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BUSINESS
Mar 18, 2003

Iraq question said hurting U.S. auto market

The U.S. automotive industry will remain weak until the uncertainty surrounding the possible war in Iraq is clarified, General Motors Corp. Chairman John Smith Jr. said Monday in Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2003

Water privatization not the answer: American activist

Patrick McCully had a revelation in India more than a decade ago. The campaign director of International Rivers Network witnessed indigenous people in Gujarat state, India, risking their lives to protest construction of a dam on the Narmada River. All were eventually arrested, but government officials...
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2003

Water activists gather ahead of Kansai forum

KYOTO -- Representatives of citizen's groups in Japan and abroad gathered here Saturday to raise awareness of worldwide water issues before the start of the Third World Water Forum, which begins Sunday at three venues in Kansai.
Events
Mar 9, 2003

KANSAI: Who & What

Giant Buddhas shown for three days only: The Guide Interpreters Volunteer Club is organizing three one-day tours for English-speaking foreigners from March 14 through March 16 to observe huge pictures of Buddha displayed at two temples in Kyoto.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 2, 2003

In pursuit of 'reality,' TV sinks to new depths

Last week, a judge ruled in favor of NHK in the public broadcaster's libel suit against Kodansha. The publisher's monthly magazine Gendai ran an article in Oct. 2000 that said NHK persuaded fishermen in Indonesia to re-create a method for catching fish involving explosives for a news report. The court...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Feb 28, 2003

Never too late for resolutions

The study and enjoyment of wine can be a lifelong passion: Insight gained now can bring pleasure for years to come. We are often asked what we would recommend to people looking to expand their wine knowledge and over the years we've gathered a list of suggestions. Though spring is coming, it's not too...
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2003

Zoo animal care rules get first update in 27 years

The Environment Ministry plans to update guidelines for how zoos and aquariums should care for animals for the first time in 27 years.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 23, 2003

Neglected poet gets his due

JUST LIVING: Poems and Prose of the Japanese Monk Tonna, edited and translated by Steven D. Carter. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003, 243 pp., $49.50 (cloth); $18.50 (paper) Tonna (a pen name often romanized as Ton'a) was a poet and lay-monk who lived from 1289 to 1372. Born as Nikaido Sadamune...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2003

China leaves India in the dust

NEW DELHI -- While I was in India recently, the first phase of an underground railway was inaugurated in New Delhi. At about the same time, in Shanghai, the world's first magnetic levitation train was inaugurated between the airport and the city. This is a fitting metaphor for the two countries. China...
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2003

Environmentally Friendly Vehicle confab kicks off

The first International Meeting on Environmentally Friendly Vehicles opened Thursday in Tokyo as part of global efforts to develop greener vehicles and fight air pollution and global warming.
EDITORIALS
Jan 22, 2003

Sumo needs a clear vision

Yokozuna Takanohana has finally bowed out of the dohyo. Looking back over his active career, he certainly made spectacular achievements. There can be no objections to his being described as one of the all-time great grand champions of sumo.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2003

Obituary: Ken Yasuhara

Ken Yasuhara, a noted editor and literary critic, died of lung cancer in Tokyo on Monday afternoon, his family said. He was 63.
BUSINESS
Jan 18, 2003

WTO meet in March should tackle investment rules: Japan

Japan wants the informal ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization that it will host next month to address investment rules and other topics, in addition to the main issue of farm trade.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2003

Bacteria spreads across nation to create slimy, healthy treat

Across the country, from Hokkaido to Okinawa, bacteria brought back by a Japanese scholar from a remote village in the former Soviet Union have been multiplying like crazy.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 4, 2003

Stuttering reform drive prompts election whispers

Speculation is mounting that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will call a general election this year, as old guard politicians continue to hamper his reform drive and leave him appearing increasingly forlorn.
EDITORIALS
Dec 25, 2002

A bridge from science to life

The government's Biotechnology Strategy Council deEfines biotechnology as a pillar industry of the 21st century along with information technology. This perception, expressed in the council's "outline of bioEtechnology strategy" issued last week, should serve as an important guide for Japan. Such a national...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 18, 2002

Hot stove ponders fate of Rose, Matsui, Nakamura

This is the final "Baseball Bullet-In" for 2002, so let's take a look at, and make some comments about, topics on the hot stove of baseball news on both sides of the Pacific.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 1, 2002

'Mongrel' seeker after new self-understandings

"One day, people will realize they are a mongrel people with a mongrel history."
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2002

Japan to host WTO ministers in February

Japan will host an informal World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Tokyo in mid-February, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Nov 24, 2002

Author tells how individuals sacrificed for the company

Although Japan achieved high economic growth by increasing its industrial productivity, the group-oriented work system that formed the basis of that development effectively sacrificed the rights of the individual, according to freelance journalist Satoshi Kamata.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2002

NGO envoy views groups' activities as an effective form of diplomacy

Nongovernmental organizations play an extremely important role abroad, with their activities constituting an effective form of diplomacy, according to a new ambassador tasked with overseeing Japanese NGOs.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 14, 2002

SEC's post-Enron reforms pose challenge for Japanese multinationals

NEW YORK -- As if Japan's corporate sector didn't have problems with long-term economic deterioration and deflation, the stock market disaster and nonperforming loans, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has added another headache. The issue at hand is the extent to which Japanese companies will...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 10, 2002

A straight-shooter wherever she goes

With her Nikon camera, dozens of film rolls and a strong social conscience, photojournalist Natsuko Utsumi travels the world to capture the human face of the issues that shape public debate.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 28, 2002

Critically ill Japan can't depend on assistance from G7 doctors

Japan's economic woes and North Korean issues, including the abductions of Japanese nationals and Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, will be the two main topics in the extraordinary Diet session that opened on Oct. 18.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Oct 25, 2002

Shared research yields ideas for schooling

When we first enrolled our son in Japanese school, there were occasions when he came home earlier than I'd expected. The first time, I happened to be at home. "Why were you dismissed early?" I asked my son. "I don't know," he shrugged. "The teacher said something, but I didn't understand."
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 24, 2002

'Tax evaders' steal the talk of Shanghai

SEOUL -- A little over a month ago I was on the way to Shanghai to spend a month teaching at Fudan University. I read an article in a Hong Kong newspaper that said the topic on everyone's lips in China was the upcoming 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. This is the congress at which...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 24, 2002

Getting up close and personal with global issues

While studying and researching in England several years ago, Eno Nakamura was surprised to find that Japanese and English children had strikingly different views of the future. That contrast convinced her of a critical need for Japanese schools to put more emphasis on "the future," and to get their students...
COMMENTARY
Oct 21, 2002

It's not what Bush says but how he says it

HONOLULU -- The controversy swirling around President George W. Bush's foreign policy is remarkable for two things. The first is the consensus regarding its content. Observers generally agree that the Bush foreign policy is muscular, unilateralist and dominated by political realists who practice power...

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past