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JAPAN
Jul 23, 2002

Panel suggests 20% of ambassadors be nonministry staff

An advisory panel on Foreign Ministry reform on Monday called for appointing 20 percent of ambassadors from outside the ministry within three years to increase competition for overseas postings.
COMMENTARY
Jul 22, 2002

Tokyo, Seoul narrowing gap

The Japanese people's sense of Japan-South Korea friendship has heightened following the World Cup soccer tournament cohosted last month by the two countries. After South Korea advanced to the semifinals, many Japanese cheered the team on to an extent that puzzled some South Koreans.
EDITORIALS
Jul 21, 2002

New Cabinet, old problems

South Korean President Kim Dae Jung continues to make history. This month he selected the first female prime minister, a ground-breaking move in male-dominated South Korean society. Predictably, the decision has been derided as a political gesture to shore up the government's faltering support; opposition...
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2002

NPO pushes law on green education

Flanked by Diet members and educators, members of an environmental nonprofit group unveiled the outline of a law to systematically promote environmental education during a symposium in Tokyo on Saturday.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 21, 2002

The men of the house

The TV show that has most successfully exploited the current housing "reform" boom is Asahi's "Daikozo! Gekiteki Before/After (Big Construction! Dramatic Before and After)" (Sundays, 7:56 p.m.), which was the only program during the recent World Cup that managed to pull in double-digit ratings opposite...
BUSINESS
Jul 20, 2002

Follow the truth and not bureaucrats: Inose

People must share accurate information, not necessarily that issued by bureaucrats, in efforts to help a debt-ridden Japan, a key adviser on the streamlining of public corporations said Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2002

Better deal urged for part-timers

Japan should improve working conditions for part-time and contract workers and try to bring conditions for this sector of the workforce more in line with regular employees, an advisory panel to the labor ministry urged in a report released Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2002

Ex-governor pleads guilty to taking bribes

Former Tokushima Gov. Toshio Endo pleaded guilty Friday to charges of receiving 8 million yen in bribes from a business consultant in 1997 and 2000 in return for helping a local construction firm win public works projects in the prefecture.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2002

Bogus forecasts yield mega-project fiascoes

Japan has seen a number of soured public works projects now grappling with snowballing debts, ranging from toll expressways, gigantic bridges, airports and empty ports with huge container facilities.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2002

Suzuki aide pleads not guilty to bid-rigging charge

An aide to indicted lawmaker Muneo Suzuki pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of rigging bids for a government-funded project on Russian-held Kunashiri island.
EDITORIALS
Jul 17, 2002

Dialogue: Pyongyang's only option

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi's visit to South Korea over the weekend, coming after the naval clash between North and South Korean patrol boats in the Yellow Sea in late June, has served to spotlight the volatility of inter-Korean relations. The diplomatic fallout from the sea battle, in which the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 17, 2002

It takes a village . . .

The feat of building a community takes vision, commitment and lots of time. But once every year, a massive village materializes on a mountainside in Niigata Prefecture in late July, only to vanish into thin air less than a week later.
MORE SPORTS
Jul 16, 2002

Ex-champ Kobayashi retires

super-flyweight champion Shoji "Celes" Kobayashi held a press conference on Monday officially announcing his retirement from boxing. Kobayashi, who is member of Tokyo's Kokusai boxing gym, expressed his appreciation for a successful 10-year career in professional boxing.
BUSINESS
Jul 16, 2002

OSE trades in DJIA-linked futures

OSAKA -- The Osaka Securities Exchange started trading Monday in futures contracts whose values are linked to the movements of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and two other stock-bourse indicators, the exchange said.
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2002

Panel suggests liaison office for refugees

A new liaison office should be established under the Cabinet Secretariat to better deal with refugee issues, a Liberal Democratic Party panel said in a report on Japan's refugee policy obtained Saturday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Jul 14, 2002

Uncorking female potential

In Japan's otherwise troubled economy, women's buying power has been often cited as the force behind a stunning phenomenon of growth in the '90s -- the wine industry. In fact, during that time, Japanese women not only drove the rise in wine consumption, but they also found professional opportunities...
COMMENTARY
Jul 13, 2002

Unwarranted attack on U.S. drugmakers

WASHINGTON -- America's pharmaceutical industry leads the world. But that hasn't stopped U.S. politicians from threatening to destroy it.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2002

Isle faces other uses after '08 Olympics rejection

OSAKA -- A report issued Friday by the city of Osaka advocates turning Maishima, a man-made island off Osaka that was the centerpiece of the city's failed bid for the 2008 Olympic Games, into a business, academic and recreation center.
COMMENTARY
Jul 13, 2002

New asylum policy would benefit Japan and refugees

In the wake of the May 8 Shenyang consulate incident, Tokyo is reviewing its refugee policy. Predictably, it has set up a committee to think about it all. This writer is a member. What he sees is not encouraging.
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2002

Report calls on banks to carry out risk assessment

A private advisory committee to Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa unveiled a draft report Friday that offered Japan's financial system a road map to a future radically different than its present.
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2002

Japan to push WTO members to scrap industrial goods tariffs

Japan is preparing to call on members of the World Trade Organization to scrap tariffs on various industrial goods as part of its proposals to spur a new round of global trade talks on cutting tariffs on nonfarm products, government sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2002

Hospital pays for transplant coverup

A health ministry panel decided Friday to strip the Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital of its designation as an advanced treatment hospital following a coverup involving the death of a patient.
EDITORIALS
Jul 11, 2002

Africa asks, what's in a name?

After nearly four decades, the Organization of African Unity is no more. The OAU, founded in 1963, was dissolved this week. It was reborn as the African Union with the same membership and the same ambitions. Fortunately, there is one big difference between the new organization and the old one: The AU...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji