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JAPAN
Jun 5, 2005

Amnesty challenges Japan to do more on rights

Japan can and should do more to improve its record on human rights as it seeks a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, according to the secretary general of Amnesty International.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 5, 2005

Will Japanese inertia never be the same again?

Who is to blame for the dead hand of inertia that has prevented Japan from forging ahead economically and politically in the last decade and a half?
EDITORIALS
Jun 3, 2005

Premise of mutual confidence

The long-standing problem of the Northern Territories has been weighing heavily on relations between Japan and Russia. Summit talks between the two countries in the past have lifted hopes for a new development toward a settlement. Each time, though, hopes waned in due course because a new Soviet or Russian...
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2005

Narita offers to cut landing fees by 20% but add new charges

Narita International Airport Corp. said Thursday that it has submitted a proposal to the International Air Transport Association to cut its landing fees by an average of more than 20 percent.
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2005

Nippon Life loses top spot to AIG in premium revenues

Nippon Life Insurance Co. lost its No. 1 position in the domestic market to American International Group Inc. in terms of premium revenues from new contracts concluded with individuals in fiscal 2004, according to financial statements.
MORE SPORTS
Jun 1, 2005

Wakanohana, Takanohana left stunned by father's death

Former sumo grand champions Wakanohana and Takanohana, the sons of sumo elder Futagoyama who died of mouth cancer Monday, said Tuesday they consider their late father more of a teacher as they paid tribute to him and gave him all the credit for their successful careers the day after his death.
COMMUNITY
May 31, 2005

Write back

Community Page readers respond to Satoko Kogure's article on gender equality in Japan (May 3) and Vanessa Mitchell's piece on the lack of aid resources for sex crime victims (May 17) in Japan
COMMENTARY
May 30, 2005

Japan's paradox of wealth

On his first visit to Japan in 1995, French sociologist Jean Baudrillard came up with a paradoxical hypothesis that Japan was affluent because Japanese were poor. Acknowledging that he was not an expert on Japanese affairs, Baudrillard made the suggestion in an interview with the Asahi Shimbun after...
COMMUNITY / COUNTERPOINT
May 29, 2005

Causes and effects can encompass far more than 'specifics'

In January 1977, an express train traveling from the Blue Mountains of New South Wales to Sydney derailed on a curve near Granville Station, 21 km west of the city. The train -- which was three minutes late when it left the last stop on its 2 1/2-hour journey -- smashed into the pillar of a bridge, killing...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 29, 2005

Divorce was a tradition, the taboo an invention

DIVORCE IN JAPAN: Family, Gender and the State 1600-2000, by Harold Feuss. Stanford University Press: Stanford, 2004, 226 pp., $45 (cloth). In recent years there has been a cascade of media reports about the dysfunctional Japanese family. The alarming incidence of domestic violence, child abuse, suicide,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 29, 2005

Pupy y Los Que Son Son: "Mi Timba 'Cerra' "

Cesar "Pupy" Pedroso's fiery style of Cuban music blends dance-floor energy and musical intelligence. Taking off from where the popular Los Van Van (with whom Pedroso played keyboards for years) left off, Pedroso has started out on his own, if you can call a man accompanied by a wild 15-piece band as...
Japan Times
Features
May 29, 2005

Aftershocks in Sri Lanka

HAMBANTOTA, Sri Lanka As the sun sets on another sultry Sri Lankan day, a small crowd gathers outside tent No. 68, home of Thuwan Rashid Kaseer and his three children. The 45-year-old carpenter is well known in the southern town of Hambantota for his fine, emotion-filled voice, and this evening his song...
EDITORIALS
May 28, 2005

Progress with North Korea?

A series of meetings provide reasons for cautious optimism regarding negotiations over North Korea's nuclear-weapons program. The prospect of substantial assistance from the South to the North permitted the resumption of long-stalled inter-Korean talks, while the United States and North Korea had a direct...
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2005

Jakarta and Beijing cozy up

SINGAPORE -- During Chinese President Hu Jintao's recent visit to Jakarta and Bandung for the Golden Jubilee Commemoration of the 1955 Bandung Conference, Indonesian organizers underscored China's place at the conference and Hu stayed an extra day to sign a Strategic Partnership Agreement between Indonesia...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 28, 2005

The books I will someday write

Books play a large part in the life of any foreign resident of Japan. For no matter how pervasive online linkage to the homeland becomes, books have always been, and always will be, a main conduit to the language and culture left behind, especially when socked into riding the trains for hours on end....
BUSINESS
May 28, 2005

Japan still No. 1 in terms of net external assets

The balance of Japan's net external assets totaled a record 185.797 trillion yen as of March 31, up 7.5 percent from a year earlier, the Finance Ministry said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2005

Leaders, not geography, decide destiny

During their recent visits to Washington some prominent Japanese lawmakers were promoting an uncomfortable message: China is a long-term threat to Japanese security, and a future conflict between Japan and China is virtually inevitable.
SOCCER / World cup
May 27, 2005

Zico to give Oguro first start for national team

Japan coach Zico will be looking for in-form striker Masashi Oguro to spark Japan to victory as the Asian champion wrap up its preparations for next month's World Cup qualifiers against the United Arab Emirates in the Kirin Cup on Friday.
EDITORIALS
May 26, 2005

Bid-rigging at public expense

The Tokyo High Public Prosecutor's Office is conducting a sweeping investigation of a number of public engineering companies on charges of violating the Antimonopoly Law over the years by restricting fair business transactions. Public prosecutors have launched the massive investigation in response to...
BUSINESS
May 26, 2005

High oil prices trim trade surplus 10.4%

Japan's customs-cleared trade surplus shrank 10.4 percent in April from a year earlier to 962.8 billion yen as high oil prices inflated the value of imports, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
May 26, 2005

Ito-Yokado to up stake in China JV

Supermarket chain Ito-Yokado Co. said Wednesday it will turn its Chinese supermarket joint venture, Hua Tang Yokado Commercial Co., into a consolidated subsidiary by raising its stake to 51.75 percent from the current 36.75 percent.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
May 26, 2005

Parenting book gets princely praise

Parenting expert Dorothy Law Nolte enjoys a huge following worldwide; her 1998 book, "Children Learn What They Live," sold over 700,000 copies in her native U.S. and has been translated into 36 languages. The Japanese version was a steady seller -- until February this year, when the father of a certain...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
May 25, 2005

Agbayani leads the way as Marines hand Giants a thrashing

Benny Agbayani drove in a pair of runs Tuesday as the Pacific League-leading Chiba Lotte Marines pounded the Central League's last-place Yomiuri Giants 11-0.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight