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JAPAN
Sep 26, 2002

Member of JAL hijacking suspected in abduction

Police obtained an arrest warrant Wednesday for one of the nine Japanese radicals who hijacked a Japan Airlines plane to North Korea in 1970 on suspicion of abducting a Japanese woman in 1983, police officials said.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Sep 26, 2002

Trees that tower over the past and present

An visitor to Kyoto's world-famous gardens and temples could not fail to be awed by the stands and avenues of towering Kitayama sugi (Japanese red cedar, or peacock pine; Cryptomeria japonica).
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2002

Ex-gangster gets five months for bribing official

OSAKA -- A former gangster was sentenced Tuesday to five months in prison for bribing a senior official of the Osaka High Public Prosecutor's Office.
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2002

BOJ Policy Board feared impact of stock fall

Several members of the Bank of Japan Policy Board were concerned over the negative effects that Japan's stock market decline is having on the financial environment during meetings Aug. 8 and 9, according to minutes released Tuesday.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Sep 25, 2002

The Queensland Orchestra

The Aborigines of northern Australia have likely been playing didgeridoos for more than 100,000 years. This Friday, when The Queensland Orchestra performs at the Festival of Asian Orchestras in Tokyo, it will be the haunting sound of this instrument that first reaches the ears of the audience. Behind...
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2002

Hatoyama wins DPJ race in runoff

Yukio Hatoyama was re-elected to his third term Monday as president of the Democratic Party of Japan after a close runoff with longtime partner and rival Naoto Kan, the opposition party's secretary general.
COMMENTARY
Sep 24, 2002

Building corporate integrity

A spate of corporate scandals have rocked Japan this year. Snow Brand Foods Co. and Nippon Ham Co. mislabeled beef, abusing the government's buyback program that was set up to bail out the beef industry following the outbreak of mad cow disease in Japan. Trading giant Mitsui & Co. was implicated in a...
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2002

China to catch Japan by 2032: survey

Some 79 percent of Japanese and 59 percent of Chinese people believe China will catch up with Japan economically within 30 years, according to the results of a survey conducted in both countries and released Sunday.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2002

Japan may seek redress from Pyongyang

Japan may ask North Korea for compensation over the North's abduction of more than a dozen Japanese, and will provide no economic aid unless the North ceases targeting Japan with missiles, a Japanese official said Sunday.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Sep 23, 2002

Youth must lead creative destruction

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The turn of the century is an important opportunity to engage in questioning and re-evaluating some of the global community's basic tenets, assumptions, policies and directions. On these matters we are being well-served by some excellent books.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2002

War bills headed for back burner

A majority of lawmakers in the ruling coalition want to postpone debate on the war contingency bills until next year.
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2002

Japan seeks Internet translation of tongues

Japan will ask China and South Korea to join it in developing Internet technology to automatically translate Japanese, Chinese and Korean into one another.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2002

France losing steam for radical reform

PARIS -- Three months ago, the French center-right scored two stunning electoral victories. As a result of miscalculations and voter apathy, the Socialists who had formed the government since 1997 crashed to defeat, and President Jacques Chirac was re-elected with 82 percent of the vote in a runoff ballot...
Japan Times
JAPAN / ENERGY EQUATION
Sep 21, 2002

Public role key to green-energy foothold

OSAKA -- While nuclear power provides about one-third of Japan's electricity, the government's goal for raising the share of alternative energy sources is a modest one -- from the current 1.2 percent to a mere 3.2 percent by 2010.
Japan Times
JAPAN / BABY BUST
Sep 21, 2002

Isolation poses major danger to modern mothers

Yumi, the mother of a 17-month-old girl in Tokyo, said she started feeling the burden of raising a child even before she became a mom.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 21, 2002

Testing times for the U.N.

In finally taking the vexed issue of war with Iraq to the United Nations, U.S. President George W. Bush has presented the organization with a double-edged test of credibility. Will it lift its performance and remain relevant to U.S. foreign policy on Washington's terms, or in doing so will it be seen...
BUSINESS
Sep 21, 2002

Inose slams road entity, private firm links

About 700 firms that have hired retired officials from Japan Highway Public Corp. received annual orders totaling more than 1 trillion yen from four road-related semigovernmental bodies in each of the past five years, it was learned Friday.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2002

Association helps end the health insurance limbo

Pressed by an ever-increasing number of people working as temps, both the government and temp agencies are trying to increase measures to make life more secure for the workers in this category.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2002

Families of abductees vow to keep up pressure

OSAKA -- Family members and supporters of Japanese abducted to North Korea vowed Wednesday to continue pressing the Japanese and North Korean governments for a full account of the kidnappings.
Japan Times
JAPAN / BABY BUST
Sep 19, 2002

Birthrate suffers as women face unattractive choices

Mayumi Shinde, 40, has worked for seven years as a system engineer at a Tokyo firm, at one stage attaining a job capability assessment of S -- one special level higher than A, the normal top ranking.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2002

Ishihara joins critics over Pyongyang 'deceptions'

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara on Wednesday strongly criticized North Korea over its response to the abductions of Japanese nationals and other issues.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2002

OPEC chiefs wait on Saudi position on output boost

OSAKA -- A number of ministers gathering for an OPEC meeting here indicated Wednesday they oppose an oil production increase being sought by oil consuming nations in the West.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2002

Crows can see food inside clear trash bags

A research team led by Hiroyoshi Higuchi, a professor of biological conservation at the University of Tokyo, has discovered that crows have the ability to see into transparent garbage bags when they scavenge for food.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2002

OPEC ministers laud Iraq decision but remain wary of boosting output

OSAKA -- OPEC leaders and oil industry analysts welcomed Iraq's decision Tuesday to allow weapons inspections by the United Nations, but cautioned it was too early to determine what effect the decision will have on oil prices and production.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Sep 18, 2002

Talk about the passion . . .

Can Kiyoshi Hikawa save enka?
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2002

A role for Japan in Korean peace process

There are high expectations that Prime Minister Junichiro Kozumi's Sept. 18 summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il will produce a breakthrough regarding the normalization of Japanese-North Korean relations. In addition to achieving this breakthrough in a manner that the Japanese people and...
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2002

Depressive points the way out of the gloom

For 10 years, Rei Ueno, 40, worked hard as a freelance writer. He took on almost every job that came to him. It was not unusual for him to make it home after midnight -- he also played hard.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb