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EDITORIALS
Feb 8, 2005

Concern over the first vCJD case

Japan last week confirmed its first case of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), the human version of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The disease is said to spread through the consumption of beef products from cows infected with BSE. In Britain, which reported a high...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 8, 2005

Foreign teachers have lucky escape

When news of the tsunami disaster in south Asia began to filter through on Dec. 26, there was good reason for friends and employers of the many English-language teachers in Japan to fear the worst.
COMMENTARY
Feb 7, 2005

Bet on the sustainable option

In the 20th century, science and technology was aimed at contributing to economic development and growth. In the 21st century, though, it must seek to promote sustainable development.
EDITORIALS
Feb 7, 2005

Banking on safer cash cards

In recent months, Japan has been hit by a new wave of crime: cash-card forgery. According to banks, cash withdrawals by forged cards have amounted to hundreds of millions of yen. At stake is the security of deposits. Action is urgently needed on two fronts: crime prevention and loss compensation.
Japan Times
Features
Feb 6, 2005

Calls for change as WHS status threatens one of Japan's gems

The breathtaking mountain landscape of the Kii Peninsula, and its ancient temples, monasteries and shrines have captivated the Japanese people for more than 1,000 years.
BUSINESS
Jan 26, 2005

Vodafone cuts off users of crime-linked phones

Vodafone K.K. has begun unilaterally terminating services for prepaid mobile phones that have been used in fraudulent billing and other crimes, company officials said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jan 26, 2005

Banks to get tougher on card forgery

The Japanese Bankers Association urged its 180 member banks Tuesday to reinforce measures protecting depositors from growing bank-card forgery.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2005

Lineage of the Asian community concept

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Last fall the embryonic concept of an Asian community appeared to gain some momentum. Now, of course, other topics, mainly the tragedy of the Dec. 26 tsunamis, have monopolized public attention, but the vision of a broader Asian community deserves further discussion.
Japan Times
Features
Jan 23, 2005

Women to the fore in study of statues

At midday on March 29, 1914, a yacht named Mana, flying the British colors, dropped anchor in the tiny inlet of Cook's Bay, Hanga Roa. On board was an anthropologist who would carry out the first systematic survey of the Easter Island statues, and who would also record the last memories of a dying generation...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2005

Recognize pair as abductees: kin

Relatives of two people who disappeared in the 1960s and '70s urged the government Monday to officially recognize them as having been abducted to North Korea.
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2005

Let cops know addresses of sex offenders, Koizumi says

is necessary," Koizumi told reporters at the Prime Minister's Official Residence in Tokyo. "There would be problems if you let neighbors know (their addresses), but at least police should know them."
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 10, 2005

Why does CCP still fret over the news?

LONDON -- A short while ago, when I was in Beijing, I wanted to keep up with some political development in Hong Kong. I turned on my computer and went to the Asia-Pacific page of the BBC's Web site. Or at least I tried to; I had forgotten that the BBC site is blocked in China.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2005

Underground economy expected to boom

"No money and you're dead" is essentially what yakuza characters in novels and comic books say, and they mean that literally.
COMMENTARY
Jan 1, 2005

Aim for change, not utopia

The 20th century was an era of utopias. Until the mid-1970s, many young Japanese believed that a socialist society was a utopia. While I was a student at a prefectural high school in Kyoto in the late 1950s, a classmate of mine with North Korean parentage returned to his homeland, which he thought was...
EDITORIALS
Dec 29, 2004

Catastrophe without warning

The massive onshore surges of seawater from tsunamis triggered by the mega-earthquake that struck off northwestern Indonesia on Sunday have caused heavy damage across southern Asia. They are a deadly reminder of how vulnerable humanity is to the destructive forces of nature.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 26, 2004

Foreign language of Japanese politics

TALKING POLITICS IN JAPAN, by Ofer Feldman. Portland: Sussex Academic Press, 2004, 214 pp., $65 (cloth). One of the greatest frustrations of studying the Japanese language is constantly being lectured by native speakers of the language, as well as fluent foreigners, on its inherent difficulty and grammatical...
BUSINESS
Dec 23, 2004

Toshiba forms a group to push HD DVD format

Toshiba Corp. and its partners formed a group Wednesday to promote their HD DVD format for next-generation DVDs as the battle for a global standard continued.
COMMENTARY
Dec 11, 2004

At last, Asia is taking shape

HONOLULU -- For generations, East Asia has been identified as a geographical entity -- it was a region on a map -- but it lacked a coherent identity beyond that. That is changing. East Asia is laying the foundation for an international presence that will rival that of the European Union. Last month's...
CULTURE / Film
Dec 8, 2004

Working on a tough shoot

Whether it's a movie, a TV show, a commercial or even a music video, a key decision is choosing where the cameras will roll. To that end, members of film crews are often dedicated to hunting down locations that will satisfy both the directors and producers, and this is where film commissions can play...
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2004

FSA eyes penalties for data leaks

The Financial Services Agency is taking a hard look at legal changes that would allow it to order financial institutions to suspend operations if they are found to have used customer information for nonbusiness purposes or fail to take proper steps to prevent such leakage, sources familiar with the matter...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 30, 2004

Healthy food and immigration

Immigration update Tony writes regarding a recent Lifelines column which instructed foreign residents with immigration issues living in the metropolitan area and surrounding prefectures to head for the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau at 5-5-30 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo (03-5796 7112 -- Web site: www.moj.go.jp/ENGLISH/IB/ib-18.html...
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2004

Abductees' kin seek more answers

Relatives of Japanese abductees taken to North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s submitted Thursday 62 questions and points they consider suspicious in Pyongyang's latest explanation of the fates of their kin.
COMMUNITY / LIFELINES
Nov 23, 2004

Cop capers, sailing and tattoos

More police capers Ian writes in to share some unpleasant experiences he has had with the police here, and wonders if any readers have had similar problems.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2004

More effort urged to curb youth drug use

The man was 17 when he took speed for the first time, experimenting with a high school friend by inhaling the amphetamine in smoke form.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?