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JAPAN
Nov 12, 2004

Lawmakers question delayed response to sub

Ruling bloc and opposition lawmakers Thursday criticized the government's slow response to a mystery submarine that intruded into Japan's territorial waters the previous day.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2004

Unidentified submarine intrudes near Okinawa

An unidentified submarine briefly entered Japan's territorial waters off the Okinawa Islands early Wednesday, and Maritime Self-Defense Force patrol aircraft were sent to track it.
COMMENTARY
Nov 10, 2004

Dealing with the nuclear-threat hydra

LONDON -- The U.S. government has named Iran and North Korea as rogue states. Iran is accused of seeking to develop nuclear weapons and breaching the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). North Korea may already have a few nuclear devices and has announced its withdrawal from the NPT. The two states...
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2004

Tokyo can expect stronger ties, demands

George W. Bush's re-election to another four years in the White House will ensure that strengthening the U.S. security alliance with Japan remains a major component of bilateral ties.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 4, 2004

No letup in suffering of Iraqi innocents

NEW YORK -- Recent information on the consequences of the Iraq war on civilians and children only confirms a devastating picture of the situation. According to an article in the medical magazine The Lancet, there have been more than 100,000 civilians deaths since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The...
COMMENTARY
Nov 2, 2004

U.S. strategies pose risks

Japan's security and defense policies are at a major turning point. The policies are still based on the deployment of the Self-Defense Forces and the American forces stationed in Japan, as stipulated in the bilateral security treaty, but roles are changing drastically in accordance with transformations...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 31, 2004

Daylight robbery -- and we accept it

Last February, the Tokyo municipal government adopted a policy to discourage key money reikin and lease renewal fees koshinryo in rental agreements. The policy is long overdue since key money and renewal fees are tenant-gouging practices sanctioned by nothing more than habit.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 29, 2004

Nagoya takes on Osaka

Psst! Heard about the hottest "new" place in Japan? The city that's rapidly gaining a national reputation for being at the cutting edge of women's fashion and is, perhaps, the country's most vibrant economic center?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 24, 2004

Best not to forget the women in the debate on stem-cell research

Embryonic stem-cell research is a hot topic in the upcoming elections in the United States. John Kerry has said that one of his first acts if elected president will be to reverse the Bush administration policy of no federal funding for ESC research. And in California, voters will decide whether or not...
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2004

The bounds of the security treaty

The United States is reviewing the role of its military bases in Japan in line with its plans for global troop redeployment (or "force transformation" as the U.S. Defense Department calls it). This is raising concerns that some realignment plans involving U.S. forces stationed here might exceed the geographical...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Oct 17, 2004

Why Deos Tihs Haedilne Mkae Snsee?

The following article appeared in the Oct. 17, 2004 issue of The Japan Times with most of the text scrambled. For that original version, visit www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20041017x2.htm.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 2004

Expect loose reins on Japan

LAS VEGAS -- For decades, Tokyo has wanted to be treated like a "normal" nation free from the constraints of the Occupation Era and U.S. foreign-policy dominance. Well, Japan is on the edge of realizing that dream, but the costs will be the end of the special U.S.-Japan relationship and the emergence...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2004

Signs of a mature diplomacy

Anti-Japanese behavior by Chinese soccer fans during the Asian Cup tournament in August stirred strong resentment among the Japanese public. Man questioned whether China was qualified to host the 2008 Olympics. Others criticized the Japanese government's lukewarm protests against the incidents. I feel,...
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Sep 28, 2004

Japanese mega-stores blazing trails in a brave, new publishing world

The Japanese bookstore world used to be one of "If you put it out, it will sell." But that comfortable age is over. Seven straight years of declining book sales have killed off some 1,500 bookstores.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 26, 2004

Japan's abandoned kids live with the label

The murders of 4-year-old Kazuto Hayashi and his 3-year-old brother Hayato by an acquaintance of their father two weeks ago in Tochigi Prefecture has sparked outrage over Japan's insufficient child-welfare system. Though local police and child-welfare officials were aware the two boys were being beaten,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 19, 2004

9/11 conspiracy theories enthrall Japanese audiences

Only three years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, American mainstream media are providing scant coverage of ceremonies to mark the tragedy, according to Japanese reporter Akihiko Reizei on the Internet news service Japan Mail Media. A resident of New Jersey, Reizei said that unlike the...
Rugby
Sep 17, 2004

JRFU'S new ruling puts players' lives at risk

At the press conference to launch the start of the second year of the Top League, which kicks-off this weekend, Japan Rugby Football Union Chairman Tetsuo Machii admitted that the game's image had suffered in recent years.
COMMENTARY
Sep 15, 2004

The Tiananmen Square massacre myth

China's recent ceremonies to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of former leader Deng Xiaoping have given the Tiananmen massacre myth yet another lease of life. Most media commentators, the BBC especially, have rehashed the standard condemnation of Deng as a hardliner who instigated a massacre of...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 12, 2004

Exploring a cautionary tale

MINAMATA DISEASE, by Masazumi Harada (1971), translated by Sachie Tsushima and Timothy S. George, edited by Timothy S. George. Kumamoto Nichinichi Shinbun Culture & Information Center, 2004, 215 pp., 2,500 yen (cloth). Across Japan and throughout much of the world, the name Minamata is synonymous with...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 9, 2004

Heartening news for some from an Ice Age gene mutation

In Terry Gilliam's 1985 film "Brazil," a tiny printing error in a bureaucratic document leads to the mistaken arrest and detention of an innocent man. A single letter is changed in a file and the set of instructions are automatically followed by the authorities.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2004

Line being drawn in East Asia's waters

HONOLULU -- In East Asia today, a line is gradually being drawn in the water, starting in the sea between Japan and the Korean Peninsula, and running south through the East China Sea and the Taiwan Strait into the South China Sea.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 3, 2004

Signing of Rooney a big gamble for Manchester United

LONDON -- Incredible.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 31, 2004

'I want to clear my name and the name of my country'

One morning Islam Mohamed Himu woke up to find the Japanese media camped outside his home, and plainclothes police officers banging on his front door.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 29, 2004

Media nets gold in ensuring Olympic success

Anyone who has a TV could see that the attendance at the Athens Olympics has been spotty at best. Scalpers have been practically giving tickets away.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2004

Kawaguchi adds her voice to UNSC clamor

The Foreign Ministry will step up its efforts to achieve Japan's goal of gaining a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council after the fall U.N. General Assembly session.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2004

Kawaguchi adds her voice to UNSC clamor

The Foreign Ministry will step up its efforts to achieve Japan's goal of gaining a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council after the fall U.N. General Assembly session.
COMMENTARY
Aug 22, 2004

Barbaric immigration policy

Japan's current campaign against visa overstayers is both puzzling and cruel.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami