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COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
May 30, 2004

Bush could use a streak of good news

WASHINGTON -- It has not been a good two months for President George W. Bush. In mid-March, the president's men took the rubber band off their enormous roll of cash and went to work with media designed to present a softer, gentler, yet strong president while painting their prospective opponent, Sen....
BUSINESS
May 29, 2004

Jobless rate still at three-year low of 4.7%

Japan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at a three-year low of 4.7 percent in April, the government said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 26, 2004

Forum highlights human-trafficking menace in EU

The May 1 expansion of the European Union was hailed as an economic boost for Europe, yet there is a dark side to this story.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 26, 2004

Forum highlights human-trafficking menace in EU

The May 1 expansion of the European Union was hailed as an economic boost for Europe, yet there is a dark side to this story.
EDITORIALS
May 18, 2004

'India Shining' loses its luster

In a stunning upset, the Congress Party topped the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to win India's parliamentary elections. The results reflect the failure of the government's reform program to better the lives of the 70 percent of Indians who live in the countryside. Now Congress must see that the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 18, 2004

Students pay price in visa crackdown

When American students Angela Luna and Richard Nishizawa tried to board a plane bound for San Francisco in March, airport authorities threw them in a small holding cell and held them incommunicado for several days before banishing them from Japan for five years.
COMMENTARY
May 17, 2004

Get pension reform on track

A leading Cabinet member and the top opposition leader have been forced to resign for failing to make compulsory premium payments, at one time or another, into the national pension program.
EDITORIALS
May 15, 2004

A reprieve on interest rates

As expected, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board last week decided to keep short-term interest rates at a 46-year low. Concerns about the fragility of the U.S. economic recovery prevailed over fears of a new bout of inflation. But the Fed signaled its readiness to raise interest rates soon if prices appear...
BUSINESS
May 12, 2004

Employment fears recede amid recovery

Workers are becoming less concerned about losing their jobs due to increasing signs of a turnaround in the country's economic situation, according to a survey report released this week by a private career consultant firm.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 2, 2004

Japan welcomes students, but you might end up majoring in crime

The controversy over the increase in crimes committed by foreigners in Japan is centered mainly on appearances and interpretation. The National Police Agency's use of statistics to show that "foreign crime" is on the rise has given the agency license to initiate policies that many people, both Japanese...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 27, 2004

Panel proposes Japan Post be privatized by 2012

A key policy-setting panel on Monday finalized an interim report proposing that Japan Post be fully privatized in 2012 at the earliest and maintain its nationwide network of post offices.
BUSINESS
Apr 22, 2004

Australia works to keep MMC unit open

SYDNEY (Kyodo) Prime Minister John Howard and Industry Minister Ian MacFarlane are in talks with Mitsubishi Motors Corp. to save its South Australian manufacturing plant from closure, a spokeswoman for MacFarlane said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Apr 20, 2004

45% of engineers feeling less motivated: poll

Forty-five percent of engineers who responded to a survey said they feel less motivated in their work than three years ago.
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2004

Ex-cancer patients left in the dark, worry about recurrence

Most former cancer patients fear the often fatal disease could return, and many fret over the inadequate explanation they get from their doctors, a recent health ministry survey found.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Mar 21, 2004

Bush morphs into a scrappy candidate

WASHINGTON -- Mid-March is a time of significant anniversaries:
BUSINESS
Mar 13, 2004

University grad job outlook darkens

The employment situation for this spring's university graduates has worsened, with the outlook for males at a record low.
Japan Times
Events
Mar 12, 2004

Diagnosing what really ails Japan, Germany

BERLIN -- Japan and Germany, once the powerful engines of the global economy together with the United States, have had stagnant years since the 1990s.
COMMENTARY
Mar 10, 2004

No easy answers to immigration issues

LONDON -- A fundamental principle of the European Union has been freedom of movement within it and the right to work in any member country. This principle has, however, been undermined by the decision of some EU founder states to limit immigration from the new member countries in Eastern Europe for varying...
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2004

Follower couldn't shake Aum's allure till its 1999 apology

When Aum Shinrikyo officially acknowledged for the first time in December 1999 that it was behind a spate of heinous crimes and apologized to the survivors, Hiroyuki Miyaguchi said he was relieved that suspicions he and other rank-and-file cultists harbored for years had finally been cleared up.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 1, 2004

Speaking out from the streets

Diana was born in Santa Marta, Colombia, in 1973, the third of four children. Her father was an electrician who worked on construction projects that often took him away from the family for months at a time. There wasn't much money in the house, but all the children went to school -- their sharp-tongued...
COMMENTARY
Feb 1, 2004

Paying more for education

LONDON -- Last week the Labour Party government of Prime Minister Tony Blair just barely won a vote in the House of Commons on the payment of "top-up" fees at British universities. The government had failed to consult widely in the Labour Party before announcing its policy on fees, and this was one reason...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Jan 29, 2004

Japan is learning to love (and loving to learn) Chinese

Every day, it seems, more and more Japanese want to communicate -- in Chinese. One million Japanese, says Web magazine ChinaGate, are learning Mandarin and other Chinese dialects. At Japanese universities and schools, Mandarin has overtaken French and German to become the most popular language after...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2004

Koizumi OKs dispatch of main GSDF unit

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi gave the final go-ahead Monday for the main contingent of Ground Self-Defense Force troops to be deployed to Iraq.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 27, 2004

Rural life's slow death

Matsunoyama town has almost everything its residents could want: spellbinding scenery, gorgeous terraced rice paddies cloaking the hillsides, splendid new roads and magnificent public facilities.
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2004

Rokkasho in dark, or wary, about ITER

OSAKA -- Just weeks before a decision is made on whether Japan or France gets to host the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project, Japanese officials are conducting a last-ditch international campaign to secure support.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 18, 2004

'Losing dog' believers are barking up the wrong tree

In last week's column I mentioned that the media now likes to divide people and things into winners and losers (kachigumi, makegumi). This device is mainly used for economic-related matters, but it has trickled down into other social spheres.
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2003

Unemployment rate unchanged at 5.2%

Japan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in November stood at 5.2 percent, unchanged from the previous month, when it posted the first increase since March.
EDITORIALS
Nov 16, 2003

No grounds for a McLawsuit

It has been a disheartening couple of weeks for hamburger juggernaut McDonald's. First came the news that McDonald's Japan, once on a seemingly unstoppable upward trajectory, will post a net loss this year for the second year in a row. Still, that was a regional headache, for which company officials...

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear