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Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2002

Suzuki enters plea of not guilty in court

House of Representatives member Muneo Suzuki pleaded not guilty Monday to bribery, perjury and falsifying political funds reports.
JAPAN
Nov 6, 2002

Pyongyang warns it may test missiles if Japan talks fail

BEIJING -- Pyongyang may lift its moratorium on missile tests if normalization talks with Japan drag on without any progress, the North Korean Foreign Ministry warned Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2002

Russian youth dodge conscript military

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- It took a while to get the young deserter to talk. Roman had fled his army unit and was staying with Tatiana Barykina and her family, and they could see the scars on his wrist and sense the pain that hung upon him like a millstone.
COMMENTARY
Oct 28, 2002

Reformists persist in Iran

Late last month I made my first visit in 22 years to Iran, where I had covered the Islamic revolution under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini as a Japanese newspaper correspondent. Some conspicuous changes in the country attracted my attention.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 25, 2002

For the right and the wrong kind of break in Japan

Tourist redress Sheila from London, wants to sound off about a ryokan (traditional inn) she stayed at in Kyoto in early October.
COMMENTARY
Oct 21, 2002

Confessions from North Korea

SEOUL/PUSAN -- They say that a little bit of confession is good for the soul, but North Korea's sudden burst of religion is creating a moral dilemma for Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul. First, Pyongyang decides to come clean on the kidnapping of Japanese citizens, admitting to Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi...
COMMUNITY
Oct 13, 2002

Saved by . . . 'a bad feeling'

Paul Malone turned down the adventure of a lifetime -- but his decision probably saved his life. The 30-year-old Australian is alive and well in Tokyo. Instead, he could so easily have been named in recent news reports as missing in the South Pacific along with former NBA basketball star Bison Dele and...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 6, 2002

Building bridges by degree

Life was tough for Yanan Shen at his undergraduate alma mater, located between Shanghai and Nanking in China's Chang Zhou area.
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2002

Pyongyang must tell the full story

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's meeting Friday with the families of those abducted by North Korean agents made it unmistakably clear that the understanding and support of those relatives -- and of the Japanese public in general -- is essential to progress in the normalization talks that are expected...
BUSINESS
Sep 24, 2002

EU energy chief details plan to keep oil reserves

OSAKA -- The ideal price for oil is just over $20 a barrel, or $8 less than the current price, the European Union's commissioner of energy and transport said Monday, indicating an EU plan to stockpile oil is in response to unforeseen emergencies.
COMMENTARY
Sep 24, 2002

Building corporate integrity

A spate of corporate scandals have rocked Japan this year. Snow Brand Foods Co. and Nippon Ham Co. mislabeled beef, abusing the government's buyback program that was set up to bail out the beef industry following the outbreak of mad cow disease in Japan. Trading giant Mitsui & Co. was implicated in a...
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 2002

The great fire wall of China

Google was gagged. The Chinese government recently blocked access to the popular Internet search engine for several days -- before suddenly reversing course for reasons still unclear -- in an attempt to promote a "healthy atmosphere" in the runup to the November meeting of the Chinese leadership. While...
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2002

Media coverage of abductions criticized

OSAKA -- Korean residents of Japan expressed concern Friday over what they feel has been excessive coverage by the Japanese media of the North Korean abductions but comparatively scarce debate over Japan's legacy of its colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2002

BOJ eyes unprecedented purchase of stocks from ailing banks

In a surprise break with market principles, the Bank of Japan said Wednesday that it is considering purchasing stocks held by the nation's most troubled banks, effectively bolstering their financial standing and stock prices at its own expense.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2002

A role for Japan in Korean peace process

There are high expectations that Prime Minister Junichiro Kozumi's Sept. 18 summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il will produce a breakthrough regarding the normalization of Japanese-North Korean relations. In addition to achieving this breakthrough in a manner that the Japanese people and...
COMMENTARY
Sep 13, 2002

Koizumi gambles for results

I'm not sure whether to be cautiously optimistic or pessimistic about Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to North Korea next Tuesday, but either way, "caution" is the watchword.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 6, 2002

New transfer rule won't help rumor mill

LONDON -- The FIFA-imposed transfer window, which means Premiership clubs will not be able to sign any new players until Jan. 1, has brought different reactions from various parties.
EDITORIALS
Sep 2, 2002

A welcome surprise

It came as a big surprise when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced Friday he will visit North Korea on Sept. 17 for face-to-face talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. "A summit meeting is essential to further progress," Mr. Koizumi told reporters. "I want to find clues for resolving outstanding...
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2002

Exchange engineers slather praise on Japan

Asian engineers from outside Japan participating in an exchange program aimed at promoting urban development and international relations said at a presentation at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building Wednesday that they had generally favorable impressions of Japanese people.
EDITORIALS
Aug 28, 2002

Perils of attacking Iraq

The debate on the pros and cons of a U.S. attack on Iraq is heating up in the United States and elsewhere. Whether Iraq is a member of the "axis of evil" or not, there is no doubt that President George W. Bush sees its continuing development of weapons of mass destruction as a serious threat to U.S....
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2002

Osaka seminar clarifies provisions of U.N. crime convention

OSAKA -- Twenty-one nations from around Asia concluded a two-day seminar here Friday in which they learned from experts about the specific provisions of the United Nations Transnational Organized Crime Convention.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 18, 2002

There's two sides to every story . . .

Despite his ubiquity in the media, the comedian Beat Takeshi is never asked to appear on NHK's sogo (general) channel, which is why his one-minute appearance last New Year's Eve on NHK's annual song contest received a lot of media attention. Considering that other popular comedians are also conspicuously...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 11, 2002

Days of the dead: O-bon and the ghosts of Japan

It's that time of year again. The whole of Japan seems to be on the move as people head to their hometowns for the mid-August O-bon festival. And it's not just the living who make travel plans this month. O-bon is the Buddhist holiday when the spirits of the dead are believed to visit the homes of their...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 6, 2002

Tussling over a stolen treasure

ATHENS -- In 1801, Thomas Bruce, the seventh Earl of Elgin and British ambassador to Constantinople, hit upon what he considered a splendid idea.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 27, 2002

Gov. Davis goes where Bush fears to tread

LIMASSOL, Cyprus -- A remarkable event occurred this week in California -- one that should cheer environmentalists around the world who were angered by the Bush administration's rejection of the Kyoto treaty on global warming.
EDITORIALS
Jun 23, 2002

What's 'Onion' in Chinese

You have to feel a little sorry for those fellows over at the Beijing Evening News. Here they are a global laughingstock, and they still don't get why. But was it altogether their fault? Those of us who have tried and failed to comprehend humor, let alone satire, in a foreign language are privately thinking,...
COMMUNITY
Jun 9, 2002

Seeing Japan from top to bottom

We both confess to complete and utter madness, but we've been having a whale of a time -- and not only down in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, where the International Whaling Commission had its recent roughhouse, and where we completely pigged out on kujira no niku (whale meat) before heading on to...

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?