Search - 2002

 
 
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 20, 2002

When romancing medieval Japan, why stop at one?

ACROSS THE NIGHTINGALE FLOOR: Tales of the Otori (Book One), by Lian Hearn. Riverhead Books, 2002, 304 pp., $24.95 (cloth) For over a century, Asia has been a rich and enduring source of inspiration for fantasy and science fiction writers. Since James Hilton created the fantastic Himalayan utopia of...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 20, 2002

Liberated from language

IDEOGRAMS IN CHINA, by Henri Michaux. Translated by Gustaf Sobin, with an afterword by Richard Sieburth. New York: New Directions, 2002, 58 pp. with selected ideograms, $9.95 (paper) Poet Ezra Pound, following the lead of scholar Ernest Fenollosa, once said that Chinese was the ideal medium for poetry,...
EDITORIALS
Oct 16, 2002

A most fitting Nobel laureate

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has been awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize. It is a fitting selection. Mr. Carter has worked tirelessly for peace and to help the poor and the powerless throughout his career; his efforts deserve the recognition afforded by the Nobel selection committee. Just as important,...
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 13, 2002

Yanks' Williams on Japan tour

Bernie Williams, a five-time All-Star with the New York Yankees, was one of nine players added to the Major League Baseball team that will tour Japan in November, organizers announced Saturday.
COMMENTARY
Oct 12, 2002

Cost cuts could compromise health care

WASHINGTON -- Public-spirited rhetoric usually masks intense interest-group combat in Washington, D.C., like that over pharmaceutical patents. Health insurers, which barely survived the Clinton administration's assault, are targeting drug-research firms.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Oct 12, 2002

Joel Stewart

When he is painting, Joel Stewart says that he watches "what is happening right in front of my eyes. I'm making an image, and I reach a fork in the road. Shall I pull back to my original conception, or follow the new direction, which may lead to disaster?" If it is disaster, he is philosophical about...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 11, 2002

Irish media not too Keane on McCarthy

LONDON -- It is difficult to imagine a coach can be under pressure after his team made a positive impression at the World Cup finals, has lost only three of its last 27 games and just seven of 41 competitive matches during his 6 1/2 years in charge.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 11, 2002

Motorists driven round the bend by license laws

In May 2002 the Tokyo District Court rejected a suit by freelance journalist Yu Terasawa in which he claimed 1.2 million yen in compensation for driving license renewal fees.
EDITORIALS
Oct 11, 2002

Japanese science shines again

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which is responsible for awarding the Nobel prizes in physics and chemistry, probably said it best when it described this year's physics laureates as having "used [the] very smallest components of the universe to increase our understanding of the very largest, the...
EDITORIALS
Oct 10, 2002

Put a stop to rising crime

Spurred by a spate of vicious crimes and a sharp rise in crimes by foreigners, the number of criminal offenses in Japan last year reached a record postwar high of 2,735,612 cases. The arrest rate, which is a barometer of public safety, fell to 19.8 percent, the first time since 1945 that it had dropped...
COMMENTARY
Oct 7, 2002

Political reform the only option for China

HONG KONG -- China's late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping deserves much credit for trying to modernize the country and remove it from its Maoist ideological straitjacket. He emphasized pragmatism, not ideology. He put China on the path to a market economy. And, perhaps most important, he tried to lift...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 6, 2002

No looker, but a great personality

BANGKOK, by William Warren. Reaktion Books, 2002. 160 pp., with monochrome photos, £14.95 (paper) Thailand's ebullient capital is many things, but it is not beautiful. True, there are many lovely things in it, but it can no more be considered comely than can Tokyo, a city it in some ways resembles....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 6, 2002

Postmodern tales of the unexpected

"NEW JAPANESE FICTION," The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Summer 2002: Vol. XXII, No. 2. 262 pp., $8. Japanese literature, at least as it is known to those of us who cannot read it in the original, is in a position similar to that of Western classical music. Just as classical music lovers are likely...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 6, 2002

Tuning into the changing face of higher education

Japan's universities are at a crossroad. The notion has been voiced in some quarters for many years, but now -- by common consent -- the fact of the matter is impossible either to deny or to ignore.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Sep 29, 2002

Ishii, Tuto lead Reds' rally

SAITAMA -- Urawa substitutes Toshiya Ishii and Brazilian Tuto scored for the Reds, helping the home team rally past Shimizu S-Pulse 2-1 in extra time at Saitama Stadium 2002 on Saturday afternoon.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 29, 2002

Modernism goes East

MODERNISM IN THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST AND JAPAN: 1918-1928, edited by Toshiharu Omuka, Kyoji Takizawa, Yoshiko Tachibana and Tsutomu Mizusawa. The Tokyo Shimbun, 2002, 254 pp., trilingual (Japanese/English/Russian), profusely illustrated, 2,500 yen (paper) In the autumn of 1920, two Russian artists arrived...
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2002

Scouting out the Next Big Thing

At this very moment, thousands of young musicians throughout Japan are busy pursuing the same elusive goal: pop stardom. Some are driven by the need to express their artistic vision; others by the perks of stardom; and still more of them by the simple desire to support themselves by playing the music...
BUSINESS
Sep 28, 2002

NKK, Kawasaki Steel set up holding company

NKK Corp. and Kawasaki Steel Corp. on Friday set up JFE Holdings Inc., a joint holding company, as the first step toward forming the JFE Group and becoming the world's fourth largest integrated steelmaker.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Sep 28, 2002

Plague of smoke and scandal

MOSCOW -- The last few months have been tough on the people of Moscow. The exceptionally hot, dry summer resulted in peat fires in the capital's suburbs.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 27, 2002

Outlook grim for Sunderland's Reid

LONDON -- If the grapevine is to be believed, Sunderland manager Peter Reid will be fired should his team lose to Aston Villa on Saturday, making the former England midfielder the ignominious winner of the Premiership sack race.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 26, 2002

Ozone hole? Soon it could be . . . 'what hole?'

Despite the international set-to over Iraq and caustic reviews for the recent U.N. Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, there is still some good news on cooperation and the environment.
SOCCER / World cup
Sep 25, 2002

FIFA to pay up for ticket troubles

The Japanese World Cup Organizing Committee will receive a compensation fee for the damages that the local organizer suffered with the World Cup ticketing process, JAWOC general secretary Yasuhiko Endo said on Tuesday in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2002

BOJ Policy Board feared impact of stock fall

Several members of the Bank of Japan Policy Board were concerned over the negative effects that Japan's stock market decline is having on the financial environment during meetings Aug. 8 and 9, according to minutes released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2002

Cloud of population decline may have silver lining

"Rabbit hutch" is a stereotypical term coined years ago by outsiders referring the cramped dwellings of crowded, urban Japan.
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 23, 2002

Seibu's Pacific League crown ends four-year drought

This year the Seibu Lions cruised to their first Pacific League crown in four years -- a result expected by many.
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2002

Banks to cut 10 trillion yen in bad loans by March 31

Japan's major banks will dispose of 10 trillion yen in bad loans during fiscal 2002, Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa said Saturday.
COMMENTARY
Sep 22, 2002

Label that foils compromise

Sept. 11, 2002, brought us no closer to sensible thinking about the causes of events a year earlier. The United States concentrated on its own sufferings, and plans for revenge against "terrorists." In Japan, a high-level NHK roundtable dragged out that favorite of aid agencies seeking bigger budgets,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 22, 2002

Author takes a trip into darkness

THE SHORE BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL: A Report from Inside Burma's Opium Kingdom, by Hideyuki Takano. Kotan Publishing, 2002, 264 pp., $23.95 (cloth) "The Shore Beyond Good and Evil" is a book about a little-known region called Wa. "The name 'Wa' is not indicated on maps," writes author Hideyuki Takano. "Yet,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Sep 22, 2002

Recession? What recession?

For many, the mere thought of Champagne is enough to make the pulse race and the tongue tingle. Josephine de Beauharnais, the wife of Napoleon and Empress of France 1796-99, once remarked that "making love without a bottle of Champagne alongside my bed is merely silly." For those looking to indulge in...

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