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JAPAN
Nov 6, 2003

More hijackers' offspring to come to Japan

Japanese radicals who hijacked a Japan Airlines plane to North Korea in 1970 plan to let six of their offspring come to Japan in January, according to sources.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2003

Three mistakes on Iraq

WASHINGTON -- The Democratic Party as a whole, and most of its presidential candidates, are making three consistent mistakes in their otherwise generally fair critiques of Bush administration policy in Iraq. These mistakes should be corrected; if they are not, Democrats will be less effective as constructive...
EDITORIALS
Nov 4, 2003

Mr. Chen's travel schedule

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian made a brief visit to New York City last weekend. Ostensibly, Mr. Chen was traveling via the United States, on his way to Panama. It was not the sort of transit most international passengers enjoy. His took a couple of days, during which he received an award, made a speech,...
COMMENTARY
Nov 3, 2003

Creating more jobs that pay

Despite reports that the Japanese economy is on a recovery track, the nation's unemployment rate still exceeds 5 percent. Let me make some proposals for increasing employment opportunities on a long-term basis.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 2, 2003

Giants interested in acquiring Tuffy

The Yomiuri Giants are looking to acquire Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes outfielder Tuffy Rhodes after the slugger hit a snag in negotiations for a multiyear contract with his present club, baseball sources said Saturday.
BUSINESS
Nov 1, 2003

Jobless rate steady at 5.1% in September

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate remained at 5.1 percent in September, unchanged from the previous month, with both the number of people employed and those unemployed decreasing, the government said Friday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Oct 30, 2003

Our oceans' ecology is all at sea

For many years, I have been attempting to inform people that our life-supporting oceanic wildlife is being rapidly destroyed by human misuse and overuse.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2003

Campaign rhetoric faces tougher scrutiny

Few voters in Japan -- or lawmakers for that matter -- ever took a serious look at political party election pledges, knowing they were simply vague policy slogans with little substance.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 28, 2003

Skin care, leases and illegal tax

Skin problems NWW asks "where can I find an English-speaking dermatologist or specialist clinic in Tokyo area?"
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2003

Convenience-store drug sales facing a tough time

A Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry committee is having a tough time choosing over-the-counter medicines that can be sold in convenience stores in the face of opposition to deregulation.
COMMENTARY
Oct 27, 2003

Resuscitating Japanese labor

Following a protracted economic slowdown, the labor movement in Japan is in the doldrums. The unionization rate has fallen to about 20 percent due to stepped-up corporate restructuring and widespread worker distrust of unions. The nation's top labor federation, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation,...
EDITORIALS
Oct 26, 2003

Discord over LDP's retirement age

Age seems to matter in politics as well. With the Liberal Democratic Party having set a 73-year age limit for candidates running for Lower House seats under the proportional representation, or PR, system, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Thursday asked two elder politicians -- former Prime Ministers...
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2003

Chain pulls sandwiches with GMOs

Subway Japan Inc., the Japanese affiliate of the major U.S. sandwich chain Subway Restaurants, has stopped selling sandwiches after its import dealer learned that the bread dough contains an enzyme derived from unauthorized genetically modified microorganisms.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2003

Surrogate case hampered by legal barriers: ministry

The Justice Ministry cannot grant citizenship to a Japanese couple's twins born to a U.S. surrogate mother under the existing legal framework, but is making efforts to resolve the issue as swiftly as possible, Justice Minister Daizo Nozawa said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2003

Single-seat constituencies offer refuge for LDP elders who refuse to retire

Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, 84, is battling hard to defy attempts by the Liberal Democratic Party leadership to block his planned run in the upcoming general election.
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2003

Citizenship elusive for Japanese couple's kids

The granting of citizenship to a Japanese couple's twins born to a U.S. surrogate mother last fall has been put on hold due to legal obstacles, the couple said Thursday.
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2003

End of two-track system no help to women

As the protracted economic slump prompts companies to shed the time-honored practices of lifetime employment and seniority-based wages, another victim of the cost-cutting ax is the two-track hiring system that has effectively kept women's wages lower than men's.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Oct 23, 2003

Bush backers open their purses

WASHINGTON -- It has stopped! U.S. President George W. Bush's men have determined that his slide has ended. The latest round of polling has him in the mid to low 50s.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2003

Gene mutation not the likely cause of latest mad cow case

The cow confirmed earlier this month as being Japan's eighth with mad cow disease did not show any mutations in its prion genes, according to research findings.
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2003

Germany's hard choices

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder won a critical victory Friday when Germany's Lower House of Parliament passed a package of social and labor market reforms. The bills are designed to reinvigorate the German economy, the once mighty engine of Europe that now appears infected with "the Japanese disease."
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2003

Lawyer slams immigration process as Muslim is deported

A Muslim woman from a West Asian country who had applied for refugee status in Japan was deported via Narita airport last week, despite the fact that preparations for legal action on her behalf were under way, it was learned Monday.
COMMENTARY
Oct 20, 2003

Pension plans on life-support

LONDON -- A flood of articles in the European media recently has warned about the growing problem of paying pensions as the populations of European countries age and birthrates decline. For Japan, this problem looks especially acute.
JAPAN
Oct 19, 2003

Ministries at odds over pension age in 2004 reforms

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is not planning to raise the age of eligibility for the public to start receiving pensions in its reform of the pension system for 2004, ministry sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Oct 19, 2003

More women testing for defects in fetuses

More than 15,000 pregnant women underwent tests to determine the likelihood of congenital abnormalities in their unborn children every year between 2000 and 2002, despite the government's recommendation that the practice be scrapped, it was learned Saturday.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 19, 2003

Tigers players hope to win one for the skipper

I knew I was on my way to a special Japan Series Saturday when several people on my jam-packed Japan Airlines flight were wearing Hanshin Tigers jerseys. There was one Hiyama 24, a couple of Imaoka 7s and several Igawa 29s.
COMMENTARY
Oct 19, 2003

More trouble for Pakistan's democracy

ISLAMABAD -- The first anniversary this month of the restoration of Pakistan's democracy following the three years of military rule has brought little joy over the future prospects of the South Asian nuclear-armed state.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes