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EDITORIALS
Oct 6, 2003

Can Rengo stand up for the weak?

Over the years the image of Japanese trade unions as labor's standard bearer has become steadily tarnished. Their activities no longer hit the headlines except during annual labor-management negotiations. Even the name "shunto" -- the spring labor offensive -- now seems almost irrelevant because the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2003

Japan Highway president is sacked

Land, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Nobuteru Ishihara told Japan Highway Public Corp. President Haruho Fujii on Sunday to hand in his resignation Monday to take responsibility for the semigovernmental firm's controversial balance sheet.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Oct 5, 2003

Fun at Asagiri is as easy as ichi, ni, san

It's 9 a.m. and the gentle rolling piano intonations of the Rajio Taiso theme start up. A man stands at the foot of a hill on a small raised platform and begins the count: "Ichi, ni, san, shi . . ." The hill is covered with tents from which several thousand people slowly emerge. They twist sideways,...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 4, 2003

Surf is always up for Internet addicts

At least I have a decent excuse.
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2003

DPJ eyes toll-free roads, 'amakudari' ban

With an eye to the expected general election next month, the Democratic Party of Japan has drafted a compact platform calling for various reforms, including elimination of highway tolls.
EDITORIALS
Oct 4, 2003

A checkered economic recovery

During an economic recovery, it often happens that disparities in business performance between companies that are doing better and those that are not become more apparent. That is the case with Japanese companies today, as shown clearly by the Bank of Japan's latest survey of business sentiment. While...
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2003

'Tankan' shows optimism in manufacturing sector

Large manufacturers feeling confident about business conditions outnumbered those who are pessimistic in September for the first time in 33 months, a Bank of Japan "tankan" survey showed Wednesday. But analysts said it is still too soon to cheer.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 2, 2003

When American values get a woman's mind cooking

My brother has plunged into this deep gloom. It's his girlfriend, naturally. He's taken to calling me three times a week, genuinely perplexed and begging me to tell him why the romance is gone. He's my brother and I love him, but honestly, like most Japanese men the guy does not have a clue. I can tell...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2003

Late to offer self-service, gas stations now struggle for profits

Naotake Bando likes the simplicity. The 61-year-old motorist, who recently pulled into a self-service gas station in Chofu, western Tokyo, said he prefers to fill up his car by himself.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2003

Currency interventions prove to be both fruitless and costly

GUATEMALA CITY -- The weakening of the U.S. dollar accelerated after finance ministers from the Group of Seven issued a communique calling for market-oriented international exchange rates. Soon afterward, the Japanese yen set a two-year high against the American currency.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2003

Court finds Japan responsible for abandoned arms

In an unprecedented ruling, the Tokyo District Court on Monday ordered the state to pay a total of 190 million yen to 13 Chinese who lost relatives or suffered health problems due to weapons abandoned by the Imperial Japanese Army at the end of World War II.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 28, 2003

Dancing in the dark, but who's calling the tune?

Ever since the five Japanese who were kidnapped by North Korea in the late '70s returned to Japan a little less than a year ago, the media, the government, the abductees' families and supporters, and the abductees themselves have been performing an elaborate and awkward dance.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2003

Peruvians divided over Fujimori

OSAKA -- With Japan facing mounting international pressure to extradite disgraced former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, the nation's Peruvian community is divided on the matter.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / INDUSTRY TRENDS
Sep 25, 2003

Kao to take on Nippon Lever in fall shampoo war

Two major shampoo makers are expected to wage a massive marketing war in the fall, with a domestic giant preparing to battle a foreign competitor for the top spot it lost two years ago.
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 2003

Mr. Koizumi gets down to business

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reshuffled his Cabinet Monday after his victory in Saturday's Liberal Democratic Party presidential election. The new Cabinet demonstrates the prime minister's determination to push his mandate without being swayed by forces that oppose his policy line.
EDITORIALS
Sep 22, 2003

Fresh hopes for Koizumi's goals

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi won a decisive majority on the first ballot in Saturday's presidential election of the Liberal Democratic Party, beating his three rivals by a wide margin. He owes his first-round victory largely to the backing he received from many members of anti-Koizumi factions. A...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2003

Party fell into line despite deep policy differences

They're sleeping in the same bed, but dreaming different dreams.
COMMUNITY
Sep 21, 2003

Another ballgame altogether

Comparing cricket and baseball is like measuring a five-course dinner against a fast-food meal.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 20, 2003

Robin Bell

KEELE, England -- The university here occupies the estate that used to belong to the aristocratic Sneyd family, in earlier centuries landowners who in the 19th century became industrialists. A magnificent hall, dating from 1580 and still in use, shares its setting nowadays with square university buildings...
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2003

High court begins hearing air pollution appeal

With one plaintiff coughing up phlegm as she testified, the first hearing of an appeal of a long-running air pollution suit got under way Thursday at the Tokyo High Court.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Sep 18, 2003

Iraq, bad economy drag Bush down

WASHINGTON -- It cannot be easy these days to be selling the White House story line. Chickens are coming home to roost from every direction. Ever since President George W. Bush went on his working vacation to his ranch in Crawford, Texas, his carefully constructed houses of cards in economic and world...
COMMENTARY
Sep 17, 2003

Add eco-terrorism to list of threats faced by Americans

WASHINGTON -- In August, radical environmentalists apparently burned down an apartment complex under construction in San Diego, California.
EDITORIALS
Sep 15, 2003

Looming specter of tax hikes

The government's budget deficit continues to swell at an ominous pace. According to an estimate by the Finance Ministry, the total amount of bond issues in fiscal 2004 may exceed 41 trillion yen -- a sum roughly half the size of the budget. The figure could be revised downward, possibly to less than...
MORE SPORTS
Sep 14, 2003

Sungoliath kicks off Top League with 54-31 victory

The new Top League may have been established to ensure the next generation of Japanese rugby players can compete on the world stage and Hirotoki Onozawa certainly made his mark with four tries -- but the party that marked the launch of the new league was for a time gate-crashed by some of the veterans...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 14, 2003

Television stands test of time

It seems every band that broke up in the decade prior to, say, 1985 has reunited in the past few years to take advantage of whatever shred of nostalgia still dangles from its reputation. Television, the guitar band that emerged from the underground New York scene centered on the Bowery dive CBGB's in...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 14, 2003

Poetry: a language without borders

KIYOKO'S SKY: The Haiku of Kiyoko Tokutomi, translations by Patricia J. Machmiller & Fay Aoyagi. Illinois: Brookes Books, Decatur, 2002, 128 pp., $16 (paper). SELECTED HAIKU, by Takaha Shugyo, translations by Hoshino Tsunehiko & Adrian Pinnington. Tokyo: Furansudo, 2003, 108 pp., $16 (paper). These two...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 13, 2003

You gotta have wa, and good chi as well

The front door to your house is where chi enters the home. So spruce up your front door with decorations to make it more inviting and to attract only good chi inside.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2003

Seniors enjoy thespian therapy

Kiyoko Goto, 86, dried her eyes several times as she watched the action unfold before her.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami