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JAPAN
Jul 8, 2003

Tests find no link between arsenic, navy

The Environment Ministry said Monday that no evidence has been found to prove the link between contaminated water in a well in Kamisu, Ibaraki Prefecture, and chemical weapons buried in the area by the Imperial Japanese Navy after World War II.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2003

Ministry wants to add diseases to emergency-response list

A health ministry task force has compiled a report recommending that smallpox, botulism, tularemia and other illnesses should be added to a list of infectious diseases subject to special government measures to cope with possible bioterrorism.
COMMENTARY
Jul 5, 2003

Tony Blair: a casualty of war

LONDON -- As the grim business of policing a vanquished Iraq drags on, it seems less and less likely that Prime Minister Tony Blair's authority over party and country will survive. For the first time since Labour's landslide victory in 1997 the Conservatives are nudging ahead of Labour in opinion polls...
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2003

Welfare breaks for elderly divorcees hit

A welfare ministry proposal to ease the financial burden of elderly divorced women has come up against some heavy criticism.
BUSINESS
Jul 1, 2003

Average monthly wage rises 0.5%

The average monthly wage at companies in Japan stood at 281,862 yen in May, up 0.5 percent from a year earlier and the first rise in 25 months, the government said Monday.
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2003

Dangerous shock symptoms affect 10% of food allergy sufferers: poll

One in 10 people diagnosed with a sudden allergy to certain foods suffer life-threatening shock symptoms, according to a health ministry survey report made available over the weekend.
COMMUNITY
Jun 29, 2003

Cherchez la femme

Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing. -- Proverbs 18:22
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2003

Child abuse consultations hit record 24,195 last year

The number of consultations concerning child abuse at children's counseling centers across the nation rose to a record high 24,195 in fiscal 2002, up 921 from the year before, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2003

Farm ministry to focus on food safety, consumer protection

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry unveiled a new government food safety policy Friday that will mark a shift toward a more consumer-oriented approach.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2003

Farm ministry to focus on food safety, consumer protection

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry unveiled a new government food safety policy Friday that will mark a shift toward a more consumer-oriented approach.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2003

Farm ministry to focus on food safety, consumer protection

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry unveiled a new government food safety policy Friday that will mark a shift toward a more consumer-oriented approach.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2003

SARS is under control: WHO

GENEVA -- The World Health Organization effectively declared the end to the global spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome Wednesday, while noting it needs to continue surveillance for at least a year.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 19, 2003

A sensitivity course in the frigid effects of hiesho

"Hey, what's with all the clothing during the hottest months of the year?" That's my friend Alan's observation of the working women populace in Japan. Nagasode (long sleeves), uwagi (outer jacket) and suttokingu (nylons) are the norm for so many of them, despite the unbearable heat and humidity of a...
EDITORIALS
Jun 18, 2003

The pension system in peril

Japan's protracted economic slump, combined with the accelerated aging of the population, is putting increasing strains on the public pension system. The government-managed corporate-sector pension program, which now has 30 million subscribers, registered a large deficit in fiscal 2001. For the first...
EDITORIALS
Jun 14, 2003

Hope for Germany's recovery

The German economy, long the engine of Europe, has been sputtering of late. The nation's gross domestic product has registered little or no growth, the unemployment rate is climbing and, for the second consecutive year, the government budget deficit will top the 3 percent limit set by the European Union....
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2003

State of the 'empire'

BANGKOK — China has suffered most from the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus with thousands of victims, a few hundred deaths and new cases being uncovered daily as the disease spreads from major cities to the countryside.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2003

Medicines for colds linked to potentially deadly pneumonia

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has identified 28 cases of pneumonia since 1996 that it suspects were side effects of nonprescription drugs for common colds, it was learned Saturday.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2003

Medicines for colds linked to potentially deadly pneumonia

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has identified 28 cases of pneumonia since 1996 that it suspects were side effects of nonprescription drugs for common colds, it was learned Saturday.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2003

Medicines for colds linked to potentially deadly pneumonia

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has identified 28 cases of pneumonia since 1996 that it suspects were side effects of nonprescription drugs for common colds, it was learned Saturday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 16, 2003

LDP ready to aid life insurers

The ruling coalition is ready to endorse a controversial draft bill that would allow troubled life insurance companies to reduce payouts promised to policyholders, the Liberal Democratic Party said Thursday.
EDITORIALS
May 12, 2003

A great leap forward in China?

Back-to-back calamities are forcing China's leaders to adopt new approaches to governance. A government accustomed to ruling without challenge is now under pressure to restore public confidence in its leadership. Hopes that this might lead to more broad-based political reform are premature, however....
BUSINESS
May 10, 2003

Sorting out the recent fuss over pension funds, share prices

Thought Tokyo stock prices could fall no further? Think again. Corporate pension managers are poised to sell between 2 trillion yen and 3 trillion yen worth of stocks in the coming months -- and think tanks estimate that figure could double.
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2003

Postscript: The man who tore down the cloak of silence

BEIJING -- When SARS broke out in Guangdong Province, the government chose to keep quiet about it. It was a mistake that would not only endanger the world's health and economy, but also undermine the credibility of the Chinese government itself.
COMMENTARY / World
May 7, 2003

Careworn Blair turns 50

LONDON -- As British Prime Minister Tony Blair passes his 50th birthday, the almost boyish bounce that characterized him in the years when he got to the top of the Labour Party, reformed it and then won two crushing general election victories has been replaced by a more careworn appearance. This may...
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2003

Hong Kong's blurred sense of identity had a role in SARS fiasco

HONG KNG -- In the end, it took the Chinese Communist Party's nine-member Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) 5 1/2 months to take a public stand on handling the current atypical pneumonia crisis with much greater openness. Guangdong Province experienced the first outbreak of the previously unknown disease...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 1, 2003

Radioactive fallout courtesy of U.S.

In 1789, a German chemist, Martin Heinrich Klaproth, announced that he had discovered a new element in the dull black mineral pitchblende. He named it after the planet Uranus, itself discovered only eight years earlier.
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2003

TELL struggles amid foreigner influx

Tokyo English Life Line, a telephone counseling service for non-Japanese that celebrated its 30th anniversary this month, sees a need for such services increasing in line with the growing number of foreigners living in Japan.

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