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COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2002

Preventing a new dark age

On May 8 an American citizen with alleged ties to the al-Qaeda terror network was arrested on suspicion of plotting to build and detonate a radioactive "dirty" bomb in the United States. On May 31, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda of Japan -- the emotional touchstone of antinuclear sentiments for...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 16, 2002

Life's a bitch and then some

This week, Fuji TV will begin airing the entries in its Eleventh Annual FNS Documentary Grand Prix, a contest that honors video documentaries submitted by Fuji network affiliates. The winners are eventually selected by a panel of media experts.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 16, 2002

The accessory of the season

Tsuyu. It's that wet and dismal time of year, the rainy season, when no matter what the skies look like, you have to prepare for the inevitable.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 15, 2002

Defense Agency deals democracy a blow

The mushrooming scandal at Japan's Defense Agency highlights the ongoing struggle between advocates of free speech and government secrecy. The clumsy and duplicitous handling of this affair by the Koizumi administration leaves even the most cynical observers of government speechless.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 15, 2002

Phil Richardson

Long, long ago, in a preflight age, diplomats and expatriate businessmen in Japan expected their lives to be leisured until the arrival of the next ship with its communications from home offices. Phil Richardson does not belong to such a remote past, but his timing places him at the end of another era...
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2002

Opposition parties begin Diet boycott

Four opposition parties boycotted Diet deliberations Thursday after senior leaders of the ruling bloc rejected claims they forced the Defense Agency to withhold a full report on the information disclosure scandal.
BUSINESS
Jun 13, 2002

BOJ board votes to keep ultra-easy monetary policy

The Bank of Japan Policy Board voted Wednesday to maintain its ultra-easy monetary grip.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 13, 2002

Getting your just rewards for a lifetime of slog

Well here we are again. It's starting to get nice and hot and summer is well on us. Your questions and inquiries are coming in and we are also getting answers and ideas from our readers too. Great. That is just what we were hoping for.
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2002

Cultural assets treaty approved

The House of Councilors on Wednesday approved the government's ratification of a UNESCO treaty banning international trafficking in stolen cultural property and works of art.
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 12, 2002

Japan's Ono all set for Tunisia match

KAKEGAWA, Shizuoka Pref. -- "If we can stay focused, I think we can win the next match as well," Japan and Feyenoord midfielder Shinji Ono said Tuesday of his team's upcoming game against Tunisia, set for Friday at Osaka's Nagai Stadium.
BUSINESS
Jun 12, 2002

Shiokawa to fill in G7 on tax-cut plans

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Tuesday that he will tell Japan's Group of Seven partners that the nation is ready to bolster its fragile economy by cutting taxes and accelerating the disposal of bad loans held by Japanese banks.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Jun 10, 2002

Going 'international' is a matter of trust

Fifteenth in a series
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2002

Child pleads with official to stay in Japan

OSAKA — The 9-year-old daughter of an illegal immigrant from South Korea made an appeal to Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama to let her family stay in Japan so that she can continue to study here.
EDITORIALS
Jun 9, 2002

Out with the nitty-gritty

Remember the controversy ignited three years ago when a white Washington bureaucrat was fired after using the word "niggardly" in a meeting? Black employees said it sounded so much like the racial slur "nigger" that it didn't matter a jot that the two words were etymologically unrelated. Incredibly,...
COMMUNITY
Jun 9, 2002

Seeing Japan from top to bottom

We both confess to complete and utter madness, but we've been having a whale of a time -- and not only down in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, where the International Whaling Commission had its recent roughhouse, and where we completely pigged out on kujira no niku (whale meat) before heading on to...
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2002

Diet mulls fate of mentally ill criminals

The Diet is now debating a bill that would create a system whereby medical doctors and judges would decide together whether someone with a psychiatric disorder who commits a serious crime should be hospitalized.
BUSINESS
Jun 8, 2002

Yanagisawa rips regionals over deposit guarantee

Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa blasted several regional financial institutions Friday for asking the government to keep the full guarantee on current deposits beyond its planned termination date of April 1, 2003.
BUSINESS
Jun 8, 2002

Life insurance policy value off 4.3%

The value of individual insurance policies signed by 43 Japanese life insurers came to 1.26 quadrillion yen as of March 31, down 4.3 percent from a year earlier, the Life Insurance Association of Japan said Friday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 6, 2002

Communication need not be a medical emergency

In response to the newly arrived businesswoman seeking native English-speaking general practitioners/family doctors in Kansai and Kyoto, here is a quick round-up.
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2002

Koizumi postal reforms draw flak from LDP vested interests

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was criticized Tuesday by a lawmaker from his own Liberal Democratic Party over his long-held goal to privatize the nation's postal services.
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2002

Opposition parties to demand Nakatani resign over info list

Secretaries general of the four biggest opposition parties agreed Tuesday to demand the resignation of Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani over his agency's systematic compilation of information on individuals who made information disclosure requests from the agency.
BUSINESS
Jun 5, 2002

Snow Brand appoints consumer guru to board

OSAKA -- Snow Brand Milk Products Co. on Tuesday said it has appointed Nobuko Hiwasa, former chief of a leading consumer group, as an outside director in charge of food safety.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2002

Activists put themselves in firing line

It was April 1, and Aisa Kiyosue and nearly 100 other activists from around the world were marching toward the Dehesha refugee camp in Beit Jala, northern Bethlehem, in an attempt to block it from an anticipated attack by the Israeli Army. They were in high spirits, clapping and singing songs of protest,...

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