Search - japan

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 10, 2002

Tracing the Eastward footsteps of Indian gods

Toshio Yamanouchi's job took him to India in 1951 -- but it wasn't simply work that kept him there for the next 25 years. What kept him based in New Delhi and took him traveling all across the subcontinent and Southeast Asia was a single-minded search: for the artistic trail blazed by religion on the...
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2002

High-tech titans open solution center

OSAKA -- IBM Japan Ltd. said it opened an "IT Solution Center" in Osaka on Tuesday by teaming up with five other high-tech firms, including Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Oracle Corp. Japan and Microsoft Co., the Japan arm of Microsoft Corp.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2002

Bills covering emergencies presented

The government has moved forward on draft versions of bills to govern Japan's response to a foreign military attack, with Cabinet endorsement eyed for April 16, according to government sources.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League / SPORTS SCOPE
Apr 9, 2002

J. League to help newcomers and retirees

The J. League this season has launched two new projects. The first is to help players look for a job when they retire from the game. The second is the J. League Academy -- a developing program for players aged five to 21.
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2002

Extra engine to give H-IIA boost

Japan plans to develop a more powerful version of its H-IIA rocket to increase its payload for flights to the International Space Station by attaching an extra main engine to the craft, sources in the government and the National Space Development Agency of Japan said Saturday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 7, 2002

The trickle-down effect

It's late in Tokyo's Yurakucho district, and the pachinko parlors clustered here have shut off their garish neon signs. The consoles through which the game's trademark metal balls are sent cascading have gone quiet, and the hard-core players who hang on until closing time are scurrying out onto the pavement...
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2002

Suzuki used hostage case to increase his influence

House of Representatives lawmaker Muneo Suzuki instructed a Foreign Ministry official to secretly make contact with Afghanistan's Taliban regime in 1999, in an effort to secure the release of four Japanese engineers who had been abducted by Islamic rebels in Kyrgyzstan that summer, it was learned Saturday....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 6, 2002

Female entrepreneurialism a budding industry

About 20 ambitious women in their 20s and 30s, some from as far afield as Hiroshima and Miyagi prefectures, gathered one Saturday at a Women Entrepreneurs School course in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Apr 6, 2002

Tokyo, Seoul poised to sign landmark extradition treaty

Japan and South Korea will sign an extradition treaty Monday that they plan to put into force ahead of the World Cup soccer finals, which are to be jointly hosted by the two countries between late May and late June, government officials said Friday.
BUSINESS
Apr 5, 2002

METI plans rebuttal to U.S. trade claims

The Ministry of Economy,Trade and Industry will address Japan's auto and steel market practices when it compiles a rebuttal to the recent U.S. annual report on trade barriers, the ministry's top bureaucrat said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Apr 5, 2002

Official hoping for U.S. compensation over steel curbs

A senior trade official voiced hope Thursday that the United States will shortly offer to compensate Japan for damage inflicted upon its steel industry in the wake of Washington's recent decision to impose import tariffs on a range of steel products.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / THE WRITERS' SPIN
Apr 3, 2002

Tokyo should be more wary of remarks by fickle economists

Economists always disagree on how to mend Japan's flagging economy.
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2002

Sakata coed dreams of degree as classmates flee to find work

SAKATA, Yamagata Pref. -- Jin Xianhua, a 26-year-old Chinese student, tossed and turned as if in a bad dream as she took the night express bus to the snow-clad Shonai Plains in the north.
COMMUNITY
Mar 31, 2002

Keigo: A lexicon of control

Whether you're Japanese or not, chances are you have conflicting feelings about Japan's formal respect-language, keigo. On the one hand, it is one of the most difficult aspects of the language to truly master. On the other, many feel that it somehow contains and expresses a truly Japanese essence. Then...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 31, 2002

In the beginning was . . . confusion

In the autumn of 1549, a holy man and his companion began wandering the Satsuma domain of southern Kyushu, preaching the glory of the Sun Buddha Dainichi. The man, who called himself a so (monk), was reported to come from the "Land of Buddha" and exhorted any who would listen to follow Buppo (the Law...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 31, 2002

These are a few of our favorite things

THINGS JAPANESE, by Nicholas Bornoff, with photos by Michael Freeman. Hong Kong: Periplus Editions, Ltd. 2002. 144 pp., profusely illustrated with full-color plates, $24.95 (paper) In 1890, Tokyo University professor Basil Hall Chamberlain codified an entire generation's view of Japan in his "Things...
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Mar 29, 2002

Temple tour that's a journey of the soul

It was Ryan Armstrong's dream to follow in the footsteps of the great Kobo Daishi, that is to complete the 1,200-km, 88-temple pilgrimage on Shikoku Island first made by the Buddhist saint 1,200 years ago.
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2002

Costs swell at nuclear reprocessing plant

Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. will need 1.76 trillion yen in additional funds to meet overhead costs related to a new nuclear reprocessing plant in the village of Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, sources said Monday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 24, 2002

A greener shade of gray

Ever since Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden, people have been trying to climb back over the fence, because, whatever the attractions of city living, there is nothing like a garden to refresh both body and soul.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Mar 24, 2002

Music, an improvised definition

Improvised music poses a considerable critical challenge. It now takes in such a wide variety of styles -- from jazz to minimalist electronica, from contemporary classical music to rock -- there is no one absolute set of criteria by which to judge it.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 23, 2002

Erich A. Berendt

After several years' membership in The Asiatic Society of Japan, Erich A. Berendt was elected to the society's council. Since 2000 he has been serving conscientiously and actively as the society's president.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 23, 2002

Gods and sea monsters: culture quiz

It's time for another Japanese culture quiz!
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 22, 2002

Apple increases price of iMac by 20,000 yen

Following a recent rise in computer component prices, Apple Computer Inc. has decided to increase the price of its iMac computer by 20,000 yen in Japan and $100 in the United States, effective immediately, Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive officer, revealed Thursday.
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2002

Hiranuma to file WTO complaint today over U.S. steel curbs

Trade minister Takeo Hiranuma said Tuesday that he plans to file a complaint today with the World Trade Organization against a U.S. move to invoke import curbs on steel products.
COMMUNITY
Mar 17, 2002

Cathedrals of commerce, towers of power

The tall building radically reshaped the modern city, thrusting it upward in the decades around the turn of the 20th century, just as the automobile pushed it outwards between the world wars. The skyward trend began in the 1890s, when high-rise commercial buildings began replacing the six- and seven-story...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Mar 17, 2002

A music man with a mission

Imagine, after years of immersion and study in Western music, discovering the rarefied beauty of Japanese music. Simple aspects of music, previously taken for granted, suddenly take on significant roles. Silence extends between notes and enlivens the idea of pause. An errant breath blows through bamboo,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 17, 2002

The Steiff of teddy-bear legend

Cute. In Japan, there's cuteness wherever you look -- Hello Kitty, Tare Panda, The Dog, etc., etc. But from next month to September 2003, Japanese people will be able to glimpse the creativity behind the cuteness of that cuddliest of all cuddlies -- the teddy bear -- when Germany-based Margarete Steiff...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 17, 2002

The tower and the story

On Christmas Eve, 1958, thousands of people poured through Hamamatsucho Station in Tokyo's Minato Ward to take in Japan's first postwar shot at a "public attraction." There was nothing particularly cute about it; no fearsome rides, or cuddly characters to have your photo taken with. What's more, visitors...

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat