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BUSINESS
Apr 14, 2004

Japan Post sees international business as cornerstone

Japan Post aims to beef up its international business to survive intensifying global competition ahead of its planned privatization beginning in 2007, according to Masaharu Ikuta, president of the government-owned entity.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 7, 2004

Guests of a grand hotel

The Hotel Venus Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Hirota Takahasi Running time: 125 minutes Language: Korean Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Kyo no Dekigoto Rating: * * (out of 5) Director: isao Yukisada Running time: 110 minutes Language: Japanese Currently...
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2004

Hokkaido police skimming tip of iceberg?

After earlier denials, Hokkaido police officially came clean and admitted in early March that one of the force's stations had misappropriated funds meant for rewarding informants.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Mar 19, 2004

Failure to include Takahashi on team for Athens a joke

I guess if you live long enough, you will see everything.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 21, 2004

'Gaijin' skier wipes out on group 'wa'

Even after mastering the Japanese language, it's still sometimes hard to understand it. It's like, I hear the words coming out of your mouth, I can even see the "kanji," but I have no idea what you're saying. Indeed, understanding the meaning behind the words is just as important as the words themselves....
COMMENTARY
Feb 2, 2004

Setbacks have Chen scrambling for win

HONG KONG -- Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian has encountered unexpected setbacks in recent weeks that have slowed down his re-election campaign even though, at this point, the race between him and Kuomintang chairman Lien Chan is still neck and neck.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2004

U.S. oil firm leaves toxic legacy in Ecuador

NEW YORK -- Drilling for oil without adequate safeguards is one of the most destructive industrial activities both for people and for the environment. This danger has been particularly stark in the case of oil exploration and exploitation in the forested areas of the Amazon basin.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 18, 2004

Millions in quest for 'miracle cures'

Cocoa isn't exactly the No. 1 drink of choice in Japan, but late in 1995 you would have been hard pressed to find any at all in stores. That wasn't because of a contamination scare or anything -- but because shoppers were clamoring to get their hands on the stuff.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 16, 2004

Role of Ferguson's son in Howard transfer doesn't look good

LONDON -- The Football Association's bung-busters are in action again, this time investigating if an alleged £139,000 commission on goalkeeper Tim Howard's £2.3 million summer move from the New York MetroStars contravened any transfer regulations.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 15, 2004

'Miyake man' leaves a legacy of inspiration

Last week, the environmental community lost a beacon of wisdom and inspiration, a gentle and passionate man who dedicated his career to raising awareness of the oceans' unique ecosystems and Japan's in particular. On Friday, at the age of 74, Jack Thomson Moyer is believed to have taken his own life,...
Japan Times
Events
Dec 18, 2003

U.K. journalists upbeat on economic outlook

Japan may still face some serious economic problems in the months and years to come, but the way the government and the financial authorities have handled the economy in the last 12 months mean there is today a great deal more hope for a sustainable recovery, according to five British financial journalists...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 7, 2003

Woman for the world

Back in 1957, a young woman of 23 with few qualifications, and little to sustain her but her courage and some money saved from waitressing, set off from her native England in pursuit of her dream to live and work for wildlife.
COMMENTARY
Nov 12, 2003

Democracy: a most contentious ideal

MANILA -- No other philosophical or political idea is as contentious as the concept of freedom. All principal writings of political philosophers deal with the issue of freedom in one sense or another, leading to an enormous -- and at times confusing -- body of sources. Freedom defines the relationships...
JAPAN
Nov 6, 2003

Woman who fled to North Korea was government mole in Aum

The saga of a woman believed to be an ex-Aum Shinrikyo member who entered North Korea in August seeking asylum has taken another turn: she at one time spied on the cult for the government.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 1, 2003

Writer fills niche with new yakuza movie book

Mark Schilling is feeling a bit bleary-eyed. His son -- a freshman in media studies at Glasgow University, unused to the time difference between Europe and Japan -- had rung from Scotland around 5 a.m.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Oct 17, 2003

Animals without borders in transfrontier parks

It was snowing in Berlin that day in November 1884, but the conference delegates around the horseshoe-shape table in Prince Bismarck's house on the Wilhelmstrasse had little thought for the local weather. Africa had their full attention.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Oct 5, 2003

Winning smile

Think back to 1984, before the Japanese government had recruited armies of foreign-born English instructors to internationalize the countryside and when gaijin commentators on television were all but unheard of.
COMMUNITY
Aug 31, 2003

What's it really like to win?

Everyone who buys a takarakuji ticket dreams of winning big, but what is it like to actually hit the jackpot? The Japan Times spoke with a 36-year-old who won a 100 million yen jackpot seven years ago, and heard how his win brought him a fortune -- and some hard lessons in life as well.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2003

No symmetry in annexations of Sikkim and Tibet

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- In my last column, and in the aftermath of the recent high-level Sino-Indian talks in Beijing, we dealt with the issue of Tibet from a historical perspective. A parallel analytical exercise with regard to Sikkim would perhaps prove equally interesting.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2003

When hemlines start rising, don't sell short

NEW YORK -- Short skirts are in the news again. Hemlines are rising and, if you believe in statistical correlation, whenever hemlines go up, so do profits and business activity. No one has a logical explanation for this phenomenon, but it has held true for the past 30 years.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 27, 2003

The art of redemption

YOSHIMASA AND THE SILVER PAVILION: The Creation of the Soul of Japan, by Donald Keene. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003, 10 illustrations, 224 pp., $29.95 (paper). In the appropriate volume of his monumental history of Japanese literature, Donald Keene only once mentions the eighth Ashikaga...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 24, 2003

Whaling safe with the IWC

In 1635, under pressure from the Church of England for his nonconformity, the Rev. Richard Mather decided it was time to leave England with his wife and sons and start a new life in New England.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2003

Man who held girl for nine years to serve 14, Supreme Court rules

The Supreme Court on Thursday restored the original 14-year sentence imposed on a man who kidnapped and confined a girl in Niigata Prefecture for nearly a decade.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 5, 2003

David Helfgott

In 1996, a movie portraying the true-life story of pianist David Helfgott became a box-office hit. Actor Geoffrey Rush, who played the part of David, won an Oscar for his sympathetic, moving and convincing performance. The annual book Video Movie Guide applauds his interpretation of "deeply troubled...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 22, 2003

A lifelong need for university reforms

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- The chorus of university critics in general keeps increasing, both in numbers and intensity. In a way, the debate is natural -- as every institution seems to need adjustment in this cataclysmic era of globalization -- as well as beneficial for correcting eventual shortcomings...
EDITORIALS
Jun 18, 2003

The pension system in peril

Japan's protracted economic slump, combined with the accelerated aging of the population, is putting increasing strains on the public pension system. The government-managed corporate-sector pension program, which now has 30 million subscribers, registered a large deficit in fiscal 2001. For the first...
BUSINESS
Jun 12, 2003

Refrigeration breakthrough claimed

Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said Wednesday it has developed a commercial refrigerator that keeps fruit and vegetables fresh an average of five times longer than conventional machines.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 23, 2003

Scottish Premier League title race set to go down to the wire

LONDON -- As Celtic flew home from Seville on Thursday after the UEFA Cup final against FC Porto (a 3-2 extra-time defeat) its preparations for what many believe is an even bigger game began immediately -- a league match away to Kilmarnock. The game may not have the romance of a European final but the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
May 15, 2003

Where the Tokaido left the town

Eastern Shinagawa, on the western side of central Tokyo, is fast being transformed from a decaying industrial area of warehouses and rail marshalling yards into a modern business hub. One step beyond the forests of shining new high rises, however, the area's history as an Edo Period post-station town...

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