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JAPAN
Feb 21, 2003

College may bar Tsujimoto visit

OSAKA -- Political pressure has forced an Osaka City University graduate school to reconsider whether to allow Kiyomi Tsujimoto, who resigned from the House of Representatives in scandal, to participate in a campus workshop, the school said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2003

Space travel must go on, veteran astronauts say

Space exploration should go ahead despite the dangers shown by the Feb. 1 disintegration of the U.S. space shuttle Columbia and the loss of its seven-member crew, astronaut Mamoru Mohri said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
Feb 19, 2003

Missile defense is an offense

BRUSSELS -- It is difficult to understand the Bush administration's determination to deploy a national missile defense system, or NMD. All test launches to date -- to prevent theoretical nuclear missile attacks -- have been either failures or "partial successes."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2003

Overtime pay violations on Rengo's radar

Tomoru Yamaguchi, director of the working conditions division at the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), knew the situation was bad. He just didn't think it was this bad.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 19, 2003

I am what I play -- live

Internationally acclaimed DJ Karsh Kale has spent the last three months carrying a laptop loaded with ProTools recording and editing software through the chaos and inspiration that is India. Relishing both the miracles of technology and the wonders of the ancient, Kale stopped in Madras, Delhi and Bombay,...
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2003

Businesses told of fossil fuel tax plan

Environment Minister Shunichi Suzuki on Tuesday officially told the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) of the ministry's plans to introduce a tax on fossil fuels that generate greenhouse gases.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2003

236 sue over visits to Yasukuni

OSAKA -- A group of 236 people, including 124 Taiwanese, filed a lawsuit Monday seeking 2.36 million yen in damages over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's controversial visit to Yasukuni Shrine in January.
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2003

Attack needs U.N. approval: New Komeito

Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, secretary general of New Komeito, said Sunday his party opposes a U.S.-led attack on Iraq in the absence of a new U.N. resolution authorizing such action.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 17, 2003

The art of making excuses

Part of growing up in Japan is about naturally acquiring shoseijutsu -- phrases and expressions that get you through difficulties and make good impressions.
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2003

WTO session unable to close farm trade gap

Ministers participating in the three-day informal meeting of the World Trade Organization wrapped up discussions Sunday but failed to narrow a huge gap over the controversial farm trade issue, further clouding the prospect of meeting a self-imposed March 31 deadline.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 16, 2003

Songs of the sorta rich and famous

Daniel Johnston is apparently napping. His father, Bill, who answers the phone, says to someone, "Tell Dan it's his interview from Japan."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 16, 2003

Making a match all manner of ways

It wasn't so long ago that the Japanese ideal was to be married by age 25, typically to someone handpicked by parents. At its core, matrimony was an economic arrangement with all the romantic overtones of a mortgage contract.
BUSINESS
Feb 15, 2003

BOJ maintains monetary policy

Maintaining its stance of watching and waiting, the Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy unchanged Friday in a unanimous vote in the absence of economic data to prompt more drastic measures.
BUSINESS
Feb 15, 2003

EU trade chief voices concern over NTT connection fees

European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy voiced concern Friday about Japan's plan to allow Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. to raise the interconnection fees it charges other carriers to access its phone networks, Japanese trade officials said.
BUSINESS
Feb 15, 2003

WTO farming plans trigger huge Tokyo protest

More than 2,000 representatives of farm groups from Japan and nine other countries demonstrated Friday in Tokyo against plans for a substantial reduction in agricultural tariffs.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 15, 2003

J.A. Stam

At the end of the 1960s, when Joop Stam was a student at Keio Kokusai Center in Tokyo, people used to say: "That young man from Holland will go a long way. He typifies the modern young scholar, who is eager and able to take advantage of today's opportunities."
BUSINESS
Feb 15, 2003

WTO talks kick off with clashes over farm trade

A three-day WTO trade conference got off to a fiery start Friday as trade ministers from 22 countries clashed over a recent WTO draft proposal aimed at expanding farm trade.
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 15, 2003

Four teams to battle for Mazda Cup

Who will become the first champion as the No. 1 club in the East Asia?
JAPAN
Feb 15, 2003

Communist chief draws veil on long Diet career

Tetsuzo Fuwa, chairman of the Japanese Communist Party's Central Committee, said Friday he will not run in the next general election of the House of Representatives, bringing an end to a Diet career that has spanned more than three decades.
EDITORIALS
Feb 14, 2003

Japan's role in solving Iraq issue

How should Japan deal with the Iraq crisis? The question is gaining urgency as the United States gears up for a military campaign. Yet the government has so far given only vague answers, though the ambiguity is not difficult to understand. During a Diet debate on Wednesday, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi...
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2003

Japan NGO demands Beijing release 120 North Korean refugees, supporters

A Japanese nongovernmental organization helping North Koreans who have fled to China demanded Thursday that Beijing release at least 120 refugees and their supporters allegedly detained since October.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2003

Japan urged to take lead in easing of drug patents

As host of an informal ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization, Japan should take the initiative in easing rules on pharmaceutical patents so developing countries can have better access to desperately needed drugs, according to Dr. Tatsuo Hayashi, president of Africa-Japan Forum.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2003

Farm chief nixes WTO proposal

Farm minister Tadamori Oshima on Thursday rejected a WTO panel chief's proposal that would cut import tariffs on farm produce by up to 45 percent.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2003

Toray Industries chief puts faith in technological research

Sadayuki Sakakibara, president of Toray Industries Inc., is confident there are researchers at his company who have the potential to win a Nobel Prize, just like Shimadzu Corp.'s Koichi Tanaka.
JAPAN
Feb 13, 2003

Ishihara to run again in Tokyo

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara signaled his intention Wednesday to seek re-election in the April 13 gubernatorial poll.
BUSINESS
Feb 13, 2003

Unions plan to rally around seniority-based pay increases

The "shunto" spring wage talks got under way Wednesday with several major automotive unions submitting demands related to job security and wages.
EDITORIALS
Feb 12, 2003

New Europe squares off against old

The debate over Iraq has made painfully clear the growing rift between the United States and Europe. Typically, the image pits the Bush administration against its German and French counterparts, while Britain remains the loyal American ally. This simple characterization does not tell the whole story....

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