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Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2002

Bushes take in archery show at shrine

U.S. President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, on Monday visited Meiji Shrine, a major venue for Shinto worshippers in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2002

Bush arrives in Tokyo, keeps hard line on 'axis'

U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in Tokyo on Sunday afternoon for his first visit to Japan since his inauguration last year, on the first leg of a six-day tour of East Asia that will also take him to South Korea and China.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2002

Beijing's newfound reticence says much

WASHINGTON -- As U.S. President George W. Bush travels to East Asia to hold summit meetings with the leaders of Japan, South Korea and China, he does so against a backdrop of dramatically improved U.S.-Chinese relations. Tensions between the two countries have eased considerably since the initial period...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2002

Moving beyond the Kashmir problem

MADRAS, India -- Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's recent visit to Washington began with a plea for third-party intervention in Kashmir, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2002

Takenaka ups deadline for fund-injection decision

Economic and fiscal policy minister Heizo Takenaka said Sunday the government may decide by the end of March whether an additional public fund injection into major commercial banks is necessary.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Feb 18, 2002

Hopeful bond sellers should strike while the iron is hot

Long-term interest rates are on an upward trend both in Japan and the United States. The yield on the 10-year Japanese government bond has recently been in the 1.5 percent range, while market rates on 10-year U.S. government bonds have been hovering at around 5 percent — the same as at the beginning...
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2002

Environment activists plan chilly reception for Bush

While the government prepares to roll out the red carpet for U.S. President George W. Bush as he arrives today in Tokyo for his inaugural visit, a collection of nongovernmental groups are planning a less warm welcome.
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2002

Anthropologist uses food for cross-cultural communication

SUITA, Osaka Pref. -- Both as an explorer and an anthropologist, Naomichi Ishige has visited more than 100 countries since his days as a Kyoto University student.
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2002

Decision on bank bailouts to be delayed until April

The government will wait to receive the results of ongoing bank inspections, due in late March, before deciding whether to recapitalize shaky banks, a top official said Friday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 17, 2002

Atrocity and intrigue in a troubled land

AFGHANISTAN: A New History, by Martin Ewans. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2001, 239 pp., 12,600 yen (cloth) The exorbitant price of Martin Ewans' "Afghanistan: A New History," coupled with the word "new" in the subtitle, is enough to attract attention. But as it turns out, the book is new only in...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 17, 2002

Was she used -- or were Makiko's tears deemed too dangerous?

The sixth Press and Human Rights Committee Conference, held at the end of January by the Asahi Shimbun, focused on the problem of gender discrimination in the media. In a full-page feature promoting the event in the Feb. 10 issue of the newspaper, three participants started out by blasting Prime Minister...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 17, 2002

Donald Richie rewinds a century of film

Donald Richie has always struck me as the ideal role model for the aspiring writer. More the distiller than the brewer, the cordon-bleu chef than the bone-cook, there is much to be learned from Richie's refinements.
COMMENTARY
Feb 16, 2002

Kim Dae Jung vs. the 'axis of hawks'

SEOUL -- When the political leaders of the United States and South Korea meet, North Korea takes center stage. This preoccupation with the communist regime has a long tradition in U.S.-South Korean relations. Another tradition -- if we may call it that -- is the unvarying effort on both sides to publicly...
EDITORIALS
Feb 14, 2002

Too clever by half?

The limits of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's strategy to isolate, undermine and eliminate Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat were plainly evident last week. Although recent events have given Israel the upper hand in the struggle against Palestinians and Islamic extremists -- the two...
COMMENTARY
Feb 14, 2002

Forget Marx -- Beijing now looks to U.S.

HONG KONG -- If imitation is the highest form of flattery, Washington should feel highly complimented by Beijing. Over and over, China has shown that America is its role model and that its goal is to be more like the United States.
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2002

DoCoMo announces 10-year bond issue to raise 70 billion yen

NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's dominant mobile phone service provider, said Wednesday it will raise 70 billion yen with 1.64 percent coupon, 10-year domestic bonds.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 14, 2002

Call for a 'paradigm shift' to eco-economy

As Japan's economy sputters to a halt, the rest of the world looks on incredulously, wondering if this nation is up to the task of an overhaul.
JAPAN / CLOSE NEIGHBORS
Feb 14, 2002

Lawmakers' views of past still plague relations

An education ministry panel's approval last April of a history textbook, which critics denounced as attempting to glorify Japan's wartime past, drew a quick response from South Korean politicians.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Feb 14, 2002

Take time to savor Ryoanji's splendors

The stone garden at Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto is perhaps the most famous of all Japanese gardens, and in 1994 it was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
COMMENTARY
Feb 13, 2002

Wrong cure for Japan's economic ills

So U.S. President George W. Bush has decided the future of Asia depends on overcoming Japan's puzzling, decade-long economic stagnation. But do he or his advisers understand what is really wrong with that economy?
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2002

Southeast Asia receives terrorism wake-up call

HONG KONG -- The wake-up call has been loud and clear. As the alarm sounded, it confirmed that terrorism in Southeast Asia is a problem in need of attention. The most urgent wake-up call did not come from the southern Philippines, where around 650 U.S. troops are now being deployed as Washington opens...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 13, 2002

Marc-Andre Hamelin

Canadian pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin was the only classical musician to play live at the 2001 Grammy Awards Ceremony, a distinction that some of his peers might find dubious and others downright horrifying. It isn't clear what benefit the gig afforded Hamelin in terms of record sales, but in a roundabout...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 13, 2002

Korean art of fine living

In celebration of the upcoming 2002 World Cup soccer finals co-hosted by South Korea and Japan, the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum will hold an exhibition titled "Masterpieces of Korean Art from the Joseon Dynasty" from Feb. 19. The exhibition consists of 300 works of art of the Joseon, or Yi, Dynasty...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 13, 2002

Romance at the edge of reason

"I always believed it was taboo to portray madness on stage, and I never dared to do it before," Hideki Noda writes in the program notes to "Urikotoba (Fighting talk/Words for sale)," his latest enterprise as writer/director, now playing at Spiral Hall in Tokyo's Aoyama district.
COMMENTARY
Feb 11, 2002

Fixing the Foreign Ministry

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi paid a high price for sacking Makiko Tanaka as foreign minister — a free fall in his Cabinet's popularity ratings. The debacle highlighted three major problems involving the Foreign Ministry:

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell