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Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2004

IMF exec backs yen intervention

Japan's yen-selling intervention against the dollar is appropriate due to the country's limited policy options to rescue the economy from deflation, Horst Koehler, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said Wednesday in Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2004

U.N. forces may go to Iraq after power transfer: Annan

The United Nations Security Council may send multinational forces to Iraq to help stabilize the security situation after sovereignty is transferred to a provisional government at the end of June, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said Tuesday in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Feb 15, 2004

Don't tease the Russian bear

MOSCOW -- In this election year for both Russia and the United States, a major conflict is under way in Russo-American relations: the debate over the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Created to contain the Soviet Union during the Cold War, NATO had to redesign itself following the...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 15, 2004

Asian Sherlocks pursue exotic crimes

THE FENG SHUI DETECTIVE, by Nury Vittachi. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2004, 280 pp., $23.95 (cloth). THE LAST KASHMIRI ROSE, by Barbara Cleverly. New York: Bantam Dell, 2003, 314 pp., $6.99 (paper). The "feng shui detective," an elderly Singaporean named C.F. Wong, doesn't wear a trench coat or pack...
EDITORIALS
Feb 14, 2004

Free trade, without the sweetener

The conclusion of a free trade agreement between the United States and Australia has been greeted with mixed emotions. The deal has been applauded for significantly lowering duties on manufactured goods. It also strengthens the U.S.-Australia strategic partnership. But free trade advocates worry about...
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2004

McDonald's Holdings posts 7 billion yen net loss

McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan) said Friday it posted a net loss of 7.12 billion yen for 2003, with weak sales and heavy restructuring costs forcing the company into its second consecutive losing year.
BUSINESS
Feb 13, 2004

Coca-Cola Japan eyes new business strategy

The Japanese unit of The Coca-Cola Co. plans to strengthen its four main products through advertising campaigns and develop health drinks and other new products to respond more quickly to changing beverage trends.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2004

Bird flu lessons highlight change in Asia

SINGAPORE -- Avian flu has spread across 10 countries in Asia -- from China and Pakistan to Indonesia. A meeting in Bangkok at the end of January highlighted the flu's "regional dimension" as well as the necessity for a regional approach to eradicating it.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2004

Supplies from China's Daqing oil field halted

The supply of crude oil to Japan from China's huge Daqing oil field has been halted since January and is unlikely to resume due to increasing demand for energy in China.
COMMENTARY
Feb 11, 2004

SDF dispatch opens new era for Japan

The dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq marks a watershed in Japan's post-World War II security and defense policy. The SDF has joined U.N. peacekeeping operations several times since 1992. The latest deployment, though designed primarily to support humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in...
BASEBALL / MLB
Feb 10, 2004

Gaillard wants multiyear deal

Yokohama BayStars right-hander Eddie Gaillard, who signed a one-year contract with the understanding he would be used as a closer for the Central League team, said Monday he will request a multiyear deal.
BUSINESS
Feb 10, 2004

Zoellick set to discuss beef ban, WTO talks

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick is to arrive in Japan on Tuesday, according to Japanese officials.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2004

Resist the attempts to recognize Taiwan

TAIPEI -- The Cold War may be over in Europe, but it is very much still with us in Asia. The North-South division on the Korean Peninsula is still possibly the world's most dangerous political stand-off. Not far behind is the tension between China and Taiwan. A civil war between the two was frozen just...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2004

Diet curbs smoking in line with beefed-up health law

The Diet enacted a law last year to protect people from lifestyle-related illnesses, including cancer and other diseases caused by passive smoking, and now lawmakers have taken steps to protect themselves, removing all ashtrays from around the plenary chambers of both houses.
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Feb 5, 2004

Japan mulls its future with Koizumi

What stance should Japan take in a world dominated by the American superpower? Is Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi no more than an errand boy for bullyboy George W. Bush, as a Shukan Gendai headline implied last March? Is he an incompetent know-nothing who has casually thrown away Japan's precious pacifist...
EDITORIALS
Feb 5, 2004

Set to resume political donations

Nippon Keidanren, or the Japan Business Federation, is moving toward the resumption of donations to political parties. As a preliminary step, the organization has published a report evaluating key policies of the two largest parties, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Japan. The...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 4, 2004

It's now or never for new Giants catcher

The story made headlines on the front page of several Japanese sports newspapers Jan. 25: The Yomiuri Giants in a money trade bought the contract of catcher Katsunori Nomura from the Hanshin Tigers, and just why would the transfer of a back-up backstop who, in fact, did not play a game at the varsity...
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2004

Seiyu to push Olsen twins' products

A clothing line linked to Hollywood celebrity twins Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen will be sold at 90 supermarkets operated by Seiyu Ltd., beginning in August, Seiyu and U.S. partner Dualstar Entertainment Group said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Feb 4, 2004

The not-so cordial entente

LONDON -- 2004 marks the 100th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale -- the accord between Britain and France of 1904 that marked a new era of friendship, the ending of numerous disputes and, as it turned out, intimate military alliance in two world wars.
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2004

Sony gets serious about chip production

Sony Corp. said Monday the Sony group of companies will spend 120 billion yen in fiscal 2004 to manufacture high-end semiconductors at production sites run by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., IBM Corp. and Toshiba Corp.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2004

Koizumi to open Yankees' season

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will throw out the ceremonial first pitch when the New York Yankees begin their 2004 season March 30 in the Tokyo Dome, event organizers said Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2004

Electronic toll system users on rise

The Electronic Toll Collection system, introduced in 2001 to collect highway fees without drivers having to stop, is gaining in popularity due to discounts for installing the system and reduced fees for users.
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 1, 2004

Jubilo's tough draw

Japan's Jubilo Iwata, which has been placed in arguably the toughest group for the first stage of the 2004 Asian Football Confederations Champions League, announced on Friday the schedule for six of its matches in Group E.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past