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BUSINESS
Aug 1, 2001

Salaried households spent less in June

Households whose breadwinners work for companies spent less in June than a year before, the third straight month of decline and despite the first pickup in income in seven months, the government said in a preliminary report released Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 1, 2001

Breathing new life into the Tories

A political party that suffers a major defeat after 18 years in power is obviously in need of serious self-examination. If it repeats the experience four years later at an election marked by an unusually high degree of abstention, the need for wrenching change may well become inescapable.
BUSINESS
Aug 1, 2001

FSA to recheck banks' bad loans

The Financial Services Agency will conduct a followup audit of major banks' books by Sept. 30 to ensure they register loan-loss charges in accordance with FSA inspectors' earlier findings on the quality of their loan portfolios.
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 31, 2001

Dammed by the state: Displaced Chinese fight for their rights

JIANGSU, China -- Last August, the great Chang river (formerly known as the Yangtze) washed a modern day Noah's Ark from the heart of southwest China to the mouth of the Yellow Sea. Crowded aboard the ferry were 800 peasant farmers, nursing children, animals and seedlings on their three-day voyage to...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 29, 2001

The added cost of convenience

If you've got a rumbling in your tummy but little time or money, what could be better than a bento (boxed lunch) from the nearest convenience store?
EDITORIALS
Jul 27, 2001

Reviving 'PKO' for shares

The Financial Services Agency this month worked out a detailed plan to set up a quasi-public body to purchase surplus shares unloaded by private banks. A related bill is expected to reach the Diet floor perhaps during an extraordinary session that opens this autumn. The problem is that the plan is designed...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2001

U.K. politics interferes with euro issue

LONDON -- It is a subject that most pragmatic politicians in Britain, including the prime minister and the front-runner for the leadership of the Conservative opposition, would prefer to ignore. Since the Tories were led toward electoral defeat in June by their obsession about Europe, the political establishment...
EDITORIALS
Jul 21, 2001

A foundation for Africa's renewal

The Organization of African Unity, created nearly four decades ago as a symbol for the new Africa, is about to enter the history books. It will be replaced by the African Union, perhaps as early as next year, to achieve a new mission: developing a region plagued by conflict, AIDS and poverty. It remains...
COMMUNITY
Jul 15, 2001

For the sake of sake

Every winter and spring for the last 10 years, Philip Harper reckons he has had no more than a few nights of uninterrupted sleep, but he's more than willing to sacrifice some shut-eye in pursuit of the perfect glass of sake.
COMMUNITY / THE PARENT TRIP
Jul 13, 2001

Whatever can go wrong . . .

Writers of how-to articles about traveling with kids usually talk about Baby's ears popping in airplanes and keeping little Junior and Sis amused on long drives so they don't refight the Macedonian War in the back seat. Older kids, these writers seem to assume, can take care of themselves, when they...
COMMENTARY
Jul 12, 2001

Facing up to the harsh truth

LONDON -- The long shadow of recession is now stretching from America over Europe, bringing disappointment and unease to Europe's policymakers and business communities.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Jul 12, 2001

Foreign plants are right at home in Japan

I have always been interested in the natural origins of plants. Where does a particular plant come from? How and when did it come to this country? Geographic botany investigates the distribution of plants around the world.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 8, 2001

Love town where time stands still

OSAKA -- Osaka Mayor Takafumi Isomura repeatedly says he wants to turn the city into an international tourist destination. But camera-toting foreigners snapping pictures of Tobita, one of its oldest and most famous neighborhoods, are probably not what either he or the local business community have in...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 8, 2001

Money for nothing, but only if you spend it first

Television is often blamed for conditioning its audience in undesirable ways: We want things faster, easier, in bite-size pieces that don't require a lot of chewing. And everything must have a kicker, a dramatic endpoint that will justify our time in front of the box.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 7, 2001

Sharing corporate vision of women and money

Whoever said women were the weaker sex has not met Kaori Sasaki. Not only is she president of UNICUL International Inc. and president and CEO of eWoman Inc., a new Web site for women. She is the brains behind the 6th International Conference for Women in Business, to be held at the Daiba Hotel Nikko...
EDITORIALS
Jul 5, 2001

The danger of further monetary easing

The U.S. Federal Reserve Board's decision last week to cut interest rates for a sixth time is a sobering reminder that there is a wide gulf in freedom of monetary action between the world's two largest economies. While the Fed can make further cuts if necessary, the Bank of Japan has practically no elbowroom...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 5, 2001

Humans, evolve you must

Us lot, contemporary humans in a postindustrial society, we've got a welfare system, social security and even, in some countries, free health care. Premature babies survive, the wounded get better, the hungry get fed. We're shielded from the blind hand of natural selection, aren't we?
EDITORIALS
Jul 3, 2001

A candid meeting at Camp David

There was something refreshing about the Japan-U.S. summit last weekend between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. President George W. Bush -- not only because of the way in which the U.S. managed the meeting at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, but also because, more importantly,...
COMMUNITY
Jul 1, 2001

Hotfoot it to a temple of cool

KYOTO -- Summer here is especially hot. But a half-hour train ride from the city center takes you to the cool, mountainous town of Kibune. Centered around the Kibune Shrine along a 5-km stretch of the Kibune River (which flows into the Kamo River), restaurants, inns and shops set out their wares.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 1, 2001

Summertime -- and the swimming is easy

In the summertime, when the living's easy but the coast seems just that bit too far away, there's no shortage of pools for a cooling plunge or freshening frolic.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 1, 2001

Men in suits spell air-con office woe

It's summer. Get ready for the big chill.
EDITORIALS
Jun 30, 2001

Uniting to wage war on AIDS

In a declaration issued by the United Nations General Assembly this week, the nations of the world have committed themselves to wage war in earnest against the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As the U.N. member-states are pledged to reach targets by specific dates to drastically reduce the incidence of the disease...
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2001

India aiming to increase literacy rate

An Indian government official charged with improving the nation's literacy is confident the country's current goal of achieving a 75 percent literacy rate by 2005 is within reach.
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2001

Jobless figure returns to record 4.9%

Japan's employment situation worsened further in May as the jobless rate matched a record-high 4.9 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from the previous month, the government said Friday.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 28, 2001

George W. stepping on toes to dance with special interests

U.S. President George W. Bush is not the beau of the ball among scientists these days. "On both missile defense and the greenhouse effect," Dr. Hugh Gusterson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology tells the New York Times, there is "substantial [scientific] consensus against the White House."...
EDITORIALS
Jun 28, 2001

Pakistan's reluctant president

Pakistan's military leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, gave himself a promotion last week. He had himself sworn in as president, a mere five hours after the previous office holder had been forced to step down. Mr. Musharraf claims that he took the post reluctantly, declaring that the decision was "one of...
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2001

Manufacturers hurt by lack of new blood

The nation's manufacturing industry is being threatened by the declining number of young workers in the sector and the transfer of manufacturing bases overseas, according to a report released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2001

Female inmates suffered childhood sexual abuse, survey finds

About 73 percent of the 82 female prisoners in their 20s and 30s serving sentences in central Japan said they were sexually abused in childhood or adolescence, a survey by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry showed Sunday.
COMMENTARY
Jun 25, 2001

How to best honor Clinton? Forget him

WASHINGTON -- "Since Bill Clinton left office, we've been through a lot together," writes political consultant James Carville in his letter to me. But Clinton supporters "have much to be proud of." So please give to the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation.
EDITORIALS
Jun 24, 2001

Cool and cooler

Summer is back, with its alternating days of broiling sun and warm, sticky rain. Time to unpack the sweaters and scarves again.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear