Search - study

 
 
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 30, 2003

Japan is not sending the 'right stuff' to Iraq

If ever there was a time to discuss the constitutional legality of Japan's Self-Defense Forces, it's now. The SDF has done peacekeeping work, but it's never been placed in a country like Iraq, which for all intents and purposes is still at war.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2003

Sensible plan for South Korea

WASHINGTON -- Even those who admire U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld rarely consider his diplomatic skills among his strongest suits. Capable of being charming and engaging in person, he tends to come across less well when sniping at allies across oceans over the chief foreign policy issues...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 28, 2003

Duff acquisition paying immediate dividends for Chelski

LONDON -- Somewhere on this planet the man working for Decca Records 40 years ago who told the Beatles they wouldn't make it and should try another career, may still be alive.
BUSINESS
Nov 26, 2003

Postal privatization options mulled

A government panel said Tuesday it will discuss new business models for Japan's postal services, including dividing them by region, in view of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's plan to privatize the services.
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2003

Experts make case for flu vaccination

Medical experts say a vaccination against influenza is an important preventive measure, despite the popularity of kits for swift diagnosis and drugs to fight the flu.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2003

Ghosn, Koizumi and structural reform

Carlos Ghosn and Junichiro Koizumi are two well-known names in Japan. Ghosn, the CEO of Nissan, is famous for his rescue of the company from the brink of bankruptcy. Prime Minister Koizumi's "trademark" is structural reform, which he promised in 2001 would lead to the creation of 5 million jobs within...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 25, 2003

Bank loans, student grief and cremains

More house info F. is responding to "Buying a house" in Lifelines, Nov. 11, in which the article states that "You have to have at least an 'eijyuuken' (permanent residency) to qualify for a bank loan as a foreigner."
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2003

SDF troops to begin antiterror training for Iraq

In preparation for their planned dispatch to Iraq, Ground Self-Defense Force units will begin training this week to deal with terrorist attacks, it was learned Sunday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 23, 2003

Artistic survivors of a cultural revolution

MEMOIRS FROM THE BEIJING FILM ACADEMY: The Genesis of China's Fifth Generation, by Ni Zhen, translated by Chris Berry. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2002, 234 pp., £14.94 (paper). Ni Zhen taught film theory at the Beijing Film Academy where in the 20 years between 1980 and 2000 he instructed...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 23, 2003

N. Korea: where NGOs fear to go

PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS: The NGO Experience in North Korea, edited by L. Gordon Flake and Scott Snyder. Praeger Publishers, 2003, 176 pp., $45 (cloth). Pity the poor nongovernmental organizations trying to work in North Korea. They face a monumental challenge -- aiding a society that is starving and...
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2003

Web can aid U.S.-Japan relations

SENDAI -- Understanding of Japan-U.S. relations can be enhanced in classrooms by making better use of educational materials on the Internet and multimedia technologies, leading scholars of the two countries said here Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 22, 2003

Gardener puts down roots for budding business

As a highly qualified gardener and horticulturalist, Bernd Kestler has a great idea: collaborating with homeowners who want outdoor spaces designed to suit their lifestyles, or established gardens maintained, in much the same way a personal trainer works with individuals who want a new body image or...
EDITORIALS
Nov 20, 2003

Debate needed on pension reform

Japan's underfunded public pension system -- which was a major issue in the Nov. 9 general election -- is in need of urgent reform. As expected, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry's plan for 2004, unveiled Monday, calls for drastic changes that would impose a greater burden on both the younger and...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2003

NPSC chief admits more donations from rightist

The head of the agency that oversees the nation's police forces has admitted to receiving 1 million yen from a construction company whose chairman is a senior rightist.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2003

LDP, NCP ink absorption agreement

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and New Conservative Party leader Toshihiro Nikai signed an agreement Monday stating that all seven of the NCP's Diet members will be absorbed by the Liberal Democratic Party.
JAPAN / TALKING SHOP
Nov 17, 2003

For headhunter in middle, tactful persuasion is art of the deal

For headhunter Toshiaki Komatsu, the most electric moment in his work is when he negotiates a candidate's salary contract -- in English.
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2003

Public cancer tests 'waste of money'

The health ministry wants to review public cancer screening tests by local governments because an increasing number of them are performing examinations of unconfirmed effectiveness, according to ministry sources.
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2003

Adventurer's global trek to educate kids on environment

Adventurer Mitsuro Oba is planning a six-year trek around the world that will take him to places under threat of environmental destruction to educate Japanese children about environmental issues via a satellite mobile phone.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 15, 2003

Importing sake to U.K., Asahi beer back here

Lynfa Phillips is still feeling overcome by her welcome to the Tokyo headquarters of Asahi Beer. "Crossing Izuma-bashi bridge, I saw flags hanging limp at the approach to the building. One was the company flag, the next the Rising Sun, and then I saw a hint of white, red and green."
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2003

Exercise from 12th week urged for expecting moms

Pregnant women can start physical exercise from the 12th week of pregnancy, but should make efforts to keep their heart rate to less than 150 beats per minute while doing so, the Japanese Society of Clinical Sports Medicine recommended in a report released Friday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 13, 2003

A black hole on our doorstep

The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. It's 2,600 meters above sea level and receives almost no rainfall. Visitors, when they are not tending to dry skin and nosebleeds caused by the altitude, often compare the terrain to the barren red rocks that cover...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2003

Party heads Kumagai, Doi lose in single-seat races

Hiroshi Kumagai, head of the New Conservative Party, the junior coalition partner of the Liberal Democratic Party, lost his seat in Sunday's general election.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2003
Nov 8, 2003

Campaign financing still high, murky

"Five pass, four fail."
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2003

New grid to gauge 'heat island effect'

The Meteorological Agency has developed new formulas aimed at investigating the causes of the "heat island effect," a phenomenon in which urban areas are hotter than rural areas.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Nov 6, 2003

Where there's muck -- there's crystals of money

I just got back from Vancouver, Canada, where I was staying with my dear old friend Fred Koch and his wife Akiko. I first met Fred back in the early 1970s when I worked for the Environmental Protection Service in Canada, and when Fred, then a keen young engineer, was hired by EPS to do some contract...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 5, 2003

Borderless abstraction

The Oxford Dictionary of 20th Century Art defines Op Art as: "an exactly prescribed retinal response . . . repeated small scale patterns arranged so as to suggest underlying secondary shapes or warping or swelling surfaces."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 5, 2003

Freed architecture

Rem Koolhaas, recently awarded the 2003 Praemium Imperiale for architecture, is prolific to the point of relentlessness. Looking at the stream of bold, innovative and aggressively hip buildings Koolhaas' Rotterdam-based office has produced, one well-known Japanese architect was prompted to liken him...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2003

Battle for power waged on voters' screens

The leader of the Democratic Party of Japan is fleetingly portrayed in a recent TV commercial as the stern-faced chairman of a fictitious Cabinet meeting, the scene accompanied by upbeat rock music.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.