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CULTURE / Books
Jan 19, 2003

Trail of tears from Deshima

TITIA: The First Western Woman in Japan, by Rene P. Bersma. Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, 2002, 140 pp. with 37 plates, $17.50 (paper) One August afternoon in 1817, a Dutch ship entered Nagasaki and anchored in the bay. Waiting for clearance was Jan Cock Blomhoff, the new director of the Dutch trading...
COMMUNITY
Jan 19, 2003

fl 20030119a3.xml SUN YES DOJUNKAI Concrete ideals

The Great Kanto Earthquake on Sept. 1, 1923, devastated the capital and its vicinity, destroying 63 percent of homes in Tokyo and 72 percent in Yokohama. From the ashes of the fires that raged in the wake of the massive temblor, though, there arose a public-housing policy whose enlightenment was in many...
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2003

New Diet session opens up new questions

The Diet opens a 150-day session Monday amid widespread speculation in Nagata-cho that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi may dissolve the House of Representatives and call a snap election sometime this year -- possibly even during the session.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2003

Construction of Tokyo's giant windmill completed

The construction of a 70-meter-tall windmill designed to generate power on reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay was completed Friday with the attachment of 26-meter blades, according to Tokyo Metropolitan Government officials.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2003

Beijing can learn from Tokyo's mistakes

GUATEMALA CITY -- As Beijing develops a reliance on fiscal spending to boost economic growth, a mushrooming fiscal deficit and ballooning public-sector debt will weaken China's long-term economic prospects. This is because economic growth bought with increased government spending is unsustainable and...
EDITORIALS
Jan 18, 2003

Ready for the worst

The arrest of several individuals in London on suspicion of producing the poison ricin has reawakened concerns about bioterrorism. Biological warfare has a long history; the first recorded use occurred in 1346, when Tartars catapulted corpses infected with plague into a city they held under siege. Yet,...
MORE SPORTS
Jan 18, 2003

Snowboarding not just a lifestyle

He's got the looks, he's got the dress -- from baggy jeans to a pierced nose -- but the one thing that makes him different from the rest of the teenagers that walk down the streets of Shibuya is his talent on the slopes.
SOCCER / J. League
Jan 18, 2003

Tokyo Verdy signs Cameroon striker Mboma

Tokyo Verdy has signed Cameroon striker and former J. League star Patrick Mboma on a deal running through Jan. 31, 2004, officials of the first-division club said Thursday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jan 18, 2003

Rachel Walzer

The play now in rehearsal for a Tokyo presentation "reflects in its crudeness the state of our world today," Rachel Walzer said. Preparing for her role in "What the Butler Saw," she has "strong opinions about this farce. In it, nothing is sacred, and it seems to offend everyone under the sun. Yet beneath...
BUSINESS
Jan 18, 2003

Clamor for consumption tax hike getting louder

Cabinet ministers and business leaders have begun calling for a consumption tax hike to cover rising social security costs stemming from the aging population.
JAPAN / PREFECTURAL FARE
Jan 18, 2003

Kobe shop puts its best feet forward

When it comes to local specialties, Kobe has much to boast about -- Kobe beef, Kobe wine and famed confectionery, to name but a few.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2003

Former slave laborer visits steelmaker's headquarters

A Chinese man who was forced to work as a slave laborer in Japanese mines during World War II for Nippon Yakin Kogyo Co. visited the major steelmaker and demanded an apology Thursday, a day after losing a damages lawsuit against the firm and the government.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 17, 2003

Manchester City hopes to get money's worth out of Fowler

LONDON -- Robbie Fowler joined Leeds United in November 2001 from Liverpool for £11 million. Fourteen months, 32 games and 14 goals later Fowler signed with Manchester City in a deal worth £7.5 million.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2003

Cigarette packs may get stricter health warning

The Finance Ministry is considering requiring tobacco firms to print a stricter health warning on cigarette packs to bring Japan in line with other countries where smokers are warned about lung cancer and other maladies.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2003

Farm cooperative told to suspend tea operations

The farm ministry penalized the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (Zen-noh) on Thursday, ordering its Fukuoka Prefecture headquarters to suspend operations for five days for falsely labeling tea.
EDITORIALS
Jan 17, 2003

Putting Yasukuni issue to rest

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine on Tuesday, his third since he took office in April 2001, has caused a predictable stir both here and abroad, particularly in China and South Korea. One wonders whether the prime minister had carefully weighed the pluses and minuses of paying...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2003

Emperor enters hospital, prepares for prostatectomy

Emperor Akihito was admitted Thursday to University of Tokyo Hospital for a prostatectomy.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2003

DoCoMo to help makers with 3G costs

NTT DoCoMo Inc. will start shouldering half the cost of developing handsets for its FOMA third-generation cellular phone service, company sources said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2003

Minimum Haneda burden pledged

Transport minister Chikage Ogi pledged Thursday that her ministry will do everything it can to minimize the financial burden from the Haneda airport expansion project on local governments in the Tokyo area.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2003

Nissan rolls out fully redesigned Skyline Coupe in Japan

Nissan Motor Co. on Thursday released the fully redesigned Skyline Coupe in Japan in the hope the new version of the popular model further accelerates the carmaker's performance.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2003

Photo tour shows Kobe before the quake

KOBE -- Pointing to photos posted along a quiet street in the Mikura district of Kobe's Nagata Ward, the head of a local community council explained how the area was once a shopping arcade.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 17, 2003

M's, A's matched up in Tokyo

"Godzilla" is now a New Yorker, but Japan will have plenty to cheer about when the baseball season arrives in the spring.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 17, 2003

Izayoi: Fine fowl deeds in Azabu-Juban

The idea of upmarket yakitori -- presenting premium-quality charcoal-broiled chicken in suave settings, often with fine wine and other foreign influences -- is taken for granted in Tokyo these days. But nowhere else in the city is this venerable concept -- the skewering and grilling of fowl -- translated...
COMMENTARY
Jan 16, 2003

Japan plods path of isolation

HONOLULU — Japan continues to be the odd man out in Northeast Asia. While the other states in the region have been forging ties and building networks with each other — even North Korea — Japan has lagged behind. Tokyo could be marginalized in its own neighborhood. That risk has motivated Japanese...

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