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COMMENTARY
Feb 10, 2004

'Next big thing' key to growth

During Japan's bubble-economy years of fiscal 1987-1990, consumer spending grew at an annualized 5.5 percent in real terms. But during the Heisei recession of fiscal 1991-2001, consumer-spending growth slowed to an annualized 1.0 percent. Most experts agree that the slowdown in consumer spending, which...
Events
Feb 8, 2004

KANSAI: Who & What

Aquarium to bring snow to Osaka's children: Kaiyukan Aquarium, in Osaka's Minato Ward, is inviting people to a snow festival that features a field covered by natural snowflakes from Hyogo Prefecture today, Wednesday and Feb. 14 and 15.
Japan Times
Features
Feb 8, 2004

Horror on the high seas

Russia held out one hope for turning the tide of the war against Japan -- that a mighty armada, under Adm. Zinovii Rozhestvensky, would relieve the siege of Port Arthur and wrest command of Far Eastern waters from Adm. Heihachiro Togo's fleet.
Japan Times
Features
Feb 8, 2004

Dawn of a tragic era

Across a waterfront park in the Shirahama district of Yokosuka, beyond a bronze statue of Admiral Heihachiro Togo, the 15,000-ton Mikasa, his flagship in the Battle of Tsushima (1905), is anchored in concrete -- its chrysanthemum figurehead golden in the winter light, the Rising Sun snapping at the stern....
Japan Times
Features
Feb 8, 2004

For better or worse

Exactly 100 years ago this week, Japan embarked on its first war with a major Western power. Though Emperor Meiji's forces scored a technical knockout the following year, the outcome was to shape Japan's destiny through to the A-bombs and beyond
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2004

Metal detectors greet snow festival goers

SAPPORO -- The 55th Sapporo Snow Festival opened Thursday amid tightened security due to the Iraq dispatch of Self-Defense Forces troops, most of whom are based in Hokkaido.
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2004

JAL to introduce new passenger class

Japan Airlines System Corp. said Tuesday it will offer a new class featuring larger seats on its domestic flights in June.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 28, 2004

A lesson on how to waste one's life

Pinero Rating: * * (out of 5) Director: Leon Ichaso Running time: 103 minutes Language: English Opens Jan. 31 [See Japan Times movie listings] One pitfall of artist biopics is the genre's tendency to select those artists whose lives were of the wrecked and splashy variety. It's extremely...
BUSINESS
Jan 28, 2004

Regional economies earn second straight upgrade

The Finance Ministry on Tuesday upgraded its quarterly assessment of the nation's regional economies for the second time in a row.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jan 23, 2004

Spinning funky music on Naeba's Snodeck

Let me say right up front that I don't much care for snow. While Tokyo constantly disappoints by failing to deliver a white Christmas, that's about as far as my interest goes. And though I have enjoyed the thrills and spills of skiing a few times (before the advent of the snowboard, I admit), the experience...
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2004

Book to immortalize slain envoy

A series of reports on Iraq written by a Japanese diplomat killed in an ambush there last year will go on sale in book form Friday, a Tokyo-based publisher said Wednesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jan 22, 2004

Hybrid monkey

* Japanese name: Nihon zaru * Scientific name: Macaca fuscata/cyclopis * Description: Macaques have thick fur everywhere apart from their characteristic bare red face. The Japanese macaque, Macaca fuscata, is the only native species of (nonhuman) primate in Japan. There is another primate species living...
EDITORIALS
Jan 20, 2004

A place for 'judicial positivism'

In a representative democracy, the value of one vote is supposed to be more or less equal. In the 2001 Upper House election, however, one vote in rural districts carried much greater weight than it did in urban districts; in an extreme case, one ballot in Tottori Prefecture was worth 5.06 ballots in...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 16, 2004

Lost Nambu citadel of the North

With Morioka, you know where you stand from the outset. As the title to the official English guide declares, Morioka is "the castle town of northern Japan."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jan 15, 2004

