Search - question

 
 
CULTURE / Books
Oct 7, 2001

A lonely struggle for recognition

LEGACIES OF THE COMFORT WOMEN OF WORLD WAR II, edited by Margaret Stetz and Bonnie B.C. Oh. M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, NY, 2001, 230 pp., $55 (cloth) More than 50 years after the end of World War II, the question of whether or not the Japanese government bears responsibility for forcing tens of thousands...
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2001

State aims to let coast guard fire first at suspected spy ships

Two years after humiliatingly failing to capture suspected North Korean spy boats violating Japan's territorial waters, the government submitted a bill Friday to the Diet that would give the Japan Coast Guard new powers to fire on suspicious vessels.
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2001

Japan's response satisfactory, Baker says

The United States is "satisfied" with Japan's response in supporting U.S. antiterrorism efforts in the wake of the deadly terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon last month, the U.S. ambassador to Japan said Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2001

Japan announces $120 million in aid for Afghanistan refugees

Responding to calls by the United Nations for financial assistance to the people of Afghanistan, Japan announced Thursday that it is ready to provide up to $120 million to the U.N. in preparation for the "worst-case scenario in the coming six months."
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2001

Corrupt official features in ministry brochure

A former secretary at the Japanese Embassy in Kenya who was punished for embezzling money via false expense claims is depicted in Foreign Ministry recruitment brochures as a diligent worker, sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2001

Archaeologist exposed again

Disgraced archaeologist Shinichi Fujimura, who previously admitted to planting pieces of Paleolithic tools at two sites in northern Japan, has also admitted faking discoveries at at least 30 sites in the Tohoku region and Saitama Prefecture, archaeological association sources said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Oct 5, 2001

Japanese, ASEAN execs mull China, terror attacks

The annual meeting between business leaders from Japan and six of the 10 ASEAN countries began Thursday in Tokyo.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 3, 2001

Missing links steal the show

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it is also a dubious honor. For some 15 years, until his death in 1610, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio's brooding and beautiful works scandalized Church and patrons alike, and left a generation of followers -- and copycats -- in his wake.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2001

Disclosure law struggling to live up to its name

A landmark information disclosure law has failed to live up to its promise of increasing the transparency of the nation's scandal-tinged bureaucracy, citizens' groups claim.
COMMUNITY
Sep 30, 2001

We are here to help you

The British archaeologist Howard Carter was excavating in the Valley of the Kings in 1922 when he found a wall bearing the seal of Tutankhamen from the 14th century B.C. He made a small hole and peered through. From his journal:
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 30, 2001

Take a ride on the travel food choo-choo

TBS withdrew from the morning wide-show sweepstakes in 1996 after it was revealed that a wide-show producer had secretly shown members of Aum Shinrikyo a tape of an interview with anti-Aum lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto in 1989 as a means of gaining favor with the cult. Sakamoto was subsequently murdered by...
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2001

Passenger's hijack hoax scares officials

OSAKA -- Airline security officials were given a scare Wednesday after a woman called to say she had received e-mail from a friend indicating his Japan Airlines flight had been hijacked -- a message that later turned out to be a prank.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 27, 2001

Counting down to environmental doom

An English friend, teasing, once asked whether Americans have a sense of irony. We certainly do, I replied, though perhaps less so than the English who, for generations, never saw the sun set and now live in darkness much of the year.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 27, 2001

Can God damage your health?

On Sept. 15, the Oxford evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins published a piece in The Guardian called "Religion's misguided missiles." With customary antireligious zeal, the Charles Simonyi professor for the Public Understanding of Science gave his explanation for the attacks on New York and Washington,...
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2001

SDF, economic reforms top Diet session agenda

With a 72-day extraordinary Diet session convening today, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his government face two major challenges: seeking consensus on Japan's support for expected U.S.-led military operations against terrorists and on steps to help the flagging economy.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2001

Coalition dodges PKO to empower SDF

The Self-Defense Forces will help refugees under a new law that deals solely with supporting the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism, rather than by revising the peacekeeping operation law, the ruling coalition parties agreed Tuesday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 23, 2001

Living in the past, with pleasure

A short walk along a twisting, narrow stone path branching off a busy road through Tokyo's Yanaka district brings you to the warm glow of a small andon lamp, its paper shade mounted on a wooden frame.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 23, 2001

The struggle for a strategic prize

THE ORIGINS OF THE BILATERAL OKINAWA PROBLEM: Okinawa in Postwar U.S.-Japan Relations, 1945-1952, by Robert D. Eldridge. Garland Publishing, Inc., New York & London, 2001, 280 pp., $85.00 (cloth) Of all the issues plaguing Japan's relationship with the United States, none is as contentious as the U.S....
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2001

Troubled youngsters turn to friends, not family

Young people are more likely to turn to friends in times of trouble than their parents or teachers, with most youngsters both dependent on and fearful of their peers' opinions, according to a government survey released Friday.
BUSINESS
Sep 22, 2001

Asahi and Daiwa formally announce tieup plans

Asahi Bank and Daiwa Bank announced Friday that they have reached a basic agreement to join forces under a single holding company in a bid to survive as stock price tumbles eat away at their capital.
BUSINESS
Sep 21, 2001

Forum could smooth relations

Japan is informally considering the establishment of a high-level comprehensive forum for discussing economic issues with China as early as next year to promote policy cooperation in a wide range of areas, government sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2001

Fugitive's wife a Pyongyang agent?

Emiko Akagi, the wife of one of nine Red Army fugitives wanted in the hijacking of a Japan Airlines jet to North Korea in 1970, used a North Korean diplomatic passport during a trip in Europe in 1988, investigative sources said Wednesday.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Sep 20, 2001

Honoring victims never easy to do

It was a refreshing change to get back to covering sports again this week. You know the stuff: Mariners top White Sox, 'Niners stuff Pats, Habs ice Leafs, and so on.
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2001

Bad-debt panel issues guidelines on waivers

A joint panel of the nation's banking and business circles finalized on Wednesday a set of guidelines under which troubled corporate borrowers can ask for debt forgiveness.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2001

Hokkaido farm shipped 72 suspect cows

Seventy-two cows have been shipped since 1996 from a farm in the town of Saroma, Hokkaido, where a 5-year-old cow suspected of having mad cow disease was born, according to the farm ministry, which on Tuesday banned the use of cow meat and bone meal for use in cattle feed.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Sep 19, 2001

Bob Dylan: 'Love and Theft'

You can tell how much the critical establishment needs Bob Dylan by the praise heaped on his last studio album, 1997's "Time Out of Mind," which contained five excellent songs, five pretty good ones and one 161/2-minute bore. Music critics decided the album was all about death, and as this was, after...
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2001

Vodafone confirms bid for J-Phone

Vodafone Group PLC confirmed Monday that its wholly owned subsidiary is negotiating with East Japan Railway Co. over a possible takeover bid for Japan Telecom Co.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 16, 2001

Pick a fate, any fate: it's all in the tarot

It is often said that all human life is contained within the tarot -- from shady business prospects and secret admirers to unexpected adventures and marriage plans. But can a tarot spread really contain so much meaning, or is it pure chance?

Longform

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