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JAPAN
Jun 5, 2001

Poison toads threaten rare Iriomote cats

The endangered Iriomote wildcats on Okinawa Prefecture's Iriomote Island face a new threat from an invasion of poisonous marine toads, the Environment Ministry said Monday.
COMMENTARY
Jun 4, 2001

Respects due to those who died for Japan

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has repeatedly said he will go to Yasukuni Shrine to worship on Aug. 15. He will be going, he says, to pay his respects to the spirits of those who have given their lives for their country. Present-day Japan exists thanks to the sacrifices of these people, Koizumi says,...
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2001

'Miyadaiku' carpenter laments loss of traditional knowledge

HOFU, Yamaguchi Pref. — Shoji Matsuura communicates with the dead.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 3, 2001

High style at a price that suits

Makoto Kobara is rather pleased with his Comme des Garcons suit. Yet the 24-year-old's favorite thing about it is not the chic design or subtle color, but the fact that it cost him under 26,000 yen.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 3, 2001

Housing for human beings

THE JAPANESE HOUSE: Architecture and Interiors. Photographs by Noboru Murata, text by Alexandra Black. Boston/Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing, 2000, 216 pp., copiously illustrated, 4,500 yen. Though the architect Le Corbusier learned a lot from Japan, he could not have been thinking of this country when he...
CULTURE / Music
Jun 3, 2001

Jamming outside the lines

The complexity of jazz is both its strength and its weakness, turning off many would-be listeners with the demands of its difficult, challenging forms, while fascinating fans with its open-ended dynamism. For many jazz players, the tension between having to entertain and wanting to push boundaries is...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 3, 2001

Old-books trade turns over a new leaf

In case you haven't noticed, the little used bookshop around the corner has some serious competition. The new kids on the block are so spacious, brightly lit and spotlessly clean that they could easily be mistaken for convenience stores.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2001

Can Koizumi turn popularity into power?

Looking at Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's popularity and its spillover effect on the Liberal Democratic Party, one has to be impressed. Recent highly popular actions, such as the prime minister's decision not to challenge a court decision awarding compensation to leprosy victims, only add to the...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 3, 2001

Lessons in crisis mismanagement

All my life I have been behind the times. I wore my bell-bottoms for years after the fashion had died, and in fact only abandoned them after they had shrunk up and become sort of bell-knickers.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 3, 2001

From simple folk to the royal couple

When the American folk revival landed on the shores of Japan in the early '60s, it gave rise to the "modern folk" movement. Japanese musicians copied The Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary, and it was only a matter of time before students started writing songs that reflected their own situations....
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2001

Japan and China prepare to discuss emergency import curbs

Japan and China will hold working-level talks Monday in Beijing over emergency curbs that Japan has imposed on three farm products imported mainly from China, the Agriculture Ministry said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2001

Korean wins state medical payout

OSAKA — The Osaka District Court ordered the Osaka Prefectural Government on Friday to pay a Korean survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima medical allowances that it had stopped paying after the man returned home from Japan.
EDITORIALS
Jun 2, 2001

NATO's Budapest love fest

It has been a good week for NATO. There was more common ground than disagreement at meetings between member foreign ministers in Budapest and at the five-day NATO Parliamentary Assembly, which convened in Vilnius, Lithuania. There were even tangible accomplishments on such thorny subjects as Turkey and...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2001

AIDS in prisons: a spreading problem

NEW YORK -- Several investigations worldwide have shown that the human immunodeficiency virus responsible for AIDS is spreading rapidly in prisons, where the rate of infection has been found to be several times higher than in the general population. Prisons have become one of the most potentially dangerous...
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2001

Greece hopes renewal of air links will spur bilateral ties with Japan

An agreement reached between Japan and Greece earlier this week to improve air links by code sharing will hopefully spur bilateral ties, Grigoris Niotis, Greek deputy foreign minister, said in Tokyo on Friday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 1, 2001

Nagging doubts about nuclear energy

In a landmark referendum on Japan's nuclear-fuel recycling program, held last Sunday in Kariwa, Niigata Prefecture, a majority of village residents voted against a Tokyo Electric Power Co. project to use plutonium as reactor fuel at its nuclear-power plant there. The so-called pluthermal program, which...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2001

New Zealand tailors defense to real needs

Some Kiwis can fly -- very fast. But the New Zealand government wants to clip their wings.
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2001

Industry all for farm goods curbs: ministry

The number of farmers and farm products sellers who support import curbs on three agricultural products overwhelmed those against the action in written comments sent to the government, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Thursday.
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jun 1, 2001

Japanese rat snake

* Japanese name: Aodaisho
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 1, 2001

Japan debuts with 3-0 victory

NIIGATA -- Japan got off to a good start in the Confederations Cup, beating Canada 3-0 in a Group B game Thursday night at Big Swan Niigata Stadium.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2001

Koizumi urges adoption of 'e-voting' in local polls

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi urged a government information technology panel Thursday to consider ways to introduce electronic voting in local elections, officials said.
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

Italy wants Japanese to take in its countryside

The Italian tourism industry hopes to bring more Japanese visitors to less-traveled destinations in the country's rural areas, a senior official of the Italian State Tourism Board said.
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

Time ripe for collective defense: panelists

Panelists at a symposium on Japan-U.S. relations held in Tokyo this week agreed that Japan should lift its ban on engaging in collective defense as both nations seek to strengthen security ties.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2001

Computer firms embrace Linux

IBM Corp., Fujitsu Ltd., Hitachi Ltd. and NEC Corp. said Wednesday they have agreed to develop a computer operating system for corporate use by enhancing the open source Linux operating system.
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

Tanaka family villa seized in '99, asset report shows

The government in December 1999 seized a villa owned by a firm operated by the family of the late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

ODA to be reviewed for '02 budget

The government will review its official development assistance when compiling the fiscal 2002 budget, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
May 31, 2001

Baseball and junk food

www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/index.html "Professional baseball is played at the edge of biological time," the Exploratorium says, "just within a human's ability to react." The pages then go on to demonstrate, not explain, how the pros cope with earning a living on the edge. Games allow you to learn...

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