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COMMENTARY
Nov 30, 2002

Opposition, come out please

LONDON -- Parliamentary institutions in Britain and Japan currently have one thing in common -- they lack an effective and credible opposition. The absence of opposition can allow governments with large majorities to ignore public opinion, at least in the short term, and behave in an autocratic way,...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 30, 2002

Roaches with secret technology win war

I came home the other day and noticed someone had been eating my porridge. "Someone's been eating mine too," said my husband. "And there he is!" I got my shotgun and pointed it at the roach. Bam! He's gone now.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Billions in taxes misused: report

Government organizations and state-funded corporations improperly spent more than 24 billion yen in taxpayer money in fiscal 2001, the Board of Audit said Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Government wants Jenkins to be treated in Japan

The government has demanded that North Korea send Charles Robert Jenkins, a former U.S. soldier married to a returned Japanese abductee, to Japan to treat his illness at a hospital here, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / PREFECTURAL FARE
Nov 30, 2002

Representative office gives visitors hands-on approach to Yamanashi

The Yamanashi Prefectural Trade and Tourist Center in Tokyo's Minami-Azabu district is trying to offer more than just tasty delights and souvenir crafts.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Nov 30, 2002

The funkier side of Mike Maguire; new Antidote release; Domino at Fire

Somewhere standing off to the side of all the people who have claimed titles in electronic music -- the various kings, queens, godfathers and godmothers -- is Mike Maguire, marking his own beat, seemingly oblivious to the world.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 30, 2002

The CCP wears the pants in this marriage

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Now that the dust is settling after the Chinese Communist Party's 16th National Congress, we can begin to see the implications of the various decisions announced there.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 30, 2002

Japanese made funny by 'gaijin' gaffes

Some people collect rocks. Others stamps. Still others beer cans.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2002

Court rules against disabled in vote suit

The government's refusal to accept mail-in ballots filled out on behalf of physically disabled people is not an illegal act meriting damages, but it violates their voting rights and is unconstitutional, the Tokyo District Court ruled Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / THROUGH THE DOOR
Nov 29, 2002

Reluctance to accept refugees draws fire

Since October last year, there have been at least 34 cases in which asylum seekers at immigration facilities purposefully injured themselves, with some even going so far as to attempt suicide, the Justice Ministry has admitted.
EDITORIALS
Nov 29, 2002

Crime report lacks bite

Families and schools play a fundamental role in preventing crime, yet their effectiveness is waning. That is the key message of this year's white paper on crime. Crime is a mirror of a nation's social condition, and, simply put, Japanese society is sick.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2002

NATO mission remains foggy

LONDON -- The invitations issued at the recent Prague conference to seven former Eastern Bloc states to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are a dramatic demonstration of how the world has changed in just a few short years.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 29, 2002

Venables needs divine intervention at Leeds

LONDON -- Terry Venables has been in football long enough to know that his days at Leeds United are almost numbered before they have really begun.
COMMENTARY
Nov 29, 2002

A state led by the power of nine

HONG KONG -- While many foreign press reports recently stressed the ways in which China was becoming more capitalist, only London's Financial Times cautioned readers about how the country remains indubitably communist.
BUSINESS
Nov 29, 2002

Cigarette tax examined as reform item

A tax hike on cigarettes is being considered as part of tax reforms for fiscal 2003, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Thursday.
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2002

Hachiyo solicited funds during dividend default

A defunct Okinawa-based health-food firm that allegedly engaged in a Ponzi scheme collected about 1.7 billion yen from investors even on the day it failed to pay dividends, sources said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2002

Shelter for 300 street people opens in Osaka Castle Park

OSAKA -- The Osaka Municipal Government on Wednesday opened the city's third shelter for homeless people at a park in Chuo Ward.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2002

Lower House panel OKs bill on financial aid for abductees

A House of Representatives committee approved a bill Wednesday that would allow the government to provide financial support for Japanese abducted to North Korea who return to Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2002

'Multicultural studio' offers hope

Teenagers gathered one weekday evening at an old two-story building next to a housing project in a Yokohama suburb.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Nov 28, 2002

China's Yao making giant strides in first month in NBA

MEMPHIS -- Yao Ming is almost making me forget about Priest Lauderdale.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2002

World Cup spurs South Korea exchanges

Following Japan and South Korea's cohosting of the World Cup soccer finals last summer, 36 prefectural governments have held or will hold 123 sports exchanges with South Korean teams in fiscal 2002, according to a survey conducted by the sports ministry.
EDITORIALS
Nov 28, 2002

Staving off banking disaster

The latest financial reports from Japan's major commercial banks tell more of the same story: The huge overhang of nonperforming loans continues to block a return to health. To be sure, banks made a profit in their main lines of business in the first six months of fiscal 2002, as they did in previous...
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2002

Year added to sentence of girl's killer

The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday added a year to the original 14-year prison sentence of Mitsuko Yamada, who killed the 2-year-old daughter of a female acquaintance in 1999 in a public lavatory in Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2002

Hachiyo chief held over fraud

Police on Wednesday arrested Osamu Tadokoro, former honorary chairman of health food firm Zenkoku Hachiyo Butsuryu (Hachiyo), and 13 of its former employees for allegedly defrauding investors out of some 70 million yen by promising them their money would grow within a certain period.

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