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COMMENTARY
Feb 12, 2004

China creeps toward a culture of openness

HONG KONG -- Last month, in a small but significant move toward greater openness and transparency, China for the first time made available to the public a portion of materials from its diplomatic archives for the period between the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 and 1955.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2004

Changing security situation may alter collective defense stance: Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi hinted Tuesday that the government might alter its constitutional interpretation of the nation's right to collective self-defense as it deals with future changes in the security situation.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2004

Official data suggest evidence of bid-rigging

Fiscal 2002 saw roughly 5,500 cases in which the winning bidders for public works and other government contracts clinched the deal at a price that was exactly the same as the upper limit set by the government, according to an official document released Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2004

Drugstore chains announce tieup

Matsumotokiyoshi Co. said Tuesday it will tie up with Drug Eleven, Kyushu's largest drugstore chain.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 11, 2004

Dreams with wings

Last month, Brooklyn-born director Robert Allan Ackerman was in New York for the prestigious Golden Globe Awards, for which he had nominations for his TV movie of Tennessee Williams' "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" and his TV miniseries, "The Reagans," which CBS refused to screen. This month he is in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 11, 2004

Got something for everyone

Hanochi Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Itsumichi Isomura Running time: 122 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Gege Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Kiyoshi Sasabe Running time: 113 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2004

Firms catch on to potential of booming IC recorder market

Overshadowed by the red-hot sales of digital cameras and DVD recorders, another digital product has been stealthily making its way into shirt pockets and briefcases.
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2004

JR East aims for faster conventional bullet trains

East Japan Railway Co. will build two prototype bullet trains capable of a top speed of 400 kph and test them from 2005 to 2008 in northeastern Japan, the railway operator said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2004

'Gyudon': the end of an era

Yoshinoya D&C Co. said Monday its restaurants will stop serving its mainstay bowls of "gyudon" beef on rice this week after stocks run dry due to an import ban on U.S. beef.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 10, 2004

Is Iraq really safe for anyone?

Over 20 years ago, in 1983, a foreign military force arrived in a recently invaded Arab country promising to carry out humanitarian activities and protect the locals.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Feb 10, 2004

Used books, furniture sales and clothes

More readers have been writing to say that they have lost columns cut out for future reference, so could we please relay the same information again. Happy to do so from time to time. Note, however, that that you can find back columns on The Japan Times Web site at www.japantimes.com
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2004

State to keep mum on terror targets

Which takes precedence: freedom of the press or the safety of potential targets of terrorist attacks?
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2004

Diet clears bill to hit North Korea with sanctions

The Diet cleared a bill Monday that will allow the government to impose unilateral economic sanctions on North Korea to "maintain Japan's peace and security."
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2004

More back SDF dispatch to Iraq

More Japanese now support the dispatch of Self-Defense Forces to Iraq than oppose the move, despite a fall in the approval rate for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet, according to a Kyodo News survey conducted Friday and Saturday.
Japan Times
Features
Feb 8, 2004

Horror on the high seas

Russia held out one hope for turning the tide of the war against Japan -- that a mighty armada, under Adm. Zinovii Rozhestvensky, would relieve the siege of Port Arthur and wrest command of Far Eastern waters from Adm. Heihachiro Togo's fleet.
COMMENTARY
Feb 8, 2004

Politicians born of the media

MANILA -- The media has become a decisive factor in electoral politics in democracies throughout the world. I would even argue that it is impossible to find a democratic country today in which a candidate could win a majority without using the media. Whenever political parties or candidates campaign,...
BASEBALL / MLB
Feb 7, 2004

Giants unveil Tuffy, Sikorski

Tuffy Rhodes put on his Yomiuri Giants uniform for the first time when he and Brian Sikorski were introduced as the Central League club's new off-season foreign acquisitions at a news conference Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2004

Southern Iraq isn't the only place in need of attention, aid group says

The Japanese media and public are focusing too much on the southern Iraqi city of Samawah where Ground Self-Defense Force troops are being deployed, a Japanese nongovernmental aid group said Friday.
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2004

Matsushita posts 70% growth in profit

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Friday its pretax profit for the October-December quarter jumped 70 percent, driven by robust sales of flat-screen TVs and DVD recorders.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2004

Iraq safety apparently a foregone conclusion

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda entered the fray Thursday over an alleged draft of a report concluding the security situation in Iraq was safe even before an advance team had handed in its findings.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2004

Japan, China will meet ahead of six-party talks

Japan and China will hold a vice-ministerial security dialogue in Tokyo ahead of the Feb. 25 six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear threat, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima said Thursday.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?