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COMMENTARY / World
Sep 16, 2002

Dealing with Kim Jong Il

SEOUL -- Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang on Tuesday represents the biggest step in relations between the two countries since the end of World War II in 1945. Koizumi, though, must keep a cool head in the face of any strategic ploy that...
EDITORIALS
Sep 16, 2002

Chance to make history

The meeting between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, scheduled for Tuesday in Pyongyang, will provide a historic opportunity to end decades of enmity between Japan and North Korea. Mr. Koizumi is the first Japanese head of government to visit that country. It remains...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Sep 16, 2002

Foreign experts are part of the problem

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- One of Japan's problems in the global era arises from foreign academic experts on the country. The key qualification to be a foreign academic expert on Japan, or a "Japanologist," is to command the spoken and written language. Thus the late Professor G.C. Allen, who wrote some...
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2002

Softbank to sell most of Aozora Bank stake

Softbank Corp. plans to sell off by the end of the year the majority of its stake in Aozora Bank, the successor to failed Nippon Credit Bank, sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2002

Kim expresses desire for formal Japan ties

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il expressed Saturday his willingness to normalize diplomatic relations with Japan, saying, "A new page in history" must be opened in bilateral ties.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 15, 2002

'Socialism' goes shopping at Vuitton free-for-all

As an economic power, Japan is the ideal that the rest of Asia aspires to, but it isn't merely Japan's vast material wealth that everybody envies. There's a social aspect to Japan's success that many see as even more desirable.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Sep 15, 2002

Pro Music Nipponia gives new life to contemporary hogaku

For the past 40 years, Pro Musica Nipponia has taken an active role in the contemporary hogaku music scene by commissioning and performing new works for traditional instruments. The highly professional and talented ensemble has premiered dozens of works by both Japanese and foreign composers and has...
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2002

KANSAI: Who & What

Women execs offered medical system info: Foreign Executive Women in Kansai, an organization of non-Japanese professional women working in the region, is hosting a dinner meeting from 6 p.m. on Sept. 26 at Hilton Osaka in the city's Kita Ward.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 15, 2002

A river of ill repute

THE MEKONG: Turbulent Past, Uncertain Future, by Milton Osborn. Allen & Unwin, 2001, 295 pp., b/w & color photos, $25 (cloth) The waters of the Mekong, the world's 12th-longest and Southeast Asia's foremost river, do not, like the Thames, run sweetly. Nor have they inspired poets to dream on the river's...
COMMUNITY
Sep 15, 2002

Love in a lovelorn land

Once upon a time, at a temple where homeless families were sheltering after a fire, a girl and a boy fell in love. Months passed. The burned-out neighborhood was rebuilt. The lovers were separated. Oh, misery! Oh, fleeting, unreal world!
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 15, 2002

The science of fiction: telling history as it was, and as it wasn't

DECEMBER 6, by Martin Cruz Smith (published in Britain as TOKYO STATION). Simon & Schuster: New York, 2002, 352 pp., $26 (cloth) THE MASTER OF RAIN, by Tom Bradby. Doubleday: New York, 2002, 452 pp., $24.95 (cloth) Try to imagine, for a moment, if Rick Blaine, the hardened expat cafe owner portrayed...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 15, 2002

It's time for family feuds!

The inter-season "specials" period is in full swing, and this week there appears to be more than the usual number of variety programs dedicated to dysfunctional families. If you're into this type of thing, which usually involves cameras invading homes where husbands and wives fight, kids fight or in-laws...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 15, 2002

Making music seem like child's play

Giants of the financial world and famed for more than two centuries as patrons of the arts (Mendelssohn and Chopin were among their many beneficiaries), the Rothschilds also nurtured an acclaimed musical talent of their own: soprano Charlotte de Rothschild.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 15, 2002

Where are they now?

Not all stories end when the curtain drops. For a dynasty fallen from power, as with a celebrity out of the spotlight, life goes on away from the public eye.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 15, 2002

A ride on the darker side of Tokyo's history

Temples, shrines, gardens, the Imperial Palace . . . Why, tourist guidebooks are full of places that echo the form and spirit of the Old Edo that once was. But they're only telling you a part of the story.
Japan Times
JAPAN / THE OKINAWA FACTOR
Sep 14, 2002

Okinawans look to tackle problems on own terms

NAHA, Okinawa Pref. -- Every third Monday, members of an underground community bank gather in a bar in downtown Naha.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2002

North Korea keeps NPA guessing

The first-ever Japan-North Korea summit, slated for next Tuesday in Pyongyang, has left Japanese police wondering what role they will play in the security arrangements, police sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
Sep 14, 2002

Mazda to sell unit rights to Sandvik

Mazda Motor Corp. said Friday it will sell the operating rights of its wholly owned subsidiary Mazda Earth Technologies Co. to Sandvik Tamrock Japan Co., an affiliate of Sweden's Sandvik Group, on Nov. 1.
COMMENTARY
Sep 14, 2002

It's folly for U.S. to go it alone

LONDON -- "Go it alone" is clearly the prevailing mood in Washington. Officials and commentators alike argue that with the United States' overwhelming military might and Europe's alleged weakness, the world must be set right by unilateral American action, and the international community can either like...
BUSINESS
Sep 14, 2002

Fujitsu recalls hard-disk drives

Fujitsu Ltd., Japan's largest computer manufacturer, said Friday it is recalling all 10 million hard-disk drives it produced between September 2000 and September 2001 because some contain defective parts.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2002

Pyongyang summit light at end of tunnel?

When Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi engages in his historic summit in Pyongyang next Tuesday, he will have two major goals: learning the fate of the Japanese believed to have been abducted to North Korea, and setting the stage for the resumption of security dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington....

Longform

A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped