Search - special-issue

 
 
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2003

Diet session, poll each other's hostage?

The Diet will convene an extraordinary session Friday to decide whether to extend the antiterrorism law by two years, but this may not go off without a hitch: Lawmakers appear to have already shifted their attention away from this issue to the House of Representatives election expected for November....
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2003

Break the Mideast impasse

EDMONTON, Canada -- When the U.N. General Assembly opened its 58th annual session on Sept. 19 with a moment of silence in memory of the U.N. staff killed and injured as a result of the terrorist attack in Baghdad last month, its 191 member governments renewed their pledge to uphold the principles of...
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2003

Panel calls for reinterpretation of the antiwar Constitution

In light of the nuclear threat posed by North Korea, the government should alter its interpretation of the Constitution and allow Japan to exercise the right of collective defense, according to a report compiled Thursday by an advisory panel to Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi.
COMMENTARY
Aug 31, 2003

France's long, hot summer

PARIS -- Fifty-three thousand deaths in August against 40,000 the same month in 2002: This has every chance of being the minimum toll of the unprecedented heat wave France has known this summer, with daytime peaks of more than 40 degrees Celsius vs. a seasonal norm of 27 degrees.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 24, 2003

Voices from the past help explain the present

SERVING OUR COUNTRY: Japanese American Women in the Military during World War II, by Brenda L. Moore. Rutgers University Press, 2003, $60 (cloth), $22 (paper). Building on her previous studies of racial issues, gender issues and military sociology, Brenda L. Moore has analyzed and documented an unusual...
COMMENTARY
Aug 24, 2003

Looking for a few bad men

LONDON -- Will Prime Minister Tony Blair's government fall as a result of the inquiry being led by Lord Hutton into the apparent suicide of weapons expert Dr. David Kelly? Unlikely.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2003

Baron of porn spills it all

HONG KONG -- His pictures beamed across the nation's television stations and front pages of all of its newspapers from down market tabloids to sober-sided broadsheets: the grin on his face was as wide as a melon and he held, fanlike, a huge wad of currency notes for all the world, like a television game...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 10, 2003

EDO: City spirit of an era

Whether it's the floating world of ukiyo-e, the stately rites of sumo, the meticulous craft of netsuke, the minimalist art of Japanese gardens or the decorums of the samurai, what we today regard as the traditional values of Japan took shape in what's known as the Edo Period.
COMMENTARY
Aug 9, 2003

Political world prepares for fall showdown

The first half of 2003 was volatile both internationally and domestically. Severe acute respiratory syndrome hit China, other Asian countries and Canada at the beginning of the year and spread around the world. Then, in the Middle East, war broke out when the United States and Britain invaded Iraq, overthrew...
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2003

Antiterror bill debate to continue

A special committee of the House of Representatives decided Friday to carry over to the next Diet session a bill to extend the antiterrorism law for two years.
COMMENTARY
Jul 2, 2003

Drive for European unity gets a boost from Iraq war

PARIS -- Two months ago, the European Union seemed bound to be one of the major casualties of the trans-Atlantic rift generated by the Iraqi war. Now, however, the climate is improving.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2003

Envoy seeks meeting with Suu Kyi

Ambassador to Myanmar Yuji Miyamoto is trying to confirm the whereabouts of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi following revelations by a U.N. envoy that she was being held in a Yangon prison earlier this month, Senior Vice Foreign Minister Tetsuro Yano said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2003

Envoy seeks meeting with Suu Kyi

Ambassador to Myanmar Yuji Miyamoto is trying to confirm the whereabouts of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi following revelations by a U.N. envoy that she was being held in a Yangon prison earlier this month, Senior Vice Foreign Minister Tetsuro Yano said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2003

U.S.-EU axis of divergence

LONDON -- When the war in Iraq ended, politicians, diplomats and commentators in Europe stressed the need to repair the rift that had grown up between the United States and countries led by France and Germany, which had opposed the invasion. There was a general anticipation that relations would revert...
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2003

Opposition parties boycott Diet over 40-day extension

The four opposition parties made good on their threat and jointly boycotted all Diet proceedings Wednesday to protest the ruling bloc's decision to extend the current Diet session to July 28.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2003

Opposition parties boycott Diet over 40-day extension

The four opposition parties made good on their threat and jointly boycotted all Diet proceedings Wednesday to protest the ruling bloc's decision to extend the current Diet session to July 28.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2003

War bills all but clear Upper House

A special committee of the House of Councilors approved a set of war-contingency bills Thursday, effectively guaranteeing the legislation's enactment at Friday's Upper House plenary session.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2003

War bills all but clear Upper House

A special committee of the House of Councilors approved a set of war-contingency bills Thursday, effectively guaranteeing the legislation's enactment at Friday's Upper House plenary session.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2003

War bills all but clear Upper House

A special committee of the House of Councilors approved a set of war-contingency bills Thursday, effectively guaranteeing the legislation's enactment at Friday's Upper House plenary session.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 11, 2003

Koreans make good moves

THE KOREAN DIASPORA IN THE WORLD ECONOMY, edited by C. Fred Bergsten and Inbom Choi. Washington D.C.: Institute for International Economics, Special Report 15, January 2003, 180 pp., $25 (paper) In recent years, increasing attention has been given to the social and economic role of diasporas -- communities...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
May 8, 2003

More breathing space in the classroom

Last month, just before the new school year started in Japan, I ran into a neighbor at the supermarket. She's a bit high-strung and gets worked up over school matters, so I try to avoid her. But she collared me by the cabbages and dropped her voice to a dramatic whisper. "Have you heard? The Suzukis...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 3, 2003

Minivehicle, truck makers hope to cash in on hybrid market

With the success of the Toyota Prius, a gasoline-electric hybrid compact that debuted in 1997, such models have become a major focus of an automotive industry eager to clear tougher environmental regulations and improve its image.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2003

Electoral vows Koizumi has kept -- and the rest

Following is a summary of the campaign promises that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has kept -- and those he has not:
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2003

Defense Agency collated secret data on recruits for its ranks from 1966

The Defense Agency admitted Tuesday it has collected personal information -- including data normally not available to the public -- on teenagers eligible for recruitment into the Self-Defense Forces.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Apr 21, 2003

Evasive accounting will darken already cloudy economic outlook

Now that the war in Iraq has completed a crucial phase, a major source of uncertainty for the world economy appears to have been eliminated. However, the global economic outlook still remains cloudy, as illustrated by the fall in share prices that occurred when Baghdad fell into the hands of the U.S.-led...
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2003

Diet panel starts debating attack response legislation

The Diet on Friday launched full deliberations on a package of bills dealing with responses to foreign military attacks.
EDITORIALS
Apr 13, 2003

In search of the real al-Jazeera

The war in Iraq hasn't been easy for nonparticipants such as Japan to sort out. The most obvious villains were also technically the victims, and the perpetrators of hostilities have looked like invaders one minute, liberators the next. Perceptions and judgments could, and still do, shift like the wind....
COMMENTARY
Mar 31, 2003

U.S. coalition unnerves allies

SAN FRANCISCO -- Although the United States didn't go to the United Nations for explicit authorization of an attack against Iraq, the Bush administration never abandoned attempts to craft a multilateral coalition in support of those efforts. But this government's view of "multilateralism" differs from...

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell