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COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
May 20, 2003

Iraqi revival will cost Russia

MOSCOW -- It is a commonplace to say the war in Iraq was not only about former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein but also about oil. No matter how dangerous Hussein's regime was and how badly the White House needed an impressive victory for the 2004 elections, oil -- as today's key commodity -- was very much...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 10, 2003

Law unto himself meets Japanese country singer

Hearing a great cover of the country song "All You Ever Do Is Hurt Me" as he descended into Kenny's Country Music Station one Saturday evening in 2001, Chicago-born Dan Rosen wondered who the American woman singing it was. Imagine his surprise, then, when he looked at the stage and heard "this big, really...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 15, 2003

Has rightwing hijacked Japan abductee issue?

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who says he has been "humiliated" by Prime Minister Koizumi and will never again talk to him, formed a secret alliance with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, even as his regime was preparing thousands of liters of chemical weapons to drop over Japan's cities....
COMMENTARY
Apr 14, 2003

Implications of the Iraq war

HONOLULU -- Why diplomacy failed in Iraq remains a subject of intense debate. Even Baghdad's supporters could not argue that Iraq had fully complied with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, which found Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime in material breach of numerous earlier resolutions and promised...
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2003

Ishihara wins in landslide as gubernatorial elections close

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara was re-elected in a landslide in Sunday's nationwide local elections to choose governors and members of prefectural and municipal assemblies.
EDITORIALS
Apr 13, 2003

In search of the real al-Jazeera

The war in Iraq hasn't been easy for nonparticipants such as Japan to sort out. The most obvious villains were also technically the victims, and the perpetrators of hostilities have looked like invaders one minute, liberators the next. Perceptions and judgments could, and still do, shift like the wind....
Japan Times
JAPAN / GUBERNATORIAL ELECTIONS '03
Apr 9, 2003

Parties kept at distance in Kanagawa race

YOKOHAMA -- The last-minute candidacy of Yoko Tajima, a former House of Councilors lawmaker and celebrated feminist scholar, in the April 13 Kanagawa gubernatorial election has added a new wrinkle into an already crowded field.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 30, 2003

War in Iraq puts Ishihara on the defensive

When Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara finally announced March 7 his intention to run for re-election, some people in the media speculated that it was the end of the colorful politician-novelist's aspirations for national office.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2003

With Hu comes a hint of interesting times

HAINAN, China -- The 3,000-plus delegates to the annual two-week meeting of China's National People's Congress, or NPC, have packed their bags and gone home. It was an unusually important meeting this year. In addition to the usual rubber-stamping of the Chinese Communist Party's policy proposals for...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Mar 27, 2003

Moves by Clippers on free agents not as bad as they seem

NEW YORK -- Being that I like to consider myself a public-spirited citizen, every so often I feel duty-bound to call out some of those in the same virtuous vocation as yours truly.
BUSINESS / ON MANAGEMENT
Mar 25, 2003

The Rules of Clout: the whens and hows of granting favors safely

The story has passed its first blush now, and has faded in public memory into just another head-shaker about the apparently out-of-control lifestyles of CEOs. But the saga of how a star stock analyst, Jack Grubman, allegedly upgraded a stock as a favor for Sandy Weill of Citigroup, who in turn pressured...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 12, 2003

Preparing news reporters for surviving a nightmare

As the world stands on the brink of what could be the most dangerous war ever, there is one question facing those of us in the news media: How far should a journalist go to get the story? With rogue groups in parts of the world appearing to regard journalists as legitimate targets, the inherently unsafe...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 9, 2003

Yayori Matsui's legacy lives on -- as intended

Last weekend, a memorial gathering was held in Waseda for Yayori Matsui, the former Asahi Shimbun reporter and women's rights advocate, who died in December from liver cancer at the age of 68. A proper funeral service had been held two months earlier at the Shibuya church founded by Matsui's minister...
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2003

Miura wants district court to look into assault rap

Encouraged by the recent Supreme Court acquittal over the death of his wife in 1982, Kazuyoshi Miura said Friday he will file a request with the Tokyo District Court to re-examine a separate charge of assaulting her earlier that year.
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2003

