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JAPAN
Jul 6, 2004

Koizumi puts on brave face ahead of poll

Despite dismal poll showings for his Liberal Democratic Party, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Monday he will do his utmost to ensure that the LDP retains the 51 seats it has up for grabs in Sunday's House of Councilors election.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2004

Soga, family to reunite Friday in Jakarta

Hitomi Soga, one of five Japanese repatriated to Japan in October 2002 after being abducted to North Korea, will be reunited with her American husband and their two daughters this week in Jakarta, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2004

Expressway debts: New policy goes on the road to nowhere

By passing expressway legislation that omitted a key part of privatization panel's suggestions, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's political 'style' may now be under scrutiny by politicians and the general public.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / A GAIJIN'S TALE
Jul 6, 2004

Stranger's kindness

A non-Japanese-speaking friend came here recently, and found a place in Kawasaki and a job in Hamamatsucho. Traveling to work, it was difficult for him to remember the names of the stations from Kawasaki to Hamamatsucho, so he remembered the big stations and then counted the number of stops in between....
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 6, 2004

Expressway debts: New policy goes on the road to nowhere

By passing expressway legislation that omitted a key part of privatization panel's suggestions, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's political 'style' may now be under scrutiny by politicians and the general public.
EDITORIALS
Jul 5, 2004

A step in the right direction

Japan will soon express its willingness to become a party to the twin protocols of the four Geneva conventions that were approved in 1949 to protect war victims and prevent the kinds of abuses that had occurred during World War II. The supplementary protocol agreements, adopted in 1977, set humanitarian...
MORE SPORTS
Jul 5, 2004

Castrogiovanni scores hat trick of tries as Italy tops Japan 32-19

For such a religious nation it was perhaps appropriate that it needed a biblical figure to steal the show and help Italy defeat Japan 32-19 on Sunday on a scorching hot day at Toyko's Chichibunomiya Stadium.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2004

Judges call for check of defendant's competency

The Saitama District Court has decided to examine whether a man with a history of mental deficiency and autistic disorder indicted for allegedly assaulting a young boy is capable of standing trial, informed sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2004

Links eyed in cost cuts, workplace accidents

The labor ministry plans to look into work-related accidents for possible links to cost-cutting and corporate restructuring efforts, it was learned Sunday.
COMMENTARY
Jul 5, 2004

Genuine educational reform

As part of the government-proposed trilogy of reform, a review will be made of having the national treasury pay the costs of compulsory education. Present plans call for transferring some government revenues generated by the consumption tax and other sources to local autonomies and abolishing various...
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2004

New Komeito official breaks with Koizumi on defense

Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, secretary general of New Komeito, indicated Sunday he opposed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's remarks that the pacifist Constitution should be revised so it can exercise the right to collective defense and carry out joint actions with U.S. forces.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2004

Bureaucrats face a cold shoulder

The National Personnel Authority has decided to reduce allowances for national government employees working in cold districts, personnel authority sources said Sunday.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jul 5, 2004

Apprentice Fukui and the prisoner of the Bank of Japan

As any sorcerer's apprentice will tell you, it is always easier to start something than to finish it. Exit strategies are by far the most difficult part of any game plan. The most recent and graphic case in point is, of course, the Americans in Iraq. But the same is equally applicable to monetary policy,...
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2004

LDP's support rate drops ahead of Upper House race

Support for the Liberal Democratic Party is at 30.7 percent, according to a Kyodo News poll released Sunday, down 7.9 points from a similar poll taken ahead of the 2001 House of Councilors election.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2004

Judges call for check of defendant's competency

The Saitama District Court has decided to examine whether a man with a history of mental deficiency and autistic disorder indicted for allegedly assaulting a young boy is capable of standing trial, informed sources said Sunday.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jul 4, 2004

Blaming referee for England's loss to Portugal pathetic

LONDON -- When Urs Meier disallowed Sol Campbell's last-minute goal against Portugal last week the Swiss referee had no idea he was to become the latest recipient of the English media's revenge on a Johnny Foreigner who had, in the words of most tabloids, "cheated us" out of victory.
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2004

Cost info on spent nuclear fuel quashed

The government has withdrawn two estimates showing that the cost of burying spent nuclear fuel in the ground is much lower than that of recycling nuclear fuel, government officials have said.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 4, 2004

Utagawa Hiroshige: Around the provinces in 69 plates

HIROSHIGE'S JOURNEY in the Sixty-odd Provinces, by Marije Jansen. Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, 2004, 160 pp., 70 full-page plates and other illustrations, $34.95 (paper). Here is a beautifully printed and edited reproduction of the complete "Famous Views of the [Sixty-odd] Provinces" (Rokujuyoshu meisho...
EDITORIALS
Jul 4, 2004

The long and short of it

Here is another stereotype to discard: The world's tallest people are not Polynesian or Tutsi or even American. They are Dutch. Those lowlanders claimed the height title in 1999 and have kept it ever since, with the average Dutch male now topping the charts at a head-turning 185.4 cm.
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2004

Textile industries agree to end tariffs

The textile industries in Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines have agreed to eliminate tariffs on products traded between them, industry sources said Saturday.
Features
Jul 4, 2004

Questionnaire findings spotlight younger people's political gloom

Are you satisfied with current state of politics? Do you support a particular political party? How do you see the future of Japan? They say that the younger generation isn't interested in politics, do you agree? These were some of the questions that The Japan Times recently asked Japanese nationals in...
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2004

Legal changes eyed to combat trafficking of human beings

Still smarting from a sharp rebuke by the U.S., the government is studying ways to implement sweeping changes to the Penal Code or the enactment of a new law to combat human trafficking and protect victims, government officials said Saturday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 4, 2004

The Offspring

Though Berkeley's Green Day still holds the now tattered standard for the mid-'90s pop-punk revival, their Southern California cognate, The Offspring, better represents the commercial realities of that revival over time. Formed in the late '80s, The Offspring were a staple on the underground punk and...

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight