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COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 1, 2002

A good result with Japan's health insurance system

Traveling a lot you begin to be truly thankful for what we take for granted in Japan.
COMMENTARY
Oct 19, 2002

Japan's tail-chasing economy

With the economy still moribund after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's initial round of "structural reforms," we are now told that cleaning up the banking system will save the day.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 13, 2002

You're never too old to read a good self-help book

The best-seller list currently features three volumes on living and aging well: "Oite Koso Jinsei" (Nothing Is More Human Than Aging), by novelist/politician Shintaro Ishihara; "Unmei no Ashioto" (The Footsteps of Approaching Fate), by novelist Hiroyuki Itsuki; and "Ikikata Jozu" (How to Live Well),...
EDITORIALS
Oct 5, 2002

Gore vs. Bush again?

With the U.S. midterm election less than a month away, the campaign season is beginning in earnest. This year's ballot is an especially important one: With the U.S. electorate virtually split in two, the outcome of a few key races could determine the shape of U.S. politics for a long time to come. It...
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2002

North Korea willing to reveal all about abductees: Foreign Ministry

North Korea has expressed readiness to disclose all information regarding the Japanese it abducted, including information on the cause of death of eight of them, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2002

Kin of other missing people now demand abduction probes

As details about the fate of more than a dozen Japanese abducted to North Korea trickle in, relatives of many others who vanished in the 1970s and '80s say they want these disappearances re-examined to determine if their kin were also spirited away by Pyongyang agents.
EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 2002

Corporate ethics remain in peril

Safety should be the highest priority of any nuclear power-generating program. Japan, the world's only victim of atomic bombings, has every reason to be particularly sensitive about nuclear safety. However, some of the nation's electric power companies have been found wanting in the safety management...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2002

Abductee may have been executed after tutoring plane bomber

Yaeko Taguchi, one of the Japanese abductees whom Pyongyang admitted died in North Korea, may have been executed after serving her purpose as a language instructor for the female agent who blew a Korean Air jetliner out of the sky in 1987, relatives said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2002

'70 Expo Osaka museum relocation stirs forum to mull site's future use

OSAKA -- The planned relocation to central Osaka of the National Museum of Art from the Expo '70 Commemoration Park in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, has drawn no public protest, but for some people it stirs deep emotions about one of their most memorable events in decades.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2002

Agency named Tepco informant

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency leaked the name of the whistle-blower at Tokyo Electric Power Co. long before the utility's nuclear coverup scandal came to light, according to informed sources.
Japan Times
JAPAN / LEGACIES OF 9/11
Sep 4, 2002

Iraq issue casts shadow on post-9/11 solidarity

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, two things crossed the mind of Shotaro Yachi of the Foreign Ministry: Japan must join the international community in condemning the acts, and must do everything possible to help the anticipated U.S. military response.
BUSINESS
Aug 27, 2002

U.S. steel exemptions pacify Japan: trade official

Japan is poised to retract its plan to retaliate against steel import restrictions the United States invoked earlier this year, due to satisfaction with Washington's moves to exempt certain items, a top Japanese trade official said Monday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 11, 2002

Book industry cries murder

Although everyone agrees that the Japanese publishing industry is in trouble, there is less consensus as to the causes. Book and magazine sales have been declining for five years and book revenues for last year were at roughly the same level as a decade earlier; indeed, some say that if it were not for...
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2002

New car, truck, bus sales off 5.8% for July

Sales of new cars, trucks and buses in July fell 5.8 percent from the same month in 2001 to 367,902 units, marking the 11th consecutive month of decline, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2002

Explosion in child abuse reported

The number of reported child-abuse cases increased 16-fold between fiscal 1990 and 2000, according to a government report released Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 18, 2002

'Factory' fishing threatens marine stocks

Ever evening at sunset, Maruyama Keizo, 64, and his brother Motoichi, 54, of Minabe, Wakayama Prefecture, take their boat out and return the next morning at dawn with their catch: either flatfish or sardines, depending on the season. In his 50-year working life, Maruyama has seen shrinking catches, the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Jul 14, 2002

Uncorking female potential

In Japan's otherwise troubled economy, women's buying power has been often cited as the force behind a stunning phenomenon of growth in the '90s -- the wine industry. In fact, during that time, Japanese women not only drove the rise in wine consumption, but they also found professional opportunities...
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2002

Firms place highest value on ability for innovative planning

The quality that Japanese companies most want to see in their employees to fend off competition from foreign firms is the ability to devise innovative projects, according to a government survey.
BUSINESS
Jul 9, 2002

Include farm goods in FTAs: Takebe

Farm minister Tsutomu Takebe said Monday the country should not exclude the farm and fisheries sector when it negotiates free-trade agreements, ministry officials said.
COMMUNITY
Jul 7, 2002

Until we meet again

For as long as men and women have looked at the stars, they have read in the distant constellations stories of life close to home, filling the sky with maidens and monsters, lovers and heroes, hunters and beasts.
BUSINESS
Jul 6, 2002

Increase in computer virus reports seen

The number of reports of computer virus damage in Japan in the first six months of the year has already surpassed the total for all of 2001, software firm Trend Micro Inc. said Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2002

Japan reaped benefits from World Cup: survey

Many Japanese believe the World Cup improved its ties with South Korea and spread information about the nation's culture, although it might not have produced the economic benefits many were hoping for, according to poll results released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2002

Governors' income averages 23 million yen

The governors of 44 prefectures made an average of 23.46 million yen in 2001, according to a Kyodo News tally conducted Monday.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2002

Defense Agency to punish 29 over background checks

Defense Agency Director General Gen Nakatani said Thursday that he will relieve two senior officials from their posts for their role in compiling background checks on people requesting information under the information disclosure law.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 18, 2002

Australia tightens net against illegal aliens

SYDNEY -- Now that the monsoon season is over, the huddled masses of Asia's worst conflict areas, notably Afghanistan and Iraq, are again looking abroad for refuge. As in past years, they see a big, empty island on the map and steer southeast. Unfortunately for them, the folks already here have other...

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight