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Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2004

Coalition opts to keep Koizumi

Hours after the Liberal Democratic Party fell shy of its 51-seat target in Sunday's House of Councilors election, leaders of the ruling bloc confirmed Monday they would stay the course under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 2004

Japanese baseball at a crossroads

Whither goes Japanese professional baseball? That question must have come to the minds of many Japanese when they heard last week the news that officials of two professional baseball clubs, the Kintetsu Buffaloes and the Orix BlueWave, have reached a basic agreement to merge the teams. The news came...
EDITORIALS
May 30, 2004

Unsung heroism

The Abu Ghraib prison scandal, still far from over, has prompted a lot of reflection and a fair degree of consensus in the United States. Some, like U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, may quibble over whether the treatment meted out to Iraqi prisoners constituted "abuse" rather than "torture,"...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 26, 2004

Japanese interest in abduction issue led North Korea to isolate Hasuike

Repatriated abductee Kaoru Hasuike said Tuesday he was isolated from the rest of North Korean society during the late 1990s, when Pyongyang's abduction of Japanese nationals became a hot topic in Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 26, 2004

Japanese interest in abduction issue led North Korea to isolate Hasuike

Repatriated abductee Kaoru Hasuike said Tuesday he was isolated from the rest of North Korean society during the late 1990s, when Pyongyang's abduction of Japanese nationals became a hot topic in Japan.
JAPAN
May 25, 2004

Harassment issue untouched

News of the successes and failures in the reunification of the families of five Japanese who were repatriated after being abducted to North Korea have been plastered across the front pages of Japanese newspapers in the wake of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Pyongyang on Saturday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 23, 2004

Soga factor dampens family reunion

The outcome of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's summit Saturday with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il elicited mixed emotions from the five former abductees.
JAPAN
May 21, 2004

Fresh coverup scandal rocks Mitsubishi Fuso

Mitsubishi Fuso Bus & Truck Corp. became embroiled in another defect-coverup scandal Thursday.
JAPAN
May 15, 2004

Ishihara didn't pay premiums

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said Friday he did not pay his National Pension System premiums for eight years and one month.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 13, 2004

Pension scandal hits New Komeito

New Komeito sent further shock waves through the ruling bloc and the government Wednesday by announcing that 13 of its lawmakers, including party leader Takenori Kanzaki, had failed to pay obligatory pension premiums.
JAPAN
May 8, 2004

Fukuda resigns from Cabinet

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda shocked the political arena Friday by stepping down for mishandling the issue of public pension premiums that some Cabinet members -- including himself -- failed to pay.
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2004

Terrorists taken out inspire replacements

HONOLULU -- The good news is that the United States and its allies have captured or killed 3,500 to 4,000 terrorists since the hijacked airliner assaults on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001. The bad news is that the terrorists are being replaced as fast as they are eliminated, especially in...
EDITORIALS
Apr 30, 2004

The return of SARS

China has reported several cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS, one year after declaring victory over the disease. The news comes on the heels of a new study that suggests that SARS might spread through the air. Troubling though these developments are, in some ways they are encouraging....
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Apr 25, 2004

Bush ads make little dent against Kerry

WASHINGTON -- The continuing reports of tumult and casualties from Iraq and contentious hearings by the Presidential Commission to Investigate September 11th have sucked the oxygen out of the media pipes this month.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 18, 2004

Media favors Al-Jazeera over government

In his new book, "The Unconquerable World," Jonathan Schell explains how "people's war" came to be the dominant form of international conflict in the nuclear age. People's war subordinates all aspects of warfare to politics, because only through politics can the strength of the people be harnessed to...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2004

Families caught in cross fire over Iraq hostage ordeal

The hostage crisis in Iraq has apparently split the Japanese public into two camps.
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2004

Government slaps media gag on hostage crisis staffers

The government on Tuesday effectively imposed a media gag on staffers working at its headquarters dealing with the Iraq hostage crisis.
JAPAN
Apr 6, 2004

Ishiba says sorry over Iraq visit deception

The Ground Self-Defense Force should not have led reporters to believe its top commander was in Japan when he was, in fact, traveling to Iraq, Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba said Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2004

Ministry aids foreign journalists

The Foreign Ministry called on public offices Monday to ensure that accredited foreign journalists are permitted to attend news conferences.
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2004

Foreign reporters mixed on Tokyo's new Mideast role

The Ground Self-Defense Force dispatch to Iraq has been viewed overseas by some as a significant political move by Japan to boost the role of its military on the international stage.
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2004

Kanebo eyes IRCJ instead of Kao deal

In a sudden turn of events, Kanebo Ltd. said Monday it has scrapped a plan to sell its core cosmetics business to Kao Corp. and instead will seek a government bailout.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Feb 12, 2004

English: black and white and read all over

"What does 'abortion' mean? It's not a word we often find in textbooks, is it?" Hideharu Tajima, a teacher at Shakujii High School in Tokyo's Nerima Ward, asked students in his English-language class.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2004

Kyodo moves reporters over terror threat in Iraq

The government has obtained information that lodgings used by Japanese wire agency Kyodo News in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah could be targeted by terrorists or insurgents, sources said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 28, 2004

Play democracy for me

Kono yo no Soto E Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Junji Sakamoto Running time: 123 minutes Language: Japanese Opens Feb. 7 [See Japan Times movie listings] Movies, producer Naoya Narita once told me, are news. The problem is, real world news moves fast -- and films often have a hard...
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2004

DPJ lawmaker accused of false graduation claim

Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Junichiro Koga came under suspicion Tuesday of falsely claiming he had graduated from a California university.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2004

North Korea escapees, NGO rep held in China

Two ethnic Koreans born in Japan who fled North Korea and an official of a Japanese nongovernmental organization were taken into custody by Chinese authorities in mid-December and are still being held, the NGO said Tuesday.

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