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EDITORIALS
Feb 1, 2003

Mr. Bush pushes guns and butter

U.S. President George W. Bush has promised both guns and butter in his State of the Union address. This year's speech was a rally for his domestic agenda and an opportunity to steel the nation for the possibility of war against Iraq. Mr. Bush also issued a warning that his patience is reaching its limit....
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2003

How long must the guilty wait to hang?

Sentenced to death for killing a farmer to claim an insurance payout in 1963, Tsuneki Tomiyama played his last card in early December when he and his support group filed a clemency plea.
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2003

Jobless rate returns to 5.5%

A drain on retail and restaurant jobs that hit women particularly hard pushed the unemployment rate in December back up to a record 5.5 percent for the third time in a year.
SUMO
Feb 1, 2003

Asashoryu officially becomes sumo's 68th yokozuna

Mongolian sumo wrestler Asashoryu was formally inducted as the sport's 68th yokozuna on Friday, performing the "dohyo-iri" ring-purification ritual at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo.
JAPAN / KANSAI BEAT
Feb 1, 2003

New course track takes aim at language barrier

KYOTO -- The term "internationalization" has come into everyday use in the last decade, but Japanese people still face language barriers when it comes to implementing the concept behind the word.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 1, 2003

Need a guide to Japan's flea markets? Here it is

Rather, here he is: Theodore Manning, whose book "Flea Markets of Japan: A Pocket Guide for Antique Buyers" was published last month. He no longer lives here, having returned last year to America after a 10-year stretch, so I call him in his new home base of Chicago and we talk by phone.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Feb 1, 2003

Crystal Skulls: 'hatsumode' for the groove generation; Yokosuka joins the party

MAKUHARI, Chiba Pref. -- We plowed our way into the mass of humanity packing the Makuhari Messe event hall moments after the cheers rose to ring in the new year.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2003

Over half of nation's cities plan to merge

Most of Japan's cities, towns and villages have set up or plan to set up consultative panels with likely partners to examine the possibilities of mergers, according to the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications.
COMMENTARY
Feb 1, 2003

Changing Pyongyang's ways

The response to my Jan. 10 article "Pyongyang is the real victim," which blames the United States for its mishandling of the North Korean nuclear problem, tells me two things: First, Japan Times articles are followed abroad much more widely than I realized; second, many believe firmly in the incorrigibly...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 1, 2003

Would you send a poor fly to the U.S.?

I walked into the dentist office, and sitting at the table was "Dude." Dude is a 22-year-old dental technician who wears black concert T-shirts under his lab coat. He also wears an earring and a black leather bracelet with silver studs. I know Dude because he dropped out of my "Dental English" class...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2003

Burst water pipe floods streets in central Osaka

OSAKA -- A water pipe burst under an intersection in the Nakanoshima district of Kita Ward here on Friday morning, flooding streets and forcing the area to temporarily shut down, according to local police.
Japan Times
JAPAN / PREFECTURAL FARE
Feb 1, 2003

Hiroshima's long-neglected cuisine brought to the fore at Shinjuku store

Hiroshima Prefecture's natural beauty and abundance of marine life are almost always upstaged by the tragedy that befell its capital in 1945.
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2003

Economy top priority: Koizumi

Admitting that the Japanese economy is struggling to find a way out of the recession, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made clear Friday that reviving the economy will be his top priority for this year, declaring he will take "all available policy measures" to fight deflation.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 31, 2003

Coca Restaurant: Fun food in funky retro style

There is precious little architecture left in central Tokyo these days that has any history attached to it. So when restaurants want to imbue their premises with a period feel, mostly they just have to fake it. The results can range from ersatz Edo-style castles to flimsy, film-set backdrops glorifying...
EDITORIALS
Jan 31, 2003

Thorough inspection must come first

The U.N. search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has turned up no conclusive evidence that it is developing or possessing these deadly arms. But the inspectors have also reported to the U.N. Security Council that Baghdad has given them only limited cooperation during the past two months and that...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2003

Hiroshima island may host night drills

The government may shift noisy night-flying drills by U.S. Navy warplanes to an uninhabited island in Hiroshima Prefecture and away from the Atsugi air base in Kanagawa Prefecture, defense sources said Thursday.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 31, 2003

Perryman says Toda has the pedigree for the Premiership

LONDON -- It has been a mixed week for Japan in the Premiership. One player has arrived, one is on his way back from injury while the former national coach was beaten to the Republic of Ireland job by someone few people outside Ireland had ever heard of.
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2003

Hitachi dropping losers to enhance profits

Hitachi will drop money-losing businesses that now bring in 1.6 trillion yen in annual sales for the Japanese electronics maker in an effort to return to profitability.
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2003

FTA with ASEAN gets mixed reviews

About half of Japanese companies operating in other Asian economies expect positive effects from a possible free-trade agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, according to a survey released Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2003

Icicle brings bullet trains to a halt

OSAKA -- The Tokaido Shinkansen Line linking Tokyo and Osaka ground to a halt Thursday morning after an icicle shorted out a power line, Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) said.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2003

Loan-sharking cases hit record high in 2002

Police acted last year on a record 238 cases of loan-sharking or unauthorized lending, in which a record 122,000 people were victimized, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2003

Lifetime of missed chances

LONDON -- On Jan. 22, two of the world's leading powers celebrated the 40th anniversary of a remarkable reconciliation. At the historic Palace of Versailles, France's President Jacques Chirac and Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder toasted a treaty signed in 1963 by their visionary predecessors, Charles...
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2003

Fueling U.S. planes that attack is legal: official

U.S. aircraft receiving fuel provided by the Self-Defense Forces and subsequently attacking Iraq would not constitute an act of collective defense, Osamu Akiyama, Cabinet legislation bureau director general, said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2003

Standing by policies remains elusive ideal

It was a humiliating blow for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 31, 2003

Matsui's agent warns of 'pressure cooker'

Matsui's agent warns of 'pressure cooker'
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2003

Bill would crack down on beef producers

A Liberal Democratic Party panel approved a bill Thursday that would impose fines of up to 300,000 yen on beef producers who fail to comply with a proposed system to track beef from production to distribution.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jan 31, 2003

Rice works well as a finale or as the main event

When dining at a fine Japanese restaurant, after the raw, fried, vinegared, steamed and simmered courses, if you still have room, the final savory course of rice — gohanmono — appears. It might also be called o-shokuji, or simply meshi, the colloquial word for rice.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2003

Shinsei experience: lattes in the lobby, free ATM transactions

A typical Japanese bank looks a bit like the dowdy, paper-shuffling office of a shoddily run company. There are plenty of bowing clerks. But don't count on conveniences like 24-hour ATMs.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person