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JAPAN
Dec 8, 2004

Should English be compulsory in elementary schools?

After visiting an English class at an elementary school in Arakawa Ward, Tokyo, early this year, then education minister Takeo Kawamura told the principal, "In the near future, I think there should be English classes in all of Japan's elementary schools."
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 5, 2004

Existentialist/essentialist

SHINTO: The Way Home, by Thomas P. Kasulis, preface by Henry Rosemont Jr. Honolulu: The University of Hawaii Press, 2004, 188 pp., $15.00 (paper). One day several years ago, the author of this new book on Shinto took an early stroll through the grounds of Yasukuni Shrine. After "feeling the connectedness...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2004

EU frittering away influence in Korea

BRUSSELS -- One of the last best hopes for securing a solution to the current crisis on the Korean Peninsula is being killed by U.S. politicking and EU penny- pinching. U.S. neoconservatives are determined to drive North Korea into a corner, while the European Union bickers over "small change"' rather...
COMMENTARY
Nov 30, 2004

One voice on N. Korea issue?

Multilateral efforts to stop North Korea's nuclear-weapons program are gaining momentum. Leaders of the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, meeting bilaterally on the sidelines of the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Santiago, Chile, agreed that six-nation talks...
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2004

Asahara lawyers seek suspended trial

Lawyers for Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara said Monday they have asked the Tokyo High Court to suspend his appeal case on the grounds that he is incompetent to stand trial.
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2004

Ono eyes Iraq exit in December 2005

Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono raised the possibility Sunday that the Self-Defense Forces' mission in Iraq will end in late 2005.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2004

A new dawn for Myanmar?

Many Myanmar watchers might have been surprised when they got news of the pending release of nearly 4,000 prisoners who had been inappropriately jailed by the notorious Military Intelligence (MI) wing of former Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt's regime.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Nov 26, 2004

Blaming Detroit fans for riot outrageous

What a disgrace.
BUSINESS
Nov 22, 2004

Latest EU expansion poses more economic problems than benefits

Despite the political significance of completing the reunification of Cold War-divided Europe, this year's enlargement of the European Union creates few near-term economic benefits and poses major challenges for the region, an expert with a British institute told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Nov 19, 2004

China's discordant note on election eve

HONG KONG -- As Americans went to the polls, a section of the Chinese communist leadership clearly and unmistakably indicated its extreme distaste for the present, and likely future, policies of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Nov 18, 2004

Bush-Kerry presidential contest was one for the textbooks

WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush's re-election victory was a masterpiece of political strategy and execution by the Bush campaign team. There has been a feeling of relief throughout the nation that:
EDITORIALS
Nov 15, 2004

Auditors, don't be shy

Every annual report from the Board of Audit (BOA), an independent government body, makes dismal reading -- until you get to the bottom line. The latest says that 43 billion yen in taxpayer money was wasted and misused in fiscal 2003. That is the largest amount in 20 years. The report gives appalling...
EDITORIALS
Nov 12, 2004

Challenges to the just-opened Diet

A n extraordinary Diet session that opened Tuesday looks set for lively debates on a host of contentious issues, including the perennial problem of "politics and money." Adding to that is last month's reshuffle of the Cabinet and of top executive posts in both the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and...
MORE SPORTS
Nov 12, 2004

Top coach Bollettieri backhands rule changes

The last time I spent $1,500 in one hour, the scenario involved chips, cards, a green velvet table and blurred vision. $1,500 is also the fee for a one-hour, private lesson with unquestionably the world's most renowned tennis coach, Nick Bollettieri. Returns on investments of this nature can be significant...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2004

Okinawans feel state leaving them in limbo

Near the northeastern Okinawa Island fishing port of Nago, some 50 men and women in their 60s through their 90s have been staging a daytime sit-in at a makeshift camp for more than 200 days.
COMMENTARY
Nov 10, 2004

Dealing with the nuclear-threat hydra

LONDON -- The U.S. government has named Iran and North Korea as rogue states. Iran is accused of seeking to develop nuclear weapons and breaching the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). North Korea may already have a few nuclear devices and has announced its withdrawal from the NPT. The two states...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2004

Suffrage for foreigners gains momentum

After nearly a decade on the back burner, the issue of granting suffrage to foreigners in local-level elections has gained renewed interest due to recent moves by lawmakers.
EDITORIALS
Nov 8, 2004

Signpost to cooperation

As the world's leader, postelection America faces two challenges: One is to regain its reputation as a nation that is respected abroad; the other is to establish an enduring system of cooperation with the international community.
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2004

Troops ready for deployment; Iraq mission may be extended

The Defense Agency on Thursday ordered the Northeastern Army of the Ground Self-Defense Force to prepare to head to southern Iraq to take over Japan's humanitarian aid mission there -- an indication the government is prepared to extend troop deployment beyond its one-year mission.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2004

Sporadic rocket attacks on SDF camp don't constitute combat, officials say

While a rocket attack that damaged a storage container at the Ground Self-Defense Force camp in Samawah, southern Iraq, on Monday rattled the government, Japan remained adamant that the area is still a noncombat zone and that the troops can stay.
EDITORIALS
Nov 2, 2004

The world holds its breath

A mericans go to the polls on Tuesday, with President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry running neck in neck down to the wire. Once again it is an election too close to call -- a reminder of the 2000 race, whose final outcome hung in the balance for 36 days because of disputes over vote counting. One...
EDITORIALS
Oct 29, 2004

Blame game at the U.N.

Revelations about the U.N. Oil for Food Program get uglier and uglier. Designed to allow Iraq to collect revenues to pay for humanitarian supplies such as food and medicine, it appears to have been manipulated by Baghdad to reward friends of the regime and enrich the country's leadership. The damage...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2004

Bush foes keep fingers crossed

CAMBRIDGE, England -- While the world looks on, tens of millions Americans will go to the polls next Tuesday, along with millions of American expatriates, for what is being billed as the election of the century, or at least the most important election in our lifetime. And while non-Americans cannot directly...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Oct 26, 2004

Do you think global warming is behind the recent freakish weather?

Robert Ouderk Tourist, 36 There are about a million things that influence typhoons. In every year there is something extreme in the weather. If you talk to old people on any continent, they say what's been happening in the last 10 years they've never seen before. There are things changing fast.
COMMENTARY
Oct 26, 2004

British pension crisis looms

LONDON -- An important report on the pension crisis facing Britain was published Oct. 12. The report by the Pensions Commission, chaired by Adair Turner, a former director of the Confederation of British Industry, warned that, because of increased longevity and a shortfall in pension funds, British pensioners...
COMMENTARY
Oct 25, 2004

ODA looks wasted on China

This year Japan marks the 50th anniversary of the official development assistance program it launched after getting out of the postwar economic chaos. The Foreign Ministry's 2004 white paper on ODA boasts that Japan, now one of the world's largest ODA providers, has made major contributions to the economic...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 23, 2004

Hiring, firing by the book in nicest possible way

Tom Nevins, a leading expert on Japanese rules of employment and personnel policy and practices, must have the busiest "meishi" in business. Not only does it open up, offering four sides of information, but contains a discount card for the many books he has written. A name card within a name card, so...

Longform

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