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BUSINESS
Sep 23, 2003

Takenaka to keep pushing banks on loans

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's controversial reappointment Monday of Heizo Takenaka as financial services minister means banks will still be under pressure to clean up their bad loans.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 23, 2003

Confessions of a foreign correspondent

These are not happy times for people who make a living writing about Japan. With the country apparently having become, as one magazine put it, the "Switzerland of Asia," i.e., rich but boring, foreign newspapers are shuttering their Tokyo bureaus as fast as they can move their correspondents to cover...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FRONT-RUNNERS
Sep 23, 2003

Retailers look to make a bundle on use of electronic money

More and more retailers are providing consumers with the option of using electronic money, essentially in the form of prepaid cards, instead of cash when purchasing goods.
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2003

Hidankyo meet to seek end to nukes

The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations plans to organize an international meeting aimed at scrapping nuclear arms to mark the 60th anniversary in 2005 of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
COMMENTARY
Sep 22, 2003

Can 'Special K' save Japan?

For all the attention given to the rise of China, it is still not the most important nation in Asia. Japan, with the world's No. 2 economy and a growing list of problems, is.
EDITORIALS
Sep 21, 2003

Sweden sends a message to Europe

Sweden has voted to reject the euro. European governments may be inclined to see the results as an expression of Swedish exceptionalism. That would be a mistake. Despite an emotionally charged campaign, the outcome reflects a careful consideration of the country's national interests. European leaders...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 21, 2003

Trade-environment debate deserves a judicial solution

The Cancun World Trade Organization Ministerial meeting concluded last weekend with little progress on a swath of issues it must try and complete by Jan. 1, 2005. Agriculture subsidies were the main stumbling block, but the talks really failed on a number of other fronts including trade and environment....
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2003

Old underground shelters cause concern

Japan still has 5,003 underground air-raid shelters and underground military facilities left over from World War II, and 777 of them are on the verge of collapse, government officials said Friday.
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2003

Japan's work cut out in six-party talks

The two main flash points in the world in the past year have been the Middle East, especially Iraq, and North Korea in East Asia.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 20, 2003

Summer insect tourism slows to a crawl

Good morning, thanks for joining "Good Morning Insects!" for today's top news. My name is Goki Buri.
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2003

Hiranuma eyes new agency for trade discussions

Trade minister Takeo Hiranuma on Friday advocated the creation of a government agency that would be modeled after the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
SOCCER / J. League
Sep 20, 2003

Japan plans Euro tour

Japan will play Romania in a friendly in Bucharest on Oct. 11 as the first game of a planned European tour, a top soccer official said Friday.
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2003

JBIC joins East Asia infrastructure joint study project

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation said Friday it has launched a joint study with the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank to promote infrastructure development in East Asia.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2003

Panel calls for reinterpretation of the antiwar Constitution

In light of the nuclear threat posed by North Korea, the government should alter its interpretation of the Constitution and allow Japan to exercise the right of collective defense, according to a report compiled Thursday by an advisory panel to Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2003

Tokyo to step forward with at least $1 billion for Iraq

Japan, responding to a U.S. request, has begun preparations to offer about $1 billion in 2004 to help rebuild Iraq, government sources said Thursday.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Sep 19, 2003

Decision time for De La Hoya after defeat

We have all had the feeling in life.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Sep 19, 2003

Secret treasures of southern Sonoma

The sensual impact of a vacation in the wine country is hard to beat. Hot days, cold nights, good food and meandering drives under blue skies between vineyards and wineries that range from the manicured to the seemingly long-ago abandoned.
COMMENTARY
Sep 19, 2003

Old political drum beats on

LONDON -- "Seen it all before" and "the more it changes the more it remains the same" are phrases that immediately spring to the mind of the foreign observer of Japanese politics in the runup to Saturday's election of the president of the Liberal Democratic Party.
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2003

Baker nudges Japan to dispatch SDF to Iraq

U.S. Ambassador Howard Baker on Wednesday indirectly asked Japan to send Self-Defense Force troops to Iraq to help rebuild the war-ravaged country.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Sep 18, 2003

Step this way, pilgrim

This 1830s woodblock print by Edo Period artist Hasegawa Settan depicts the grand view of a temple on a wooded hill with a low-lying town in the foreground and peaceful Edo Bay in the distance. The picture is actually the right half of a sweeping landscape depicting Hommon-ji, an enormously popular Buddhist...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Sep 18, 2003

Iraq, bad economy drag Bush down

WASHINGTON -- It cannot be easy these days to be selling the White House story line. Chickens are coming home to roost from every direction. Ever since President George W. Bush went on his working vacation to his ranch in Crawford, Texas, his carefully constructed houses of cards in economic and world...
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2003

Nonaka to help disabled following Diet retirement

Hiromu Nonaka, a Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight who has announced he is retiring from politics, said Tuesday in Tokyo he will devote his free time to helping the disadvantaged.
BUSINESS
Sep 17, 2003

Toshiba forecasts heavier losses

Toshiba Corp. warned Tuesday that its group net loss for the first half is likely to widen to 25 billion yen due to weak personal computer sales.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Sep 17, 2003

Hand-made objects have a soul of their own

I've often been asked about my beginnings with Japanese pottery and how I got so deeply interested in the subject. Mostly, it was a philosophical and intuitive introduction that just struck a chord within me, as well as topics associated with Zen and the present. As with most inspiring art, words often...

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