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COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2003

Beijing can learn from Tokyo's mistakes

GUATEMALA CITY -- As Beijing develops a reliance on fiscal spending to boost economic growth, a mushrooming fiscal deficit and ballooning public-sector debt will weaken China's long-term economic prospects. This is because economic growth bought with increased government spending is unsustainable and...
SOCCER / J. League
Jan 18, 2003

Tokyo Verdy signs Cameroon striker Mboma

Tokyo Verdy has signed Cameroon striker and former J. League star Patrick Mboma on a deal running through Jan. 31, 2004, officials of the first-division club said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2003

Coping with a grayer world

Like globalization, population aging is a universal force with the power to shape the future. By 2050 the number of people aged 60 and over in the world will increase from 600 million today to almost 2 billion. In Japan, the proportion of the population aged 65 or over will climb from 17.2 percent in...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Jan 16, 2003

Tokyo's refreshing oasis of history and nature

As the most important festival on the Japanese calendar, New Year is an occasion to make wishes and resolutions, and to wish others happiness in the coming year. Most people also like to visit a Shinto shrine or Buddhist temple, and to gather together with family and friends. On Jan. 2, crowds also visit...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 16, 2003

Shame in a 'showcase'

Second of two parts I ended my last story by saying, "If it is wolves, or winter wilderness, you want to see, don't waste time wondering -- get to Yellowstone! But please, when you're there, don't rent a two-stroke snowmobile! I'll explain why in my next column."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jan 15, 2003

MoT showcases artists who draw deeply from real life

"Art," wrote the French artist Robert Filliou (1926-87), "is what makes life more interesting than art." And this, dear reader, is just about my favorite quote. Profoundly mystifying, it serves as an M.C. Escher-esque comeback when the old "What is art?" line is thrown out less as a question than as...
EDITORIALS
Jan 14, 2003

Pointless posturing in South Asia

The posturing and muscle-flexing continues in South Asia. The governments in India and Pakistan appear committed to matching each other's every military move and utterance, no matter how inflammatory. This behavior is immature at the best of times, but missile tests and reckless talk of nuclear war are...
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2003

Renewable energy plan looks to wind, seawater, fuel cells

The Environment Ministry will begin developing a system in the next year to extract hydrogen from seawater to power fuel cells in hopes of creating a fully renewable energy supply, ministry officials said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 14, 2003

Japanese activists rally to antiwar cry

For three days last month, Ayako Nishimura and hundreds of students, pacifists, leftists and religious groups took their banners and bullhorns to the port of Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2003

DDT our best weapon in war on malaria

NEW YORK -- A serious debate is raging over the use of DDT to combat malaria. As one of the world's most serious tropical diseases, malaria kills more than a million people a year -- most of them young children. To a great extent, success in controlling malaria is owed to the use of DDT in spraying houses...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2003

Thais create Buddhist studies landmark

CHIANG MAI -- Against a background of terror, conflicts and violence worldwide, during times when consumerism and materialism have been elevated as never before on pedestals surrounded by a divine aura, a small group of modest but dedicated Thai scholars, monks and nuns have worked quietly and efficiently...
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Jan 13, 2003

Learning from living things, often the hard way

Since I write this column at home, school holidays are always a problem. It's impossible to get any work done with my kids hanging around. One day during the recent winter holidays, I complained about feeling pressured. The deadline for today's column was looming, but I didn't even have a topic.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 12, 2003

Ueda leads Hall inductees

Toshiharu Ueda, who as manager led the Hankyu Braves to three consecutive Japan Series Championships, was inducted into the Japanese Hall of Fame along with four other notable contributors to the game, baseball officials announced Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 12, 2003

Shopping queen shelves host 'illusion'

Popular writer Usagi Nakamura is known to many Japanese as "Shoppingu no Joo (The Queen of Shopping)," which is also the title of her popular column in the weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun. Nakamura, 44, who describes herself as "shop dependent," writes frankly about how she impulsively purchases luxury...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 12, 2003

Facing economic facts, even if it hurts

STRADDLING ECONOMICS AND POLITICS: Cross-Cutting Issues in Asia, the United States, and the Global Economy, by Charles Wolf Jr. Santa Monica, CA.: Rand, 2002, 210 pp., $20 (paper) You have to give Charles Wolf credit. It takes courage to reprint articles when some of the predictions included are flat-out...
MORE SPORTS
Jan 12, 2003

Waseda downs Kanto Gakuin, claims first university championship since 1989

A clear blue sky, a field in immaculate condition bathed in sunshine, a band entertaining the crowd before the game, 50,000 passionate rugby fans and two teams, playing vastly different styles, giving it their all for 85 minutes -- it could easily have been England vs. France at the Park de France in...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 12, 2003

A price on their heads

Help wanted: Able-bodied, handsome men required to wine and dine as many women as their schedules permit; some extracurricular cosseting may be called for. Educational requirements: None. Salary: Enough to make a salaryman gag.
EDITORIALS
Jan 11, 2003

A lead to the abduction mystery

A North Korean spy is now on the wanted list of the Japanese police for directing a plot to kidnap a Japanese national to North Korea in 1977. It is the first time that an arrest warrant has been issued for a North Korean directly involved in a kidnapping case. If he is arrested, it will shed light on...
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2003

Tone-deaf creator didn't cash in but ain't singin' the blues

NISHINOMIYA, Hyogo Pref. -- Back when Daisuke Inoue was a youngster banging drums with a local lounge band, he didn't think his invention for singalong soundtracks and a portable microphone would amount to much.
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2003

Probe into Takefuji expanded

OSAKA -- The labor ministry on Thursday expanded its investigation into consumer finance company Takefuji Corp. on suspicion it forced staff to work overtime and failed to pay wage premiums, according to ministry officials.

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