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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 20, 2004

Why Johnny can't read 'kanji'

Here's a quick communication survey of your typical long-term foreign resident of Japan, particularly one from the West.
COMMENTARY
Nov 14, 2004

Asia won't go back to being an also-ran

HONOLULU -- I am often asked why our think tank is located in Hawaii. Apart from the sun, sand, sea and surf, there is a very good reason: The world looks very different from Honolulu. We're parked in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Tokyo is a lot closer than Washington, D.C. When we look out over the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2004

Private-sector exec's appointment seen as last-ditch attempt by LDP

In another apparent effort to win support for the ruling coalition before Sunday's election, the government said Tuesday it will appoint a private-sector executive as head of the Social Insurance Agency.
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2004

Soliciting for oldest trade with Shibuya-style spin

Announcements at a JR Shibuya Station exit warn people to be on guard for strangers approaching them, and police outside are on constant watch to ensure pedestrians aren't accosted.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Mar 31, 2004

Diamondbacks Day still a feature at Tokyo Dome

The Pacific League Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters will hold their third annual Arizona Diamondbacks Day promotion on Sunday, April 18, at the Tokyo Dome. Diamondbacks Day is held so the Nippon Ham team can honor the National League club (its working partner), and the Fighters ball club is inviting 3,000...
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Feb 19, 2004

Schools step in to teach kids table manners

Why is it so difficult to teach children table manners? My kids are quick learners. My oldest only needs to hear a Weird Al song once and he's got the lyrics memorized. His little brother can recite the specs for every fighter plane ever built. So why can't they master the trick of getting their napkins...
COMMENTARY
Jan 15, 2004

China more open, at least on medical front

HONG KONG -- Last year, after China was caught suppressing information about the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, it dismissed the minister of health and the mayor of Beijing and dramatically opened its health-care system up to international scrutiny. There was much hope then that the...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 28, 2003

Burning passion in Shirley Hazzard's 'Great Fire'

THE GREAT FIRE, by Shirley Hazzard. Virago Press, 2003, 320 pp., £15.99 (cloth). As much as we may enjoy the pot-boilers and penny-dreadfuls we pick up to keep us company on the beach or on the bus, the pleasures they afford always pale when placed next to the real thing: literature. Literature, we...
EDITORIALS
Dec 12, 2003

Russian reality test for Kyoto

It is still unclear whether Russia has decided to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. But reports that Moscow had rejected the proposal refocused international attention on the appalling lack of progress since the agreement was negotiated more than five years ago. Despite the now considerable...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 15, 2003

Did Godzilla roar? Or simply growl?

Let's see . . . our world is writhing through some of its worst turmoil ever, the Japanese economy continues to stumble about like a man on uneven stilts, crime is up, jobs are down and the ozone layer has begun to resemble Swiss cheese without the cheese.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 6, 2003

Drawing the line at the gentle bovine

Did you know that there's a dairy farm in Tokyo? Forty bovine residents live in Nerima Ward, where the city grew up around the Koizumi Bokujo diary farm. I myself, would be honored to have mooing neighbors. Especially as opposed to arguing spouses, screaming children and washing machines that start at...
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2003

BOJ quietly fixing data boo-boos

The Bank of Japan said Tuesday it made 11 sets of corrections to its statistics in less than three weeks during a bank-wide data review -- and it expects to make more.
BUSINESS
Aug 26, 2003

TSE planning online voting system

The Tokyo Stock Exchange will create an online system that will allow domestic and overseas investors to exercise their voting rights in Japanese companies, exchange officials said Monday.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 8, 2003

Watching the detectives

There's something to be said about Japanese police attitudes towards foreigners.
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2003

Revival body chief claims applications are flooding in

More than 20 pairs of banks and borrower firms of varying sizes have applied for help from the Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan, IRCJ Chief Operating Officer Kazuhiko Toyama said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2003

Fish fingered for mercury content out of favor

The health ministry is trying to prevent damage to the fisheries industry after prices of broadbill swordfish and alfonsin, a sea bream-like species, plummeted following a ministry advisory to pregnant women to limit consumption of the fish due to their mercury content, according to ministry officials....
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2003

Fish fingered for mercury content out of favor

The health ministry is trying to prevent damage to the fisheries industry after prices of broadbill swordfish and alfonsin, a sea bream-like species, plummeted following a ministry advisory to pregnant women to limit consumption of the fish due to their mercury content, according to ministry officials....
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2003

Fish fingered for mercury content out of favor

The health ministry is trying to prevent damage to the fisheries industry after prices of broadbill swordfish and alfonsin, a sea bream-like species, plummeted following a ministry advisory to pregnant women to limit consumption of the fish due to their mercury content, according to ministry officials....
BUSINESS
May 29, 2003

Sony unveils massive restructuring plans

Sony Corp. said Wednesday it will place more emphasis on flat TVs and DVD recorders and spend 300 billion yen on a massive restructuring drive over the next three years.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
May 14, 2003

Get your tickets for Diamondbacks Day

The Pacific League Nippon Ham Fighters will hold their second annual Arizona Diamondbacks Day promotion on Sunday, June 15, at Tokyo Dome.
EDITORIALS
May 3, 2003

Now that the fighting is over

U.S. President George W. Bush announced on Thursday the end of fighting in Iraq. Welcome though it is, Mr. Bush's pronouncement marks only the close of the first phase of the Iraqi conflict. Many would say the real work begins now. Winning the war in Iraq will be easy compared with winning the peace....
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 24, 2003

Feedback

Dear readers, as you rarely get the last word, this week's column aims to put that right. Two weeks ago, I wrote about the dangers of our society's addiction to oil, and noted that much of the world still believes the primary purpose of the U.S. invasion of Iraq was to dominate its oil supplies and establish...
EDITORIALS
Apr 12, 2003

Bringing stability to Iraq

By all indications, the war in Iraq is about to end. Baghdad has fallen, with U.S. and British forces having seized key government buildings in the city. Surprisingly, they have met little organized resistance from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's loyal troops and militias. It comes as a great relief...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 12, 2003

How to ride the shinkansen (and get off)

After 10 years in Japan, I still haven't figured out the bullet trains.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2003

Market intervention not the right solution

GUATEMALA CITY -- Japan's Nikkei average is below 8,000 for the first time in 20 years, putting it 80 percent below its 1989 high. A fall in the Nikkei below 7,500 could mean that some Japanese banks would not meet their international capital adequacy requirements.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 27, 2003

Environment Bushwhack

U.S. Civil War General William Sherman is credited with uttering the sage words, "War is hell." War is hell on the environment as well, and U.S. President George W. Bush's "War on Terror" is no exception. Ironically, the environment being degraded is America's own.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2003

Korea fire prompts subway scrutiny

Japan on Wednesday started inspecting fire-safety measures on subways nationwide in the wake of a fatal subway blaze in South Korea.

Longform

It's back to the classroom for some residents as municipal governments across the country conduct lessons to learn how to use new technologies.
Can aging Japan go digital without leaving anyone behind?