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COMMUNITY
Apr 27, 2003

Japan slow to get in the swim

In Japan, DAT is still a newcomer.
COMMUNITY
Apr 27, 2003

Dolphin 'treatment' defies science

Michael Williams was born severely autistic. Even when he was in his teens, he was unable to communicate, other than through screeching, and his parents had to be constantly on the alert for violent behavior. Without warning, he would bang his head against objects, bite into his own fingers or lash out...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 27, 2003

War vindicates U.N. stance

Are not the scenes of joy and jubilation from Iraq an embarrassing indictment of the United Nations' failure to support the war? Well, no, not really. On the contrary, the course and outcome of the war is a strong vindication of the U.N. stance. To argue that military victory bestows legitimacy is to...
Events
Apr 27, 2003

KANSAI: Who & What

Photos, poems reveal children's school days: An exhibition of photos and poems depicting the school lives of children in Asia and countries bordering the Mediterranean will be held between April 30 and May 4 at the Kyoto City International Center in the city's Sakyo Ward.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE EXTRA
Apr 27, 2003

Japan rugby needs to act now before it is too late

For followers of Japanese rugby, the last few weeks have not made for happy reading.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 27, 2003

University exam pressure

JAPANESE HIGHER EDUCATION AS MYTH, by Brian J. McVeigh. M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, NY, 2002, 301 pp., $25.95 (cloth) In this withering critique, Japanese universities are portrayed as an educational Potemkin village. McVeigh's excellent analysis of institutional dysfunction focuses on how learning is sacrificed...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 27, 2003

A shorter leash on China's Communists

LONDON -- Governments and political parties habitually find it hard to admit to having made mistakes. Ministers and party officials who resign after getting things wrong cover their tracks with talk of seeking new horizons or spending more time with their families. The more authoritarian a regime, the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 27, 2003

Animal 'doctors' deliver health and well-being

At the Helsinki Olympics in 1952, Danish rider Liz Hartel became the first woman to ever win a medal in dressage. What was also historic about her achievement, though, was that her legs had been paralyzed since she was stricken with polio as a teenager.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 27, 2003

Horse power helps handicapped surmount life's daily obstacles

Yukie Yamaguchi stands at the edge of the ring, intently watching the man being led around on horseback at the Yokohama Riding Club. He is clasping a bright-yellow Pikachu to his chest with both hands. Slowly he takes one hand off the stuffed toy and lightly slaps the horse's neck.
EDITORIALS
Apr 26, 2003

Lessons of a cult guru's trial

In the marathon trial of Aum Shinrikyo cult leader Chizuo Matsumoto (also known as Shoko Asahara) at the Tokyo District Court, prosecutors on Thursday demanded the death penalty. "The accused promoted teachings that even approved of murder," they said in a closing argument. "He planned and ordered indiscriminate...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2003

Downsize, get out of China's way and rebuild: business chief

Japan should aggressively create new businesses to regain its global competitiveness, according to Kakutaro Kitashiro, new chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai).
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2003

Missile defense system debate heats up

As concerns mount over the threat posed by North Korea, the debate over Japan introducing missile defense systems is heating up.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2003

Youth unemployment rockets to record 13.2%

The unemployment rate hovered at a near-record 5.4 percent in March, as joblessness among the young peaked at its highest levels in half a century, the government said Friday.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2003

Nikkei plumbs new depths

The Nikkei index closed Friday at a fresh 20-year low, battered by sales of technology stocks that were pushed down by Sony's bearish earnings outlook released the previous day.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 26, 2003

Jiro Hirano

When he was poised between high school and university in the late 1950s, Jiro Hirano had a vague idea that in life he wanted to do "something international." He knew he didn't want to study at the University of Tokyo, as his father and brother and cousins had before him. "I wanted to have a way of my...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 26, 2003

How to tell if your neighbor is a yakuza

Several years ago as I was taking a taxi to work, the taxi driver took a shortcut down a small side street through an old neighborhood. When we rounded a corner, we were met by about 50 men dressed in suits lining both sides of the street and making deep bows. The taxi driver stopped behind a large black...
COMMENTARY
Apr 26, 2003

An opportunity for APEC

HONOLULU -- The rapid spread of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, is a compelling demonstration of the need for a truly global health network to fight future epidemics. The particulars of this outbreak also highlight the role that the Asia-Pacific region will have to play in this effort. The...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2003

Yankee-Mariner games only bright spot for travel industry

Causing yet another made-in-Japan sensation on the other side of the Pacific, New York Yankees slugger Hideki Matsui is providing a bit of much-needed relief for the nation's travel industry.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 26, 2003

Weaving her way back to harmony with the gods

It was Leo Tolstoy who wrote (in "Anna Karenina"), "Happy families are all the same; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2003

Is Koizumi's political star waning?

Last weekend, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was on the campaign trail alongside Liberal Democratic Party candidates fighting Diet by-elections in Tokyo and Ibaraki Prefecture.
COMMENTARY
Apr 26, 2003

A Pyrrhic victory in Iraq

When the war in Iraq began March 19, speculation was rife about its likely duration. Predictions ranged from very short (less than 10 days) to fairly long (over a month) to very long (a protracted Vietnam-type war). As it turned out, the fighting effectively ended in a little over three weeks. But it's...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 25, 2003

ASEAN needs to rise from '97 ashes

With many of its member nations still unable to recover from the impact of the region-wide financial crisis of the late 1990s, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations must "reinvent" itself so it can play a significant role in the regionalism that is emerging in East Asia, a think tank expert from...
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2003

Tainted Matsunami seeks ear of ethics panel

Lower House lawmaker Kenshiro Matsunami is asking the chairman of the House of Representatives' ethics panel to convene the council to deal with a scandal over Matsunami's links with the criminal underworld.
COMMENTARY
Apr 25, 2003

North Korea policy hijacked

Tokyo's never-ending capacity for emotional overreaction, irrational group-think and back-to-front foreign policies has reached new heights over North Korea. Somehow Pyongyang's remarkable willingness to admit and apologize for former abductions of Japanese citizens has been turned around 180 degrees...
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2003

LDP wants to legalize SDF by amending Constitution

The dominant Liberal Democratic Party aims to amend the Constitution to state in explicit terms the legitimacy of the Self-Defense Forces, party lawmakers said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Apr 25, 2003

China seen as 'second engine' of growth for ASEAN nations

The rise of China as an economic power has been greeted with a mixture of fear and hope by member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, according to Chia Siow Yue, a senior research fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2003

SARS may lift Japan's leadership role

MEDFORD, Massachusetts -- At the height of the Asian financial crisis in 1997, two stories surrounded the role of China. One attested to China's positive role as a stabilizer; the other pointed to China's unsavory economic practice. According to the latter, China had intentionally devalued its currency...
BUSINESS
Apr 25, 2003

Tertiary industry activity down 0.8%

The index of Japan's tertiary industry activity fell 0.8 percent in February from January, partly affected by sluggish tourism amid fears about the war in Iraq, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Thursday.

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