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COMMENTARY
Jun 10, 2001

Restarting Korean peace talks

Stop blowing up the balloons. Put away the ribbons and confetti. There is unlikely to be any major celebrations as we mark the first anniversary of the historic June 13-15, 2000 summit meeting in Pyongyang between South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean chairman Kim Jong Il.
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Jun 10, 2001

A daughter of Madagascar traces a path home to Asia

"I feel at home in Asia," said Hanitra, leader of the group Tarika, during a recent visit to Tokyo. "Africa is more foreign to me."
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 10, 2001

Can Japan leave Les Bleus feeling blue after Confederations Cup final?

If you take the negative aspects of the Confederations Cup (the League Cup of international football) away from the equation, then FIFA couldn't have asked for a more intriguing final today at International Stadium Yokohama.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Jun 10, 2001

Sake gold standards shifting

Last week, on May 30, the Zenkoku Shinshu Kanpyo Kai, or National New Sake Tasting Competition, was held in Hiroshima. This year 1,133 sake that made it through the nine regional competitions were tasted blindly by a panel of government-employed, highly trained judges. Out of these, 382 were given a...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 10, 2001

Zetton: A buzz that can't be resisted

Call it what you like -- drawing power, charisma, sex appeal or the Koizumi quality -- new restaurants need that extra something to succeed, no less than populist politicians with big, Beethoven-look hair. Zetton, the hot new place just up from Shibuya-bashi in Ebisu, has just the right sort of buzz....
COMMUNITY
Jun 10, 2001

Learning to live in a house with attitude

Architects Ben Matsuno and Kumi Aizawa have a dream in which homes are not just for sleeping and serve as more than just private spaces for residents only. But the husband and wife team doesn't intend to sit back and wait for society to change. By forming Life & Shelter Co., they're putting their architectural...
EDITORIALS
Jun 9, 2001

Secret fund is still under wraps

The Foreign Ministry, responding to a recent embezzlement scandal involving a senior ministry bureaucrat, has put together a package of measures designed to "reform" its secrecy-shrouded diplomatic war chest. The package falls far short of public expectations, largely because the ministry has not disclosed...
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

Workers to get average nine-day summer holiday: survey

Workers at major Japanese firms will have an average of nine consecutive days summer vacation, the highest number since surveys began in 1985, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
BUSINESS
Jun 9, 2001

Upper House approves bill to reform pension

The House of Councilors on Friday approved a pension reform bill designed to revamp the corporate pension system, paving the way for its enforcement next April 1.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

Koizumi's reform foes entrenched

With Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi firing off a barrage of reform proposals aimed at turning the ailing economy around, his foes, including fellow Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers and bureaucrats keen to protect vested interests, are drawing battle lines.
BUSINESS
Jun 9, 2001

FRC wanted major changes at banks

The Financial Reconstruction Commission, the predecessor of the Financial Services Agency, set out to push through a major reorganization of 17 major banks immediately after its inauguration in December 1998, according to minutes of the FRC's meetings disclosed Friday by the FSA.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

Panel to call for freeze on dam, road projects

A key government economic panel will call for a freeze on dam and road projects on which construction has not yet begun when it issues a blueprint for reform on June 27, government sources said Friday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jun 9, 2001

Putin picks a new gas czar

Behold, Russia has got a new czar. No, the Romanovs did not rise from their graves. No, the Russian people did not invite a Romanov cousin, Prince Charles, to claim the throne of his Russian ancestors. No, the authoritarian Russian president, Vladimir Putin, did not crown himself Vladimir I. He just...
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

Thieves may have targeted abandoned Miyake residences

More than 20 possible cases of theft have been reported on Miyake Island after its residents were forced to evacuate last summer due to volcanic eruptions, according to police.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

Independent board to oversee U.N. AIDS fund

The Group of Eight major countries have reached a basic agreement on the framework of a fund proposed by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to promote the international crusade against AIDS, G8 sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

85% of Americans support security treaty: annual survey

Eighty-five percent of Americans support the Japan-U.S. security treaty, while Japan's closed markets topped the list of reasons a trade imbalance exists between the two countries, according to an annual poll released Friday.
BUSINESS
Jun 9, 2001

Cambodia set to get aid package

An international conference to be held in Tokyo on Tuesday and Wednesday is likely to agree to provide Cambodia with some $500 million (about 60.22 billion yen) in aid, sources close to the meeting said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jun 9, 2001

Banks' outstanding loans drop for 41st straight month

The balance of outstanding loans at the nation's banks dropped 3.8 percent in May from a year earlier for the 41st consecutive month of decline, the Bank of Japan said Friday.
COMMENTARY
Jun 9, 2001

Beijing should mind its own business

Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian has finished his trip to the United States, and the Chinese government is upset. It considers Taiwan part of China, so how dare Washington allow the head of a "renegade province" to land in the U.S., even if he is only on his way to and from Latin America.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 9, 2001

Is Japan tilting toward China?

WASHINGTON -- Key officials in the Bush administration, especially Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, have long been on record as urging Japan to play a more substantial role in East Asia's security affairs. Some of them even want Japanese leaders to repeal, or at least modify, Article 9 of...
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

Killings shock parents, residents

OSAKA — Shock and disbelief gripped the city of Ikeda, an affluent Osaka suburb, Friday following the murder of eight elementary school children as parents, teachers and neighbors struggled to find an explanation for why it happened.
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 9, 2001

Tickets on sale for Confederations Cup final

A total of 2,000 tickets for Sunday's Confederations Cup final between Japan and France, slated for Yokohama International Stadium (kickoff 7 p.m.), will go on sale from 10 a.m. at limited ticket outlets in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kashima and Niigata, the Japan Football Association announced Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

Koizumi clarifies missile defense policy with Tanaka, Nakatani

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday confirmed with Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka and Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani that Japan's basic position of "understanding" U.S. missile defense plans remains unchanged, government officials said.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

Tanaka promises figure for secret-use funds

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka said Friday that the ministry will provide a numerical target for reducing its secret-use diplomatic funds in the fiscal 2002 budget, a step up from the wording used in the ministry's reform report released Wednesday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 9, 2001

Falling off a Kawasaki cliff, building an ashram

Sister Eugenie Fumiko Fujita went to bed toward the end of last year's rainy season, her life enlivened by a month of mold but still basically in order. She awoke before dawn July 8 to mayhem, her home hanging off the edge of a landslip.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

Upper House unanimously OKs apology on Hansen's

The House of Councilors unanimously endorsed a resolution Friday offering an apology to current and former Hansen's disease patients and admitting the Diet's failure to promptly annul legislation that segregated them from society.
BUSINESS
Jun 9, 2001

Unions to join unemployment talks

The government will meet with representatives of the 7.61-million-member Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) and the Japan Federation of Employers' Associations (Nikkeiren) Tuesday morning to discuss an employment safety net, government sources said Friday.

Longform

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