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COMMENTARY
Dec 22, 2002

Abductee hysteria in Japan

That old saying about democracies being their own worst enemies is getting a good workout in Japan's abductee dispute with North Korea. By any standards, North Korea's willingness to release five Japanese abducted in the 1970s following Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Sept. 17 breakthrough visit to...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2002

Lifetime of serving humanity helps nurse survive stint in Indonesian jail

BANDA ACEH, Aceh -- On a lonely stretch of road in the midst of a distant war, Joy Lee Sadler, a 57-year-old nurse from Iowa, did what she has done all her life.
EDITORIALS
Dec 15, 2002

Mission to Mars

Speaking of the moon and beyond, both were in the news again last week as the 30th anniversary of the last Apollo mission converged with the latest speculations about life -- or otherwise -- on Mars.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 15, 2002

Defending champ Suntory rolls over Toyota

The 55th and final Company Clubs Rugby Football Championship reached the national stage on Saturday with the first round of games in the four groups of four.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 15, 2002

Chushingura Chushingura

Snow has been the backdrop to some of Tokyo's most colorful and epoch-making events.
COMMUNITY
Dec 15, 2002

Countdown to catastrophe

On Nov. 26, 1941, U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull submitted a note to Kichisaburo Nomura, Japan's ambassador in Washington, and special envoy Saburo Kurusu. Whether that note was an ultimatum that made it virtually certain Japan would wage war -- or whether it represented the latest U.S. effort...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 14, 2002

No surprise tourism suffers

LOS ANGELES -- The government plan to privatize Narita airport in 2004 is welcome news to international travelers who know what good travel service is. The plan, which also includes a halt to building new airports, upgrading existing airports and improving customer service, could go a long way toward...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 14, 2002

A nation that's set up for looking down

Only in Japan is it possible to ride a crowded train to work, stop to buy your "o-bento" lunch at the convenience store, and arrive at work -- all without ever having eye contact with anyone. That is because people spend a lot of time looking at the ground in Japan.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Dec 12, 2002

Even Democrats dislike Gore

WASHINGTON -- The most frequently asked question that I have had to field from friends these past weeks is, who will the Democrats run against President George W. Bush in 2004? My answer is an honest one, if not a satisfactory one: "I have no idea, but there will be a Democratic candidate -- and he could...
EDITORIALS
Dec 10, 2002

The larger, the better?

Japan has about 3,200 cities, towns and villages. The government and the Liberal Democratic Party, among others, think that is too many. They believe that small districts should be consolidated to improve administrative efficiency so that they can better meet the diverse needs of residents.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 10, 2002

Tigers want Nakamura to make up his mind

OSAKA -- The Hanshin Tigers will push Norihiro Nakamura for a prompt answer on whether the free-agent slugger wants to join the Central League club, manager Senichi Hoshino said.
EDITORIALS
Dec 8, 2002

Blue as a rose

'I 've never seen a purple cow/I never hope to see one/But I can tell you anyhow/I'd rather see than be one," wrote the American humorist Gelett Burgess more than 100 years ago. Burgess is a man whose views we ought to pay more attention to. After all, he also supposedly invented the "blurb," by writing...
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 7, 2002

Edmundo moving on

J. League first-division club FC Tokyo has parted company with Brazilian striker Edmundo following stalled talks on a new contract, club officials said Friday.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 5, 2002

Pierce, Walker can forget about Athens

NEW YORK -- Like teammate Paul Pierce (and Baron Davis), Antoine Walker has no chance of being asked to play on the 2004 U.S. Olympic team. Taunting Larry Brown last season, among other coaches, has come back to haunt him.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 5, 2002

GM crops get good press? Surely not

Everyone from religious scholars to British lords seems to have an opinion on genetically modified foods -- whether it is that they are "Frankensteinian" or that they are creations revealing the promise of biotechnology in the service of humanity.
COMMENTARY
Dec 3, 2002

Japan must do its part in war

The Japanese government, acting under a special antiterrorism law, decided Nov. 19 to extend Japan's logistic support for U.S. forces for six months through next May. The decision calls for dispatching a transport ship and an escort destroyer to deliver heavy machinery from Thailand to Qatar for airfield...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2002

China has robbed Keio University, Japan's Foreign Ministry of their independence

NEW YORK -- Japan has been in an uproar since five of its citizens who were abducted by North Korean agents more than 20 years ago were allowed to return home Oct. 15. But an even more ominous event for the country, though not prominently reported by the mass media, occurred last month: the "kidnapping"...
EDITORIALS
Dec 1, 2002

Out of the garret

Here's what the late English poet Philip Larkin had to say 30-odd years ago on the subject of money: Clearly money has something to do with life/ -- In fact, they've a lot in common, if you enquire. . . .
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 1, 2002

Tapping into the future of wireless communication

In late 2001, domestic heavyweight NTT DoCoMo, flying high on the popularity of its i-mode mobile Web service, launched the world's first ultrahigh-speed, "third-generation" wireless network.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Funds raised by political bodies fall 3.2%

The amount of funds raised by political bodies in 2001 fell 3.2 percent from the previous year to 322.6 billion yen, according to Kyodo News calculations based on reports by the organizations, including political parties.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Hatoyama considering resignation

DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama said Friday he will make a decision on whether to resign from his post by the end of the current extraordinary Diet session.
EDITORIALS
Nov 30, 2002

A new law to help the abductees

The government is set to provide financial and other support for Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea and their family members who return to Japan. On Thursday the Lower House unanimously passed a special bill for this purpose, which is due to clear the Upper House next week and take effect Jan....
COMMENTARY
Nov 30, 2002

Opposition, come out please

LONDON -- Parliamentary institutions in Britain and Japan currently have one thing in common -- they lack an effective and credible opposition. The absence of opposition can allow governments with large majorities to ignore public opinion, at least in the short term, and behave in an autocratic way,...
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Billions in taxes misused: report

Government organizations and state-funded corporations improperly spent more than 24 billion yen in taxpayer money in fiscal 2001, the Board of Audit said Friday.
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2002

State's debt-collection agencies to confer

The head of Resolution and Collection Corp. voiced willingness Friday to boost ties with the planned state-backed industrial revival body that will be tasked with buying bank loans extended to troubled firms in an effort to help rehabilitate the companies in question.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan