Paris fell to German forces during World War II, dressed-up people danced all night at nightclubs in the city. And when the Cuban government of President Fulgencio Batista fell,...
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2000

Cities set to merge divided over new leader

It looked like a match made in heaven when, on Aug. 10, the two beaming mayors of Hoya and Tanashi shook hands on a deal to merge the two western Tokyo cities.

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