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EDITORIALS
Mar 20, 2002

A blessing in disguise for Mr. Kato

Corruption scandals have forced two influential members of the Liberal Democratic Party to leave the party in rapid succession. On Monday Mr. Koichi Kato, former LDP secretary general, resigned to take responsibility for the arrest of his one-time top aide, Mr. Saburo Sato, on charges of tax evasion....
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2002

Drain the swamp that breeds terrorism

This week U.S. President George W. Bush meets in Monterrey, Mexico with 50 other heads of state to discuss financing for Third World development. Last week, the president announced that he would ask Congress to set aside $5 billion for a special development-aid fund. This aid will be on top of the 10...
SOCCER / THE BALD TRUTH
Mar 19, 2002

Troussier leaves us scratching our heads

Question: When is an "open" training session not an "open" training session?
BUSINESS
Mar 19, 2002

State to offer banks deal on bad mortgages

The government plans to dispose of about 97 billion yen in unrecoverable home loans by asking private banks that guaranteed them to assume payment, a senior government official said Monday.
BUSINESS
Mar 19, 2002

Penta-Ocean picks new president

Penta-Ocean Construction Co. said Monday it has appointed Senior Managing Director Hideaki Kato as its president, replacing Renpei Mizuno, who will become chairman.
BUSINESS
Mar 19, 2002

Wal-Mart spells chaos for already shaken industry

The entry into Japan of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of the United States, the world's largest retailer, will throw the industry into chaos as it struggles for survival amid the deepening recession.
EDITORIALS
Mar 18, 2002

Steeling for a fight

During the Vietnam War, a peculiar strand of U.S. logic was revealed when an official argued that a village had to be destroyed to save it from the North Vietnamese. A version of that tortured thinking has been resurrected recently as U.S. officials have struggled to justify President George W. Bush's...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 17, 2002

The only certainty is change

THE UNITED STATES AND ASIA: Toward a New U.S. Strategy and Force Posture, by Zalmay Khalilzad, et al. RAND, 2001, 260 pp. (paper). Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Asia has enjoyed considerably more stability than has Europe, the other critical theater of the Cold War. It's fair to say that there...
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 17, 2002

The global village: small, but not always beautiful

The current No. 1 best seller in Japan is the cheery picture book "Sekai ga moshi hyakunin no mura dattara" ("If the World Were a Village of 100 People"; Magazine House), a retelling of a bit of "Netlore." Several years ago, the environmentalist Donella Meadows wrote a newspaper column on the global...
EDITORIALS
Mar 16, 2002

How to cooperate with Pakistan

In his meeting with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Thursday, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pledged continued economic assistance to that country. That promise carries greater significance than ever before, given Pakistan's strategic position as a forward base in the war on terrorism....
BUSINESS
Mar 16, 2002

Department store sales slipped 5.7% in February

Sales at Tokyo department stores fell 5.7 percent in February from the previous year to 142.2 billion yen, the Japan Department Stores Association said in a preliminary report Friday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Mar 15, 2002

There ain't no mountains high enough

During Golden Week of 1999, 26-year-old Tom Fearnehough and six friends skied down Mount Fuji. A Japanese man had attempted the same feat the year before and plummeted 2,000 meters to his death. Fearnehough and his friends, however, were better prepared.
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2002

Sasebo Heavy cuts profit outlook

Sasebo Heavy Industries Co. said Wednesday it has lowered its unconsolidated net profit forecast for the current business year through March 31 because it has been forced to return government money obtained by fraud.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 14, 2002

You win some and you lose some . . .

Ten years ago, on March 12, 1992, this column began its life on these pages. Though it's still "green," when compared with colleagues who have graced The Japan Times for several decades, Our Planet Earth has now appeared more than 245 times.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 13, 2002

What names, things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me

William Shakespeare
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Mar 12, 2002

JFA introduces new status for experienced refs

The Japan Football Association has this season introduced a new status for its top referees, called "S.R."
BUSINESS
Mar 12, 2002

'Economy watchers' see rise in business

Sentiment on the front lines of the workforce improved for the fourth month in a row in February, although pessimistic workers continue to outnumber those with an optimistic outlook, according to a government report released Monday.
COMMENTARY
Mar 11, 2002

Reform takes back seat to economic values

HONOLULU -- Despite the hype, Japan's antideflation package has failed once again to impress the critics. This failure is remarkable given the international attention that has focused on the proposal, the vote of no-confidence that had been delivered by the markets and the pressure applied by the U.S....
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2002

Japan may give up on towel curbs

Japan may not impose emergency curbs on towel products from China and Vietnam, due to a slowdown in imports, government officials said Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 9, 2002

Finding stories behind the headlines for translation

As the founding managing editors of Kotan Publishing, Gavin Allwright and Atsushi Kanamaru are a match made in the heaven and hell of small independent book making. Certainly they could not be more physically different, one so tall, well-meaning and -- dare I say -- well padded; the other small, neat...
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2002

Panel urges NTT units to cut access charges

A telecom ministry panel on Friday finalized a report that calls on NTT's regional carriers to cut access charges by more than 10 percent.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2002

Myanmar aid stalled but not finished

Although nearly a year has passed since Japan announced its controversial multibillion-yen aid plan for Myanmar, not a single penny has been disbursed to the cash-strapped, military-ruled Southeast Asian country.
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2002

UFJ Bank puts together bailout package for Aplus

UFJ Bank is putting the final touches on a 120 billion yen to 130 billion yen bailout package for debt-saddled consumer finance company Aplus Co., according to sources familiar with the case.
BUSINESS / ON THE FRONT LINE
Mar 7, 2002

Yen's rebound may be short-lived affair

The yen has regained some of its recent losses against the dollar, but the upturn could soon run out of steam.
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2002

Aoki identifies rehab sponsors

Bankrupt second-tier general contractor Aoki Corp. said Wednesday it has persuaded midsize general contractors Takamatsu Corp. and Komatsu Construction Co. to sponsor its court-led rehabilitation plan.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Mar 7, 2002

Xbox grapples for Japan footing

Imagine a Sumo tournament with a young Konishiki battling Akebono, the winner of which must then challenge Godzilla. Such a battle is going on right now in the video game arena.
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2002

Isetan to help out ailing Iwataya by buying new shares

Department store chain Isetan Co. said Tuesday it will provide financial and operational support to struggling Iwataya Department Store Co. to help the Fukuoka-based retailer rehabilitate under its wing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 6, 2002

A syllable becomes a word -- and a world

"When you say the word 'dog,' " the Swiss founder of modern linguistics Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) once remarked, "everyone imagines something different." But as Hasse Mitsuko's new one-woman show, "Voice," triumphantly demonstrates, even the simplest sounds, too, can be full of meaning.
EDITORIALS
Mar 3, 2002

Cutting workers some slack

You have to give Britain credit. It may be a tired shadow of its former muscular imperial self, but it still has the energy to invent a way to put that very tiredness on the map. Last week, Britons observed their second annual National Slacker Day. (That is, they were urged to observe it; figures on...

Longform

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