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Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2004

Asbestos use still widespread in Asia, as are its ills: expert

Asia needs to ban the use of asbestos and conduct studies on people who have become ill from exposure or asbestos-related diseases will never end, according to a specialist.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2004

Derailment mars shinkansen safety myth

Reverberations from the bullet train derailment in Niigata Prefecture on Oct. 23 continue to echo across Japan, as experts debate whether it was luck or skill that saved the day for the passengers roughed up by the series of strong earthquakes.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 9, 2004

Peru cash crop quest bears fruit

It was more than 20 years ago that Takayuki Suzuki packed his bags and moved to Peru.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2004

Weak-dollar policy said needed by 2008

The U.S. administration to emerge from Tuesday's presidential election will have to shift to a weak-dollar policy at some point in the next four years, a U.S. expert on trade issues told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 31, 2004

At-home dads

Kazuyuki Yamamura is a tall, good-looking man in his 30s, who was also good at his job. In fact, not so long ago he bought a house for himself, his wife and their kindergarten-age daughter in a leafy suburb of Tokyo. Then, unexpectedly, his company found itself in choppy financial waters -- and he was...
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2004

Train derailment investigation begins

A transport ministry panel on Monday began a full-scale probe into the first-ever derailment of a bullet train over the weekend in Niigata Prefecture during a series of powerful earthquakes.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 23, 2004

Hiring, firing by the book in nicest possible way

Tom Nevins, a leading expert on Japanese rules of employment and personnel policy and practices, must have the busiest "meishi" in business. Not only does it open up, offering four sides of information, but contains a discount card for the many books he has written. A name card within a name card, so...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2004

Aichi's futuristic expo to spotlight the past with 10,000-year-old mammoth

Shuttle buses without drivers, trains floating on magnetic fields and other visions of the future will be on display at the Aichi world fair next year. But Expo 2005's centerpiece will be rooted deep in the past -- the frozen remains of a woolly mammoth.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2004

Noono delays Diet session with unsure responses

Opposition lawmakers on Tuesday questioned Chieko Noono's credentials to be justice minister after she repeatedly gave contradictory statements over a political funding scandal.
COMMENTARY
Oct 18, 2004

Japan will pay if ODA slides

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the start of Japan's official development assistance. Since October 1954, when Japan joined the Colombo Plan and provided technical assistance, ODA has been an important element of Japan's diplomacy. According to the Foreign Ministry's white paper on ODA, Japan...
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2004

Photo seen as abduction evidence

A woman in a photograph smuggled out of North Korea is likely to be Teruko Kase, who disappeared in Chiba Prefecture some 40 years ago, according to a preliminary expert examination.
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2004

Nuclear arsenal deemed infeasible in '81

The main policy research arm of the Defense Agency in 1981 studied the possibility of Japan going nuclear but concluded the idea wasn't feasible in light of the nation's industrial and technological infrastructure, according to a research report obtained by Kyodo News.
Japan Times
Features
Sep 26, 2004

Disillusioned bard of a bygone Japan

In the century that has passed since the death of Lafcadio Hearn on Sept. 26, 1904, the Japanese people have studiously formulated and maintained a myth -- and they have done it with all the tools and vigor of nostalgia at their disposal.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 19, 2004

In search of an elusive identity

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN, by Don Lee. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004, 318 pp., $24.95 (cloth). THE PEARL DIVER, by Sujata Massey. New York: HarperCollins, 2004, 335 pp., $23.95 (cloth). One formula frequently applied to the mystery novel involves adoptees who reach adulthood and seek to track down their...
COMMENTARY
Sep 16, 2004

Pyongyang deal still possible

SEOUL -- "The odds of any progress regarding the North Korean nuclear issue appear slim to nonexistent between now and the U.S. November presidential elections." This is the conventional wisdom, as publicly proclaimed by South Korean officials. I have also heard this view echoed in Washington and Beijing...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 14, 2004

Japan and the immigration issue

Japan is not ready or willing to accept an immigrant influx, says Barry Brophy One of the great givens regarding Japan's aging population and declining birthrate is that an influx of immigrants, or "replacement migration," is needed if the nation's pension burden is not to become unmanageable, and the...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 12, 2004

"Pitanko Kankan" on TBS and more

One reason Iraq has fallen into chaos following the U.S. invasion is that it was never much of a unified state in the first place. In fact, it has only been a country since 1920. On Wednesday at 9:15 p.m., NHK-G helps explain how Iraq came to be through the story of Thomas Edward Lawrence, better known...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / COUNTER CULTURE
Sep 10, 2004

Traditions mingle underfoot

The fashion world's recent craze for Japonisme -- manifested in a veritable tsunami of kimono-inspired looks on the catwalks of Paris and Milan -- may have come and gone, but designs based on traditional Japanese arts seem to be finding steady footing in the worldwide marketplace.
EDITORIALS
Sep 7, 2004

No laughing matter in South Korea

Reports that South Korean scientists secretly -- and unbeknown to the government -- conducted experiments to enrich uranium are another blow to the nuclear nonproliferation regime. News of the tests is proof that nuclear standards have to be toughened and that the Additional Protocol needs to become...
COMMENTARY
Sep 3, 2004

Labour seeks a constituency

LONDON -- A ruler can obtain power only with the help of his own people. He uses them to fight against those who revolt against his party. They fill his administrative offices and he appoints them to prestigious and lucrative positions. They help him to achieve his ascendancy. This is true so long as...
CULTURE / Film
Sep 1, 2004

Lovers' bites

Promoting "House of Flying Daggers," director Zhang Yimou was in Tokyo for the fourth time in as many years recently, after visiting with "The Road Home," "Happy Times" and "Hero."
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2004

Unionization now option for part-timers

Working conditions have been declining at many firms in recent years as the economic slump drags on, and especially hard-hit have been those with "temporary" status, as they face falling wages and shortened contracts.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 29, 2004

Fuji TV's legal variety show "The Judge" and more

Married life is tough enough even without the notion that one's spouse is more of a competitor than a partner. That idea is the subject of this week's installment of the talk show "Kon'ya wa Koibito Kibun: Totte-oki Fufu Monogatari (Tonight Lovers' Feelings: Special Couple's Story)"; (NHK-G, Wednesday,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2004

36-year death row inmate loses appeal for retrial

The Tokyo High Court on Friday rejected a retrial plea lodged by a former professional boxer who has been on death row for 36 years over the 1966 murder of a family of four in Shizuoka Prefecture.
EDITORIALS
Aug 22, 2004

Soul-searching in South Korea

South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun announced Aug. 15, the day his country celebrates liberation from Japanese occupation, that the legislature would form a special commission to investigate who benefited under Japanese rule. The call for such an inquiry is understandable: The occupation was a dark and...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2004

Pullout of U.S. forces could skip Japan

Despite the U.S. announcement Monday that it will withdraw up to 70,000 service members from Asia and Europe over the next decade, America's military presence in Japan might not be part of that scenario, according to government officials.
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2004

Pullout of U.S. forces could skip Japan

Despite the U.S. announcement Monday that it will withdraw up to 70,000 service members from Asia and Europe over the next decade, America's military presence in Japan might not be part of that scenario, according to government officials.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2004

Mihama accident latest in long string of nuclear plant woes

OSAKA -- In early 1999, a group of German nuclear scientists and engineers had just returned to Osaka after visiting nuclear power facilities in Fukui Prefecture. Sitting in a bar in the Hotel New Otani, they were deeply disturbed.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?