Search - 2002

 
 
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2003

Alleged swindler pleads innocent

The founder of an investment group pleaded not guilty Monday to swindling individuals out of more than 1 billion yen through a bogus investment scheme promising high dividends.
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2003

USJ to add weddings to its array of themes

OSAKA -- Universal Studios Japan, the troubled Hollywood theme park in Osaka, will be open to hosting weddings starting this spring, according to Shin Sasaki, president of USJ Co.
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2003

Economy, foreign attack bills lead new Diet session

The Diet convened its 156th session Monday, with the economy and a set of bills to give the government more powers in the event of an attack topping the agenda.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 21, 2003

Matsui works out in Kawasaki

Hideki Matsui had his first workout before the media Sunday after being introduced as a New York Yankee last Tuesday following the signing of a three-year, $21 million free-agent deal.
BUSINESS
Jan 21, 2003

NEC set to hand reins to president of firm's IT unit

NEC Corp. on Monday named Akinobu Kanasugi, head of the firm's information technology unit, its next president.
SOCCER / J. League
Jan 20, 2003

New Shonan manager outlines plans

HIRATSUKA, Kanagawa Pref. -- Following a four-year spell as assistant coach to the Japan national team, new Shonan Bellmare manager Samir plans to introduce a playing system that mirrors that used by the national team in his quest to win promotion to Division One.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 20, 2003

Australian attitudes harden against illegals

SYDNEY -- Burn, baby, burn. That's how arsonists among illegal arrivals held in detention centers across Australia greeted the new year. What an inglorious way to start 2003!
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jan 20, 2003

Hike in consumption tax center of lobby's vision

The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) on Jan. 1 released a grand vision aimed at reviving Japan into a vigor- ous and attractive nation.
Japan Times
SOCCER / World cup
Jan 19, 2003

Perseverance, positive outlook carrying Inamoto

Scoring an important goal obviously affects the outcome of a game. But it also sometimes changes the scorer's career -- as in the case with Japan and Fulham midfielder Junichi Inamoto.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 19, 2003

Facts are first casualty in U.S. march to war

WAR PLAN IRAQ: Ten Reasons Against War on Iraq, by Milan Rai. Verso, 2002, 240 pp., $15 (paper) When Richard Butler, head of the first U.N. weapons inspections team in Iraq, said in 1997 that "Truth in some cultures is kind of what you can get away with saying," he was referring to the regime of Iraqi...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 19, 2003

Trail of tears from Deshima

TITIA: The First Western Woman in Japan, by Rene P. Bersma. Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, 2002, 140 pp. with 37 plates, $17.50 (paper) One August afternoon in 1817, a Dutch ship entered Nagasaki and anchored in the bay. Waiting for clearance was Jan Cock Blomhoff, the new director of the Dutch trading...
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2003

Study exposes misleading food labels

More than 10 percent of labels on perishable food failed to include information they are legally required to carry, such as place of origin, according to a government study released Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2003

New Diet session opens up new questions

The Diet opens a 150-day session Monday amid widespread speculation in Nagata-cho that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi may dissolve the House of Representatives and call a snap election sometime this year -- possibly even during the session.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2003

Beijing can learn from Tokyo's mistakes

GUATEMALA CITY -- As Beijing develops a reliance on fiscal spending to boost economic growth, a mushrooming fiscal deficit and ballooning public-sector debt will weaken China's long-term economic prospects. This is because economic growth bought with increased government spending is unsustainable and...
BUSINESS
Jan 18, 2003

Clamor for consumption tax hike getting louder

Cabinet ministers and business leaders have begun calling for a consumption tax hike to cover rising social security costs stemming from the aging population.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2003

Coping with a grayer world

Like globalization, population aging is a universal force with the power to shape the future. By 2050 the number of people aged 60 and over in the world will increase from 600 million today to almost 2 billion. In Japan, the proportion of the population aged 65 or over will climb from 17.2 percent in...
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2003

Farm cooperative told to suspend tea operations

The farm ministry penalized the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (Zen-noh) on Thursday, ordering its Fukuoka Prefecture headquarters to suspend operations for five days for falsely labeling tea.
EDITORIALS
Jan 17, 2003

Putting Yasukuni issue to rest

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine on Tuesday, his third since he took office in April 2001, has caused a predictable stir both here and abroad, particularly in China and South Korea. One wonders whether the prime minister had carefully weighed the pluses and minuses of paying...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Jan 17, 2003

Can you enjoy wine by numbers?

Our Dec. 20 column on Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines of 2002 list generated interesting feedback. Some readers wondered how it was possible that the No. 1 wine had a lower score than wines further down the list. Other readers raised the more fundamental question of whether it is even possible to give...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2003

Minimum Haneda burden pledged

Transport minister Chikage Ogi pledged Thursday that her ministry will do everything it can to minimize the financial burden from the Haneda airport expansion project on local governments in the Tokyo area.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2003

Isuzu cuts back sales target 20%

Truck and bus maker Isuzu Motors Ltd. unveiled a new 2003 worldwide sales target Thursday of 186,000 units, down 20 percent from the previous year.
COMMENTARY
Jan 16, 2003

Silence isn't golden for Korean peace

HONG KONG -- As the latest Korean crisis has developed, one contradiction has been obvious: The Bush administration refused to talk with North Korea until Pyongyang abandoned nuclear blackmail and returned to honoring all the treaties and agreements that it has recently repudiated. Yet the Bush administration...
BUSINESS
Jan 16, 2003

Subaru expects sales increases in '03

Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., the maker of Subaru cars, unveiled on Wednesday a new 2003 worldwide sales target of 568,000 vehicles, up 2.4 percent from the year before.
BUSINESS
Jan 16, 2003

Daiei to sell stakes in four hotels

Struggling supermarket chain Daiei Inc. said Wednesday it will sell four hotels to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. of the United States for 45.4 billion yen. It also said it is also considering selling Fukuoka Dome.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 16, 2003

Berlin-Paris partnership faces challenges as EU grows larger

LONDON -- Forty years ago this month, President Charles de Gaulle of France and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer of West Germany signed a historic agreement to consecrate the end of 75 years of conflict between their two nations. The Franco-German Friendship Treaty came six years after the establishment of...
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2003

Emergency calls to police hit record

The number of emergency calls to police between last January and November reached a record high of more than 8.12 million, 52 percent of which were made from mobile phones, according to the National Police Agency.
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2003

Ministry pushing home power-saving unit

The Environment Ministry has decided to provide funding from April for the promotion of an electrical energy-saving mechanism for homes.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2003

Britain's far right poses a rising threat

BRUSSELS -- The press in England has had a field day over the past 20 years chronicling the rise of the Continent's far right. The first chance came in the early 1980s with the emergence of France's National Front led by Jean-Marie Le Pen, a man who believes the Americans built the gas chambers in the...

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?