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MULTIMEDIA / TALK OF THE TIMES
Apr 30, 2001

Top JAWOC official says FIFA should have studied local culture

Yasuhiko Endo assumed the post of general secretary of the Japan World Cup Organizing Committee (JAWOC) two years ago, a position that requires all the patience and diplomatic skills he acquired during his years serving in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 29, 2001

Japan's 'grand strategy' for the new millennium

JAPAN'S SECURITY POLICY FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, by Talukder Maniruzzaman. Dhaka: The University Press Limited, 2000, 78 pp., $4. Japan, the world's second-largest industrial economy, often finds itself labeled an "economic superpower" -- a fulsome category that differs from the traditional "superpower."...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 29, 2001

Armchair travel to Italy and beyond

Tatsuo Umemiya used to be one of the hardest-working yakuza actors in Japan. Nowadays, he is mainly known as the father of model/talent Anna Umemiya and as "the cooking king" of Japanese show business. He even owns a popular chain of stores that sell all sorts of Japanese foods. The stores are easy to...
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2001

Koizumi chooses his top party officials

Junichiro Koizumi, the newly elected Liberal Democratic Party president, set about putting the party's house in order Wednesday by selecting the three lawmakers who will hold the top LDP slots.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2001

Unaffiliated voters reject bloc members: survey

Unaffiliated voters do not want the ruling Liberal Democratic Party or its coalition partner, New Komeito, to gain seats in July's House of Councilors election, according to a recent Kyodo News poll.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 22, 2001

Should the U.S. help China to get rich?

How long will the United States continue to believe that it should help China to get rich by keeping American markets open? That's the key question now that the 24 servicemen and -women from the downed U.S. surveillance aircraft have been allowed to return home. Never before has America allowed a potentially...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 22, 2001

The enigma of power in medieval Japan

THE GATES OF POWER: Monks, Courtiers, and Warriors in Premodern Japan, by Mikael S. Adolphson. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2000, 456 pp., $29.95 (paper), $60.00 (cloth). Who rules Japan? This question has a modern ring to it and has been belabored by many a student of political science....
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2001

LDP hopefuls stick to the game plan

In what is believed to be their last joint news conference before next week's LDP presidential election, the four candidates on Wednesday debated topics ranging from economic policy to social welfare at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Apr 18, 2001

The crew's home; now what?

HONOLULU -- The release of the crew of the American EP-3E reconnaissance plane from Chinese "protective custody" may have defused the crisis but hardly represents the end of this affair. Meetings are now under way between U.S. and Chinese officials to deal with the aftereffects. While both sides agree...
EDITORIALS
Apr 16, 2001

Sanctioning death in the Netherlands

Once again, the Netherlands has braved the storm. Last week, the country's Senate, the upper house of Parliament, passed a bill legalizing euthanasia. When Queen Beatrix signs the law, which was passed by the lower house last November, the Netherlands will be the first country to permit mercy killing....
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2001

Japan may help fund effort to save Afghan artifacts

The Japanese government is considering contributing funds to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's plan to preserve remaining valuable cultural assets in Afghanistan.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 8, 2001

When leaders meet the press head-on

U.S. President George W. Bush's announcement that he will no longer hold "formal" press conferences in the East Room of the White House was met with derision and shrugs by the American press. On Salon.com, Gary Kamiya accused Bush of fleeing reporters "with his larynx between his legs," while Helen Thomas,...
BUSINESS
Apr 7, 2001

Doubts linger over loan disposal

The emergency economic measures unveiled Friday, which focus on reducing banks' sour loans, leave unanswered the key questions that will determine their success.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 4, 2001

Anyone for more gore?

Flashback to 1960.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2001

Shattering the myth of a leaderless Japan

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's term in office is just about finished. He has had his summits, the budget has been passed, and he has completed one year in office. Gaffes notwithstanding, Mori can now step down with a clear conscience and some tangible accomplishments. Attention now focuses on picking...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Apr 1, 2001

Just how much will a field yield?

Did you ever look at a field of rice, and wonder how many bottles of sake could be made from it? Maybe not. Regardless, it is not an easy question to answer, because there are way too many variables in the brewing process that affect yield. One is how much the rice was milled before brewing. Obviously,...
EDITORIALS
Mar 31, 2001

'Not guilty' is not innocent

Earlier this week, the Tokyo District Court acquitted Dr. Takeshi Abe, the former Teikyo University vice president charged with professional negligence resulting in the death of a hemophiliac. The decision reveals the difficulty in passing legal judgment on medical acts by a doctor, in which effects...
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2001

With budget passed, focus turns to Mori

The 82.65 trillion yen fiscal 2001 state budget, featuring a record-high 48.66 trillion yen to fund policies to bolster the economy, was enacted Monday evening.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 27, 2001

Poetry for every mood and season

RYOKAN: Selected Tanka, Haiku, translated by Sanford Goldstein, Shigeo Mizuguchi & Fujisato Kitajima. Kokodo, 2000, pp. 218, 2 ,000 yen. LOVE HAIKU: Masajo Suzuki's Lifetime of Love: Translations by Lee Gurga & Emiko Miyashita. Brooks Books, 2000, pp. 112, 1,600 yen. UTSUMUKU SEINEN /LOOKING DOWN:...
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2001

New global financial products require careful tax treatment

During my time as a Diet member, I often raised the importance of using the Advanced Ruling System.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 25, 2001

Hot rod 'tribes' roar into the night

It's 2:30 a.m. on a Friday night outside the Shibaura parking area, a thin strip of concrete and pavement stuck to a pillar under the belly of Tokyo's Rainbow Bridge. There's a flash of red taillights as vehicles speed in. New arrivals are greeted by leather-clad bikers revving their engines, spitting...
JAPAN
Mar 22, 2001

Murakami indicted over 72 million yen in KSD bribes

Public prosecutors indicted former House of Councilors member Masakuni Murakami on Wednesday on charges of taking 72 million yen in bribes from KSD, a government-authorized foundation for small businesses.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2001

The choice is North Korea's

WASHINGTON -- The curtain has come down on the first act of the Bush administration's Asia policy, and there are far more questions than answers about U.S. policy after President Kim Dae Jung's visit to Washington. The media feasted on the mixed messages from a skeptical President George W. Bush and...
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 9, 2001

Show me what you've got!

I'd like to greet all the players in the J. League and look forward to seeing the joy of football in Japan this year. I'd specifically like to welcome the new foreign players. My message to you, as well as to the Japanese players, is simply play your best, play football.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Mar 8, 2001

'Samurai' blazing a trail in XFL

Being a pioneer has its rewards, but as many a sports trailblazer has learned over the years, going where no one else has gone before is not all glory. In fact, it can be downright tough.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 7, 2001

Great Domain Robbery

I got a whiff of this story last week at Inside.com. It was in a news brief about a journalist who had floated details about a company that would soon offer new top-level domain names.
EDITORIALS
Mar 6, 2001

The horns of a dilemma

At first glance, it looks like humanitarianism on the cheap: Send the hundreds of tons of beef that are being discarded in Germany to North Korea, where millions of people are reportedly on the brink of starvation. But it is not that simple: Germany's cattle are being killed because they might have bovine...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Mar 5, 2001

Nanjing Massacre evidence twisted at historian's whim

A publisher asks me to make excerpts from Judge Radhabinod Pal's "dissentient judgment" and write an introduction to the selection. The Indian jurist Pal was one of 11 judges who sat on the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (the Tokyo Trial). He found Japan not guilty, the only one to...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 5, 2001

Paleolithic technology and the boom in cultural evolution

About 300,000 years ago something happened that was unlike anything in the previous few billion years, something that would have ever-expanding repercussions.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami