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CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 2, 2002

Looking behind life-or-death situations

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the murder of eight young children at the Ikeda Elementary School in Osaka. Shortly after that, a young man killed a child in a Kyoto schoolyard before killing himself when faced with arrest, thus reinforcing the fear among the general public that Japan's schools...
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Jun 2, 2002

Straight talking from Citizen Nic

Writer and naturalist C.W. Nicol left his home in South Wales in 1958 at the age of 17 to join an Arctic Institute of North America expedition to the Arctic. Four years later, he made his first visit to Japan to study karate and Japanese, before heading back to Canada to take part in a further six Arctic...
COMMUNITY
Jun 2, 2002

See you at Almond

Earlier this year, the Dentsu Research Institute predicted that Japan's co-hosting of the World Cup would benefit the economy to the tune of 3.182 trillion yen. While Tokyo isn't hosting any of the games, its glitzy Roppongi district will likely play host to thousands of soccer fans from around the world...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 2, 2002

New threats to East Asian security

EAST ASIA IMPERILLED: Transnational Challenges to Security, by Alan Dupont. Cambridge University Press, 2001, 336 pp., $25 (paper) The way we think about national security is changing. Traditionally, the idea of protecting a nation focused on military contests over power, wealth or territory. Not surprisingly,...
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2002

Kickoff! Games start in Japan

The soccer World Cup opening matches kicked off in Japan on Saturday. Jubilant soccer fans and supporters from around the world flocked to the stadiums to watch the Ireland-Cameroon game in Niigata and the Germany-Saudi Arabia match later in the day in Sapporo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jun 2, 2002

Still tastes like Shonen spirit

Raspberry rock? Pineapple pop? Just plain old vanilla? Osaka-based all-girl band Shonen Knife -- age 21 this year -- haven't been flavor of the month for many a moon.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 2, 2002

Party notes from the underground

I was somewhere in the middle of the tawdry sea of neon and pesky sidewalk that people know as Roppongi when The Fear set in.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2002

Kansai firms hope the Cup runneth over

OSAKA -- While economists debate the macroeconomic impact of the FIFA World Cup, which kicked off Friday, Hisako Tanigawa just hopes it will mean extra pocket money for her family.
JAPAN / CLOSE NEIGHBORS
Jun 1, 2002

Chinese, South Korean students warm to Japan

To Lee Hee Jung, a 20-year-old South Korean student at Yokohama National University, Japan is closer to her mother country than the United States not only geographically, but psychologically.
COMMENTARY
Jun 1, 2002

Beijing must walk a fine line on asylum

HONG KONG -- China's decision to allow five North Koreans who sought asylum in the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang to go to Seoul via Manila reflects the delicate balancing act Beijing must perform in managing its relationship with North Korea, its longtime communist ally, and South Korea, its...
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2002

Japan, China need cooling-off period before launching cooling-off forum

When they met during an international business conference on the southern Chinese island of Hainan in March, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his Chinese counterpart, Zhu Rongji, agreed to inaugurate a high-level comprehensive forum for dialogue on economic topics.
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2002

Goldman Sachs closes night market

Ltd. was set to temporarily shut down its nighttime stock market after its session Friday because of recent sluggish trading. Company officials said it is unclear when trading, launched in January 2001, will resume, but the company will pay attention to market trends and the wishes of individual investors...
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 1, 2002

Inamoto ready to show off

MORIMACHI, Shizuoka Pref. -- Ten months after joining Arsenal, Japan midfielder Junichi Inamoto is ready for the World Cup and he plans to show off all that he's learned playing in England.
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2002

Authorities act again to halt yen rise

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Friday that monetary authorities conducted yen-selling, dollar-buying intervention to arrest the yen's rise, marking the third time they have stepped into the currency market in the past two weeks.
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2002

Tax panel calls for investment and R&D breaks

The Finance Ministry's Tax Commission on Friday unveiled a reform outline that would allow corporations to write off investments and spending on research and development.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2002

Make the world a better place for children

From May 8 to 10, the streets of New York City were adorned by the presence of 60 heads of state and their bodyguards, 3,000 government officials, 3,000 nongovernmental organizations and children from 180 countries. They were delegates of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children,...
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2002

'Spy' ship salvage back on table

The government said Friday it will attempt before the typhoon season to salvage a suspected North Korean spy ship that sank in China's exclusive economic zone in December after a shootout with Japan Coast Guard vessels.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2002

16 Britons denied entry in lead up to World Cup

Since late April, Japanese immigration authorities have turned away 16 Britons in the lead up to the World Cup soccer finals, which began Friday in Seoul, according to a British police officer.
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2002

Tokyo CPI falls 32nd straight month

Key consumer prices in Tokyo fell 1.1 percent in May from a year earlier for a record 32nd straight month of decline, the government said Friday in a preliminary report.
EDITORIALS
Jun 1, 2002

In defense of privacy

The Defense Agency is at the center of a privacy scandal. An information officer of the Maritime Self-Defense Force is said to have prepared a sensitive list of personal data, with defamatory footnotes, about people who had requested information from the agency under the Freedom of Information Law. The...
COMMENTARY
Jun 1, 2002

Crisis threatens Pakistan's recent gains

ISLAMABAD -- The regime of Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf is eager to find a way out of the military standoff with India, knowing full well that a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbors could easily erase the few gains the country has made in the past six months.
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2002

Measuring China's pulse online

The spread of the Internet in China is turning out to be a boon for China watchers in Japan. The Web now serves as an outlet for news not found in newspapers or on television but that can be deemed important and valuable. It also offers an opportunity to learn about the real feelings Chinese people have...
EDITORIALS
May 31, 2002

At last, the World Cup

Maybe it is because it rolls around just once every four years. Maybe it is because it is played by more people, in more countries, than any other sport. Maybe it is because it promises, and usually delivers, moments of magnificent drama --all the more stirring for the long stretches of tedium before...
JAPAN
May 31, 2002

Residents win damages for base noise

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday ordered the government to pay some 2.4 billion yen in damages to 4,763 residents near the U.S. Yokota Air Base, west of Tokyo, for noise pollution caused by U.S. military aircraft.
JAPAN
May 31, 2002

Building fire near Yoyogi Station halts JR trains

Tokyo's Yamanote Line was halted for more than four hours Thursday evening after a fire broke out in a building near JR Yoyogi Station, the Tokyo Fire Department and East Japan Railway Co. said.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CUP COUNTDOWN
May 31, 2002

Hooligan phobia triggers siege mentality

KAWAGUCHI, Saitama Pref. -- Soccer fans hoping to stop for a cup of coffee on their way to or from World Cup games at Saitama Stadium won't be able to do so at Katsura cafe here. Whenever matches are being played -- and hooligans might be in the area -- the cafe will be closed.
LIFE / Language / THE PARENT TRIP
May 31, 2002

Footloose in 'Holland'

Sue stared intently from across the sandbox and asked, "Have you ever heard of Asperger's Syndrome?"
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 31, 2002

Black soldier fly

* Japanese name: Amerika mizuabu * Scientific name: Hermetia illucens * Description: Black soldier flies look a bit like wasps, but they have no sting and are not interested in humans -- at least while we are alive. They are robust black flies about 15 mm long, with wings that lay over the body when...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 31, 2002

Ex-DJ spins Japan-China differences

The biggest problem between Japan and China is their lack of mutual understanding -- due largely to prejudice and ignorance, said Akiko Aoki, a former host for China Radio International, the sole Chinese national radio station broadcasting programs overseas.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear