Search - 2003

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 16, 2010

Director-actor Hideto Iwai proves that anything is possible when you come out of hiding

Tokyo-based Hi-bye, whose name means "crawling-death" (from the Japanese hi-hi, meaning "to crawl," and the English farewell, "bye-bye") was founded in 2003 by playwright, director and actor Hideto Iwai, 35, and has built a reputation for its keen observations of the darker and weaker aspects of humans...
JAPAN / POSTAL REFORM ROLLBACK
Apr 15, 2010

Chronology of privatization

April 2001 — Junichiro Koizumi wins the LDP presidential race and becomes the nations's 87th prime minister with privatizing postal services as his main goal.
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2010

Autopsy report: too few deaths examined

If the police had had their way, the sudden death of a young sumo wrestler three years ago would have been simply a tragic event quickly swept under the rug, dismissed, as it initially was, as heart failure from unknown causes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 12, 2010

Israeli confronts past by mastering Wagner

Rising Israeli conductor Dan Ettinger will complete, in Tokyo in March, his first series of performances of "The Ring of the Nibelung," a cycle of four linked operas by 19th-century composer Richard Wagner.
EDITORIALS
Feb 28, 2010

Cancer-thwarting lifestyles

Cancer has been the No. 1 cause of death for Japanese since 1981, accounting for one-third of Japanese deaths. One's lifestyle is closely related to the contraction of cancer and one can avoid developing cancer to a large extent by changing one's lifestyle. Thus education can play an important role....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 26, 2010

This acting lark is elementary for Downey Jr.

HOLLYWOOD — When one beholds the billboards touting the first movie in the new "Sherlock Holmes" franchise, one sees the slim, natty, Anglo-looking Jude Law and imagines he is Holmes and that the less buff, older and somewhat rumpled Robert Downey Jr. is his Dr. Watson. Wrong, of course, and despite...
EDITORIALS
Feb 17, 2010

Space program: Hopes and fears

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying Japanese Astronaut Soichi Noguchi was launched Dec. 21. He is now in the International Space Station some 400 km above Earth working in Japan's space lab "Kibo" (Hope), which is attached to the ISS. He will stay in space for five months, the longest stretch yet for...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2010

The Libya option in Iran

LOS ANGELES — International efforts to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons will be given a new lease on life this month, because France has assumed the presidency of the United Nations Security Council. As Council president, France — which shares America's views about the need to strengthen...
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2010

Quick rise, meteoric fall mark career of troubled yokozuna

In his 11-year career, sumo wrestler Asashoryu stomped out record-breaking wins to become the undisputed champion of the past decade. Yet his reign was littered with scandals that floored the traditional sport, where athletes are expected to act with decorum both in and out of the ring.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / SPORTS SCOPE
Feb 2, 2010

Reclaiming past glory won't be easy for aces Saito, Igawa

The summer of 2003 was a magical ride for pitchers Kazumi Saito and Kei Igawa. The summers since then? Not so much.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 31, 2010

Sorge's spy is brought in from the cold

Toshiko Tokuyama was 14 years old when she found out that her uncle had been a spy, and that he had just died in a prison in Tokyo. It was 1943 then, and she was too young to really know what the word "spy" meant, let alone allow it to alter her impression of the man she respected like a father.
BASEBALL
Jan 31, 2010

Resentment of Valentine's power factored in downfall

Third in a four-part series
COMMENTARY
Jan 11, 2010

Incredible shrinking media

SEATTLE — As you flip through a range of channels on your TV or browse through a stack of newspapers and magazines at a newsstand, you may feel lucky to live in a world where such a plethora of viewpoints is available. It might also seem that the apparent increase in media choices also increases the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 11, 2009

(Near) death of a salesman

Amit started downloading music when he was 16 years old in India.
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2009

Base relocation remains thorn in side of Japan-U.S. ties

OSAKA — On April 12, 1996, Okinawa Gov. Masahide Ota was meeting with prefectural officials when Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto telephoned with big news.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 10, 2009

As status symbol, it tops the rest

The commercial-residential complex of Roppongi Hills opened six years ago, boasting offices, a museum, cinema, condominiums, restaurants and shops, becoming a popular tourist destination and a high-status residence in a part of central Tokyo otherwise known for its nightlife dens.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Oct 18, 2009

Power for all the people

The all-electric home craze sweeping Japan with its typhoon of talking bathtubs, full-service toilets and flameless kitchens may finally have met its match.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2009

Brouhaha stirs over Belgian brew

Belgian beer, rich in fragrance, flavor and potency, is not like other brews in Japan.
BUSINESS
Oct 16, 2009

Financial firms to slash graduate hiring by almost half next year

Nomura Holdings Inc., Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and their biggest rivals plan to cut hiring of university graduates by almost half, just as the industry begins emerging from its deepest slump in seven decades.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 4, 2009

Mamoru Mohri: A spaceman speaks

When future historians document the story of Japanese space exploration, 2009 will likely figure as the year when the nation put two high-profile rocket launch failures, in 1999 and 2003, firmly behind it and, quite literally, took off.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 25, 2009

Observing the pieces of a fragmented self

From an overwhelming slew of art, literature, music, cinema and theater references, there seems to emerge a provisional feel for order in William Kentridge's filmic worlds: worlds created between the artist and spectators' activity in constructing narratives from discrete fragments. How this materializes...
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2009

Mercury danger in dolphin meat

SAPPORO — The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, as documented in the film "The Cove" has sparked an emotional international debate, with animal rights activists decrying the capture and slaughter as unnecessary and cruel, and those in Japan who defend the slaughter as both legally...
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2009

Ozawa set to be DPJ secretary general

Yukio Hatoyama, leader of the Democratic Party of Japan and prime minister in waiting, told reporters Thursday he will appoint DPJ acting President Ichiro Ozawa as secretary general, the No. 2 post of the party that now holds an overwhelming majority in the Lower House.
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2009

Yamaha failed to fix 'dangerous' ATV, U.S. jury told

Yamaha Motor Co. knew its Rhino all-terrain vehicle was "unreasonably dangerous" and failed to fix its design, an attorney for the family of a dead Texas teenager told jurors at the start of a trial this week. The company put profits before safety when it sold the machine as a cross between a golf cart...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Aug 20, 2009

Starting up Net portal for women turns into lifetime career choice

Kikuko Yano was searching for a job she could do her entire life, and found it in the Internet firm she started on her own.

Longform

Eme-Ima Kitchen is one of over 10,000 kodomo shokudō in Japan. A term first used in 2012 to describe makeshift eateries offering free or cheap meals to disadvantaged kids, it now refers to a diverse range of individuals, groups and organizations working to provide not only food but a sense of belonging to both children and adults.
Japan’s ‘children’s cafeterias’ are booming — but is that a good thing?