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BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 17, 2004

Mound relief almost backfired for MLB pitchers

The visiting Major League Baseball All-Stars left Japan Nov. 14 with a 5-3 series victory over their All-Japan opponents but, ironically, a change in the pitching mounds designed to help the big leaguers for the final three games of the tour almost resulted in disaster for the visitors. Let me explain....
COMMENTARY
Nov 14, 2004

Asia won't go back to being an also-ran

HONOLULU -- I am often asked why our think tank is located in Hawaii. Apart from the sun, sand, sea and surf, there is a very good reason: The world looks very different from Honolulu. We're parked in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Tokyo is a lot closer than Washington, D.C. When we look out over the...
COMMENTARY
Nov 7, 2004

Silence the loose cannons

HONOLULU -- The U.S. presidential election is finally over! Now the hard part begins. I'm not talking about getting North Korea back to the negotiating table; that will come soon enough. Now that Pyongyang knows it has no choice but to deal with the Bush administration, it will find a way to resume the...
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2004

Japan now has to get serious about greenhouse gases

When Russian President Vladimir Putin put the finishing touches on his country's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on Friday, reducing greenhouse gas emissions also moved one notch higher on Japan's policy agenda.
EDITORIALS
Nov 5, 2004

A nation that remains divided

A lthough the final results, as in the 2000 election, will be delayed, U.S. President George W. Bush has won a second term in office. Democratic Sen. John Kerry could have dragged out the fight with legal challenges and demands for a recount, but he decided that the president's lead margin was too large...
BUSINESS
Nov 5, 2004

Toshiba, TCL jointly agree to make appliances in China

Toshiba Corp. and TCL International Holdings Ltd. of China signed a contract Thursday to jointly manufacture and market household appliances in China, Toshiba officials said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Nov 2, 2004

Who do you think will win the U.S. elections, and will it make a difference?

Ibraham Quraishi Conceptual artist, 33 If Bush wins, the basic policy in the Middle East will continue to be a non-policy and useless rhetoric. If Kerry wins, there just might be an impetus to find a multinational solution to the Iraq problem.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 1, 2004

Linking Islam to terror spawns hatred

MADRAS, India -- Sadly, since Sept. 11, 2001, much of the world, in particular the United States, has equated Islam with violence and death.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 31, 2004

Papa's parenting barriers begin to fall

As well as the ever-present danger of cars speeding around narrow roads and the hassle of lugging strollers up and down staircases, parents in Japan with babies in tow have long had to struggle with public restrooms the size of telephone booths.
EDITORIALS
Oct 28, 2004

Dealing with a murderous past

The 1970s in Cambodia is described as one of the darkest periods in modern history. That was when the Communist Pol Pot regime, or the Khmer Rouge, exterminated nearly 2 million people during its rule from 1975 to 1979. Now, a quarter of a century since the regime collapsed, some of its former leaders...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 28, 2004

Parents of lonely hearts join own group

Tadashi Saito imagines his son leaving the office after a long day at work and trudging home to a lonely bachelor's apartment with all the lights out and no hot food on the table.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 26, 2004

Gaijin: good or bad?

Near criminal As a Japan vet, I say "Yes" to both good and bad connotations. More important than terminology, though, is the actual treatment of non-Japanese regarding important employment issues. What happens on a near daily basis is often criminal.
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2004

Public mixed on brain-death transplants

The public is divided over whether to allow transplants of organs from brain-dead people who have not made it clear whether they wish to become donors, according to a government survey.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 23, 2004

First step to a national security strategy

WASHINGTON -- Last week in Tokyo, Japan's Council on Security and Defense Capabilities (better known in the United States as the Araki Commission) issued its final report on the future direction of Japanese national-security policy. The report demands special attention, as it will provide the basis on...
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2004

The bounds of the security treaty

The United States is reviewing the role of its military bases in Japan in line with its plans for global troop redeployment (or "force transformation" as the U.S. Defense Department calls it). This is raising concerns that some realignment plans involving U.S. forces stationed here might exceed the geographical...
COMMENTARY
Oct 20, 2004

Help wanted for promoting democrac

MANILA -- A myriad of organizations from North America and Europe operate in various parts of the world with the objective of advancing democratic governance. While their strategies may differ, these "democracy-assistance foundations" hold the common belief that promoting democracy essentially promotes...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 19, 2004

Agents, China dance and culture

Ole Latina! In addition to Dagmusic, (introduced in Lifelines; Sept. 24), there are quite a number of other companies in Tokyo who specialize in contracting foreign professional singers and musicians for TV CMs and soundlogos.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2004

Koizumi noncommittal on political-funds control

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday refrained from making a commitment on the issue of tightening controls on political funds as his Liberal Democratic Party remained wary of banning so-called diverted donations.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 15, 2004

Daiei fix followed twisted path

It took one phone call from auditor Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu to convince Daiei Inc. to accept help from the state-backed Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan and end a lengthy standoff between the retailer and major banks.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 14, 2004

Rakuten hires Tao to manage new team

Internet mall operator Rakuten Inc., which has applied to enter professional baseball next season, announced Wednesday the appointment of baseball commentator Yasushi Tao as manager of its team on a three-year contract.
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Oct 14, 2004

New options raise the stakes in the 'Name that Baby' game

Since middle names are not used in Japan, the parents of a newborn need only agree on one name for their offspring. This is probably just as well: Choosing a kanji name involves a whole host of complex considerations, and while some couples settle on a name written in kana (Japan's phonetic script),...
BUSINESS
Oct 13, 2004

Koizumi rejects Thai request to scrap rice tariffs

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has rejected a request from Thailand to scrap Japanese import tariffs on rice as part of a free-trade agreement, the farm minister said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2004

Taj Mahal survives foibles of humanity

MADRAS, India -- Sadly, India continues to let its heritage and history decay. For example, recently when a scholar from the country's prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi asked India's National Archives, also in the same city, for a document, the request was not entertained. The scholar...
EDITORIALS
Oct 7, 2004

Basic security-policy concerns

A n advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has completed a report calling for a review of Japan's defense-only security policy. The report, by the Forum on Security and Defense Capability, says Japan should have a "multifunctional, flexible defense force" to meet security threats such as...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Oct 7, 2004

Knicks distracted by in-house fighting

CHARLESTON, S.C -- If it's such a great honor to wear a New York uniform, as Isiah Thomas preached to Shandon Anderson last Friday through the media, how come he decided to retire when the Pistons traded him to the Knicks rather than try it on for size?
BUSINESS
Oct 6, 2004

Japan, Mexico agree to push FTA

Japan and Mexico said Tuesday they will put their free-trade agreement into effect as soon as possible, according to Foreign Ministry officials.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 5, 2004

Trouble in paradise

It is one of the more uneven fights in the history of Japanese protest movements.
Japan Times
Features
Oct 3, 2004

Teddy bares all

Long before baseball's Ichiro Suzuki or soccer's Hidetoshi Nakata became stars overseas, in 1987 a 15-year-old boy from Asahikawa in Hokkaido flew to London on his way to taking the ballet world by storm just a few years later.

Longform

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