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JAPAN
May 11, 2002

Japan cranks up pressure on China

Japan on Friday ratcheted up the pressure on China to hand over five North Korean asylum seekers who were dragged out of the Japanese consulate in Shenyang two days earlier by trespassing Chinese police.
JAPAN
May 11, 2002

Glass takes center stage at Shinbashi museum

Nestled among office buildings in Tokyo's Shinbashi district is a glass museum packed with historical information and shimmering displays.
BUSINESS
May 11, 2002

Panel urges drastic, extensive action to ensure Japan is competitive again

If Japan is to regain its competitiveness, the government must take drastic and extensive action to increase research and development and make the country a base for value-added industries, according to a report Friday by a government panel.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
May 10, 2002

Father and sons make JET a family affair

Last summer, Chris Buckland, 50, bicycled 2,100 km on a journey from Tokyo to Himeji, in Hyogo Prefecture. For Buckland, a collector of ukiyo-e prints, it was the fulfillment of a dream to travel the old Tokaido route from Tokyo to Kyoto, immortalized in the classic ukiyo-e illustrations of the Edo Period...
BUSINESS
May 9, 2002

Uproar greets plans for Hong Kong's new showcase

HONG KONG The Hong Kong government has just unveiled plans for a new multibillion-dollar headquarters on a prime site right on the central harbor front -- and has immediately run into arguments and accusations of building an expensive folie de grandeur. Unnecessary, potentially an expensive eyesore,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 9, 2002

Emperor presents 18 spring awards

Emperor Akihito on Wednesday presented 18 people with spring awards in a ceremony at the Imperial Palace.
COMMUNITY
May 9, 2002

Zeitgist

The foreigner needs only two words to bridge the language gap in Japan, says Matt Shea.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
May 6, 2002

Le Pen's philosophy is all too familiar

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The results in the first round of the French presidential elections on April 21 hit like a seismic shock. Veteran rightwing extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen took second place. There are many reasons why. Some are statistical: Sixteen candidates across the spectrum split the votes...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 5, 2002

Naturalized entrepreneur jumps conservative obstacles

It's bad enough for a would-be entrepreneur that Japan is suffering a protracted economic slump and the country is bound -- still -- by archaic business practices.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 5, 2002

Kids these days

What is wrong with kids today?
COMMUNITY
May 5, 2002

What is terrorism?

Two weeks after the attacks on New York and Washington, an article by Susan Sontag, novelist, essayist, director, playwright and easily America's most provocative public intellectual, appeared in the now-famous black-cover issue of the New Yorker magazine. In it, Sontag excoriated Americans for their...
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 2002

IMF is backing the wrong horse again

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Oh dear, oh dear! The International Monetary Fund supports the Hong Kong dollar's peg to the dollar. In Hong Kong recently, a senior representative of the IMF applauded Hong Kong's decision not to break its fixed link to the greenback, saying that the IMF believes that "the peg...
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2002

Over 7,500 take advantage of new rehabilitation system

More than 7,500 heavily indebted individuals made use of a new system to receive court-organized rehabilitation in the first 11 months since the system's introduction last April, according to statistics released by the Supreme Court on Sunday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 28, 2002

Public rests easy with cash under the futon

As the scandals keep a-comin', the citizens are receiving what many believe is a healthy and long overdue reality check about those whom they've entrusted with their collective well-being. Politicians have always been suspicious types and bureaucrats only slightly less so. But now teachers, policemen...
Japan Times
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
Apr 27, 2002

Craftsmen keep alive hair ornaments that were all the rage in Edo Period

The display of fine Japanese hair ornaments at Tsumami-Kanzashi Museum in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward illustrates a small world of plums, cherry blossoms, chrysanthemums, chestnuts, bees and phoenixes created with pieces of colorful silk.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2002

Waseda project hatching entrepreneurs

Inside decades-old school buildings in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, that had been used by Waseda Jitsugyo High School until a year ago, university students and entrepreneurs work around the clock to realize their dream of launching successful startup businesses.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2002

Prosecutors hit in Snow probe

OSAKA -- Prosecutors last year made an inappropriate decision when they declined to indict two former executives of Snow Brand Milk Products Co. in connection with a mass food-poisoning outbreak, the No. 1 Osaka Inquest of Prosecution has ruled, it was learned Thursday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Apr 26, 2002

Laughing all the way to English proficiency

"When Genki English visits our school, the kids simply love it," says Kimie Chu, an English teacher at Shin Tokorozawa preschool in Saitama Prefecture.
EDITORIALS
Apr 23, 2002

Mr. Gusmao's next fight

East Timor has its first president. To no one's surprise, Mr. Xanana Gusmao won last week's election by a landslide. He will need every bit of that popularity as his country deals with the difficult times ahead. East Timor starts from scratch; it will need the help and patience of the world, and the...
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Apr 23, 2002

Shirt-throwing incident infuriates Korean midfielder

It's only a uniform, you may think. But it is not always that simple, especially when it concerns a player's country.
SOCCER / World cup / EXCERPTS FROM PHILIPPE TROUSSIER'S BOOK
Apr 22, 2002

Media drove me to hell

"Passion" is the story of Japan soccer team coach Philippe Troussier, his struggle to make it as a player and manager and his travels around France, Africa and Japan. In the book, Troussier also details his philosophy and thinking as he prepares for the World Cup in June. In this, the sixth of 10 exclusive...
COMMENTARY
Apr 22, 2002

Defense bills only a first step

Japan has moved a step closer to enacting emergency security legislation to deal with direct military attacks on the nation. Last Wednesday, the government introduced in the Diet a package of three bills for such emergencies.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Apr 21, 2002

Small Akita town's mayor fights for elderly residents' rights

AKITA -- A remote town nestled among the cedar-covered mountains of Akita Prefecture was suddenly in the spotlight recently due to its unique efforts to protect the rights of its senior citizens.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 21, 2002

Reality bytes across the Digital Divide

The latest fad in worldwide rifts is not East/West, North/South, Rich/Poor -- nor even Love Britney/Hate Britney. Rather it is the "Digital Divide" -- the gap between those who are prepared to live in our brave new world of information technology and those who are not.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 21, 2002

A fresh spin on Okinawan tradition

Inside Hot Wax, a hip music shop in Shibuya's Udagawa-cho, the wet, modern sounds of Ryukyu Underground's "Tinsagu nu Hana Dub" wash over racks of used records, compact discs and a half-dozen music lovers. One of the browsers, a young woman, describes the music as "like summer with the windows open."...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 21, 2002

Quiet after Otaru onsen storm

OTARU, Hokkaido -- Otaru Onsen Osupa is not a natural setting for the airing of great issues. It is a faded child's-birthday-cake of a building on a windswept highway skirting the Sea of Japan, some 5 km from the center of town. In the lobby are game machines and a fruit stall. Upstairs, last Thursday...
COMMENTARY
Apr 19, 2002

China puts growth before 'reunification'

HONG KONG -- The launching of the U.S. Congressional Taiwan Caucus on April 9, which already includes 85 members of the House of Representatives, is but the latest sign of Washington's moving inexorably closer to Taiwan, 30 years after the signing of the Shanghai communique. So far, China has shown remarkable...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’