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COMMENTARY
Oct 7, 2003

Japan's diplomatic needs

In his second Cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi retained both Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and Defense Agency Director General Shigeru Ishiba. This promises continuity in Japan's foreign and defense policy, at least for the next three years in which Koizumi is likely to serve as...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 7, 2003

Time to come clean on foreign crime wave

For those who read and watch the Japanese press, these are scary times. Foreign crime is allegedly on the rise, members of the new Koizumi Cabinet are making clear policy statements against it, and the National Police Agency is ready for a new push.
EDITORIALS
Oct 6, 2003

Can Rengo stand up for the weak?

Over the years the image of Japanese trade unions as labor's standard bearer has become steadily tarnished. Their activities no longer hit the headlines except during annual labor-management negotiations. Even the name "shunto" -- the spring labor offensive -- now seems almost irrelevant because the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2003

Japan Highway president is sacked

Land, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Nobuteru Ishihara told Japan Highway Public Corp. President Haruho Fujii on Sunday to hand in his resignation Monday to take responsibility for the semigovernmental firm's controversial balance sheet.
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2003

Industry sounds out of key in its campaign against P2P

WASHINGTON -- The recording industry seems to believe that there is no greater enemy of all that is good and wonderful than peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing technologies. Thus the Recording Industry Association of America's campaign to sue grandkids and grandparents who violate copyrights by swapping...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2003

British National Party must be stopped

BRUSSELS -- There has been a step-change in the activity and success of the British National Party. It is now a serious element in electoral politics. Driven by new ways to attract voters, party members no longer cry "repatriation." Instead, their slogan "pensioners before asylum seekers" is aimed at...
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2003

China girds for wider influence in Asia

HONG KONG -- China's efforts to defuse the North Korean nuclear crisis have been trumpeted in headlines around the world, but it has been just as active in other parts of the region, a reflection of its increasing regional influence.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Oct 6, 2003

Why short-circuit ourselves in a battery-operated world?

We live today in a world of information and communications technology. For all the wonders it can work, it is actually quite fragile, dependent on a whole host of things to ensure it operates smoothly.
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2003

Man sought over tax evasion involving K-1 held in U.S.

A Bangladeshi man implicated in a tax evasion case involving a Japanese promotion firm for the K-1 martial arts organization has been arrested in New York on suspicion of assault, sources said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2003

SDP's scandal-hit Tsujimoto rules out run for old Diet seat

Kiyomi Tsujimoto, an outspoken former opposition lawmaker indicted on charges of defrauding the state, indicated Saturday that she will not stand in the House of Representatives election expected to be called next month.
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2003

Japan to offer $5 billion over four years to Iraq

The government is considering a plan to provide around $5 billion, or about 550 billion yen, to help reconstruct Iraq in the four years beginning in fiscal 2004, government sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2003

Radiologist gave 254 people excess doses at state hospital

A total of 254 patients at a state-run hospital in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, were administered radiation doses in excess of the amount prescribed by doctors over a seven-year period between 1988 and 1999, according to government and hospital officials.
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2003

1,400 of museum's works not valued

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo has failed to appraise 1,400 works of art, or about one-third of its entire collection, according to a document submitted by local government auditors that was obtained by Kyodo News on Saturday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Oct 5, 2003

Winning smile

Think back to 1984, before the Japanese government had recruited armies of foreign-born English instructors to internationalize the countryside and when gaijin commentators on television were all but unheard of.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 5, 2003

Ima Robot: 'Ima Robot'

Ima RobotIma Robot
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2003

Lead units of SDF to be sent to Iraq as early as December

Japan will dispatch an advance unit of Ground Self-Defense Force troops to Iraq as early as December under a special law to support the rehabilitation of the country, government sources said Saturday.
Events
Oct 5, 2003

KANSAI: Who & What

British Council offers info on studying in U.K.: The British Council Osaka is hosting an education fair for people who wish to study in Britain between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Oct. 13 at Grand Cube Osaka (Osaka Kokusai Kaigijo) in the city's Kita Ward.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Oct 5, 2003

Fun at Asagiri is as easy as ichi, ni, san

It's 9 a.m. and the gentle rolling piano intonations of the Rajio Taiso theme start up. A man stands at the foot of a hill on a small raised platform and begins the count: "Ichi, ni, san, shi . . ." The hill is covered with tents from which several thousand people slowly emerge. They twist sideways,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 5, 2003

Lone wolf, center-stage

The plays of Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724), who is often called Japan's Shakespeare, are a staple of the kabuki world and countless productions of his work have been staged over the centuries. However, actor Rintaro Haryu is determined to make his interpretation of Chikamatsu a unique one.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 5, 2003

Role of victims in court needs careful monitoring

In the past, the press was often accused of bearing down too hard on victims of crimes and their families. In the most extreme cases, the media would camp outside the homes of victims who didn't want to talk to them (the family of the Kobe boy who was beheaded by another boy in 1995) or imply that a...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2003

World holds vested interest in a successful South Africa

PRETORIA -- The last 10 to 15 years have not been the best advertisement for the human species. Our brutality toward fellow human beings, including children and women, seems to plumb ever-lower depths. The positive side of identifying with fellow members of a particular religion, race, tribe or ethnic...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2003

Fertility experts urge health insurance help

In response to the increasingly serious problem of Japan's falling birthrate, patients and medical professionals involved in fertility treatment are calling for the cost of treatment to be covered by national health insurance.
COMMENTARY
Oct 5, 2003

Sea of lies driveling through the dikes

The Hutton inquiry in Britain into the recent death of the government's expert on Iraqi weapons, James Kelly, has shown up only too clearly the extent to which our much-vaunted Westminster system of democratic government has decayed. At the inquiry, a BBC reporter was dragged over the coals for a single...
EDITORIALS
Oct 5, 2003

Freedom from the fear of chaos

Anyone idly browsing the Internet recently might well have come across the following mysterious passage: "Acocdrnig to an elgnsih unviesitry sutdy the oredr of letetrs in a wrod dosen't mttaer, the olny thnig thta's iopmrantt is that the frsit and lsat ltteer of eevry word is in the crcreot ptoision....
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2003

Pyongyang's latest nuclear tack hit

Japan lashed out Friday over North Korea's claim that it has finished reprocessing about 8,000 spent fuel rods and is using extracted plutonium to make nuclear weapons.
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2003

NPO hypes green acres to city retirees

Faced with a bleak future of depopulation and possible oblivion, Japan's rural communities are looking to gray power for a new lease on life.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 4, 2003

Van Gundy building offense around Yao

NEW YORK -- Steve Francis isn't looking to challenge Jeff Van Gundy's authority or be perceived as a rebel. He also doesn't want to give the impression he's second-guessing his strategy.
BUSINESS
Oct 4, 2003

Japan still upbeat about chances of Mexico FTA

Japan and Mexico can strike a free-trade agreement when Mexican President Vicente Fox visits Tokyo on Oct. 15, trade minister Shoichi Nakagawa said Friday, downplaying hurdles in the final negotiations over agriculture.

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