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COMMENTARY / World
Jan 28, 2002

Commission a model of global cooperation

Responding to the call by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in September 1999, then-Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy set up an independent, 12-member International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty to try to bridge the divide between international intervention and national sovereignty....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 27, 2002

In search of a new life and identity Down Under

FAREWELL TO NIPPON: Japanese Lifestyle Migrants in Australia, by Machiko Sato. Japanese Society Series, Trans Pacific Press, 2001, 161 pp., $29 (paper) At the turn of the millennium, the number of Japanese permanent residents in Australia surpassed 30,000, the highest figure since emigration Down Under...
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2002

Seven former executives arrested over Kansai Kogin loan scandal

OSAKA -- Police on Friday arrested seven executives of a failed local credit union chiefly serving the South Korean community, in connection with loans that the suspects allegedly knew would not be repaid.
Events
Jan 22, 2002

City said plagued by crime, bad cops

OSAKA -- With the release of statistics that show Osaka leads the nation in crime, police and community leaders have formed a panel to propose legal changes to deal with the problem, including the addition of more officers.
Events
Jan 22, 2002

Relief group to come to Herat's rescue

KYOTO -- The road from the Iranian border town of Dogaroun to Herat in northwest Afghanistan is a dusty, bumpy track lined with land mines much of the way.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2002

Kobe marks quake anniversary

KOBE -- The people of the Kobe area on Thursday marked the seventh anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, which resulted in the loss of more than 6,400 lives and left tens of thousands homeless.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Jan 17, 2002

Group seeks to close digital gender divide

The old stereotype of the "computer geek" -- taped Coke-bottle glasses, pens and protractors in breast pocket -- has gotten a series of upgrades over the last decade. The geek has morphed into the "techno-wizard," complete with a huge salary, power, influence and sometimes even new glasses.
EDITORIALS
Jan 12, 2002

A new framework for stability

The Korean Peninsula remains a potential flash point. The question for 2002 is whether North and South Korea, still technically at war, will be able to promote stability in the region. The answer partly depends on how domestic politics develops in South Korea, which will hold local elections in June...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 11, 2002

Populist politics behind Argentine crisis

Those who would blame Argentina's economic woes on free-market policies or pegging the peso to the U.S. dollar choose to be willfully blind to reality. Although the most evident and most disastrous results are economic in nature, the bases of the problems are political.
JAPAN
Jan 8, 2002

Foreign brides fill the gap in rural Japan

TOZAWA, Yamagata Pref. -- Cheerful laughter echoed through this snow-covered village in the Tohoku region one morning as a group of women sat down to chat over tea.
JAPAN
Jan 8, 2002

Fixed international marriages often disappoint

During the late 1980s, several local governments in northern Japan arranged marriages between Japanese men and foreign women mainly from other parts of Asia, including China, the Philippines and South Korea, in an effort to solve the shortage of brides in farming communities in depopulated areas.
Events
Jan 8, 2002

Osaka hopes concerns ease in 2002 over economy, crime, the homeless

OSAKA -- From concerns over the economy to renewed hopes for the pro baseball Hanshin Tigers, here are some local issues, in no particular order, that many people in the Kansai region are focusing on for the coming year.
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2002

Architect blames Japan cityscapes on obsession with wealth

Japan's cities have been criticized for lacking the harmony and consistence felt in other countries, especially in Europe. But that's not a result of poor city planning; the disarray of structures in Tokyo and Osaka simply mirror the country's postwar obsession with material wealth, according to architect...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 18, 2001

Sowing the seeds of revolution

Does the end of Taliban rule mean that the people of Afghanistan can now look forward to a new era of peace and freedom? Not according to the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, who believe that unless all fundamentalist groups in the country are disarmed, a repeat of the brutality...
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2001

Shiodome development to spruce up center of Tokyo

The southern half of central Tokyo is teaming with development projects aimed at reviving a city long criticized for its lack of space and greenery.
JAPAN
Dec 14, 2001

Afghan conference adopts appeal

A three-day conference in Tokyo on the reconstruction of Afghanistan closed Thursday after adopting a comprehensive appeal that local nongovernmental organizations in Afghanistan be left in charge of the task.
EDITORIALS
Dec 8, 2001

A first step toward Afghan peace

Afghan factions and the United Nations have managed to sign an agreement stipulating the composition of an interim administration, or Cabinet, to replace the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The official inauguration of the interim administration on Dec. 22 -- after the Ramadan month of fasting ends --...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 5, 2001

From mimicry to homegrown art

Japanese modern art is often discounted as a mere echo of its Western counterpart. This is not so much because styles and forms have been imported per se, but because in their new environment they have failed to take on a life of their own. In this, the real test, modern Japanese art has often been found...
Japan Times
Events
Nov 13, 2001

Purse-snatching capital not image Osaka seeks

OSAKA -- Yoko Sumino (not her real name) was scared and angry. One evening last winter, the 34-year-old journalist was walking back to her apartment in the city's Joto Ward when the unexpected happened.
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2001

State, doctors, patients wrangle over health bill

As Japan's population ages at an unprecedented pace and the economy fails to generate high growth, the question of who should shoulder the nation's rising health costs is becoming a bone of contention.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 11, 2001

Mixing it up in the States

THE SUM OF OUR PARTS: Mixed Heritage Asian Americans, edited by Teresa Williams-Leon and Cynthia L. Nakashima. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001, 296 pp., 22.95 (paper) High intermarriage rates, massive waves of immigration, and the easing of restrictions on global travel are blurring racial...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 8, 2001

All the leaves are brown -- anyone know why?

In Japan, the beauty of leaves in autumn is revered with almost religious fervor. Part of the autumn weather forecast is devoted to showing the "leaf front" as the color change in trees moves across the country. Millions of tourists travel to marvel at the display.
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Nov 6, 2001

Ten years old and counting

Last Thursday, the J. League celebrated its 10th anniversary at a Tokyo hotel, inviting about 500 soccer officials, sponsors and past and present players.
BUSINESS
Nov 3, 2001

Takebe hits back at criticism from Washington over WTO

Farm minister Tsutomu Takebe rebuked U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick on Friday for criticizing Japan's "narrow minded" attitude toward the launch of a new round of trade liberalization negotiations under the World Trade Organization.
BUSINESS
Nov 3, 2001

Takebe hits back at criticism from Washington over WTO

Farm minister Tsutomu Takebe rebuked U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick on Friday for criticizing Japan's "narrow minded" attitude toward the launch of a new round of trade liberalization negotiations under the World Trade Organization.
BUSINESS
Oct 25, 2001

All sellers, no buyers equals no opportunities in Osaka

OSAKA -- The 16th Global Business Opportunities Convention wrapped up in Osaka on Wednesday evening in an atmosphere of disappointment on the part of organizers and participants.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 30, 2001

A pervasive power that goes largely unnoticed

POLITICS AFTER TELEVISION: Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Public and India, by Arvind Rajagopal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, 15.95 British pounds, pp. 393 (paper) In "Politics after Television," Arvind Rajagopal presents a theoretically and empirically rich account of...
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2001

Tanaka, Megawati seal pledge to fight terror

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka and visiting Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri confirmed Thursday that their countries will fight terrorism together with the international community in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the United States.

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