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JAPAN
Jun 19, 2002

Hiranuma repents for comments on Botswana rating

Takeo Hiranuma, head of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, apologized Tuesday for earlier stating that Japan's sovereign bonds are improperly rated because they are ranked below those of Botswana, where a large portion of the population has AIDS.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2002

Diagnostic options seen skewed by dearth of autopsies, probes

Recent controversy over a diagnosis of sudden infant death syndrome has exposed deep-rooted divisions among Japan's SIDS researchers.
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 18, 2002

Troussier ready to take on Turkey

RIFU, Miyagi Pref. -- Japan coach Philippe Troussier warned his players on Monday not to get cocky ahead of their Round of 16 game against Turkey.
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2002

Key to corporate survival

Recent revelations about the mislabeling of foods and the use of illegal food additives by Japanese companies suggest a collapse of corporate ethics. The latest incident -- mislabeling of chicken by Zen-Noh Chicken Foods, an affiliate of the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations...
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 16, 2002

Inamoto focuses on the job at hand

MORIMACHI, Shizuoka Pref. -- While the whole nation seems to have reached boiling point with Japan's success in advancing to the second round of the World Cup, Japan midfielder Junichi Inamoto has remained calm and focused.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 16, 2002

Soldiers who fought for their honor on two fronts

THE LAST FOX: A Novel of the 100th/442nd RCT, by Robert H. Kono. Eugene, Oregon: Abe Publishing, 2001, 322 pp., $14.95 (paper) Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the American government interned people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of them American citizens, in camps. Families who...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 15, 2002

The gallery, house, studio and reputation Jay built

Consider this e-mail sent in early May: "What a beautiful day . . . hope you're enjoying the sunshine. It was like living in a rain forest here last week. Finally all my guests have gone, I caught up on sleep, and feel refreshed. Lovely!"
COMMENTARY
Jun 15, 2002

Japan remains very abnormal

When the framers of Japan's postwar Constitution included the much-debated Article 9 prohibiting the nation from ever having armed forces or from ever going to war, they had a reason. They saw Japan as a nation with an incurable propensity to slip into militarism.
Japan Times
JAPAN / KANSAI BEAT
Jun 14, 2002

Shiga town offers city-slickers way to taste farm life, work firsthand

IMAZU, Shiga Pref. — Grabbing a firsthand taste of Japanese country life for a few days is proving to be a popular pursuit here, especially among children from the city.
EDITORIALS
Jun 13, 2002

Water, water everywhere?

Water covers about two-thirds of the Earth's surface, but precious little can be used by human beings. Only 2.5 percent -- a veritable drop -- of the world's water is not salty, and two-thirds of that is frozen in the ice caps and glaciers. Of the remaining third, 20 percent is located in remote places,...
LIFE / Digital
Jun 13, 2002

Hoofs, heroes, horrors on the siege

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien began publishing his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy in 1954, and people have been trying to escape into his fantasy ever since.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 12, 2002

Zazen and the roundabout road to enlightenment

In his classic book "Zen in the Art of Archery," Eugen Herrigel makes it clear that trying too hard to hit a target is a sure way to miss it. One wonders whether, conversely, the easiest way to achieve one's aim is to take a roundabout route to it. That would certainly seem to be the case with the art...
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2002

Maglev test train gives quick thrill to select few

A test ride at the foot of Mount Fuji on a magnetically levitated (maglev) train is proving extremely popular with curious people who want to experience a ride on the world's fastest train, which runs at a speed of 500 kph.
EDITORIALS
Jun 9, 2002

Out with the nitty-gritty

Remember the controversy ignited three years ago when a white Washington bureaucrat was fired after using the word "niggardly" in a meeting? Black employees said it sounded so much like the racial slur "nigger" that it didn't matter a jot that the two words were etymologically unrelated. Incredibly,...
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2002

Kidnapped boy, 6, rescued; six held

Police on Saturday rescued a 6-year-old Chinese boy who had been kidnapped two days earlier from a store near his home in Tokyo's Adachi Ward and held for a 15 million yen ransom, and arrested six people.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jun 9, 2002

Yasai no Yoshino-ni: Now here's some real food for thought . . .

This past week I tagged along with veteran New York Times food writer Elizabeth Andoh to Hakuun'an, a Buddhist vegetarian restaurant and teahouse associated with Manpukuji Temple near Uji City in Kyoto Prefecture. Manpukuji is the head temple of the Obaku sect of Zen Buddhism, Japan's third largest after...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2002

The world waiting on Musharraf to act

Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf finds himself under increasing international pressure, especially from the United States, to stop the proxy war in Kashmir, a state that both Pakistan and India claim. Pervez is being told, not asked, to stop cross-border infiltration and terrorism in India....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2002

Russia war novel rightly paints Japanese as rational: translator

While working on a novel on the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War, Ryotaro Shiba wrote in 1967 that one of the prime features he wanted to highlight was the "almost ridiculous optimism" shared by top political and military leaders in Japan during the Meiji Era (1867-1911).
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 6, 2002

Don't go making a monkey of yourself, man

Monkey, primate, ape; the terms slip so easily off the tongue, but just what do they mean, and how do they differ? And what does it mean to talk of New World and Old World monkeys?
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jun 6, 2002

Why do forests flourish on fish?

Ever since I went on my first expedition to the Canadian Arctic in 1958 I have kept a notebook, and this habit is still with me. Now, with this column on the first Thursday of each month, you too, Dear Reader, can share in these jottings from over the years.
EDITORIALS
Jun 5, 2002

Thinking the unthinkable

The fact that responsible individuals and governments are talking about the casualties that would be created by a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan is a powerful indication of how close the prospect of war between the two countries truly is. Both the Indian and Pakistani governments deny that...
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2002

Reform-oriented budget sought

An advisory panel to the finance minister called Monday for a reform-oriented fiscal 2003 budget that will keep spending for policy measures at current levels to maintain fiscal discipline.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2002

75 million pieces of music copied via the Internet

In the past couple of years, 75 million pieces of music have been duplicated via online music-swapping sites, mostly illegally, since such sites became available in Japan, industry groups said.
BUSINESS
Jun 4, 2002

IDB chief backs Okinawa as meeting venue

Enrique Iglesias, president of the Inter-American Development Bank, said Monday he supports Japan's bid to hold the 2005 annual meeting of the bank in Okinawa, Finance Ministry officials said.
EDITORIALS
Jun 3, 2002

Mr. Arafat's failures

Real peace between Palestinians and Israelis will be preceded by two conditions: an Israeli withdrawal from most, if not all, of the occupied territories and genuine democracy in the Palestinian Authority. Attention has usually focused on the first factor, but it has become increasingly evident that...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jun 3, 2002

Balance of payments and intervention signal danger for economic reforms

Japan's international balance of payments for fiscal 2001, released by the Finance Ministry on May 15, highlighted a year-on-year fall in the trade and current account surpluses. But it also revealed a 24.4 percent increase in the nation's income surplus to a record-high 8.68 trillion yen.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2002

Koizumi downplays nonnuclear policy quip

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Liberal Democratic Party officials on Saturday moved to reassure the world again that his government would not break with the nuclear taboo following remarks by one of his closest aids the previous day that Japan may revise its three nonnuclear principles.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 2, 2002

Who's got the scoop on the Shenyang Five?

The disagreement between the foreign ministries of Japan and China over the attempted defection by five North Koreans at the Japanese consulate in Shenyang was intensified by a comment made early on by LDP Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda. During a press conference, Fukuda looked at the assembled...

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person