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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 14, 2002

It's a wired, wired world

If you were among the hordes of shoppers itching to spend summer bonuses last weekend, perhaps you got caught up in the frenzy in Akihabara. Everywhere in Tokyo's "Electric Town," the hunt was on for air conditioners, computers, MD players, stereos and the latest flat-screen TVs.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jul 14, 2002

Fishing around for ready-to-eat street food

Utter silence — Piercing the stone walls, The cicada's cry — Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jul 14, 2002

Where the surf's always up

Drunkard is an older form of the noun "drunk," which, according to my Concise Oxford English Dictionary, means "deprived of proper control of oneself by alcoholic liquor." Unlike its modern shortened form, it is not a word one hears used much these days, which gives it a slightly old-fashioned, almost...
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2002

Coalition may amend bills on protection of information

The ruling coalition parties are considering amending controversial bills on the protection of personal information to include penalties for violations by bureaucrats and a clause to take freedom of expression into account, it was learned Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Jul 13, 2002

Taming runaway population growth

The numbers boggle the mind. The world today is inhabited by more than 6.3 billion people, and by 2015 the figure will reach roughly 7.3 billion, an increase of a billion in a little more than a decade, according to the United Nations. Although the overall rate of growth has been declining, populations...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 13, 2002

HIV epidemic taking its toll on Myanmar

NEW YORK -- According to the latest statistics, the number of HIV/AIDS cases in Myanmar continues to rise, fueled by drug abuse, population mobility, poverty and a lack of effective government policies. Thai medical experts report that the epidemic, if not controlled, may soon eclipse the worst situation...
COMMENTARY
Jul 13, 2002

Unwarranted attack on U.S. drugmakers

WASHINGTON -- America's pharmaceutical industry leads the world. But that hasn't stopped U.S. politicians from threatening to destroy it.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 13, 2002

Eliminate the major source of inter-Korean naval clashes

SEOUL -- As a result of the latest North-South naval clash on the West Sea, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung's "sunshine policy" is now in shambles. But it need not have been so. Even before the defense ministers of the two Koreas sat down almost two years ago in Cheju following the 2000 Pyongyang...
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2002

Health ministry to relax its controls on some additives in imported foods

In the face of increasing food imports, the health ministry plans to ease restrictions on additives if they are accepted internationally, officials said Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2002

Isle faces other uses after '08 Olympics rejection

OSAKA -- A report issued Friday by the city of Osaka advocates turning Maishima, a man-made island off Osaka that was the centerpiece of the city's failed bid for the 2008 Olympic Games, into a business, academic and recreation center.
COMMENTARY
Jul 13, 2002

New asylum policy would benefit Japan and refugees

In the wake of the May 8 Shenyang consulate incident, Tokyo is reviewing its refugee policy. Predictably, it has set up a committee to think about it all. This writer is a member. What he sees is not encouraging.
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2002

Report calls on banks to carry out risk assessment

A private advisory committee to Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa unveiled a draft report Friday that offered Japan's financial system a road map to a future radically different than its present.
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2002

Panel to compile report on Koizumi-backed tax reforms

The government's Tax Commission will compile a report by the end of November detailing a range of fiscal 2003 tax reforms advocated by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the panel's chairman said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 13, 2002

Keynesian cheerleaders ignore failures

It is ironic that Joseph Stiglitz waited until he gained the credibility of sharing the Nobel Prize in Economics to become an unabashed cheerleader for Keynesian economics, especially when it comes to suggesting policies for Japan. Receiving the universally recognized accolade allowed him to come out...
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2002

Japan's Afghanistan support praised

An official from the UNICEF office in Afghanistan on Friday praised Japan's financial support for Afghan education projects as part of efforts to ensure peace in a society that has suffered decades of civil war and years of drought.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2002

Firms place highest value on ability for innovative planning

The quality that Japanese companies most want to see in their employees to fend off competition from foreign firms is the ability to devise innovative projects, according to a government survey.
SOCCER / World cup
Jul 13, 2002

With the World Cup over, J. League gets back to business

The World Cup may be over, but Japan's newly converted soccer fans will still have plenty to cheer about when J. League Division One action resumes Saturday.
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2002

ETFs fail to spur individual investor trade

Exchange-traded funds have failed to lure individual investors back to the stock market as hoped, though a year has passed since they debuted on Japan's two key exchanges, securities industry officials said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2002

LDP elements denounce government's budget move

Senior members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Friday increased the pressure on Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to reload the public works budget, expressing doubts about the government's decision the previous day to upgrade its economic assessment.
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2002

Japan to push WTO members to scrap industrial goods tariffs

Japan is preparing to call on members of the World Trade Organization to scrap tariffs on various industrial goods as part of its proposals to spur a new round of global trade talks on cutting tariffs on nonfarm products, government sources said Friday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 13, 2002

Giving our insects a permanent vacation

On July 7th, all bad insects left our island. How do I know? I threw them out myself, along with 40 other islanders.
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2002

Postal services log first profit since '97

Japan's mail and postal savings services in fiscal 2001 recorded profits for the first time in four years, the Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2002

Eckrodt first foreigner to join old-boys' lunch club

Rolf Eckrodt, president and chief executive officer of Mitsubishi Motor Corp., on Friday became the first non-Japanese to take part in a closed traditional lunch meeting at one of Japan's major business conglomerates, the Mitsubishi group.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2002

Health official faces ax over med school scam

Senior vice health minister Kazuaki Miyaji faced pressure to resign Friday after admitting the day before to helping the grandson of a senior member of his support group enter Teikyo University's medical school.
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2002

NTN to set up China auto parts unit

NTN Corp. said Friday it will set up a subsidiary in China in August to produce components for constant-velocity joints for use in cars.
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2002

Matsushita to cut costs with transfer

OSAKA -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. will transfer 1,200 clerical and other employees to an office business subsidiary as it cuts further into labor costs, company officials said Friday.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past