Revised personal info bills win approval

The government approved a set of bills Friday for protecting personal information, paving the way for them to clear the current Diet session, after making major revisions to avert criticism that the legislation would restrict freedom of the press.
Japan Times
SUMO
Mar 7, 2003

Takanohana getting grip on life off the dohyo

Recently retired yokozuna Takanohana was the idol of the sumo world during the 1990s and his departure from the sport earlier this year leaves many wondering how it will carry on.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2003

Koizumi turns on majority opposing war

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, after relying heavily on public support for his political power base, is now turning against the majority of Japanese, who oppose a war against Iraq.
EDITORIALS
Mar 2, 2003

Never upon a time

An American social ecologist last month published the results of tests that proved, she said, how easy it is to implant false memories in people. Dr. Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California at Irvine reported that in one experiment, subjects were shown advertisements featuring pictures of the...
COMMENTARY
Mar 2, 2003

Dissent shaking institutions

LONDON -- I don't know what destruction may be visited on the Iraqis by the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein himself in the next few weeks. But it is clear that great waves of destruction are already roaring through the institutions of social...
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2003

EU envoy advocates talks on North Korea

OSAKA -- The European Union's ambassador to Japan voiced support Friday for efforts to resolve the standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear arms program via negotiations involving the United States, Japan, China, North Korea and South Korea.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 27, 2003

Environment Bushwhack

U.S. Civil War General William Sherman is credited with uttering the sage words, "War is hell." War is hell on the environment as well, and U.S. President George W. Bush's "War on Terror" is no exception. Ironically, the environment being degraded is America's own.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 23, 2003

You can be yourself, but not be understood

Identity has as much to do with socialization as it does with the circumstances surrounding one's birth. But since gender is considered an absolute, it has become the test of a society's willingness to allow its members to identify themselves. Except for hermaphrodites, humans are either male or female,...
COMMENTARY
Feb 13, 2003

No shortage of reasons why South Koreans dislike the U.S.

WASHINGTON -- Opinion polls from around the world show increasing numbers of people believe that the United States is arrogant, unilateralist and indifferent to key concerns of other nations -- even friends and allies. There is a rising belief that the U.S. has become a source of international tension...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NETWISE
Feb 13, 2003

Japanese get real on 2 Channel

It was 1975 when University of North Carolina graduate student Steve Bellovin developed a handful of short programs to facilitate communication via UUCP (Unix-to-Unix Copy) between the University of North Carolina and Duke University. The scripts were later rewritten in the computer language "C" and...
JAPAN / KANSAI BEAT
Feb 7, 2003

Osaka survey follows ethnic lines

OSAKA -- While Osaka's foreign residents are divided on the need to provide information for medical services in foreign languages, they are in general agreement that schools should teach more about the history, language and culture of other countries.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2003

No welcome mat for North Korea escapees

On a rainy night in fall 1996, a Japan-born tractor driver in North Korea dived into the fast and muddy current of the Yalu River on the border with China in a last-ditch attempt to escape the hunger and poverty that had plagued his family for decades.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2003

Video shorts become cafe fare

OSAKA -- The 20-odd people sipping coffee and tea in a shop in Chuo Ward here haven't come in just for the beverages. They also want to see free short videos made primarily by amateur filmmakers such as high school students and citizens' groups.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 1, 2003

Sakae Ishikawa

"Since my work is theoretical, I like to think I am part of the academic world," Sakae Ishikawa said. "Whether I can call myself a scholar or not is a delicate question."
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 2003

Can we trust 'Davos man'?

The rich, the powerful and the famous last week descended once again on the Swiss village of Davos for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF). This year, the assembled luminaries pondered the loss of "trust" that has sapped institutions worldwide. The question is a vital one. Of the many...
COMMUNITY
Jan 26, 2003

Whether crisis or not, sumo's show must go on

Of all the crises that the institution of sumo is said to be confronting -- and there are many -- yokozuna (grand champion) Takanohana's announcement last Monday of his retirement is being regarded by some as particularly ominous.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person