Search - people

 
 
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 2002

A time bomb at the sea bottom

The Spanish coast is now threatened by the biggest oil spill in history. Predictably, as much time is being spent on figuring out who is to blame as is being spent on cleanup efforts. At issue are the "flags of convenience" that allow ships to be registered in countries with which they have only a marginal...
BUSINESS
Nov 23, 2002

RCC to help with salvageable firms

The government announced Friday a new plan to establish schemes to help small and midsize companies rebuild their businesses by utilizing the trust function of Resolution and Collection Corp., the government's loan collection entity.
BUSINESS
Nov 23, 2002

Snow sees 45 billion yen loss in first half

Snow Brand Milk Products Co. said Friday it posted a group net loss of 45.36 billion yen for the first half of this business year, due largely to hefty restructuring charges aimed at reviving the ailing dairy giant.
COMMENTARY
Nov 22, 2002

Koizumi deserves more time

The political situation is beginning to show signs of yearend tumult. At the beginning of the fall, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was doing fine. In September he visited Pyongyang and managed to extract an apology from North Korean leader Kim Jong Il for the abduction of Japanese nationals in the...
COMMUNITY / NOTES FROM THE SMOKE
Nov 22, 2002

Iidabashi offers cheap passport to movie heaven

Going to the movies is one of life's great simple pleasures.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 22, 2002

Japanese movies eyed for makeover

With "The Ring," the horror film based on the 1998 Hideo Nakata hit "Ringu," sailing past the $100 million mark in the United States, remakes of Japanese and other Asian films are suddenly hot in Hollywood.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2002

Five war-displaced Japanese return

Five Japanese left behind in China during and after World War II arrived Thursday at Narita airport in Chiba Prefecture for meetings with their possible relatives in Japan.
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2002

Survey highlights lack of interest in disaster maps

Half of the 2,150 adults surveyed by the Cabinet Office in September said they have not seen or heard of disaster-prevention maps, while more than two in five said they don't know if there are disaster-prone areas in their neighborhoods.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2002

NGO envoy views groups' activities as an effective form of diplomacy

Nongovernmental organizations play an extremely important role abroad, with their activities constituting an effective form of diplomacy, according to a new ambassador tasked with overseeing Japanese NGOs.
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2002

Japan-U.S. ties better, but are they genuinely the best ever?

Since the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States and the subsequent war on terrorism, a number of American political leaders and experts have observed that Japan-U.S. relations have "never been better."
COMMENTARY
Nov 21, 2002

Hu inherits but Jiang still leads China

HONG KONG -- As Chinese Communist Party's 16th Party Congress convened on Nov. 8, the delegates stood for two minutes of silence in memory of past leaders. Along with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, one of the names read out was that of Liu Shaoqi. It was a pointed reminder of CCP tumult and strife in past...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Nov 21, 2002

Beware of twists ... and shouts

One chestnut some claim to be the shortest complete piece of fiction goes like this: "The last man on earth sat in his room. There was a knock on the door."
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2002

Crimes set record high, arrests record low in '01

Last year saw a record 2.74 million Penal Code violations, excluding traffic offenses, up 12 percent from 2000, but the arrest rate fell to a postwar low of 19.8 percent, the government reported Tuesday, adding that although foreigners committed a small percentage of the crimes, their offenses were models...
COMMENTARY
Nov 20, 2002

North Korean motives fan speculation

SEOUL -- I have given a series of lectures on U.S. Asia policy in the weeks since the revelation about North Korea's secret nuclear weapons program. While the audiences and locations in South Korea, Japan and the United States have varied widely, the questions have been remarkably similar. Along with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Nov 20, 2002

Getting emotional as the Sagacho closes its doors

Last Friday evening, as a waxing moon arced low across a clear autumn sky, more than 600 people made what for most would be their final pilgrimage to the Mecca of Tokyo's contemporary art scene. Alone or in clans -- some boisterous, others silent -- they crossed the Sumida River, wound their way through...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2002

Protectionism threatens global economy

LONDON -- Japan's current row with China over steel exports is symptomatic of a growing retreat from the free trade aims that underpinned international growth in the last two decades of the 20th century. It is now a year since members of the World Trade Organization set themselves the task of reducing...
BUSINESS / ON MANAGEMENT
Nov 19, 2002

Seagram's fall from grace is testimony to virtue of stockpiling crown jewels

When Shakespeare wrote, "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown" he was talking about royalty, but I'm sure the travails of today's business elite would have attracted his attention. The recent demise of the House of Seagram, for instance, might be worthy of a play -- the tale of how a third-generation...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Nov 19, 2002

Seeking spiritual succah in the Negev desert

The largest natural crater in the world has a past almost as awe-inspiring as its present.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 18, 2002

Matsui exits on low note

"Godzilla" left his old stomping grounds with more of a whimper than a bang Sunday afternoon.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 18, 2002

China afflicted by illegal flights of capital

While China continues to attract much of the foreign capital that comes into Asia's emerging market economies, it appears these inflows are increasingly needed to offset capital flight. A flood of unregistered outflows from China has been compounded by the difficulty in tracking outbound movements of...
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2002

Flu vaccination linked to muscle-wasting disease

Five people in Japan suffered Guillain-Barre syndrome -- a disorder of progressive muscle weakness -- after receiving influenza vaccinations between January 2000 and April 2002, health ministry officials said Sunday.
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2002

10 trillion yen sought for extra budget

Calls were made Sunday for an extra budget totaling at least 10 trillion yen for the current fiscal year to shore up the anemic economy.
EDITORIALS
Nov 18, 2002

Good neighbors to diversity

Japanese are increasingly waking up to find that their new neighbors are foreigners who have settled in this country. What should be done to build an affluent multicultural society in Japan? The Sapporo District Court recently handed down a ruling that makes us think about this question. Three foreigners...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 18, 2002

Only bitter solutions remain in Chechnya

LIMASSOL, Cyprus -- Europeans have a way of knowing what's best for other peoples' conflicts but facing their own crises with ineptitude, and there is no better demonstration of this than their attitude to the war in Chechnya.
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2002

Finance firm exec held over racketeer payoffs

A senior managing director of leading Japanese consumer credit firm Nippon Shinpan Co. was arrested Saturday with seven other people for allegedly paying off a former racketeer.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 17, 2002

Movers and shakers behind the scenes

For journalists and valued customers, the Tokyo Collections are all about the spectacle of the shows. For buyers from Tokyo's department stores and boutiques, they are epic spending sprees -- business gambles founded on knowledge and experience laced with intuition.

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go