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BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2001

BOJ fights for time in battle over fake inflation

Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami said Thursday that the central bank will continue to study inflation targeting but that it has qualms about achieving price levels at the expense of prudence.
COMMENTARY
Aug 24, 2001

The time for talking is over

LONDON -- Too much has been expected from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, but that is partly his own fault. There seems to have been too much "spin" and too little action. Time is not on his side as the Japanese economy splutters.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2001

Lawmaker's ex-aide tied to Chinese worker scam

A former private secretary of LDP lawmaker Koki Kobayashi made inquiries to the Justice Ministry at the request of a man involved in an illegal immigrant worker scam, sources close to the case said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2001

Prosecutors seek death for mall killer

Public prosecutors demanded the death penalty Wednesday for a 25-year-old man who earlier admitted to charges stemming from a mass stabbing in a Tokyo shopping center in 1999.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 23, 2001

Look, mum, what I got playing for my country

Maybe it was the passing of yet another birthday; maybe it was the fact that I had just become the proud father of a healthy son and heir but the last few weeks have seen me getting more and more nostalgic.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Aug 23, 2001

Get that tropical feeling with hibiscus on your balcony

Summers just wouldn't be the same without hibiscus flowers. Hibiscus create the feeling of some tropical paradise -- even in city centers. Those of you who have balcony gardens can easily cultivate a number of hibiscus species.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2001

Typhoon claims two, heads for Tokyo area

Typhoon Pabuk, which hit the Kii Peninsula in western Japan shortly after 7 p.m. Tuesday, claimed at least two lives as it became the first typhoon in two years to hit the mainland, the Meteorological Agency said.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 22, 2001

Conductor Comissiona passes the youth baton

When Sergiu Comissiona arrives in Japan later this month to embark on the final leg of this year's Asian Youth Orchestra tour, it's likely that the baton he always conducts with will feel a little heavier than usual. This year marks the acclaimed Romanian-born conductor's eighth season with the AYO....
Events
Aug 21, 2001

Electronics firms wage battle of the rays

KYOTO -- Kyoto-based Rohm Corp., one of Japan's largest makers of electronic components, is locked in a legal wrangle with Nichia Corp. of Anan, Tokushima Prefecture, over patents related to blue light-emitting diodes and blue lasers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 19, 2001

Natural resources

FUKUOKA -- More than 100 years of mining has given the town of Tagawa, Fukuoka Prefecture, a masculine, working-class character, with widespread associations of gangs and violent crime. Abandoned concrete plants and mines line its hilly outskirts, and a coat of dust covers its many boarded-up shops....
CULTURE / Books
Aug 19, 2001

Uniformly stylish Japanese

WEARING IDEOLOGY: State, Schooling and Self-Preservation in Japan, by Brian J. McVeigh. Berg, Oxford, 2000, 231 pages, $19.50 The Japanese are some of the most fashion-conscious dressers in the world. They spend large amounts of their discretionary income on clothes, have a strong preference for designer-made...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 17, 2001

India's hardliners wait as pressures wear out premier

When the Agra summit between India and Pakistan failed last month, it was widely feared that its biggest victim would be the Indian prime minister: Atal Bihari Vajpayee might have to go.
BUSINESS
Aug 17, 2001

DoCoMo's 3G service disappoints users in trial

At the end of May, Kazunori Hagiwara was thrilled to be chosen to try out NTT DoCoMo's next-generation cellphone system.
EDITORIALS
Aug 16, 2001

Rome's unseemly retreat

Determined to avoid another bloody fiasco like last month's Group of Eight summit in Genoa, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has asked the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization to move the World Food Summit, which is scheduled to be held in November in Rome, to Africa. That would be a mistake:...
COMMENTARY
Aug 16, 2001

Missed chance at Yasukuni

Japan's neighbors are expressing great indignation over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Aug. 13 visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, where the spirits of 14 convicted World War II war criminals are enshrined among some 2.5 million of Japan's war dead over the past two centuries. His decision to go early,...
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2001

Koizumi makes amity pledge at annual surrender day rites

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pledged that Japan will never again isolate itself from the world but will seek only amity with its neighbors, during a secular ceremony Wednesday marking the 56th anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2001

Ikeda school gets new building after June stabbings

OSAKA -- The elementary school in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, where eight children were fatally stabbed in June, completed construction of a temporary schoolhouse Wednesday for the resumption of classes this month.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 16, 2001

World Games 2001 open in Akita

Who is the best lifesaver in the world? Who is the most elegant performer at a height of 3,000 meters? And who throws a flying disc the most accurately?
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Aug 16, 2001

Slow and steady wins the dispersal race

Humans have an anthropocentric tendency to look down on "cold-blooded" reptiles. We even use the term "cold-blooded" in a derogatory way to criticize people who seem somehow less than human.
EDITORIALS
Aug 14, 2001

Mr. Koizumi's poor choice

In disregard of opposition at home and abroad, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi paid a controversial visit to Yasukuni Shrine on Monday, two days before the Aug. 15 anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II. By avoiding going on Wednesday, the date originally planned, Mr. Koizumi apparently tried...
BUSINESS
Aug 14, 2001

An 'A' for Failure

By Mark McCormack A visit to an Ivy League college to attend the graduation of his son bore an unexpected dividend for one of our agents. He was so taken by one of the speakers, a mathematics professor, that he approached him afterward about doing a book. It was an excellent example of maximizing the...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 12, 2001

'Model' family vs. maternal love: a nation judges

Last week, the Japan Office of the Nevada Center for Reproductive Medicine announced that a 60-year-old Japanese woman gave birth to a healthy baby at Jikei University Hospital in Tokyo. Though the woman's identity and the child's gender were not revealed, the mother released a statement through the...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 12, 2001

War and remembrance

This Wednesday marks the 56th anniversary of the Japanese surrender, but, as usual, only NHK is commemorating it in any significant way.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 12, 2001

Til death or demographics do us part: the changing face of family life in Japan

At the end of each year, NHK has a ritual contest of male singers vs. female singers, but signs have been emerging of more serious gender conflict on the horizon in Japan. The diverging interests of men and women are evident in a recent book on changing attitudes toward having children and an article...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 12, 2001

She's got legs . . .

You've probably seen her somewhere -- on product packaging, in fashion catalogs or TV commercials. But no one would recognize her, because she is famous only for her legs.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo