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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 2, 2001

More than words can say

WORDS IN CONTENT: A Japanese Perspective on Language and Culture, by Takao Suzuki, translated by Akira Miura Our eyes, says Takao Suzuki, author of this sociolinguistic text, "do not see things objectively and impartially like cameras. Our perceptions are always subject to cultural selection." Indeed,...
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2001

Suzuki denies all links with Kenyan project

The following are excerpts from an interview with Lower House member Muneo Suzuki about a controversial hydropower project in Kenya. The interview was conducted on Aug. 22 in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2001

NTT union members slam transfer, wage-cut plans

Around 150 members of a Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. workers union took part in a sit-in and rally Friday morning in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward protesting planned restructuring moves by the company.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2001

Governor campaigns kick off in Tokushima and Ibaraki

Gubernatorial election campaigns began Thursday in Tokushima and Ibaraki prefectures with each incumbent facing a challenge from one other candidate.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2001

Takuma deemed mentally fit

OSAKA -- Mamoru Takuma, suspected of killing eight children in a June 8 stabbing spree at an Osaka school, will likely be indicted next month now that doctors have concluded he was mentally fit at the time of the attack, sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2001

Ex-Aum members ordered to pay out over Kariya killing

The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday ordered eight former Aum Shinrikyo members to pay 59.37 million yen in damages to the family of Kiyoshi Kariya, a Tokyo notary public clerk who was killed in February 1995.
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2001

Koizumi to set up two expert panels

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday he will establish two expert panels to discuss issues relating to the economy and foreign policy.
EDITORIALS
Aug 29, 2001

An alternative to Yasukuni

The government is considering building a national cemetery for the nation's war dead. The immediate reason for this is the political and diplomatic backlash caused by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Aug. 13 visit to Yasukuni Shrine. The visit has provoked angry protests from China and South Korea....
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2001

Don't they just drive you crazy?

Driven Rating: * * Director: Renny Harlin Running time: 116 minutes Language: English Now showing Cars! Babes! Money! Explosions! You'll get all of these in one huge dose in "Driven," a film that dares to flaunt all the things feminism has been trying to stamp out for the past 20 years.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 29, 2001

Boy Bands II Men Bands

On July 9, the day after the Backstreet Boys announced on MTV that their tattooed bad-boy member A.J. McLean was entering a rehabilitation facility for "alcohol and depression," advertisements appeared in the Japanese dailies announcing the Boys' Japan dome tour in November. Tickets, however, would not...
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2001

Kyoto postmaster also taken into custody

OSAKA -- Yet another former senior official at the Kinki Postal Administration Office has been arrested on suspicion of using his position to urge postmasters to support the campaign of newly elected House of Councilors lawmaker Kenji Koso, police said.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2001

Ogi told to submit privatization plans

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Tuesday ordered transport minister Chikage Ogi to submit her ministry's draft plans for privatizing six controversial state-backed corporations.
BUSINESS
Aug 28, 2001

Rengo calls on Koizumi to curb job losses

The nation's largest labor organization called on Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday to help stave off joblessness via a special law and a supplementary budget for fiscal 2001.
JAPAN / 50 YEARS SINCE SAN FRANCISCO
Aug 28, 2001

Carmakers had shaky start until oil shock hit market

Staff writer In 1957, Toyota Motor Corp. shipped two samples of its Toyopet Crown sedan to the United States as the first Japanese cars exported to that market. Nissan Motor Co. followed with Datsun compacts in 1958.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2001

Kinki postal bureau searched over vote-rigging scandal

OSAKA -- Police on Monday raided the Kinki Postal Administration Office following the arrest of its head official Sunday in connection with a vote-rigging scandal.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 26, 2001

Sips of high-grade tranquillity

In parts of Asia, tea is more than a mere beverage: It is a social lubricant, a sacrament of complex rituals and a vital part of national identity. Throughout history, farmers and philosophers alike have treasured a steaming cup of cha. While there is some evidence of tea's health benefits, there is...
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2001

Japan, U.S. to discuss environmental project

Japan and the United States will begin expert-level environmental talks in September aimed primarily at boosting cooperation in the development of technologies needed to better forecast and prevent global warming, government sources said Friday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Aug 25, 2001

Kikumi Nakamura

The twists and turns that her life has taken have given Kikumi Nakamura a range of experiences that, early on, were steeped in the very traditional. Through circumstances and her own wit, she operates today at a prominent level in a contemporary milieu. "I've had many difficulties and crises, but my...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 24, 2001

Ideologues assault pluralistic curricula

Bitter controversies over history textbooks are not limited to Japan, where recent government approval of a new volume has provoked an uproar in South Korea and China, and, although with a more muted response, in Southeast Asia. In India, the government's effort to foist Hinduism on educational institutions...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 24, 2001

Mahathir goes all out to remove thorn in his side

SINGAPORE -- After months of futile attempts at various kinds of measures, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad may have hit upon the right combination to effectively deal with a formidable political opponent -- the fundamentalist Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS).
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2001

Security alliance redefined after end of Cold War

Staff writer In August 1990, when then Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu telephoned U.S. President George Bush to offer a $1 billion contribution to the U.S.-led multinational forces in the Persian Gulf, Bush offered a disappointed-sounding "Thank you" before hanging up.
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2001

Customs-cleared surplus down again

The nation's customs-cleared trade surplus fell 57.9 percent from a year earlier in July to 420.70 billion yen, marking the 13th consecutive month of decline, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
COMMENTARY
Aug 23, 2001

Put U.S. retirement scam out to pasture

WASHINGTON -- Social Security is in crisis, but only a serious administration commitment will overcome the Democrats' determination to keep Americans locked in this inferior government retirement system.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2001

Lawmaker's ex-aide tied to Chinese worker scam

A former private secretary of LDP lawmaker Koki Kobayashi made inquiries to the Justice Ministry at the request of a man involved in an illegal immigrant worker scam, sources close to the case said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 23, 2001

Ten years after the Gulf War, Iraqi Kurds struggle to build a 'liberated' Kurdistan

SULEIMANIYAH, Iraq -- The Kurds have a national flag of their own. The tricolor of red, green and white, with a sun at its center, is the emblem of a people who, numbering 40 million, are the Middle East's fourth-largest ethnic group.

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