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JAPAN
May 31, 2001

Seoul hopes for 'sincere' answer to textbook request

South Korean Ambassador Choi Sang Yong said Wednesday he hopes Japan will "respond sincerely" to Seoul's request to correct what it sees as factual errors in a controversial history textbook.
CULTURE / Film
May 30, 2001

Memories as microcosms

Directors, it's often said, keep making the same movie over and over, though the sameness is more evident with some than others. Akira Kurosawa was among the most eclectic directors of his generation, filming everything from Shakespearean drama ("Throne of Blood") to popcorn entertainment ("The Hidden...
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2001

How a legend is born

Born Lenny Hilton McGurr, he first picked up a spray can in 1970, aged 15. An only child from a lower-middle class Manhattan home, graffiti provided him with "a solution to my identity crisis" -- a crisis brought on by the news he was adopted.
JAPAN
May 30, 2001

Postwar Croatia looks to Japan

It was a surprise contact from the Croatian Foreign Minister in October that led the 62-year-old Drogo Buvac, formerly a journalist specializing in economics and international relations, to bethe new Croatian Ambassador to Japan.
EDITORIALS
May 29, 2001

Dead end in the Middle East

The violence between Israelis and Palestinians continues to escalate. Every day there are new reports of atrocities; the cycle of attack and retaliation is intensifying, the time between them shortening. The only reason for hope in this grim situation is the -- belated -- recognition by the government...
JAPAN
May 29, 2001

Australia's Downer urges Japan to help in East Timor

Visiting Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Monday urged Japan to participate in peacekeeping operations in East Timor in addition to providing financial assistance to the area.
JAPAN
May 29, 2001

Schools pushed to observe flag, anthem in apparent about face

When the Hinomaru and "Kimigayo" were recognized in law in 1999, the government assured the people that they would not be forced to observe them, apparently in light of the long-standing controversy over the symbols.
JAPAN
May 29, 2001

Koizumi plans to boost PR after town votes no on MOX

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Monday the government will have to work harder to win public support for a plan to burn plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel in Japan's nuclear plants, following the rejection in a plebiscite Sunday of the use of MOX fuel in Kariwa, Niigata Prefecture.
Events
May 29, 2001

Mayor feels heat as Olympic bid falters

OSAKA -- Officially, Osaka's quest for the 2008 Olympics is not over until the International Olympic Committee meets in Moscow in mid-July to name the host city.
SOCCER / World cup
May 29, 2001

Spirits banned for Confederations Cup

Spirits such as whisky and sake have been banned from being brought into stadiums at the upcoming Confederations Cup and beer will be the only alcohol to be sold, the Japanese World Cup Organizing Committee announced Monday in Tokyo.
JAPAN
May 29, 2001

State holds memorial service for unidentified war dead

The government held a memorial service Monday for unidentified Japanese who died overseas in World War II and whose remains were returned to Japan last year.
JAPAN
May 28, 2001

Nakasone predicts five-year run for Koizumi team

Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone predicted on a television program aired Sunday morning that the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will last about five years.
JAPAN
May 28, 2001

Niigata village says no to MOX fuel use at nuke plant

KARIWA -- A majority of residents of the village of Kariwa in Niigata Prefecture objected Sunday to a plan to use plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel at a local nuclear power plant, in Japan's first plebiscite on use of the controversial fuel, early returns showed.
BUSINESS
May 28, 2001

A successful model for privatizing Japan's special-purpose entities

In revitalizing the Japanese economy with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at the helm, Japan should look to France as a model for privatizing its special-purpose entities in light of years of debate and analysis that have resulted in little action.
JAPAN
May 27, 2001

Roland creator follows his own tune to international success

OSAKA -- From its humble beginnings almost 30 years ago, Roland Corp. today is one of the world's top electronic musical instrument manufacturers. In fact, nearly any musical performance features the ubiquitous brand name somewhere on stage.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 27, 2001

What, you've been living in a cave or something?

French cave explorer Michell Siffre is a man with firsthand knowledge of the mechanics of sleep. At 23, he lived for two months in a glacial cave, 120 meters beneath the surface. Down there, in the perpetual dark, in the absence of environmental time cues, he confirmed a then-emerging theory that the...
COMMUNITY
May 27, 2001

Sleep on this

* Insomnia is not a modern-day phenomena: Aristotle penned his "Sleep and Sleeplessness" in 350 B.C.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
May 27, 2001

Worth jumping off the train for

With the proliferation of bars and restaurants serving decent nihonshu, there is no need to make a big deal out of searching for a "proper" sake pub. Dotted throughout the sprawling underground shopping areas that lie below many of the major stations in Japan are little sake havens. Take, for example,...
JAPAN
May 26, 2001

Magnitude 8.1 earthquake possible along Nagano fault line, panel warns

Part of central Japan could suffer a magnitude 8.1 earthquake if a temblor occurs near the Itoi River-Shizuoka fault line, a government panel said in a report Friday.
JAPAN
May 26, 2001

State seeks sales delay of controversial textbook

The government has asked a publisher to postpone selling a controversial history textbook until local education boards have selected which books they will have schools use, Education Minister Atsuko Toyama said Friday.
BUSINESS
May 26, 2001

Two major banking groups suffer losses

Bad loans continued to make a dent in major banks' profits in fiscal 2000, even as the heat intensified to get to the bottom of the problem, according to fiscal earnings reports announced by Friday.
BUSINESS
May 26, 2001

Foreign investors calm down

Foreign investors remained net buyers of Japanese stocks for the ninth straight week last week, although their buying excess visibly narrowed.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2001

Afghans' prospects grow worse by the day

KABUL -- Surrounded by squalor, 9-year-old Naim Gul raises his hand to beg for a cheap pen.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2001

Blair's Labor looks set for the long haul

Britain's general election on June 7 is shaping up as the most important political event the country has seen since Margaret Thatcher began to change the way the country worked two decades ago.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 26, 2001

Thunderbird set to make history for second time

Charlotte Kennedy-Takahashi, as much at home in Tokyo's American Club as her local "izakaya," refutes any description of herself as the first non-Japanese woman to start her own business in Japan. But she does acknowledge herself as a pioneer, heading the first company founded by a foreigner to be granted...
JAPAN
May 26, 2001

Net overseas assets rise above 133 trillion yen

Japan's outstanding balance of net assets abroad came to 133.47 trillion yen at the end of last year, a 57 percent increase from the year before and the second-largest total on record, the Finance Ministry said Friday.
BUSINESS
May 25, 2001

Budget needs must freeze: Shiokawa

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa stressed Thursday he wants no increase in budget requests from ministries and agencies for fiscal 2002, so that government spending can be restrained.

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