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COMMENTARY / World
Nov 15, 2002

Trade pact could trap ASEAN into state of irrelevance

HONOLULU -- Supporters of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) argue that numbers tell the story. And indeed, they do.
EDITORIALS
Nov 15, 2002

Iraq's 'final opportunity'

The world has united against Iraq. Last week, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to give Baghdad a last chance to disarm. In response, the Iraqi government has opted for "the path of peace" and agreed to accept the resolution "without conditions." That is good news - no one wants war....
BUSINESS
Nov 8, 2002

Chile seeks global integration: minister

Chile is determined to boost economic ties with the Asia-Pacific region, as evidenced by its conclusion last month of a free-trade agreement with South Korea, visiting Chilean Foreign Minister Soledad Alvear said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Nov 4, 2002

Contributing to the crisis of capitalism

YAOUNDE, Cameroon -- During a conversation at a dinner in Shanghai recently with some Chinese friends, the comment was made that Japanese businessmen in China were now known quite willingly to accept various forms of bribes and kickbacks. The man who was making this comment, who knows Japan quite well...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 3, 2002

Bustling Chinatown's squeaky-clean world within

Even before you pass beneath one of the 10 ornamented gates marking the boundaries of Yokohama's Chinatown, you start picking up signals that you're about to cross into a different country.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 31, 2002

Okinawa election again boils down to two themes

With Okinawa's Nov. 17 gubernatorial election looming, voters are gauging the progress made during the first term of Gov. Keiichi Inamine in addressing local concerns over the concentration of U.S. military bases and efforts to boost the prefecture's economy.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Oct 31, 2002

Farming out death

Man years ago, while doing research related to environmental assessments of the Shiraho coral reef on Ishigaki Island, I witnessed an extreme example of a destructive human impact on a pristine, unspoiled reef.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 26, 2002

Social entrepreneur targets cross-cultural themes

Ken Nakamori has a dream: a vision of deepening the understanding between people of different countries and creating a new bridge of communication through digital media communities.
EDITORIALS
Oct 23, 2002

Ireland gives the EU a go-ahead

I f at first you don't succeed, try again. That appears to have been the thinking of Irish politicians in their battle to secure public endorsement of the Nice Treaty, which provides the ground rules for expanding the European Union. Last weekend, a second ballot won popular support. Ireland's change...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 22, 2002

North Korea's last gambit

WASHINGTON -- North Korea's surprise announcement of a secret nuclear-weapons program has thrown cold water on a recent warming of relations with South Korea and Japan that included family reunions, rejuvenated economic cooperation and, in particular, a stunning admission of past misdeeds against Japanese...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2002

Peril of pre-emptive thinking

NEW YORK -- Should Washington go to war unilaterally, it will put at risk the hard-earned reputation since 1945 of being an essentially peaceful hegemonist that fights only in self-defense -- unlike the former Soviet Union, the expansionist bully that dressed up its aggression in the rhetoric of a universal...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Oct 17, 2002

A proud town founded on ferries

The Ara River rises in the Chichibu Mountains of Saitama Prefecture, from where it flows southeast for some 140 km to reach the capital and discharge itself into Tokyo Bay. As its name (which means "rough") implies, it used to be a violent river, swelling after heavy rains and raging across the wide...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 17, 2002

Human traffickers targeting kids

Wani is an umbrella bearer.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 4, 2002

Classy Chang leaves Japan smiling

As Michael Chang vividly recalls each memory of Japan, he sounds more like a grandfather telling family tales than the former No. 2 tennis player in the world. The good old days of the past flashed back to him, piece by piece, as Chang began talking as if this were his curtain call on this Asian island....
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 4, 2002

Finding out more about the law and you in Japan

You and the law To help you with any questions relating to you and law in Japan, The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, as part of The Living In Japan Series, will present: Japanese Laws You and Your Family Should Know on Oct. 16, at 12 p.m. at The Tokyo American Club.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2002

Peacemaking efforts deserve applause

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- International public opinion seems focused almost exclusively on the issue of Iraq these days while other important regional developments are relegated to the back burner. Among the developments that deserve greater attention are the moves toward peace in Sri Lanka.
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2002

Scholar from Japan held in China prison

The prisoner smiled at his 13-year-old son through a window in the hot meeting room of the No. 3 prison in Urumqi, the provincial capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, one day in August.
Japan Times
JAPAN / BABY BUST
Sep 21, 2002

Isolation poses major danger to modern mothers

Yumi, the mother of a 17-month-old girl in Tokyo, said she started feeling the burden of raising a child even before she became a mom.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 14, 2002

Silver, socks make Afghan refugees independent

Shahnaz Akhtar arrived in Tokyo from Pakistan on Sept. 3, a guest of Global Village's Fair Trade Co. in Jiyugaoka, which distributes and sells leather and silver work and embroidered, woven and knitted goods crafted by Afghan refugees under her guidance. The purpose in being here? "To gather information...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2002

Kashmir polls could be step to dialogue

Elections to the Kashmir Assembly will be held from Sept. 16 to Oct. 8. The million-dollar question is, will they be meaningful and bring about peace in a state that has been a bone of contention since 1947, when the British colonial masters divided the subcontinent into India and Pakistan before leaving?...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 12, 2002

Agreeing to disagree makes no sense at all

The deluge of posters, pamphlets and platitudes that roared out of Johannesburg during the 2002 Earth Summit has ended, though to no one's surprise this summit's conclusions were much the same as those of the first Earth Summit in Rio a decade ago.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2002

NPO tries to make Afghans' lives livable

KYOTO -- Although international aid has flowed into Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime last October, Afghan people living far from Kabul are still suffering from malnourishment and a poor living and education environment, according to a Kyoto-based nonprofit organization.
EDITORIALS
Sep 10, 2002

The return of al-Qaeda

Afghan President Hamid Karzai escaped yet another assassination attempt last week. Other Afghans were not as lucky: They were killed when bombs exploded in the capital city of Kabul. The attacks are another reminder of the fragility of the peace in that country. Although the military is "mopping up"...
COMMENTARY
Sep 10, 2002

Making Japan's voice heard

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi is doing a good job -- much better than expected. She has made few blunders since she assumed the post Feb. 1, aside from the trouble over the inept bureaucratic handling of the Shenyang Japanese Consulate incident involving North Korean asylum seekers.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 8, 2002

Back to the old house to raise our spirits

Japan likes to present itself as the world's shining example of rapid economic development, the "postwar miracle." The government's extensive overseas development aid is more than just the gesture of noblesse oblige expected of the world's No. 2 economic power. It is an assertion of everything that is...
Japan Times
JAPAN / LEGACIES OF 9/11
Sep 5, 2002

Post-9/11 aid push highlights Japan ODA conundrum

In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, the world's major donor economies have increased their aid budgets in an effort to address a perceived link between terrorism and poverty.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 5, 2002

Say no to global trade in education

The Ministry of Education will consider revising legislation governing the recognition of foreign universities in Japan as a wedge for opening Japan's education market to foreign institutions.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 4, 2002

Fighters welcome foreign fans to Dome

The Pacific League's Nippon Ham Fighters will hold their first Arizona Diamondbacks Night promotion on Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Tokyo Dome and, as was the case with Yankees Day for the past 20 years, the Fighters ballclub is inviting 3,000 foreign fans as guests to this fun international event. The...
COMMENTARY
Sep 2, 2002

U.S. role critical in Indo-Pakistani dispute

ISLAMABAD -- Renewed Indo-Pakistani conflict in Kashmir, just before U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage's August visit to the region, demonstrated how close to war South Asia's two nuclear rivals remain.

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