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COMMENTARY
Nov 17, 2005

Seoul aims for leading role

PUSAN, South Korea -- South Korea, long considered "a shrimp among whales" in Northeast Asia, senses opportunity. Diplomatic developments in the region hold out hope of a transformation of relations among states, and South Korean strategists see their nation as uniquely positioned to lead this process....
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 13, 2005

Nobel laureate set to be garlanded in cliche

Awarding this year's Nobel Prize in literature to British playwright Harold Pinter is giving the recipient an opportunity to mount a stage of enormous proportions, and his acceptance speech in Stockholm next month may be the most provocative, fiery and influential address ever given on this august occasion....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 12, 2005

Sixteen square feet of ignorance, and other trivia

"Tell me something I don't know," said my first son.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / U.S. THINK TANK SYMPOSIUM
Nov 10, 2005

Japan must defuse wartime issues with neighbors

Despite post-9/11 changes in American strategic thinking, the U.S. alliance with Japan today is more important and healthier than ever, but Japan's troubled relations with its Asian neighbors can prove to be a serious problem for the alliance, said Eric Heginbotham, a political scientist with the RAND...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 10, 2005

'68 tax treaty needs revision: Belgian leader

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt on Wednesday proposed that Tokyo and Brussels revise their tax treaty to boost Japanese investment in Belgium.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 4, 2005

Marines offer Valentine new three-year contract

Lotte Marines' representative Ryuzo Setoyama said Thursday that the Pacific League club has offered Bobby Valentine a new three-year contract starting in 2006 in an apparent move to keep the Japan Series winning manager.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2005

Aso, Ban agree to mend relations, meet this month

New Foreign Minister Taro Aso and South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki Moon agreed Wednesday to work on improving strained bilateral ties and to meet later this month in South Korea, Foreign Ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2005

Abe deflects politicians' responsibility on judging Yasukuni war criminals

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe argued Tuesday that only historians -- and not contemporary politicians -- will eventually make the correct call on how Japanese Class-A war criminals should be judged.
BUSINESS
Nov 1, 2005

New policy chief signals softer stance on BOJ

New economic and fiscal policy minister Kaoru Yosano indicated Monday the administration will respect the Bank of Japan's decision on when to scrap its ultraloose monetary policy.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2005

Koizumi's Cabinet picks shrouded in mystery

to appoint personnel to the three executive posts to the party and the Cabinet on Oct. 31," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told a news conference later the same day. The special Diet session opened after the Sept. 11 Lower House election and ends Tuesday.
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2005

Japan, U.S. agree on new Futenma site

relocation (plan) because of a lot of opposition," Koizumi said. "We need to carry out (the new plan) as soon as possible." The defense chief called for cooperation from Okinawans, saying Japan had done its best to protect the environment.
EDITORIALS
Oct 27, 2005

Saddam Hussein on trial

The trial of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein began last week in Baghdad. While Hussein and seven others are the defendants of record, the real focus is the tribunal itself -- its legitimacy and by extension, that of the current government in Iraq. Never before has justice been so important to Iraq....
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2005

Key panel in favor of females on throne

can be expanded to a maternal line," panel Chairman Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, a former president of University of Tokyo, told a news conference after Tuesday's panel session. "It's almost certain that the (tradition of) paternal-line-only succession can't continue to exist," he added.
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2005

U.S. Futenma plan gaining traction

The government is moving toward accepting the U.S. proposal for relocating the heliport operations of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture, according to government sources.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 23, 2005

Marines open fire on hapless Tigers

CHIBA -- Toshiaki Imae wasted no time settling into his new spot in the batting order, and the Chiba Lotte Marines took an easy first step toward ending 31 years of futility.
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2005

Chemical weapons tally in China may be cut

Japan is considering lowering its estimate of the number of chemical weapons the Imperial Japanese Army abandoned in China at the end of the war, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Oct 17, 2005

Marriage of convenience in Germany

Germany has a new government. After weeks of grueling negotiations, a grand coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats has emerged. Ms. Angela Merkel, head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) will take over as chancellor, presiding over a Cabinet in which the Social Democratic Party (SDP)...
COMMENTARY
Oct 17, 2005

Toward a new Constitution

The special constitution research committee of the Lower House has started debate on establishing legislation to make it possible for Japan to hold a national referendum on revising the Constitution.
COMMENTARY
Oct 15, 2005

Asia's tough but not impossible journey

LOS ANGELES -- Perhaps the prospects of would-be Asian political unity can best be described as a "pipe dream." But even that description might be too optimistic, unless you imagine a water pipe filled with wildly psychedelic substances that are imbibed in huge amounts!
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 12, 2005

Looking at both sides of the equation

Someone asked me the other day if I wouldn't like to be a woman, just to see what it was like. Sure, I'd love to try it, I said, for a day or two. Imagine seeing the world from the other side, seeing how men assess you and wielding power over them with a glance. Or if you're a woman, imagine being a...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 9, 2005

Marines grind out win

CHIBA -- The Seibu Lions couldn't get Koji Mitsui off the mound fast enough.
EDITORIALS
Oct 8, 2005

EU opens its doors to Turkey

After taking negotiations to the brink, the European Union this week agreed -- as promised -- to open talks with Turkey on its membership in the union. The last-minute decision is typical of EU behavior these days, but Ankara's accession raises fundamental questions about the EU. This week's agreement...
BUSINESS
Oct 5, 2005

Bureaucratic workforce to face 10% cut over five years

The government said Tuesday it will cut the number of national-level civil servants by 33,230, or at least 10 percent of the total as of the end of fiscal 2004, over the next five years, officials said.
COMMENTARY
Oct 4, 2005

DPJ out to change its ways

The rout of the Democratic Party of Japan in the Sept. 11 Lower House election raises the question: Will it be able to recoup its losses and make itself strong enough to snatch power from the Liberal Democratic Party?
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Oct 4, 2005

At what point is a child being too active?

Current media is full of warnings that kids are being overbooked, overstimulated and, ultimately, overwhelmed. While articles on stress used to invariably feature the children of Japan, taxed by the country's rigorous academic pressures and long hours of juku (cram school), the focus now is going international....

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji