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Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2003

Web suicide sites have officials worried

The pattern has become eerily familiar. After forging a pact with strangers over the Internet, young people get together to carry out a carefully planned task -- suicide.
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2003

Wartime killing contest trial starts

The daughter of an Imperial Japanese Army soldier sentenced to death by a military tribunal for engaging in a contest to kill Chinese soldiers in 1937 said during a defamation suit hearing Monday she and her family still suffer stigma because of the "accusations."
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2003

Bounty of frozen fuel under seabed allures, eludes

Like an ice that burns, methane hydrate is cold, white and would light up like a gas stove if held to a flame. And so much of the frozen fuel naturally blankets the seabeds off Japan and elsewhere that scientists say it could power the world for centuries.
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2003

Opponents of antiterror law fight on

About 250 plaintiffs seeking nullification of the special antiterrorism law filed an appeal Monday with the Tokyo High Court against a district court ruling that dismissed their claims.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 8, 2003

Matsui, Ichiro and Hasegawa named for All-Star game

NEW YORK -- New York Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui and Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki were picked for the American League team as organizers announced the final results of fan votes Sunday for the MLB All-Star game July 15 in Chicago.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2003

Greenspan should quit while he's ahead

News that U.S. President George W. Bush intended to support the continuation of Alan Greenspan as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors was greeted with wide support. However, if Greenspan cares about his place in history, he might be wise to decline the offer.
COMMENTARY
Jul 8, 2003

Vajpayee kowtows to China

NEW DELHI -- Seeking to placate longtime rival China, India has subtly shifted its stand on Tibet in a way to clearly recognize the Chinese annexation of "the roof of the world," delighting Beijing but raising questions about New Delhi's diplomatic game-plan and spurring concern among Tibetan exiles....
BUSINESS
Jul 8, 2003

Finance Ministry to help Japan exporters

The Finance Ministry said Monday it will set up an Asia-wide financial scheme to help small Japanese exporters quickly cash their sales credits.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2003

Consensus culture hinders missile defense

HONOLULU -- If the Japanese are to build a defense against ballistic missiles, as increasingly seems likely, their main difficulty in making it work will be cultural -- not technical or political -- and will require a revolution in the way they make decisions.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2003

Kim Jong Il's sushi chef pens tell-all book

A Japanese chef who prepared sushi for North Korean leader Kim Jong Il for 13 years has recently published a book that claims to give a firsthand account of Kim's luxurious lifestyle.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2003

An offer Yangon's generals can't refuse

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Two elements could become the basis of further efforts toward a Myanmar solution: an emerging uneasiness -- if not outright division -- among the generals in power over how to handle the growing following of the "the Lady" (democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi), and the long-awaited...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Jul 6, 2003

The straight shooter

Nobuyoshi Araki was born in Tokyo in 1940 and was given his first camera by his father in junior high. He studied photography and film at Chiba University and went into commercial photography soon after graduating. Four decades and over 250 photo publications later, the 63-year-old artist stands a long...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jul 6, 2003

A last taste of Honey

It might be the right time for the 54 Nude Honeys, but it's the wrong place and they've decided to do something about it. In September, they're jumping on a plane and decamping to New York, where the American music-media have stepped into line with their British brethren and realized that the current...
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2003

SARS travel alert for Taiwan lifted

The Foreign Ministry on Saturday lifted a SARS travel caution for Taiwan, the last remaining entry on its list of areas where travelers should exercise caution due to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2003

Fast-moving dispatch bill needs some explanation

The House of Representatives passed a bill Friday that paves the way for elements of the Self-Defense Forces to go on a mission in Iraq.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2003

Immigration procedures to be faster for foreign visitors

The government will speed up entry procedures at immigration for foreign visitors and support training for tourism personnel to attract more sightseers to Japan, government sources said Friday.
COMMENTARY
Jul 5, 2003

Tony Blair: a casualty of war

LONDON -- As the grim business of policing a vanquished Iraq drags on, it seems less and less likely that Prime Minister Tony Blair's authority over party and country will survive. For the first time since Labour's landslide victory in 1997 the Conservatives are nudging ahead of Labour in opinion polls...
EDITORIALS
Jul 4, 2003

Women's rights vs. complacency

Japan's efforts to improve women's human rights will come up for a U.N. review this month at the Commission on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, or CEDAW, the implementing body of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The review will be based on...
BUSINESS
Jul 4, 2003

Softbank to open Net game portal

Softbank Corp. is opening an online game portal in an effort to boost the number of subscribers to its broadband service, the Japanese Internet company said Thursday.
COMMENTARY
Jul 4, 2003

Does irrelevancy await Japan?

HONOLULU -- Japan-U.S. relations are at a postwar high, "the best they have ever been," report policymakers on both sides of the Pacific and longtime observers of the relationship. Credit growing realism in Japan about security issues, unprecedented decisions in Tokyo and a remarkable personal relationship...
Japan Times
JAPAN / IN WITH THE NEW
Jul 3, 2003

For security realists, Ishiba a breath of clear air

Since becoming Defense Agency chief, Shigeru Ishiba has not been shy about rocking the boat.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 3, 2003

What a week that was

It was a week filled with surprises and excitement.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jul 3, 2003

Who says all factories have to be eyesores?

Earl in 1995, a friend of mine, a journalist I first met back in the 1970s, asked me to have dinner and drinks with him in a cozy, noisy izakaya in Shinjuku. There, he introduced me to a very friendly, well-traveled man called Masayoshi Ushikubo, the executive manager of a company that made electrical...
BUSINESS
Jul 2, 2003

Japan needs foreign workers to achieve economic growth: METI

Japan should make efforts to introduce foreign workers to achieve economic growth in line with increasing globalization, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in an annual report released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2003

Students conclude Japan should learn from its brutal past

The Japanese public needs to be educated about the use of sex slaves by Imperial Japanese forces during World War II to ensure such atrocities never happen again, a group of Japanese and South Korean students said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 2, 2003

Off the wall

"My most favorite artist? The problem with that question," says Frank Stella, settling back in his chair, "is what's the point of it?"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 2, 2003

Linda Thompson

Linda Thompson is living proof that it is more difficult to be wed to genius than it is to possess it. Her 10-year marriage to the flinty, cynical singer-guitarist Richard Thompson that ended in 1982 was by all accounts, including hers, a tumultuous affair that produced three children, at least four...
JAPAN
Jul 1, 2003

Smokers get hit with an extra 20 yen per pack

The cost of a pack of cigarettes will increase by 20 yen for most brands on Tuesday as a tobacco tax hike takes effect.
BUSINESS
Jul 1, 2003

Insurance chief says no progress on terror fund

No progress has been made in talks to obtain government assistance to set up a pool of funds to help insure businesses against potential terrorist attacks, the newly appointed chairman of the Marine and Fire Insurance Association of Japan said Monday during his first news conference as the industry head....

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