Jelly blob

* Japanese name: Oomari-kokemush * Scientific name:Pectinatella magnifica * Description:The common name says it all. This organism looks like nothing so much as a quivering lump of jelly. It is often mistaken for the egg mass of some animal, but in fact the blob is itself a colony of tiny animals....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2004

Foreigners' support sought on abductions

The Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it has started distributing an English-language brochure focusing on the abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korea.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 11, 2004

Home sweet (old) homes

To buy a dream home is an aim shared by many, and in this respect Satoshi and Yumiko Takano were no different from millions the world over.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 11, 2004

Japan's 'Seabiscuit' shows losers can be winners too

There are few cliches as dubious as "Everybody loves a winner." Does everybody love a winner? The fans of the Hanshin Tigers certainly don't love the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 6, 2004

Mobile phone giants strive for pre-eminence in 3G market

Anticipating that third-generation services will dominate the mobile phone market within a few years, NTT DoCoMo Inc., KDDI Corp., and Vodafone K.K. are rolling out new handsets with a range of advanced 3G functions.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 4, 2004

From mourning to 'magic'

It may be only mildly surprising that Japanese translations of the first four "Harry Potter" titles have racked up 16.5 million sales to date. It is, though, quite astonishing that the publisher is not an industry giant, but a small Tokyo firm with no previous best seller to its name.
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2004

Decision to dispatch SDF troops to Iraq a watershed for defense, security policy

Japan's decision to send Self-Defense Forces troops to Iraq, coupled with the decision to introduce a missile defense system, marks a major turning point for the nation's defense and security policy. Never in its 50-year history has the SDF been mobilized for noncombat duties in a foreign country in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Dec 31, 2003

Looking back to find new beginnings

New Year's is about endings and beginnings. People we've lost, places we've discovered, what's gone and what's to come. Some thoughts as we cross over:
BUSINESS
Dec 31, 2003

Japan needs to develop coordinated trade policy amid era of FTA talks

Japan is beginning to realize the importance of adopting a coordinated trade policy to gain the upper hand in negotiations on free-trade agreements with other Asian countries in 2004.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 2003

U.N. voice for 'civil society'

In his opening address in Beijing to the U.N. conference on the question of Palestine on Dec. 16, China's Deputy Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo paid particular at- tention to the role of civil society -- academic and business communities, nongovernmental organizations and others -- in appealing for peace...
BUSINESS
Dec 26, 2003

Fujitsu set to forge chip alliance with Sumitomo Electric

Fujitsu Ltd. and Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. will merge their compound semiconductor operations this spring in response to growing demand for chips used in digital products and communications devices, Fujitsu officials said Thursday.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Dec 25, 2003

Egypt game brought to life

Sphinx is an ancient but not unathletic Egyptian hero with gangly arms and a lion's tail. Tut, short for Tutankhamen, is a goofy prince turned into a mummy before his time by an evil brother -- but being a mummy has certain advantages.
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Dec 25, 2003

Anchor worm

* Japanese name: Ikarimushi * Scientific name: Lernaea cyprinacea * Description: The anchor worm is a small parasite (1-1.5 cm long) that lives in the muscles of freshwater fishes. The female anchor worm has a tubular body divided into a cephalothorax, thoracic region and abdomen. However, you're unlikely...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 21, 2003

Year's top commercials 'ad' up to great Japanese TV

Anyone who reads this column regularly probably believes that I find Japanese television completely worthless. It's not true; or, at least, not completely true. I think Japanese TV commercials are very good and often more representative of the hopes and dreams of the nation than the programming is.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2003

Laboratories get warning on handling SARS samples

With a new SARS case reported in Taiwan, the health ministry has issued an alert to research institutes and local governments to be extremely careful when handling samples of the virus for research purposes.
EDITORIALS
Dec 19, 2003

Juggling act obscures real threat

The two ruling parties, the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito, earlier this week agreed on plans to shore up the faltering pension system for private-sector employees. The package calls for painful adjustments beginning in fiscal 2004: higher premium rates and lower benefit levels. What is missing...

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