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EDITORIALS
Sep 8, 2004

North Korea's ticking time bomb

Many North Koreans continue to escape from their impoverished and repressive country. Last week, 29 escapees took refuge at a Japanese school in Beijing. Shortly afterward, they were taken to the Japanese Embassy for identification and questioning before being transferred to a third country. The South...
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2004

Mitsui Sumitomo eyes Aviva nonlife operations in Asia

Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. said Tuesday it is in talks with Aviva PLC to purchase the major British insurer's nonlife operations in Asia.
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2004

Sony to release HD camcorder

Sony Corp. announced Tuesday it will introduce the world's first consumer digital high-definition camcorder to the Japanese market Oct. 15 and overseas by the end of this year.
SOCCER / World cup
Sep 7, 2004

Yanagisawa pulls out of qualifier against India

Italian-based striker Atsushi Yanagisawa will not join Japan's squad for Wednesday's World Cup qualifier against India, the Japan Football Association announced Monday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Sep 7, 2004

How do you save money in one of the world's most expensive cities?

Jean Su Consultant, 39 I don't find Japan as expensive as some people have said it is -- I use the subway as much as possible and eat at the Japanese places. It's really great food at affordable prices.
EDITORIALS
Sep 6, 2004

A trip to the Northern Territories

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Thursday viewed the Northern Territories aboard a Japan Coast Guard ship. It was a high-profile trip that appeared to demonstrate his determination to tackle the territorial issue with Russia. Many Japanese are wondering, though, whether it was a political grandstand...
COMMENTARY
Sep 6, 2004

Blame it on the cell phones

The continuing doldrums in the Japanese economy began with a slowdown more than 13 years ago -- in May 1991. The slump stems from sluggish consumer spending, which accounts for 60 percent of the gross national product, and bad loans plaguing Japanese commercial banks. Let's consider the reasons for sluggish...
EDITORIALS
Sep 5, 2004

A match for death

Death comes for us all, as the English martyr Sir Thomas More reminded his accusers in the play "A Man for All Seasons." The line echoed poignantly in the mind late last month when death finally came for Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross, the remarkable Swiss-born psychiatrist who had done as much as anyone to...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 5, 2004

Bottoms up to those misfiring weather forecasters

Liberal Democratic Party honcho Ryutaro Hashimoto needs all the positive PR he can muster to counteract the bad press he's received since his alleged acceptance of a bribe from the Japan Dental Association came to light.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 4, 2004

Elizabeth Gardiner

KEELE, England -- The university in Keele in the English Midlands is only 42 years old. Before 1962, it was the University of North Staffordshire, itself a youthful, postwar institution. The programs put into place at the University of Keele turned away from specialized single degrees in favor of bridging...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2004

Line being drawn in East Asia's waters

HONOLULU -- In East Asia today, a line is gradually being drawn in the water, starting in the sea between Japan and the Korean Peninsula, and running south through the East China Sea and the Taiwan Strait into the South China Sea.
COMMENTARY
Sep 4, 2004

Afghanistan's volatile politics

ISLAMABAD -- A spate of attacks by Taliban forces on U.S. troops and Afghan government soldiers has intensified worries over the country's first presidential elections, which are scheduled to take place next month.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2004

Nissan unveils six models as part of big sales drive

YOKOHAMA -- Nissan Motor Co. on Thursday unveiled six new models that will be released by mid-January to help achieve the automaker's global sales target.
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2004

Sustainable growth in reach despite slowdown: Fukui

The nation is heading toward sustainable growth and the central bank will stick with its policy of pumping cash into the economy, Bank of Japan Gov. Toshihiko Fukui said Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 1, 2004

Dancing with two strangers

House of Flying Daggers Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Japanese title: Lovers Director: Zhang Yimou Running time: 120 minutes Language: Mandarin Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] There's a scene right at the beginning of Zhang Yimou's latest, "House of Flying Daggers," where...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 1, 2004

Kaleidoscope of colorful fashion

Viktor & Rolf are internationally renowned as the Gilbert and George of the fashion world for presenting conceptual work as sophisticated art performances in haute couture and pret-a-porter shows. Take their installation of their Spring/Summer 1996 collection in a contemporary art gallery in Paris October...
EDITORIALS
Aug 31, 2004

Medal bonanza was not a fluke

The performance of Japanese athletes at the Athens Olympics came as nothing less than spectacular for their compatriots.
BUSINESS
Aug 31, 2004

Softbank takes on NTT in land-line sector

Softbank Corp. said Monday it will start offering a discount land-line telephone service beginning in December, a move expected to deal yet another blow to industry behemoth NTT Corp.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2004

'Big One' within 50 years?

Tokyo has a 90 percent chance of being devastated by a major earthquake some time in the next 50 years, according to a recent study by a government panel.
COMMENTARY
Aug 31, 2004

Feeling the enemy's breath

LONDON -- The Americans are going home. Or, to be more precise, after more than 60 years, 70,000 American military personnel are to be gradually withdrawn from the European arena. Since the present number of American troops under "European command" is 116,000, this will leave in the longer term between...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2004

'Underground money' termed a necessary evil

Many who make their living in the political epicenter of Nagata-cho have expressed sympathy for a former treasurer of the Liberal Democratic Party's largest faction who was arrested Sunday for allegedly violating the political donation law.
COMMENTARY
Aug 30, 2004

Cooler summer for French intramurals

PARIS -- "Chaotic all over the territory," warned a French weather forecast recently. This was not, however, the remake, feared by so many, of the August 2003 heat wave, which contributed to 15,000 extra deaths that month.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Aug 30, 2004

Fear of cultural decline: the next chapter

NEW YORK -- Every August my wife Nancy and I leave New York to go south to spend two weeks at a friend's summer house at Sunset Beach, North Carolina. Driving leisurely, mainly so we can ride ferries on Delaware Bay and on Pamlico Sound, we stop for two nights on the way, usually lodging in Onley, Virginia,...
COMMENTARY
Aug 30, 2004

They came, they saw, they pillaged Asia

LOS ANGELES -- Financial authorities are aghast over the latest near-death international financial collision. It involved a lightening-fast dumping earlier this month of nearly $14 billion in securities. The perpetrator was Citigroup, operating out of London.
EDITORIALS
Aug 29, 2004

Rewriting history

The ancient kingdom of Koguryo, traditionally believed to have been founded in 37 B.C., ruled a vast region extending from Manchuria (northern provinces of China) to the Korean Peninsula until 668. Tumulus wall paintings in Nara, which was the capital of Japan in the 8th century, are said to reflect...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’