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COMMENTARY / World
May 13, 2003

From Myanmar to Mae Sot

MAE SOT, Thailand F rom a distance, the textile factories near Mae Sot, Thailand, loom like fortified castles. The main buildings resemble fully encased airplane hangers. Cement walls enclose the compounds, though sometimes these, in a decorative touch, are plastered with white stucco. Entrance is via...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 11, 2003

Bailing the banks while letting the debtors die

Reportedly, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has decided to address suicide, which has becomes something of an epidemic over the past decade as the economy continues its skid into the void.
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 2003

India: fertile ground for SARS virus

MADRAS, India -- The virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome just loves crowds. And India has crowds. Although there have been relatively few cases of SARS so far, fears of a pandemic are real.
COMMENTARY
Apr 29, 2003

Will Chirac's luck run out?

PARIS -- When he had to appoint a general, Napoleon Bonaparte would ask if the candidate possessed the main quality for the job: luck. No politician in French contemporary history meets that condition more than President Jacques Chirac.
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2003

State-paid pensions short on funds, faith

Mariko Horiuchi, a 30-year-old part-time English-language teacher living in Tokyo, wonders if she should trust what the government promises for her future: a sound retirement covered by state pension benefits.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2003

A silver lining to the SARS epidemic

SINGAPORE -- The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, is sending shivers down the spines of Asian governments and citizens alike. China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam have been the most affected by this scourge, while other Asian countries are desperately trying to prevent the disease...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 27, 2003

A shorter leash on China's Communists

LONDON -- Governments and political parties habitually find it hard to admit to having made mistakes. Ministers and party officials who resign after getting things wrong cover their tracks with talk of seeking new horizons or spending more time with their families. The more authoritarian a regime, the...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2003

Downsize, get out of China's way and rebuild: business chief

Japan should aggressively create new businesses to regain its global competitiveness, according to Kakutaro Kitashiro, new chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai).
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2003

10 of 12 suspected cases of SARS turn out to be negative

A health ministry panel said Tuesday that 10 of the 12 SARS cases in Japan classified as either "suspected" or "probable" are not the deadly virus, but judgment is being withheld on the remaining two cases.
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2003

Advice offered on social withdrawal

The health ministry has compiled a booklet offering advice on dealing with social withdrawal, ministry officials said Wednesday. The advice is aimed at individuals who are exhibiting behavior of this kind and to members of their families, the officials said.
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2003

Medical facilities ordered to secure SARS masks

The health ministry on Thursday ordered medical institutions and distributors of surgical masks to secure adequate supplies of a certain mask in an attempt to limit the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome should the epidemic hit Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 6, 2003

Sampling the sharp end of tradition

M shoulders have been stiff for years. I used to think the solid lump back there was simply a strange bit of bone structure I'd got somehow. In fact, I'd had my shoulder problem for so long that I had come to accept it as a fact of life.
JAPAN / PREFECTURAL FARE
Mar 15, 2003

Pork, potatoes, pottery Kagoshima's mainstays

Kagoshima Yurakukan, a local-specialities complex taking up three floors of a building in Tokyo's Yurakucho district, has been attracting health-conscious consumers with its products from Kagoshima Prefecture.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2003

Japan's second HIV-2 case confirmed

The health ministry has confirmed a case in Japan last year of an uncommon type of HIV found primarily in western Africa, according to sources.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 27, 2003

Environment Bushwhack

U.S. Civil War General William Sherman is credited with uttering the sage words, "War is hell." War is hell on the environment as well, and U.S. President George W. Bush's "War on Terror" is no exception. Ironically, the environment being degraded is America's own.
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2003

HCV patients number 1.5 million

A five-year survey of blood donors suggests that about 1.5 million people in Japan have contracted hepatitis C virus (HCV), narrowing down an earlier, broader estimate, according to a health ministry study group.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2003

Side effects of influenza vaccines kill seven in two years

The side effects of influenza vaccines killed seven people in the two years through last March, and more than 80 people suffer from the adverse effects of such shots each year, the health ministry said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jan 28, 2003

Brewers bank on heady days for nonalcoholic beer

Some of the nation's major breweries have started producing nonalcoholic beer in the hope of boosting a fledgling market helped by heightened health consciousness and steeper penalties for drunken driving.
EDITORIALS
Jan 27, 2003

Drug benefits vs. risks

New drugs often loom as a last hope for terminal-cancer patients who have exhausted without success all forms of conventional treatment available. Sometimes, though, drugs cause serious side effects and completely betray patients' expectations. Two such incidents have occurred recently, giving us reason...
EDITORIALS
Jan 23, 2003

Forge national consensus on taxes

One year ago the government published a five-year budget projection showing how it expected to make ends meet in fiscal 2002-06. Now, the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, chaired by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, has revised the plan -- downward. The basic picture is that the budget deficit...
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2003

Pet cats in Okinawa to carry microchips

The Environment Ministry will begin implanting microchips in pet cats in northern Okinawa that will carry data about the animal and its owner.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2003

Coping with a grayer world

Like globalization, population aging is a universal force with the power to shape the future. By 2050 the number of people aged 60 and over in the world will increase from 600 million today to almost 2 billion. In Japan, the proportion of the population aged 65 or over will climb from 17.2 percent in...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 16, 2003

Shame in a 'showcase'

Second of two parts I ended my last story by saying, "If it is wolves, or winter wilderness, you want to see, don't waste time wondering -- get to Yellowstone! But please, when you're there, don't rent a two-stroke snowmobile! I'll explain why in my next column."
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2003

Public views on sibling egg and sperm donation sought

A panel under the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry discussing fertility treatment has decided to gather opinions from the public on the use of eggs and sperm donated by a patient's sister or brother and on the rights of children born by such treatment to know their genetic parents.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past