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EDITORIALS
May 12, 2001

Now it's time for specifics

During the past three days of Diet debates, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi led the charge for structural reform, taking the steam out of opposition attacks. The political dynamics in the Diet seemed to have changed suddenly, with the opposition sometimes having to go on the defensive against the enormously...
JAPAN
May 11, 2001

Japan Tobacco fined for tax evasion

Japan Tobacco Inc. has been fined 350 million yen in penalty taxes for failing to declare income totaling 900 million yen over fiscal 1997 and fiscal 1998, industry sources said Thursday.
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
May 11, 2001

A Hans-on look at Japan's soccer squad

ALMERIA, Spain -- When Japan played Spain in Cordoba on April 25, one spectator, who had driven up from his home on Spain's Costa del Sol, had a particular interest in the Japanese team.
JAPAN
May 10, 2001

Female on throne fine: Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday he would support a woman's ascension to Japan's Imperial Throne, throwing his weight behind a proposal within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to revise the current Imperial House Law.
COMMENTARY
May 10, 2001

No case for direct election

LONDON -- Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is reported to have said that the only change he wants to make in the Japanese Constitution is to insert an article providing that the Japanese prime minister be elected by the people of Japan rather than by the Diet. In this he is endorsing a proposal originally...
JAPAN
May 10, 2001

Koizumi rules out tax increases

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told the Lower House plenary session Wednesday that the government will not hike taxes to mend Japan's debt-ridden finances, but will instead try to curb spending and the issuance of state bonds.
BUSINESS
May 9, 2001

LDP puts emergency stock-buying body on hold

Hakuo Yanagisawa, minister in charge of financial affairs, indicated Tuesday that it will be difficult to propose legislation to establish a new government body to buy banks' shareholdings during the current Diet session.
JAPAN
May 8, 2001

Prime minister's policy speech

The following is a provisional translation of the policy speech given Monday by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the 151st session of the Diet:
JAPAN
May 8, 2001

Koizumi vows no sanctuaries from reform

The Prime minister's main policy points (Full text) The following is the gist of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's policy speech delivered Monday in the Diet.
EDITORIALS
May 6, 2001

Pressing for freedom

Last Thursday was World Press Freedom Day. Most people probably missed it here in Japan, where Thursday was also Constitution Day, part of the mass timeout we call Golden Week. (They probably didn't spend much time thinking about the Constitution, either, or the coincidence that freedom of the press...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 6, 2001

Funny hair beats dark blue suits and bad teeth

One can gauge the emotions now churning through certain portions of the Liberal Democratic Party by a tearful comment made by a member of the Hashimoto faction following the unveiling of a memorial statue of the late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi in Okinawa last week. The politician was not crying over...
COMMENTARY
May 5, 2001

Koizumi tidal wave may crest

The past 10 days have been a tumultuous period in Japanese politics. I refer, of course, to the series of events from the resignation of former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori to the election of Junichiro Koizumi as Liberal Democratic Party president and prime minister and the inauguration of the Koizumi...
EDITORIALS
May 4, 2001

Floodgates release mistrust

Prospects for the controversial Isahaya Bay reclamation project in Nagasaki Prefecture are growing dim given the mistrust generated by the government's politicization of the issue. The floodgates are to be opened next spring (at the earliest), following a round of scientific surveys. But no one, including...
COMMENTARY
May 4, 2001

It's Koizumi vs. the LDP

The public-approval ratings of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's new Cabinet skyrocketed to unprecedented levels of more than 80 percent. Koizumi pledged that his Cabinet would spare no effort in implementing his drastic reform plans.
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
May 4, 2001

Heresy of Koizumi key to his Cabinet's soaring popularity, Fukuda says

It is the heretical style of new Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that has sent his Cabinet's approval ratings soaring, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda.
JAPAN
May 4, 2001

Constitution turns 54 as battle lines drawn up for and against reform

Groups for and against revision of the Constitution held rallies in Tokyo on Thursday to mark the 54th anniversary of the supreme law amid increasing calls for its revision from political leaders, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
BUSINESS
May 2, 2001

Solution to China trade row sought

Trade Minister Takeo Hiranuma on Tuesday called on China to seek common ground on the trade friction that is emerging between the two countries, after Beijing's move last week to slow Japanese imports.
JAPAN
May 1, 2001

Cabinet paving way to female prime minister?

The new Cabinet breaks with tradition in several ways -- it has a record number of women, including the first female foreign minister, and a woman is third in line to take over the prime minister's job in an emergency.
COMMENTARY
May 1, 2001

Bush strains cross-Atlantic ties

LONDON -- In a world of disorder, fluidity and shifting power centers, one factor has remained fixed and constant for all states, all governments and all national leaders: the supreme importance of relations with the United States, and how to handle them.
LIFE / Travel
May 1, 2001

'Talking rot and taking the bull by the horns'

The events of June 1855 at Speakers' Corner inspired Karl Marx to declare that the English proletariat had begun their inexorable rise and that social revolution leading to a communist state was under way.
MULTIMEDIA / TALK OF THE TIMES
Apr 30, 2001

Top JAWOC official says FIFA should have studied local culture

Yasuhiko Endo assumed the post of general secretary of the Japan World Cup Organizing Committee (JAWOC) two years ago, a position that requires all the patience and diplomatic skills he acquired during his years serving in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2001

New Koizumi Cabinet wins record 86.3% public support

The Cabinet formed by newly elected Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi received a resounding 86.3 percent approval rating in an opinion poll released Saturday by Kyodo News, the highest ever for a Kyodo telephone poll conducted immediately after the formation of a new Cabinet.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 29, 2001

Pets in the big city

After a long, grueling day at the office, there's nothing better than returning home to a warm welcome. For some that means a freshly cooked meal, for others, a warm hug. For many, though, it's the excited bark of a dog and the affectionate nuzzle of a cat.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 29, 2001

Oral history exposes Japan's wartime enslavement of POWs

UNJUST ENRICHMENT: How Japan's Companies Built Postwar Fortunes Using American POWs, by Linda Goetz Holmes. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2001, 202 pp., $24.95. During World War II, nearly 50,000 U.S. soldiers and civilians became prisoners of the Japanese. Approximately half of this total "were...
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2001

Hiranuma reiterates themes toward economic revitalization

Reappointed Economy Minister Takeo Hiranuma said a comprehensive approach of combining the disposal of problem loans and assets, creating new businesses and implementing regulatory reforms is needed to revitalize the economy.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2001

Jospin still far from the top

PARIS -- Created 43 years ago by Gen. Charles de Gaulle, France's Fifth Republic has had 14 prime ministers but only five presidents. Most of these premiers have harbored an ambition to become head of state, but only two of them managed to fulfill this dream. Will Lionel Jospin be the third?
COMMENTARY
Apr 27, 2001

Calls for change heeded

In his year as prime minister, Yoshiro Mori caused public disillusionment with the Liberal Democratic Party through his gaffes and incompetence. The LDP's presidential election Tuesday, in which former Health and Welfare Minister Junichiro Koizumi beat former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto by a wide...
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2001

Koizumi names new Cabinet

Junichiro Koizumi, the president of the Liberal Democratic Party, was elected Japan's 56th prime minister in the Diet on Thursday and immediately inaugurated his new Cabinet.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo