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COMMENTARY / World
Jun 18, 2001

A welcome bid for peace in South Asia

ISLAMABAD -- After months of blunt statements exchanged by leaders of India and Pakistan, South Asia's two nuclear rivals, a new peace process is under way in a part of the world described by some observers as the next "nuclear flash point."
COMMENTARY
Jun 18, 2001

Moving toward real reform

The Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, an advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, has drawn up guidelines for a range of structural reforms planned by his administration. These policy outlines, designed to reshape Japan's outmoded economic society, are by and large acceptable.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2001

Police seize legal books from home of suspect in killings at Ikeda school

OSAKA — Police on Saturday again searched the home of Mamoru Takuma, the suspect in the June 8 murders of eight schoolchildren at a state-run elementary school in Osaka, for evidence concerning growing suspicion that he feigned a mental disorder to evade criminal responsibility.
COMMENTARY
Jun 17, 2001

Bipartisanship is killing American politics

NEW YORK -- When I vote for a Democrat, the last thing I worry about is whether he'll be able to get along with the Republicans. I never consider his ability to reach across the aisle, or his willingness to act in a bipartisan manner or take conservatives into consideration. Quite the opposite: I expect...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 17, 2001

Take me out to the big league

As U.S. President George W. Bush makes the rounds in Europe, taking flak and talking trash, it seems like a good opportunity to address what his father would refer to as the "cultural hegemony thing." South Korea and France deal with it by subsidizing their movie industries. China screens everything...
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2001

Government to revise 2001 growth downward to 0.5%

The government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy plans to effectively revise downward Japan's fiscal 2001 economic growth target to a real 0.5 percent from the current 1.7 percent, government sources said Saturday.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 17, 2001

When commuter hell takes on a whole new meaning

Several weeks ago, JR's Saikyo Line started to reserve at least one car on its nightly commuter runs for women. The move followed a precedent set last year by the Keio Line, whose new service, according to reports, is very popular.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 17, 2001

Flying postpunk first class

Time is the nemesis of originality. The greater the number of artists who explore a particular discipline over time, the less likely it is that one of them will come up with something fresh.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 17, 2001

A la cart

Masaru Tanaka's yatai has been open for business at the same roadside spot in central Tokyo almost every evening for the past 40 years or more.
EDITORIALS
Jun 16, 2001

One year after Pyongyang

On Friday, the two Koreas marked a bittersweet anniversary: It has been one year since the historic summit between the leaders of the two countries. Koreans rejoiced as South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korea leader Kim Jong Il toasted each other in Pyongyang and promised to end a half century...
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2001

Teachers brave frontline of national IT offensive

SHIKI, Saitama Pref. — Sitting in pairs behind computer screens, 30 fifth-graders at Muneoka No. 3 Elementary School here try to catch an English word spoken by computer and select the corresponding picture by mouse.
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2001

Upper House passes stiffer driving rules

The House of Councilors on Wednesday approved amendments to the Road Traffic Law that include heavier penalties and an extension of the validity of driver's licenses to five years from the current three.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 14, 2001

Pyongyang's Chinese connection to the global economy

DANDONG, China -- When managers at a North Korean metal works began dreaming that foreigners' suits and blouses might one day be draped on the company's aluminum coat-hangers, there was no way to pursue international markets directly.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jun 14, 2001

Swallows likely to command $5 million for Ishii

Kazuhisa Ishii is a man in demand.
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2001

Online stores struggle for sales

Five months ago, online supermarket Olive Mart overhauled its business methods for the second time since its launch in May 1999.
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2001

Airlines, World Cup seen pulling old foes closer

Japan and South Korea are used to referring to each other as the "nearest but most distant country" due to past troubles in their relationship.
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 13, 2001

The black art of the Bard

'For a charm of powerful trouble, like a hell-broth boil and bubble, boil and bubble, boil and bubble," the witches howl as they move in a frenzy across the stage, their green rags alternating as dervish skirts and forest cover. They throw runes as they call upon darkness and conjure up a brew of murder,...
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2001

Suspect may suffer from personality disorder

OSAKA — Mamoru Takuma, the suspect in the primary school rampage that claimed the lives of eight pupils in Osaka Prefecture, is suspected by psychiatrists of having paranoid personality disorder, it was revealed Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2001

Proposal targeting mentally ill criticized

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's proposal to seek legal revisions in a bid to prevent crimes by the mentally ill faced government opposition Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 10, 2001

Labour wins a mandate to carry on

The crushing victory of Britain's Labour Party in Thursday's general elections presents Prime Minister Tony Blair with his greatest challenge. His progress since becoming party leader almost a decade ago has been remarkably smooth, and his remodeled party now enjoys a dominance in British politics equivalent...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 10, 2001

There's a fine line between parody and larceny

There is an unspoken belief among music critics that had George Harrison not been a Beatle, he wouldn't have lasted more than a minute in the pop business. This belief has nothing to do with Harrison's talent and everything to do with his professional judgment. First, he released all his good songs on...
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jun 10, 2001

Teaching Tokyo how to be cool

Bar Kitsune is a phenomenon. It is the brainchild of Production Company, an Osaka-based outfit that decided to sneak up the Tokaido and infiltrate Tokyo's nightlife. The company's success with home-turf projects like Under Lounge, one of Osaka's most happening clubs, gave it the confidence to tackle...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 10, 2001

Zetton: A buzz that can't be resisted

Call it what you like -- drawing power, charisma, sex appeal or the Koizumi quality -- new restaurants need that extra something to succeed, no less than populist politicians with big, Beethoven-look hair. Zetton, the hot new place just up from Shibuya-bashi in Ebisu, has just the right sort of buzz....
EDITORIALS
Jun 9, 2001

Secret fund is still under wraps

The Foreign Ministry, responding to a recent embezzlement scandal involving a senior ministry bureaucrat, has put together a package of measures designed to "reform" its secrecy-shrouded diplomatic war chest. The package falls far short of public expectations, largely because the ministry has not disclosed...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jun 9, 2001

Putin picks a new gas czar

Behold, Russia has got a new czar. No, the Romanovs did not rise from their graves. No, the Russian people did not invite a Romanov cousin, Prince Charles, to claim the throne of his Russian ancestors. No, the authoritarian Russian president, Vladimir Putin, did not crown himself Vladimir I. He just...
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2001

Japan tipped to pledge millions to AIDS fund

Japan is considering contributing around $100 million to a United Nations-proposed fund to fight AIDS, which is spreading particularly rapidly in impoverished sub-Saharan Africa, government sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2001

LDP's Kyuma photographed with senior gangland figure

Fumio Kyuma, the acting policy research council chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, was photographed with a senior member of a crime syndicate while serving as Defense Agency chief in 1997, sources close to the case said Thursday.

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