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Events
Jun 12, 2001

Kansai rent remains stable despite drop in land prices

KYOTO — Despite a sharp drop in land prices in the Kansai region, rents for residential properties have failed to come down to comparable levels, a trend many experts attribute to a mix of regional and traditional factors.
EDITORIALS
Jun 12, 2001

Discord in the Foreign Ministry

The Foreign Ministry has been mired in an internal struggle between Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka and senior ministry bureaucrats. The faceoff shows no signs of ending, although Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has issued a warning to both Mrs. Tanaka and Vice Foreign Minister Yutaka Kawashima. Mrs....
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2001

Recession looms as GDP shrinks 0.2%

Japan's economy shrank during the last three months of fiscal 2000, according to government data released Monday, confirming fears that the world's second-largest economy is on the brink of another recession.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2001

Koizumi calls for Africa ODA study

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday stressed the need for future detailed discussion and study of official development assistance to African countries.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2001

Cambodia seeks aid to cut army

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday asked Japan to provide $15 million toward the country's efforts to cut its military and provide discharged soldiers with education and job-training projects.
LIFE / Travel
Jun 12, 2001

Fujiya Hotel: At ease in a Miyanoshita time capsule

Most visits to the Hakone area of Kanagawa Prefecture begin at the heavily touristed town itself, from where numerous well-trodden routes head off through the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park of which it is the official center.
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 10, 2001

Lemerre surprised by Nakata's absence

YOKOHAMA -- France manager Roger Lemerre on Saturday expressed his surprise and disappointment at the news of Japan midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata's departure from the national team ahead of Sunday's final of the Confederations Cup.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2001

SDF to go on peacekeeping duty for U.N.

The Defense Agency is planning to dispatch personnel to take part in the key operations of U.N. peacekeeping forces without reviewing one of the five conditions Japan attached to a 1992 peacekeeping law that restricts the bearing of arms, agency sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2001

Waseda Egyptologist says key to future is learning from past

A free ride to the Middle East on an oil tanker may not be the flashiest start to a career. But for Waseda University professor Sakuji Yoshimura, the voyage he organized to Egypt in 1966 was the first step in what has become 35 years of archaeological exploration born from a childhood fascination with...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 10, 2001

All problems, great and small

Up-to-the-minute trends and subjects are often incorporated into the story lines of television drama series. Unfortunately, topicality is usually given more consideration than relevance, and the dramas themselves rarely explore the reality of problems such as AIDS or teenage depression.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Jun 10, 2001

Sake gold standards shifting

Last week, on May 30, the Zenkoku Shinshu Kanpyo Kai, or National New Sake Tasting Competition, was held in Hiroshima. This year 1,133 sake that made it through the nine regional competitions were tasted blindly by a panel of government-employed, highly trained judges. Out of these, 382 were given a...
COMMUNITY
Jun 10, 2001

Learning to live in a house with attitude

Architects Ben Matsuno and Kumi Aizawa have a dream in which homes are not just for sleeping and serve as more than just private spaces for residents only. But the husband and wife team doesn't intend to sit back and wait for society to change. By forming Life & Shelter Co., they're putting their architectural...
BUSINESS
Jun 9, 2001

Cambodia set to get aid package

An international conference to be held in Tokyo on Tuesday and Wednesday is likely to agree to provide Cambodia with some $500 million (about 60.22 billion yen) in aid, sources close to the meeting said Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 9, 2001

Falling off a Kawasaki cliff, building an ashram

Sister Eugenie Fumiko Fujita went to bed toward the end of last year's rainy season, her life enlivened by a month of mold but still basically in order. She awoke before dawn July 8 to mayhem, her home hanging off the edge of a landslip.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

Diet group sees U.K. democracy in action

Ambassador Stephen Gomersall joined fellow Britons and a number of Japanese observers to witness the results of the election roll in over a buffet breakfast Friday morning at the British Embassy.
EDITORIALS
Jun 8, 2001

No answers in Nepal

The mountainous little Himalayan country of Nepal exploded into the headlines last week on the strength of an incident as bizarre, as mysterious -- and as bloody -- as the final scene of "Hamlet." On Friday, June 1, Nepal's King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev was shot to death along with his wife and seven...
BUSINESS
Jun 8, 2001

Japan-Chile free-trade deal urged

Chile and the government-affiliated Japan External Trade Organization called for forming a comprehensive free-trade agreement between the two countries as soon as possible in their joint studies released Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2001

Japan tipped to pledge millions to AIDS fund

Japan is considering contributing around $100 million to a United Nations-proposed fund to fight AIDS, which is spreading particularly rapidly in impoverished sub-Saharan Africa, government sources said Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 7, 2001

Move ahead on postal privatization

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is a longtime advocate of postal-service privatization. This week his dream has taken a first step toward coming true. At its first meeting on Monday, the postal committee, an advisory panel to the prime minister, confirmed that the three postal services (mail, savings...
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2001

Obituary: Kiyonaga Ito

Kiyonaga Ito, a Western-style painter specializing in pictures of female nudes and recipient of the Order of Culture, died Tuesday evening of heart failure at a hospital in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, his family said Wednesday. He was 90.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jun 7, 2001

Jeffords bombshell overshadows tax bill

It has been interesting to watch the blame game explode in the week since U.S. Sen. James Jeffords decided to leave the Republican Party. In the immediate aftermath, there was a sense of disbelief, mixed with a bit of "we'll get a Democrat to switch and all will be well."
BUSINESS
Jun 7, 2001

Matsushita joins with U.S. firm on broadband phone

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. has teamed up with Jetstream Communications Inc. of the United States to launch a phone system that carries multiple phone numbers on a single line equipped with Internet access, the company said Wednesday.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji