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November 15, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY
May 28, 2001

Junichiro Koizumi: Can stardom become success?

LOS ANGELES -- Quality political leadership is so frequently conspicuous by its absence that even the slightest whiff of its sudden presence can electrify a political region. Is Japan finally experiencing the dynamic quality leadership it deserves? That's the question intriguing Asia.
BUSINESS
May 28, 2001

Sea change in Japan's values

Japan is in the midst of change in its social value system.
JAPAN
May 25, 2001

Cabinet to reach out via e-mail magazine

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, basking in record approval ratings, hopes to score another hit with a weekly Cabinet e-mail magazine.
MORE SPORTS
May 25, 2001

Kentucky Derby winner also a success in Japan

California-based American jockey Kent Desormeaux made Japanese racing history this past Sunday as he took home first prize in the prestigious filly classic, the Oaks at Tokyo Racecourse.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 20, 2001

The importance of being Osakan

"Osaka? You think Osaka is the same as Tokyo?"
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 20, 2001

Amid a whirlwind of change, an elegant history of Japan

JAPAN IN TRANSFORMATION: 1952-2000, by Jeffrey Kingston. Harlow, Essex, U.K.: Pearson Education/Longman, 2001; 230 pp., b/w plates XII, $12. As the British historian, the late A.J.P. Taylor, remarked: "History gets thicker as it approaches recent times." The broad outlines, the major themes, have...
JAPAN
May 15, 2001

Tanaka reverses stance on history texts

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka, in a reversal of her earlier remarks, told the Diet Monday that further revision of controversial history textbooks that have already been approved by education authorities will be difficult.
COMMENTARY
May 14, 2001

The folly of politicizing compassion

WASHINGTON -- As a high-profile political force, the religious right has essentially disappeared in America. But that hasn't stopped religion from becoming a public issue. Only now the left wants to mix politics and faith.
JAPAN
May 13, 2001

Bureaucrat turns his back on elite job of the past for IT career of the future

Last July, elite bureaucrat Shin Yasunobe sent shock waves throughout government offices in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki district by announcing his resignation from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
EDITORIALS
May 12, 2001

Now it's time for specifics

During the past three days of Diet debates, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi led the charge for structural reform, taking the steam out of opposition attacks. The political dynamics in the Diet seemed to have changed suddenly, with the opposition sometimes having to go on the defensive against the enormously...
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2001

Europeans wonder if Koizumi can deliver

BRUSSELS -- Despite the initial popularity and purported radicalism of Japan's new prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, there is no evidence yet to show he has the vision or the ability to pull the country out of its economic slump and carry through the reforms necessary to meet the regional and global...
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2001

Maverick Koizumi set to buck the system

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is committed to breaking up factions in his Liberal Democratic Party. "You'll see that I'm determined to eliminate the factions," he told reporters immediately before he started forming his Cabinet. He had just reshuffled the lineup of party executives by appointing men...
EDITORIALS
May 2, 2001

Strike two for Mr. Wahid

It is hard to believe, but Indonesia seems to be heading toward yet more political chaos. That country's Parliament voted Monday night to censure President Abdurrahman Wahid for a second time. That sets the stage for an impeachment vote later this year, which would set off widespread demonstrations by...
JAPAN
May 1, 2001

Cabinet paving way to female prime minister?

The new Cabinet breaks with tradition in several ways -- it has a record number of women, including the first female foreign minister, and a woman is third in line to take over the prime minister's job in an emergency.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2001

Koizumi dons many hats, fancies a good hairdo, too

Junichiro Koizumi, the Liberal Democratic Party's new president, has been dubbed by fellow lawmakers a maverick, an eccentric, a heretic and "the Don Quixote of the political world."
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2001

China faces a dilemma in ties with U.S.

HONG KONG -- In the end, China released those 24 members of the crew of the U.S. EP-3E reconnaissance plane just in the nick of time. The end of the crew's detention -- plus China's decision not to put any of the crew on trial, as some hardliners had advocated -- came just in time to undercut a growing...
JAPAN
Apr 21, 2001

'Metal fatigue' threatens LDP's power: Nakasone

The decline in the power of the Liberal Democratic Party is a key reason behind the string of short-lived administrations over the past decade, according to former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.
EDITORIALS
Apr 17, 2001

Spoiling for a fight in Iran

A wave of arrests signals a conservative crackdown as Iran prepares for national elections scheduled for June 8. President Mohammad Khatami is being squeezed between the need to defend reform and the fear of provoking a backlash by hardliners. It is a delicate position, but one Mr. Khatami knows well:...
COMMENTARY
Apr 16, 2001

The curse of 'shikata ga nai'

"The Japanese phrase that I particularly hate is 'shikata ga nai,' (it can't be helped)" said a friend who had spent some years teaching in Japan. I responded that it was surely appropriate if you were driving a car and the traffic lights turned red just when you got to them. She accepted that in such...
EDITORIALS
Apr 14, 2001

The great Tiger Woods debate

Semantics and politics make a familiar pair. Every other day, it seems, something crops up in the mine-strewn worlds of domestic or international politics that makes us stop and think about the meaning of words. One day it's a foreign president's legalistic musings about the meaning of "is," the next,...
COMMENTARY
Apr 11, 2001

A turning point for the LDP

The result of the election to choose a new president of the Liberal Democratic Party will be announced today. This will end a domestic political vacuum that has persisted since Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori revealed his intention of stepping down, over a month ago.
COMMENTARY
Apr 8, 2001

Panic commands a high price

LONDON — The foot-and-mouth outbreak in Britain is not devastating British farm production. It is devastating farming's relationship with the rest of Britain. Less than 2 percent of Britain's livestock have been slaughtered either because they have the disease or because, though healthy, they might...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Apr 7, 2001

The U-2 affair all over again

Spy-plane pilot is one of the few professions we should strongly discourage our sons from developing an interest in. Rich in experience, critically important and thrillingly challenging, it is, nevertheless, a career charged with personal and collective disaster. Along with the ongoing anxieties of parents...
COMMENTARY
Apr 6, 2001

Few worthy leaders in LDP

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is expected to step down sometime this month, a year after he took office. Widely criticized for his alleged incompetence and lack of qualification for national leadership, Mori is sometimes called Japan's worst postwar prime minister. Even though Mori expressed his apparent...
EDITORIALS
Mar 30, 2001

Chiba sends a signal to the parties

Vernacular papers report that the governing Liberal Democratic Party will elect its new party president on April 22. The winner of that vote will become prime minister and will then launch his or her Cabinet on the following day. These reports are attributed to multiple -- but all unidentified -- sources...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 27, 2001

States, nations and identities

ASIAN NATIONALISM, edited by Michael Leifer. Routledge, 2000, pp. 196, 17.99 British pounds (paper). In many ways, an understanding of nationalism is essential to understanding contemporary Asia. For many Asian nations, the colonial experience is only a generation away. They are still wrestling with...
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2001

Conference members seeking strong economic leadership

Although Japan knows it should carry out structural reforms and stimulate domestic demand to get out of its protracted economic slump, it is still waiting for someone to take the initiative and actually do something.
COMMENTARY
Mar 22, 2001

No winner in France's vote

PARIS -- A year before the 2002 general and presidential elections, the results of the municipal and local elections that took place the last two Sundays represent a major development in French politics. They will not ease the relationship between President Jacques Chirac and his likely rival next year,...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2001

Dissenting from globalism

In discussions with frontline humanitarian agencies, it becomes clear that they are experiencing a mild backlash against global human-rights instruments. Some countries have become apprehensive of signing agreements for fear of later intervention by outside powers on grounds of noncompliance.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 20, 2001

Globalization does its work on Japan

GLOBALIZATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN CONTEMPORARY JAPAN, edited by J.S. Eades, Tom Gill and Harumi Befu. Trans Pacific Press, Melbourne, 2000. 295 pp., 3,250 yen (paper). The word "globalization" is used with increasing frequency these days. It is variously employed to describe the increasing degrees...
From France to Mali, a deportee's struggle far from home
Moussa Sacko, a Malian deported from France — where he had lived since he was a young child — stands on a street in Bamako, Mali, in December. Compared with his home in France, Bamako feels like a different planet, Sacko said.
Descendants in Philippines denied Japanese citizenship
As attacks surge, who can cull bears in Japan?
Police cars leave the Akita Prefectural Police headquarters to cull bears, in the city of Akita on Thursday.
Japan may triple departure tax to tackle overtourism
A plane takes off from Haneda Airport.
What would a ‘backup capital’ look like for Japan?
The Japan Innovation Party has long sought to get Osaka designated as Japan's backup capital.
Japan fully enters sports streaming era as fans face new dilemmas
Sports fan Tadashi Yokoyama streams basketball and fencing on three screens.
Tatsuya Nakadai: A masterful leading man and postwar icon
Tatsuya Nakadai had the look of a leading man in his youth, but his large and searching eyes suggested the pain and loneliness of an old soul.
As Japan’s female leader rises, can she cross sumo’s sacred line?
Japan Sumo Association Chairman Hakkaku (front center) delivers a speech on the first day of the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament at the Fukuoka Kokusai Center on Sunday. Centuries of belief and tradition still underpin the all-male association's stance of excluding women.
Takaichi doesn’t mince words on Taiwan, but dramatic policy shift unlikely
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi responds to questions during a House of Representatives Budget Committee session in parliament on Tuesday.
Florist Nicolai Bergmann flourishes outside the box
Florist Nicolai Bergmann shops for fresh flowers at the Ota flower market in Tokyo on Friday.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years
By Yukana Inoue

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