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COMMENTARY
Aug 26, 2002

Diplomatic prowess for less

A ministerial meeting of the Initiative for Development in East Asia, held in Tokyo on Aug. 12, acknowledged the significance of maintaining adequate Official Development Assistance as a tool for strengthening regional cooperation and agreed to examine how to make more effective use of ODA. The meeting...
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2002

Official resigns following Taiwan row with ministry

Kenichi Mizuno, parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, tendered his resignation Sunday to Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi following a row over his planned visit to Taiwan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 25, 2002

The man who holds the purse strings

For better or worse, the Ryukyu Islands, whose most prominent member is Okinawa, have produced more major J-pop acts since 1995 than any other part of Japan save Tokyo.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2002

Former SDP lawmaker Tsujimoto returns 23 million yen in aides' pay

Kiyomi Tsujimoto, a former Social Democratic Party lawmaker who resigned from the Lower House in late March over alleged misuse of her secretaries' state-paid salaries, has returned more than 23 million yen, her office said Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2002

Cops cashing in on driver licenses: lawsuit

Freelance journalist Yu Terasawa, 35, filed a suit in 2000 against the state, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and police-related organizations, claiming Japan's 74 million licensed drivers are being systematically financially exploited by police.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2002

Panel calls for separate entity to manage road firm liabilities

An independent entity should be set up to manage the liabilities and assets of four debt-saddled expressway firms, a government panel discussing the privatization of the companies said Friday.
JAPAN / INTERNATIONAL RATIONALE
Aug 23, 2002

Japan gropes for ideal corporate governance model

The rash of U.S. corporate scandals has rocked the Japanese business community, which until recently admired the success of the American business model.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2002

'Politically motivated' arrests slammed

The head of the public security department of the Osaka High Public Prosecutor's Office was arrested April 23 for allegedly being entertained to the tune of 280,000 yen by mobsters in return for providing internal information.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2002

Suzuki charged with taking building firm's 6 million yen bribe

Prosecutors indicted House of Representatives member Muneo Suzuki and his policy secretary Wednesday on charges of taking about 6 million yen in bribes from a construction company based in Abashiri, Hokkaido, while Suzuki was head of the Hokkaido Development Agency.
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2002

Mizuho reveals interest-setting rules to corporate borrowers

Mizuho Bank has begun divulging its in-house interest-rate guidelines to corporate borrowers in the hope of persuading them to pay higher interest rates, Mizuho officials said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2002

English school exec sees kids as growth market

English-conversation schools in Japan are facing a major business opportunity as demand for their services for children increases, according to a senior local official of a top chain of foreign-language schools.
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2002

Employee-leasing agencies helping Chinese computer engineers to cash in

More Chinese computer engineers are coming to Japan via temporary-staff employment agencies, and some of them are finding a niche in the information technology industry, earning as much as 10 million yen a year.
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2002

Toyota releases new Voltz sport utility

Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday released a new 1.8-liter sport utility vehicle, the first auto jointly planned and designed with General Motors Corp.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 21, 2002

Beyond trance: Juno's sonic odyssey

The passing fancies and capricious changes in taste that mark electronic dance music make it very hard for most musicians to sustain a career. Buck the trends, and you'll never get noticed; settle into the style du jour, and you may as well put a "sell-by" date on your albums.
COMMENTARY
Aug 20, 2002

Forum breaks new ground

The recent meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum, or ARF, the Asia Pacific's premier track for security dialogue, has been applauded as a watershed for the institution -- and rightly so. The group's pledge to fight international terrorism breathed new life into the forum. But the real significance of this...
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2002

Japan, North Korea claim progress at two-day talks

PYONGYANG -- The North Korean Red Cross confirmed Monday the whereabouts of six Japanese among the 49 Tokyo has demanded Pyongyang search for, but the six are not among the 11 Tokyo says were abducted.
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2002

Cyclists continue Silk Road trek

A Japanese citizens' group will cycle to Turkmenistan in Central Asia at the end of this month on another leg in their 15,000-km journey along the Silk Road.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Aug 19, 2002

Raze the barriers to inward investment

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The 21st century has not gotten off to a particularly brilliant start. Greed, corruption and dishonesty are pervasive. Scandals are rocking the world of business and politics in America and Europe. The chances of the Bush/Cheney administration becoming paralyzed by investigations...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Aug 18, 2002

Putin faces oil slick on Iraq

MOSCOW -- To strike or not to strike seems to be the question in Washington these days. A part of the "axis of evil," terrorist-lair Iraq, an old foe, is currently under the scrutiny of U.S. President George W. Bush's administration. While military planners weigh various strategic options for crushing...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 18, 2002

Living Dead returns with 'group gestalt'

Bob Weir says he can use some serious beach time. The former Grateful Dead guitarist and vocalist is taking a breather a short while after bounding off stage following a well-received set by his band RatDog at last weekend's Mount Fuji Jazz Festival.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2002

Hospital chief, specialist to resign over coverup of deadly malpractice

The head of Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital and its leading heart specialist will resign over a malpractice case in which a 12-year-old girl died after undergoing heart surgery last year, it was announced Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2002

Professors to visit Afghanistan

A group of professors from five Japanese women's universities will visit Afghanistan for 10 days beginning Aug. 24 to prepare a training program for female Afghan teachers that will be held in Japan next year, Ochanomizu University said Friday.
SOCCER / World cup
Aug 16, 2002

Asia eyes seeding system for 2006 World Cup

The major soccer powers in Asia may get a bye in the first round of the Asian qualifying stages for the 2006 World Cup as the Asian Football Confederation is considering introducing a seeding system for its qualifiers, Japan Football Association vice president Junji Ogura said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2002

Internal strife marks DPJ president race

Nine Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers have announced their candidacies or are contemplating running in the party's Sept. 23 presidential race. None, however, appears to have sufficient strength to dominate the nation's largest opposition party.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2002

Ethnic Chinese dilemma

SINGAPORE -- In a new twist to an ongoing controversy surrounding a proposal to change Malaysia's education policy, the two main Chinese components of the ruling National Front (NF) coalition government, have found themselves taking the same position as the opposition parties. This places the Malaysian...
Japan Times
JAPAN / THE OKINAWA FACTOR
Aug 16, 2002

The Okinawan dollar-yen juggling act

Tenth in an occasional series By MAYUMI NEGISHI Staff writer NAHA, Okinawa Pref. -- On Aug. 15, 1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard and introduced floating exchange rates, sending the greenback plummeting.

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