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SOCCER / J. League
Feb 2, 2002

Antlers, FC Tokyo to kick off season

J. League champions the Kashima Antlers will visit FC Tokyo at Tokyo Stadium on Saturday March 2 to kick off the 2002 J. League season, the league announced Thursday.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2002

Nago mayor race seen as base litmus test

Many in Tokyo and Washington will be keeping a close eye on a mayoral election Sunday in Okinawa that is likely to affect a matter of long-standing concern between the two governments.
COMMENTARY
Feb 2, 2002

U.S. should help Philippines

HONOLULU -- Here they go again! Pundits who six months ago could not find Manila (much less Mindanao) on a map are now busily proclaiming the Philippines to be "the next Afghanistan" -- except, of course, those who are busy proclaiming it "the next Vietnam."
COMMENTARY
Jan 30, 2002

Japanese-British links after 100 years

LONDON -- The Anglo-Japanese Alliance was signed on Jan. 30, 1902. It was a significant and unique step for both countries. Britain had not previously concluded alliances of this nature in an area so distant from its shores; it was Japan's first alliance with a European power and confirmed its status...
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2002

Daiei to sell position in Maruko

Struggling retailer Daiei Inc. said Tuesday it will sell all its shares in its wholly owned real estate subsidiary Maruko Inc. for 15.1 billion yen as part of its rehabilitation plan.
EDITORIALS
Jan 26, 2002

Three little words

The United States is holding prisoner some 500 men that it captured in Afghanistan. According to the U.S. government, those detainees are "unlawful combatants," not prisoners of war. The distinction is an important one: In addition to depriving the men of their rights, it mocks the principles that the...
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2002

Labor bureaus asked to localize job aid

Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Chikara Sakaguchi on Wednesday called on the ministry's 47 prefectural labor bureaus to tailor their unemployment measures to the needs of their respective areas.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 20, 2002

Building a brighter future for Afghans

WASHINGTON -- The rebuilding of a peaceful Afghanistan requires a commitment to protecting the human rights of all Afghan citizens, including women and ethnic minorities. The International Conference on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan taking place in Tokyo should take action to support the institutions...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 20, 2002

Aramasa: The nostlagic taste of the great north

To duck under the rope noren at Aramasa and slide back its sturdy front door is to take a step into the past. Not a giant, disorienting leap all the way back to feudal Edo or the gilded age of Taisho, but an unthreatening half-pace back to the postwar days of Showa, when salarymen ruled the roost and...
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2002

Postal trio found guilty in illegal campaigning

OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court sentenced three senior postal officials to suspended prison terms Thursday for illegally campaigning for a Liberal Democratic Party candidate in the House of Councilors election in July.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 12, 2002

Eight enter Japanese Hall of Fame

Kazuhiro Yamauchi, one of the best sluggers of the late 1950s and 1960s, has been elected to the Hall of Fame along with seven other notable contributors to Japanese baseball, baseball officials said Friday.
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Jan 11, 2002

Getting into the rat race in middle school

My children are back in school after two weeks of winter vacation. We went skiing and took a few day trips around Tokyo, but the boys spent most of their vacation playing, reading and relaxing. Some of their school chums, however, had no break at all. They spent the entire "holiday" studying for middle-school...
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2002

Afghan aid could cost up to $20 billion

Afghanistan will need up to $20 billion over the next decade to cover the cost of its reconstruction, according to an unpublished preliminary estimate by the World Bank.
COMMENTARY
Jan 7, 2002

Assuaging threats to peace

LONDON -- The Taliban has been routed and, with the arrival of U.N. peacekeeping forces in Kabul, the prospects for Afghanistan are better than they have been for many years. But Osama bin Laden and his senior henchmen have not been accounted for. The search will have to continue, and terrorist havens,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jan 6, 2002

All the tricks, touch-ups and trip-ups of the trade

TV Asahi's new dramatic comedy series, "Trick 2," which premieres this week (Friday, 11:15 p.m.), fits comfortably into the current TV zeitgeist of pop spiritualism and magic shows. A lot of the renewed interest in paranormal phenomena has been boosted by the addition of debunking elements. On many recent...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 3, 2002

Death of domestic coal leaves legacy for future

Four decades of protection for the domestic coal mining industry are nearly at an end as the government moves to procure stable and more economical supplies from abroad.
BUSINESS
Jan 3, 2002

Tax panel chief leans toward broader base, not rate cuts

Tax Commission chief Hiromitsu Ishi said Wednesday he does not favor cutting taxes to stimulate the economy; instead he would broaden the tax base to better help the government fill its depleted coffers.
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2002

Koizumi-Kim TV gambit starts big exchange year

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung will broadcast televised messages to each other's nations today, kick-starting a yearlong series of events aimed at boosting bilateral ties.
COMMENTARY
Jan 1, 2002

New national goal for Japan

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and subsequent developments have brought home to Japan a critical challenge it faces in the post-Cold War world: Establishing a new national goal and designing a national strategy geared to international cooperation.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Dec 30, 2001

Party on, to the break of the new dawn

I was going to make just one recommendation for New Year's Eve -- the countdown party at Milk, a freestyle club in Ebisu. I have had a couple of great New Year's Eves there -- including one special moment making mochi (traditional rice cakes) as the first tendrils of dawn crept across the sky in the...
BUSINESS
Dec 26, 2001

Asahi Bank to be wholly owned unit

Daiwa Bank Holdings Inc. will make Asahi Bank a wholly owned subsidiary on March 1 through a share-swap scheme, the banks announced Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Dec 24, 2001

Challenges for Korean civic education

SEOUL -- Consensus is growing in the family of democratic nations that democratic civic education constitutes a pillar of democracy. I use the term "democratic civic education" because we know there exist less benevolent intentions behind "political education" than the promotion of democratic principles...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Dec 23, 2001

An o-tososan a year keeps the doc away

It's a rare occasion or ceremony that does not include some sake in Japan, and that harbinger of renewal, New Year's Day, is no exception. Although sake figures prominently in o-shogatsu celebrations from morning to night, opening the year with a prayer for health in the form of drinking o-toso is perhaps...
EDITORIALS
Dec 23, 2001

Milking maids for all they're worth

Here's a well-timed debate. In the runup to Christmas, the traditional season of generosity and good will to all, the citizens of Hong Kong have been arguing the rights and wrongs of their government's pending proposal to cut the minimum wage of foreign (mostly Filipino) domestic workers for the second...
EDITORIALS
Dec 22, 2001

Reform budget a double-edged sword

The Finance Ministry's draft general-account budget, which was unveiled Thursday, is the first under the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Living up to his "fiscal reform" slogan, he has kept his pledge to cap bond issuance at 30 trillion yen. The borrowing limit, however, is a "double-edged...
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2001

Ogata likely to be named joint chair of Afghan conference

Sadako Ogata, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's special envoy on Afghan affairs, is likely to be the Japanese chair of a multinational conference to discuss the reconstruction of Afghanistan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda hinted Friday.
BUSINESS
Dec 21, 2001

Koizumi should have tried to cap deflation instead

While the Finance Ministry's draft budget for 2002 features significant structural changes, its central reform pillar of limiting government spending has aggravated concerns about the economy.
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2001

Child exploitation congress closes

YOKOHAMA-- A four-day international conference concluded here Thursday with the adoption of a statement reaffirming the need for the protection and promotion of the right of every child to be protected from all forms of sexual exploitation.
EDITORIALS
Dec 17, 2001

Sporting events require tight security

The 2002 Japan-Korea World Cup will kick off in about six months. As the two countries busy themselves with the final preparations, the people who are becoming most tense are those in charge of security. When one thinks of security at soccer matches, the notorious hooligans in European countries may...

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell