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COMMENTARY
Jan 12, 2002

Japan's economic black hole

Realism is finally impinging on the economic debate here. The "structural reform" ideologues may remain blind to the contradiction between urging privatization and liberalization even as they are being forced effectively to nationalize a banking system suffering from past liberalization excesses. But...
BUSINESS
Jan 3, 2002

Tax panel chief leans toward broader base, not rate cuts

Tax Commission chief Hiromitsu Ishi said Wednesday he does not favor cutting taxes to stimulate the economy; instead he would broaden the tax base to better help the government fill its depleted coffers.
COMMUNITY
Dec 30, 2001

Starting anew through the ages

The world's most universally observed festival, New Year is also its most diverse, with timing, inspiration and celebration differing among countries, cultures and religions. For some, it is an occasion on which to give thanks for another year of survival; for others it's a vantage point from which to...
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2001

Teikyo University chief to quit post in admissions scandal

Shoichi Okinaga, chairman of the trustee board and president of Teikyo University, plans to resign the chairmanship over a scandal involving backdoor admissions, university sources said Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2001

AIDS devastation felt far beyond Africa

CAMBRIDGE, England -- I have just come back from a trip to Africa, my first in several years. I used to visit there frequently before my work became specialized on East Asia. This trip, to Botswana, was purely for a holiday.
BUSINESS / ON MANAGEMENT
Dec 18, 2001

Rampaging egos make perfect targets

We human beings are strange creatures. We'll work and slave and sweat blood to turn an idea into reality -- to start a business, compose an opera, run for political office or, most commonly, to create an initiative at our companies. And yet, when we do succeed, we immediately put everything we've worked...
JAPAN
Dec 14, 2001

Afghan conference adopts appeal

A three-day conference in Tokyo on the reconstruction of Afghanistan closed Thursday after adopting a comprehensive appeal that local nongovernmental organizations in Afghanistan be left in charge of the task.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Dec 12, 2001

The Silver Jews: 'Bright Flight'

David Berman's band suffers from an image problem. People are confused by the name, The Silver Jews (a reference to The Silver Apples and slang for Jewish people with blonde hair). Moreover, the music press seems convinced that they're a side project of influential indie-rockers, Pavement. True, Berman...
BUSINESS
Dec 6, 2001

Firms predict 18.8% profit drop

Downward revisions in corporate pretax profits may lead the Finance Ministry once again to lower its projected tax revenues, according to the results of a ministry survey released Wednesday.
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2001

Ministry mulls changes to travel advisory system

The Foreign Ministry may change its five-scale travel advisory system due to criticism that the information is vague and causing undue harm to tourism worldwide, a senior official said.
BUSINESS
Dec 5, 2001

'Happoshu' hike opposed by Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi voiced opposition Tuesday to a Finance Ministry proposal that the tax on low-malt "happoshu" beverages be increased.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 2, 2001

Yosano's poetry in motion

TRAVELS IN MANCHURIA AND MONGOLIA, by Akiko Yosano, translated by Joshua A. Fogel. New York: Columbia University Press, 164 pp., with a map, $39.50 (cloth), $16 (paper) In 1928, the celebrated poet Akiko Yosano was invited to travel through Northeast Asia by the South Manchurian Railway Company.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2001

Justice Ministry reveals deportee's bank deposits

The Justice Ministry has revealed that about 100 million yen was deposited into a bank account of one of nine Afghan men who were denied refugee status in Japan on grounds that they lack credibility as refugees.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Nov 25, 2001

Where the twains meet and swing

Certain musical phrases, combinations of notes, chord changes and rhythms appear consistently in the folk music of Hungary, Turkey and China.
COMMENTARY
Nov 24, 2001

German lessons for Korea

SEOUL -- Koreans have come to cherish Germany's experiences, as many see this country's unification saga as an important, if not the most important, point of reference. Korea's unification will probably be more difficult and complex than Germany's unification in October 1990. Koreans have one major advantage,...
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2001

Cut back landfill dumping: recycle report

The amount of garbage dumped annually in landfills throughout the country should be slashed by nearly 90 percent from 1996 levels by 2050, according to a report released by a government advisory committee Thursday.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2001

Second Holstein confirmed with mad cow disease

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Wednesday it has discovered a second case of mad cow disease in its ongoing inspections, and a panel of experts convened by the ministry formally confirmed the case later in the day.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 18, 2001

Revealing the soul of an ancient land

MOTHER'S BELOVED: Stories from Laos, by Outhine Bounyavong. Hong Kong University Press, 1999, 163 pp., $14.95 (paper) It's unlikely that even the most generous evaluation of Lao literature would rank it among the world's great cultural legacies. Part of the problem has been a lack of visibility: Buddhist...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Nov 18, 2001

Kawatare : a fleeting taste of twilight

What's in a name? Often, for a restaurant, a lot rides on the naming of dishes. There is a science — and a whole consulting industry — devoted to food-item names and their placement on menus. Cooks everywhere, even before it became a science, have labored to find names suitable for their latest creations....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 18, 2001

Good Moon: Fusion that waxes and wanes

There's a whole generation out there who have come of age with laid-back, low-priced, modern izakaya, where they feel just as comfortable washing down the oden with wine as they do quaffing shochu with pasta. So when these kids grow up a bit and want to hang out somewhere less boisterous and more adult,...
BUSINESS
Oct 23, 2001

Government set to forecast negative growth

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Monday the government will revise downward its real economic growth target of 1.7 percent for the current fiscal year and announce a new figure Friday, ruling bloc legislators said.
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2001

APEC leaders begin 2-day meet

Compiled from AFP-Jiji, Kyodo SHANGHAI -- Leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum kicked off a two-day summit Saturday afternoon, focusing on the global effort against terrorism and measures to reverse an economic slowdown in the region.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 30, 2001

Postwar Japan finds a voice

SILENCE TO LIGHT: Japan and the Shadows of War, Manoa 13:1, edited by Frank Stewart and Leza Lowitz. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001, 217 pp. Manoa, published by the University of Hawai'i, is a twice-yearly journal of Pacific Rim writing and graphic art, with each issue devoted to a particular...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 30, 2001

Book Bites

KODANSHA'S ROMANIZED JAPANESE-ENGLISH DICTIONARY, edited by Timothy J. Vance, et al. Kodansha International, Tokyo, 2001, 666 pp., 3,500 yen (paper) A completely rewritten and expanded version of Kodansha's 1990 "The New World Japanese-English Dictionary for Juniors," a popular reference work among...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 30, 2001

An ancient cult with contemporary significance

ENDURING IDENTITIES. The Guise of Shinto in Contemporary Japan, by John K. Nelson. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2000, 324 pp., 5,271 yen (paper) In 1475, a fight erupted between the priests of a shrine in Kyoto and local farmers, who claimed that the priests had unlawfully driven them off...
BUSINESS
Sep 28, 2001

Shiokawa says Japan still open to Indonesia's ODA needs

Despite a planned cut in the overall amount of official development assistance dished out to Indonesia in fiscal 2002, Japan will attach "due consideration" to Indonesia's needs, Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa told visiting Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Thursday.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami