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JAPAN
Feb 25, 2003

'Shogi' icon claims landmark victory

Yoshiharu Habu, one of Japan's top-ranked exponents of the ancient chesslike game of "shogi," has captured his 800th win, becoming the youngest ever person to reach this milestone.
BUSINESS
Feb 25, 2003

Toyota, Fuji Heavy tie up on G-Book network service

Toyota Motor Corp. and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. said Monday they have reached a basic agreement under which Fuji Heavy will install Toyota's G-Book wireless information terminals in its Subaru vehicles in Japan beginning in 2004.
COMMENTARY
Feb 24, 2003

Reform of the fourth estate

I was stunned by recent media reports that Takuhiko Tsuruta, president of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper, had become a whistle-blowing target. At a company shareholders meeting, a proposal demanding Tsuruta's dismissal from the board was presented by an editor and shareholder of the newspaper. Tsuruta...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2003

Restructuring the U.N. Security Council

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Although we live in an era of sad comparisons between the current status of the United Nations and the demise of the old League of Nations, let us hope and assume that the U.N. will survive its immense test without being relegated to "irrelevancy" and substituted by new formations...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 23, 2003

Taisho treasure

Tokyo is in the throes of a particularly bold face-lift. In the cause of urban regeneration, massive high-rises are shooting up in Shinagawa, Shinbashi, Roppongi and Shinjuku, transforming the skyline of metropolitan Tokyo. On the ground, wrecking trucks clear more land, demolishing old homes and felling...
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2003

North Korea escapees want to return to Japan

Japan and China appear ready to discuss the transfer to Japan of a Japanese woman and her daughter who escaped from North Korea.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 23, 2003

The picture of innocence?

Sex, nudity and violence -- there's a lot of it happening in Kobe.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2003

Karzai sends out a reminder

Visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday called on the international community to continue providing support to help rebuild his nation, even while the eyes of the world are focused on Iraq.
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2003

Tokyo taking flak for apparent backing of U.S. attack on Iraq

The government has been deflecting a growing amount of criticism, even from within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, since it came out in clear support of adopting a new resolution against Iraq at the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Feb 22, 2003

Antiwar fever rises as the economy sinks

WASHINGTON -- Two big questions have dominated Washington this week. When will this horrible, cold winter end? And when will the war in Iraq begin? While they are different subjects with different consequences, they are getting about equal time in the capital's conversation content.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 22, 2003

Go Girls offers safe place for learning languages

There are many ways to learn a language. And there are several introduction services that brings students and teachers together. None, however, have the commitment and organizational safety net of Go Girls.
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2003

JCP fields candidate for Tokyo gubernatorial race

The Japanese Communist Party became on Friday the first political party to field a candidate for the April 13 Tokyo gubernatorial election.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2003

Astronaut Noguchi's resolve firm for next shuttle mission

Astronaut Soichi Noguchi, whose mission on the space shuttle Atlantis in March has been scrubbed in the wake of the Feb. 1 re-entry disintegration of the Columbia, expressed determination Friday to join the crew if the flight is rescheduled.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2003

Farm minister admits ex-secretary pocketed cash

Scandal-plagued farm minister Tadamori Oshima admitted during a special Diet session Thursday that a former secretary pocketed a 6 million yen political donation in 2000.
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2003

Plan calls for auctioning oil reserves

The government will release its oil stockpiles, primarily by auction, if a U.S.-led war on Iraq causes market disruptions and prompts the international community to act jointly to prevent a price spike, a ministry official said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2003

Stand shoulder to shoulder with U.S.

The following is an unofficial translation of an appeal made Thursday by 39 members of the Japan Forum on International Relations. Related news story
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2003

Third-country plan eyed in asylum probe

Japan will consult with Chinese authorities in an effort to allow four asylum seekers from North Korea who entered a Japanese school in Beijing to be moved to a third country, government sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2003

Tokyo buses to reduce emissions

All diesel-engine buses owned by major bus operators in Tokyo will be equipped with devices to cut diesel emissions by the end of June, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara announced Wednesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Feb 20, 2003

Down by the Edo riverside

The 1830s woodcut prints by Hasegawa Settan depict an amazing panorama of Edo as seen looking southeast from Edo Castle. The unobstructed view must have been the one the shogun enjoyed from his castle in what is now the Imperial Palace's East Garden, introduced in this column last month.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2003

Opposition calls for Moriyama to resign over prison abuse case

Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama was the focus of a Diet row Wednesday over alleged contradictions in her remarks over the death of a prison inmate that the opposition camp slammed as an attempt to cover the scandal up.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 19, 2003

New sports newspaper to start

is going to launch a weekly bilingual sports paper this summer, the sports media company has announced. The newspaper will put more weight on the coverage of international sports, primarily north American sports, than domestic sports news.
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2003

BOJ against shouldering further risk

The Bank of Japan will not risk worsening its balance sheet by increasing its outright purchases of government bonds or by raising its purchases of banks' shareholdings, BOJ Gov. Masaru Hayami said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 19, 2003

Composer Joji Yuasa awarded Otaka Prize

Veteran composer Joji Yuasa has received the 51st Otaka Prize, which is presented to Japanese composers in recognition of outstanding orchestral pieces.
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2003

Fukuda calls for calm after Pyongyang threat

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda called for calm Tuesday following North Korea's threat to abandon the Korean War armistice if the United States imposes sanctions on it.
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2003

Businesses told of fossil fuel tax plan

Environment Minister Shunichi Suzuki on Tuesday officially told the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) of the ministry's plans to introduce a tax on fossil fuels that generate greenhouse gases.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2003

236 sue over visits to Yasukuni

OSAKA -- A group of 236 people, including 124 Taiwanese, filed a lawsuit Monday seeking 2.36 million yen in damages over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's controversial visit to Yasukuni Shrine in January.
COMMENTARY
Feb 17, 2003

Fears of 'anti-Americanism' overblown

MANILA -- In 1996 Samuel Huntington published his epochal work "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order." In it, he argues that, since the demise of the Cold War, cultural divides have become the focal points of international conflicts. Judging from recent editorials in American and...
EDITORIALS
Feb 16, 2003

The micro and the macro

Have you noticed how the news has been running on two different tracks lately? The truth is, it probably always does, but every now and then the split suddenly seems more striking. On the one hand, there are the day-to-day ups and downs of human existence, everything from the weather to prognostications...

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight