Search - 2004

 
 
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2006

Film on Korean identity woes released in South

, yet feeling awkward about the country he supports. The filmmaker said in a recent interview in Tokyo that she loved her parents but chose to take South Korean nationality in 2004 because she felt uncomfortable with the North Korean regime, which has left many people destitute and starving.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Nov 19, 2006

Decorum drives 'disingenuous' bid to free streets of discarded butts

Tokyo is home to some of the world's more bizarre museums, including ones devoted to such odd subjects as washing machines, curry, kites and parasites. The latest addition to this outre melange is the Mobile Ashtray Museum.
EDITORIALS
Nov 19, 2006

Law students who can think

The annual national bar exam was once reputed to be Japan's most difficult examination. Virtually anybody could take the exam, but only about 3 percent of the applicants passed it. Some hapless applicants spent many years preparing for it, riveted to the text of a compendium of laws that became their...
EDITORIALS
Nov 18, 2006

Another dent in public trust

The arrest of Wakayama Gov. Yoshiki Kimura on suspicion of involvement in rigging bids for a prefectural sewerage project has further weakened public trust in local government. He became the first incumbent governor to be arrested on such an allegation. Bribery is also suspected inasmuch as a slush fund...
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2006

Fewer visa violators sold on leniency exits

The Immigration Bureau on Thursday called on foreigners who are overstaying their visas to turn themselves in because the number of visa violators who take advantage of the bureau's amnesty measures is decreasing.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 16, 2006

Two views of Hugo Chavez

BUENOS AIRES -- Hugo Chavez's nearly eight years in power in Venezuela -- which he will seek to extend in presidential elections next month -- seem to defy economic analysis. Indeed, any and all economic examination of Chavez's Venezuela confirms Edgar R. Fiedler's quip that if you "ask five economists...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 15, 2006

Ogasawara, Fukudome given MVP awards for 2006 season

Right in the middle of important talks on where he plays next season, Tuesday was a rare day for Michihiro Ogasawara to show a relieved smile.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2006

Horie sticks to claim of innocence

Former Livedoor Co. President Takafumi Horie said in court Tuesday he was unaware of any securities laws violations his company allegedly committed.
SUMO
Nov 11, 2006

Komusubi Kisenosato

Kisenosato entered professional sumo in 2002 while still in his mid-teens. A native of Ibaraki Prefecture to the northeast of Tokyo and only age 20, he is perhaps the most promising young Japanese rikishi in sumo today.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 9, 2006

The art of the machine

The phenomenal success of MTV's "Pimp my Ride," a show in which everyday folk have their unglamorous vehicles jazzed up with chrome wheels, fancy paint jobs and state-of-the-art sound systems, has sparked huge interest in the art and practice of motor-vehicle customization. So it wasn't long before a...
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2006

Minamata disease relief is still elusive

, while keeping a cool head as administrators," Kunio Yanagida, a nonfiction writer, told a public meeting Saturday in Tokyo. Yanagida was on the nine-member advisory panel to former Environment Minister Yuriko Koike that proposed in September that the government develop a new relief framework to help...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2006

Affront to Korean identity

BANGKOK -- By distorting the historical record between Korea and China, Beijing has created a crisis that has united the ruling party in Seoul and its sometimes disloyal opposition.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2006

Kimura exec who cooked the books can walk

The Tokyo District Court sentenced former Kimura Construction Co. executive Akira Shinozuka to a suspended one-year prison term Wednesday for window-dressing the firm's 2004 financial statements.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2006

Hunt for war dead a race against time

and Shoko Okuno talk about the September memorial service they held on New Guinea for their father, who died there amid fighting in 1944, during an Oct. 18 meeting in Yokohama of the nonprofit organization Pacific War History Museum. AKEMI NAKAMURA PHOTO
EDITORIALS
Oct 31, 2006

A mobile, disposable workforce

I ndications of deteriorating working conditions for Japanese workers are coming to light at workplaces across the nation as the result of a practice that has become a social issue: More and more manufacturing companies are bringing in contract workers (ukeoi) to have them work like temporary workers...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 28, 2006

Morimoto caught up in moment

SAPPORO -- Hichori Morimoto is no Doug Mientkiewicz.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 28, 2006

MVP Inaba celebrates 4th Series title

SAPPORO -- In the post-game beer fight, Atsunori Inaba was filled with joy, carrying a big bag filled with booze on his back and spraying it at his teammates.

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.