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COMMENTARY
Jun 16, 2001

Urgent tasks for Koizumi

Peace and stability in East Asia in the coming years will hinge on Japan's political and economic leadership, North-South rapprochement on the Korean Peninsula, China's policies as an emerging regional power and strategies of the United States, the sole superpower.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 16, 2001

Gordon Shin Guy

"This country is so vast, with a spectrum from game parks to beaches and everything in between. There's so much to do outdoors, and nature is all around you. You can go walking up Table Mountain, go swimming, mountain-biking, picnicking, wine-tasting. You're not governed by the weather, as more than...
EDITORIALS
Jun 15, 2001

The state's right to kill

America was riveted -- and riven -- this week by the execution of one of its least defensible mass murderers, Timothy McVeigh, the man responsible for the deaths of 168 people in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklohoma City six years ago. At the same time, Japan was traumatized...
COMMENTARY
Jun 14, 2001

Solving Asia's nuclear-waste dilemma

Nuclear energy is news again. It has always been an issue for some people -- environmental activists and energy industry groups -- but nuclear power has largely faded from public consciousness, despite periodic incidents that highlighted fears of a catastrophic mishap at a nuclear power plant. The luxury...
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Jun 13, 2001

Lightning strikes in Isezaki's Bizen

I once asked the veteran Bizen potter Jun Isezaki why he makes certain shapes exactly the same as they were centuries ago. His reply was simple: "What works well need not be changed."
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2001

Proposal targeting mentally ill criticized

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's proposal to seek legal revisions in a bid to prevent crimes by the mentally ill faced government opposition Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2001

Man killed 'elite' kids in hope of being hanged

OSAKA — The man who was arrested Friday in the fatal stabbing of eight pupils at an elementary school in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, said he committed the crimes in a bid to be sent to the gallows, sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2001

LDP begins search for preventative measures

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Monday held its first meeting to discuss possible measures to prevent similar incidents to last week's massacre of eight schoolchildren by a man with a history of psychiatric illness.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2001

Koizumi's bid to empower urban voters hit

Toshikatsu Matsuoka is frustrated.
EDITORIALS
Jun 10, 2001

Labour wins a mandate to carry on

The crushing victory of Britain's Labour Party in Thursday's general elections presents Prime Minister Tony Blair with his greatest challenge. His progress since becoming party leader almost a decade ago has been remarkably smooth, and his remodeled party now enjoys a dominance in British politics equivalent...
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2001

Security dialogue signals rise in New Delhi's global stature

In a belated but significant move amid increasingly murky relations among major players in the Asia-Pacific region, Japan and India are making last-minute preparations to inaugurate a high-level security forum.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2001

Koizumi to rethink law for mentally ill

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Saturday that his government will begin studying possible revisions to the law regarding crimes by mentally ill people following Friday's massacre of eight children by a man with a history of psychiatric illness.
COMMUNITY
Jun 10, 2001

Licca-chan dollhouse reflects realty reality

In 1967, it was a room with velvet sofas, a red rug and lacy white drapes. Through a large window, one could see a snow-covered mountain in the distance, and there was a swimming pool in the backyard.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 10, 2001

Japan, America and women's place

THE ROAD WINDS UPHILL ALL THE WAY: Gender, Work, and Family in the United States and Japan, by Myra H. Strober and Agnes Miling Kaneko Chan. The MIT Press, 2001, $21.95. The image of Japanese women walking several steps behind their "master" husbands is alive and well in the American popular imagination....
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...
COMMENTARY
Jun 8, 2001

Reform easier said than done

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi replaced former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on the grounds that he was a reformist and Mori was not. Yet Koizumi's first move was to cancel one of Mori's sensible reforms -- the bid to settle Japan's Northern Territories dispute with Moscow by first accepting the two...
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2001

Ginza denizens fight to preserve glory in face of commercialism

Tokyo's Ginza district may have lost some of its past glory but several elderly people there are working to ensure that it remains a showcase of bustling Tokyo.
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 7, 2001

Troussier warns against complacency

YOKOHAMA -- Brace yourselves, Australia is not an easy team to play. This was the warning message given by Japan manager Philippe Troussier to the fans, the press and his team not to underestimate Australia, which Japan will play in a semifinal on Thursday at Yokohama International Stadium.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 7, 2001

Good intentions jinx the 'living dead'

Doom and gloom this week for those who believe in the essential goodness of the human race, with two papers in the journal Science that implicate humans in mass extinctions of mammals in North America and Australia.
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
Jun 7, 2001

Dokudami (lizard's tail)

"Only the very richest people could afford to call the doctor out to visit them if they were sick. Country people used to pick plants like green gentian, cranesbill and lizard's tail when they went up into the mountains to avoid, as much as possible, having to rely on the services of a doctor."...
CULTURE / Art
Jun 6, 2001

Moshino's multisided talents under one roof

An exhibition of images, paintings and designs by Katsura Moshino is now showing at the Canon Wonder Museum in Makuhari in Chiba.
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Jun 5, 2001

Suzuki, Ono, Kawaguchi looking good

KASHIMA, Ibaraki Pref. -- When you have success in a soccer tournament, you often have a player or two who shine on your side.
COMMENTARY
Jun 4, 2001

Respects due to those who died for Japan

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has repeatedly said he will go to Yasukuni Shrine to worship on Aug. 15. He will be going, he says, to pay his respects to the spirits of those who have given their lives for their country. Present-day Japan exists thanks to the sacrifices of these people, Koizumi says,...
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2001

Tokyo, Seoul strive to revive relations before World Cup

In the leadup to the 2002 World Cup soccer finals, Japan and South Korea are moving behind the scenes to prevent the sizzling political imbroglio over a right-leaning Japanese history textbook from spilling over into the cultural field.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2001

Find casts light on temblors

A research team has found evidence of a series of tsunami caused by earthquakes concentrated in the Tokai region inside layers of earth below a lake in Owase, Mie Prefecture, the team said Saturday.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 3, 2001

Past obscures Korea's nuclear future

SOLVING THE NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR PUZZLE, edited by David Albright and Kevin O'Neill. Washington, D.C.: ISIS Press, 2000, 333 pp., $29.95 (paper). We may never know how close the world came to war in 1994, but most accounts suggest the margin was slim. Suspicions about North Korea's nuclear program...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 3, 2001

From simple folk to the royal couple

When the American folk revival landed on the shores of Japan in the early '60s, it gave rise to the "modern folk" movement. Japanese musicians copied The Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary, and it was only a matter of time before students started writing songs that reflected their own situations....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 2, 2001

Wizard of Oz shares magic printing technique

Next Saturday, Australian print artist Dianne Longley provides the opportunity to hear about and see the demonstration of a new technique: photopolymer printing. The event will be held in Tokyo's Azabu-juban, and everyone is welcome, whether experienced or novice.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic