Search - 2002

 
 
COMMENTARY
Dec 4, 2003

Chirac still feeling the heat

PARIS -- France has not finished paying for the August heat wave and its 10,000 deaths. Vegetable and beef prices have risen, tourism has declined, forest fires have devastated wide areas and the financial impact on the budget has postponed an economic upswing.
COMMENTARY
Nov 30, 2003

Fear, posturing cloud Sri Lanka's fate

HONG KONG -- The latest Sri Lankan political crisis is still unfolding. The peace process, expected to end the state of civil war, is endangered. So is the future of Sri Lankan democracy. At the very moment when foreign-aid pledges worth more than $4 billion are waiting to be fulfilled, some Sinhalese...
MORE SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Nov 29, 2003

Top League looking to emulate World Cup final

While the rest of the world was watching the final stages of the action Down Under at the Rugby World Cup, it was business as usual for the players in the Top League.
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2003

Saitama governor's daughter admits funds donation scam

The eldest daughter of former Saitama Gov. Yoshihiko Tsuchiya pleaded guilty Friday to misappropriating 116 million yen in political funds donated to her father between 1998 and 2002.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 21, 2003

Slutskaya pulls out of NHK Trophy

Olympic silver medalist and 2002 world champion Irina Slutskaya of Russia will not compete in the upcoming NHK Trophy in Japan because of illness, the Japan Skating Federation said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2003

Tanaka rips Koizumi on reform

Former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka, after joining a parliamentary group led by the Democratic Party of Japan, lashed out Wednesday at Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's policies as she formally made her comeback to the Diet.
BUSINESS
Nov 20, 2003

Nippon Keidanren eyes new donation plan

The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) will encourage its member corporations to make political donations in accordance with the size of their membership fees to the group, Keidanren sources said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2003

Shiatsu to soothe the nervous Chihuahua?

Dog owners will readily say that just being around their pets helps ease their stress. But beyond petting and feeding, how can owners return the compliment and relieve their animals' tension? Or else just pamper them to the max?
BUSINESS
Nov 18, 2003

Toray's Maeda to resign in June

Katsunosuke Maeda, the chairman and CEO who boosted Toray Industries Inc.'s earnings in the midst of an industry decline, said Monday he will step down from both posts in June.
BUSINESS
Nov 14, 2003

Corporate pension plans on the verge of collapse

Faced with huge investment losses brought on by depressed stock prices and the prospect of baby boomers nearing retirement, corporate pension funds are on the verge of collapse.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2003

Expert seeks tougher attitude on parental murder-suicide

South Koreans and Japanese need a tougher attitude when it comes to parents who take the lives of their children when they commit suicide, a South Korean expert on suicide prevention says.
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2003

44 billion yen in student loans seen as irrecoverable

About 44 billion yen in student loans extended by a government-affiliated foundation is expected to become irrecoverable.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 2, 2003

Giants interested in acquiring Tuffy

The Yomiuri Giants are looking to acquire Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes outfielder Tuffy Rhodes after the slugger hit a snag in negotiations for a multiyear contract with his present club, baseball sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2003

Horse-race tipster targeted over 300 million yen tax scam

Tax authorities have filed a criminal complaint against a Tokyo firm that provides betting tips on horse races, alleging it evaded some 300 million yen in corporate taxes on 1 billion yen in income during the 18-month period to March 2002, sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Oct 30, 2003

Widespread risk-hedging seen limiting short-term menace of rising yen

A strong yen is not good news for Japanese export-driven companies. But the impact of the yen's recent surge against the dollar to three-year highs is expected to be limited for now since firms have hedged the currency risk, economists and major manufacturers said.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2003

Slain DPJ lawmaker's kin want answers, snub endorsements

The next of kin of slain lawmaker Koki Ishii will not support any candidate in Tokyo's No. 6 single-seat constituency in the coming House of Representatives election.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 28, 2003

Convicted Briton says he was drug run patsy

Most of us can name a time when our lives changed forever, but few can do so as precisely as Nicholas Baker: 11.30 a.m. on April 13, 2002.
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2003

End of two-track system no help to women

As the protracted economic slump prompts companies to shed the time-honored practices of lifetime employment and seniority-based wages, another victim of the cost-cutting ax is the two-track hiring system that has effectively kept women's wages lower than men's.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 23, 2003

Crime wave fears prompt citizen patrols

Driven by concerns about rising crime, citizens are standing up to protect themselves by forming neighborhood watch groups.
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2003

Germany's hard choices

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder won a critical victory Friday when Germany's Lower House of Parliament passed a package of social and labor market reforms. The bills are designed to reinvigorate the German economy, the once mighty engine of Europe that now appears infected with "the Japanese disease."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2003

Japan slowly pulls head out of sand on smoking ills

During the five years since a landmark suit against tobacco manufacturers and the government was filed, slight but steady progress has been made in regulating cigarette sales and advertising.
JAPAN
Oct 19, 2003

More women testing for defects in fetuses

More than 15,000 pregnant women underwent tests to determine the likelihood of congenital abnormalities in their unborn children every year between 2000 and 2002, despite the government's recommendation that the practice be scrapped, it was learned Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 19, 2003

Out of the ordinary

SELECTED POEMS 1976-2001, by Peter Robinson. Manchester, Britain: Carcanet, 2003, 139 pp., £8.95 (paper). NO VISION WILL TELL: 100 Selected Poems 1992-2002, by Scott Watson. Sendai, Japan: Bookgirl Press, 2002, 123 pp., 1,500 yen (paper). Both of the poets reviewed here, one British and the other American,...
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 18, 2003

Hoshino to bow out after Japan Series

Hanshin Tigers manager Senichi Hoshino has revealed his intention to step down after the Japan Series, citing ill health.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?