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EDITORIALS
Aug 15, 2003

Ambiguous signs of economic change

At first glance, Japan's latest GDP figures look impressive. In the second quarter of this year, April through June, the gross domestic product in real terms, excluding the effects of price change, expanded 0.6 percent from the previous quarter for an annualized rate of 2.3 percent. Thus the economy...
EDITORIALS
Jul 28, 2003

Doubts linger as Iraq bill passes

The controversial bill to send Japanese troops to Iraq for humanitarian and security assistance passed the Upper House early Saturday morning despite a last-ditch attempt by the opposition parties to block the procedure. Final approval of the ad hoc measure followed a special committee vote Friday evening....
COMMENTARY
Jul 28, 2003

More transparency needed in investigations of suspects

Little progress is reported in Japan-U.S. talks on legal proceedings in the alleged rape of an Okinawan woman by a U.S. serviceman. A hitch has developed over the demand by U.S. authorities for greater protection of the suspect's rights.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2003

Discontent runs deep in Hong Kong

LONDON -- The way in which the administration in Hong Kong was forced to pull back from its proposed antisubversion legislation has rightly been hailed as a rare example of popular feeling making its impact on the unelected government of the former British colony. But it raises more fundamental questions...
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2003

Decontrol ideas run gamut from wine to trash to schools

Local governments and businesses have put forward 280 ideas for special deregulated zones, including areas where farmers can produce wine and where a service can be provided to take out garbage for the elderly.
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2003

Diet enacts law on hospitalizing impaired lawbreakers

The Diet enacted a controversial law Thursday on procedures for hospitalizing mentally impaired lawbreakers, after an unusually long path of deliberation.
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2003

Mergers to halve municipalities to 1,700

The total number of cities, towns and villages in Japan is expected to be almost halved to about 1,700 as a result of moves by municipalities to merge by March 2005, when a special law promoting mergers expires, according to a recent Kyodo News survey.
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2003

Key panel passes bill on mentally ill lawbreakers

The House of Representatives Judicial Affairs Committee endorsed a controversial bill Tuesday on procedures for hospitalizing mentally impaired lawbreakers, paving the way for its enactment Thursday during the chamber's plenary session.
BUSINESS
Jul 9, 2003

Banks' balance of loans slips 4.8%

The balance of loans by banks fell 4.8 percent in June from a year earlier, the 66th straight monthly decline, the Bank of Japan said Tuesday in a preliminary report.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2003

An offer Yangon's generals can't refuse

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Two elements could become the basis of further efforts toward a Myanmar solution: an emerging uneasiness -- if not outright division -- among the generals in power over how to handle the growing following of the "the Lady" (democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi), and the long-awaited...
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2003

City's bid to abolish education body stuns ministry

The drastic idea of abolishing a key administrative body put forward recently by a city in Saitama Prefecture has sent shock-waves through those involved in Japan's education system.
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2003

Myanmar envoy due for talks Friday

A special envoy of the top leader of the Myanmar junta will visit Japan for a meeting Friday with Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi on the detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, government sources said Wednesday.
COMMUNITY
Jun 29, 2003

Cherchez la femme

Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing. -- Proverbs 18:22
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 25, 2003

An all-star cast -- but if only they'd let 'Hamlet' be

As the Beckham typhoon swept through Japan last week, so Japan's theater world was taken by storm by its biggest event of the year to date.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Jun 20, 2003

Solstice Music Festival off the calendar; Shared honors for 2002; new releases

It's like watching the lights go out at the stadium. You know, that low metallic "Klung!" "Klung!" "Klung!" as the off switches are hit in succession.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 18, 2003

Blair may be down but he's far from out

LONDON -- Since the European community of nations began to take shape 52 years ago, Britain has taken an ambivalent view of the Continent's moves toward greater unity. It did not join the coal and steel community that began the process in 1951, and, six years later, did not sign the Treaty of Rome that...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 15, 2003

Shades of good sense

Parasols are peculiar things. Meaning "to ward off the sun" in Latin-based languages, these lightweight umbrellas were long ago the height of coquettish fashion in Europe. Until recently though, in Japan they were the preserve of its distinctly uncoquettish obasan.
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2003

Guard abuse evident in only two of 1,566 deaths: ministry

The Justice Ministry said Friday that a special probe into suspicious prisoner deaths between 1993 and 2002 has found evidence of abuse by guards in just two of the 1,566 cases under scrutiny.
BUSINESS
Jun 10, 2003

Balance of bank loans down again

The balance of loans by banks fell 4.7 percent in May from a year earlier for the 65th straight monthly decline, the Bank of Japan said Monday in a preliminary report.
EDITORIALS
Jun 8, 2003

The case of the indignant diva

One of the odder human traits is our apparently inborn ambivalence toward celebrities. There would be no such thing as a celebrity if the rest of us did not, in some sense, celebrate certain people -- for their artistic gifts, their looks, their wealth, their charm, their brains or whatever else it is...
BUSINESS
Jun 7, 2003

Foreign reserves hit record high

Japan's foreign-exchange reserves at the end of May were up a record $43.65 billion from a month earlier to $543.09 billion, hitting an all-time high for the sixth straight month, the Finance Ministry said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 5, 2003

Politics prevail at the G8

Once upon a time, the heads of the world's seven leading industrial powers got together to discuss economics and ways to ensure growth. That focus made sense because there were other forums to talk about politics, and economic coordination was much lacking. Sadly, that time is long gone. Instead, the...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2003

Myanmar's regime must embrace change

"We are confident that change will come -- not as quickly as most of us would wish it to come -- but it will come. And I think the more we all try to make change come instead of wondering when change will come, the quicker it will come."
COMMENTARY
Jun 2, 2003

U.S.-Japan global alliance

Last week's summit between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. President George W. Bush ushered in a new era for the Japan-U.S. security alliance: The bilateral system is beginning to change into a global alliance.
COMMENTARY
May 29, 2003

Change hasn't halted decline

LONDON -- I was invited recently to Japan to speak to two Japanese audiences about the Japanese economy as seen from London and what should be done to ensure Japanese economic recovery. I prepared a speech that was pessimistic. This was inevitable as British reporting on the Japanese economy is full...
COMMENTARY
May 26, 2003

High cost of the farm lobby

The outlook for the World Trade Organization's new round of trade negotiations is uncertain after member nations failed to agree on farm-trade "modality" before the March 31 deadline. The U.S.-European split over the Iraq war has slowed the momentum for talks. The initial goal of reaching a comprehensive...
EDITORIALS
May 25, 2003

Auguries in a coffee cup

Eight years ago, there was no such thing as a Starbucks coffee shop in Japan. Now they are part of the landscape; in the big cities, you can often find two or three of the ubiquitous stores with the round green logo within a couple of blocks of each other. That might sound like the ultimate definition...
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2003

Aceh won't derail Indonesia

SINGAPORE -- Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri has signed a presidential decree putting Aceh under martial law and authorizing military operations after the latest peace talks collapsed in Tokyo last weekend.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan