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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 7, 2003

For Barry Eisler, when it rains, it pours

In Tokyo this month to promote his latest work and research story ideas, Barry Eisler shares his thoughts on the art of fiction -- and martial arts.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 7, 2003

North Korea unveils secret weapon: It's an attack of the clones

This year's World University Games, held in the South Korean city of Taegu from Aug. 21 to 30, drew a record 7,000 young athletes from 174 countries. The Games also drew daily Japanese media coverage, with some news shows running lengthy special reports on all the excitement in Taegu.
EDITORIALS
Sep 5, 2003

A chance to end faction politics

Factional dissension in the Liberal Democratic Party is probably the most significant aspect of the party's presidential election set for Sept. 20. Factions critical of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi are so deeply divided that they have failed to field a single candidate. The group headed by former...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2003

Kamei aims to unseat Koizumi

Former LDP policy chief Shizuka Kamei officially declared Wednesday that he will run in the Sept. 20 party presidential election, seeking to unseat Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Japan Times
JAPAN / AFTER 2 1/2 YEARS
Sep 4, 2003

Koizumi half way toward reforming public firms

Can Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi live up to his pledge to save the nation's ailing economy by reforming monstrous public corporations?
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 31, 2003

A better forecast for South Korea's Sunshine Policy

SUNSHINE IN KOREA: The South Korean Debate Over Policies Toward North Korea, by Norman D. Levin and Yong Sup Han. Rand Center for Asia Pacific Policy, 2002, 143 pp. (paper). Although Kim Dae Jung is no longer president of South Korea, his "Sunshine Policy" toward North Korea lives on. His successor,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Aug 31, 2003

Jazz and more under one roof

The exaggerated rumors of jazz's demise can be put to rest. The second annual festival Tokyo Jazz 2003 showed that jazz is not ready to be relegated to the museum of past musical styles quite yet. An amazing (for jazz anyway) 40,000 fans headed to Ajinomoto Stadium in western Tokyo for two days of music...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Aug 27, 2003

Tabaimo pulls ahead of 'fun art' pack

Although she has only recently turned 28, I am starting to think Tabaimo is one of Japan's most important artists. Here's why.
COMMENTARY
Aug 26, 2003

Fujimori case testing Japan

The Japanese government is facing mounting pressure from the Peruvian government for the extradition of former President Alberto Fujimori, who has been in exile in Japan since November 2000. Last March, Interpol issued an arrest warrant for the disgraced former leader and late last month, the Peruvian...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2003

Encouraging signs from the Chinese world

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- If one focuses on the totality of the Chinese world, there have been several positive signs recently. With international media attention generally fragmented, it perhaps would be worthwhile to try to compile a synthesis of what we have witnessed lately.
COMMENTARY
Aug 24, 2003

Looking for a few bad men

LONDON -- Will Prime Minister Tony Blair's government fall as a result of the inquiry being led by Lord Hutton into the apparent suicide of weapons expert Dr. David Kelly? Unlikely.
COMMENTARY
Aug 22, 2003

Getting realistic on defense

LONDON -- Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government has taken some sensible steps toward a more realistic defense policy. In particular there has been some easing in dealing with emergency situations. Japanese Self-Defense Forces can also now be sent to Iraq to support peacekeeping there, but they...
EDITORIALS
Aug 21, 2003

Yasukuni issue must be resolved

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine continue to cast a shadow over Japan's relations with its Asian neighbors. In particular, China and South Korea remain critical of a Japanese head of government paying an official visit to the shrine, which is dedicated to millions of Japan's...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 19, 2003

Cometh the man, cometh the charisma

Adashing & suave lady-killer and a misfit loser?
COMMENTARY
Aug 18, 2003

Responsibility to protect against state abuse

KUALA LUMPUR -- The annual Asia-Pacific Roundtable is an invaluable opportunity to take the pulse of Southeast Asian thinking about security issues. This year's meeting, the 17th, featured the usual U.S. bashing -- a predictable response to overwhelming American power and the Bush administration's readiness...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2003

Choosing human security

The notion of "human security" has gradually but steadily gained greater international currency. Canada and Japan, especially under former Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy and the late former Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, respectively, were prominent early advocates of incorporating the...
EDITORIALS
Aug 14, 2003

Unconditionally settle abduction issue

Japan and North Korea are expected to discuss the abduction issue on a bilateral basis during the six-nation talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis to be held late this month in Beijing. Japanese negotiators should demand that Pyongyang address this issue in good faith and allow abductees' relatives...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 14, 2003

The identity of the Arab world

DAMASCUS -- Fadil Shururu, chief political officer of Ahmad Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, has come a long way since I first met him 35 years ago in Jordan's Ghor Valley, seedbed of the newborn guerrilla movement that was to liberate the whole of the Palestinian...
EDITORIALS
Aug 12, 2003

Time to rethink Japan-China ties

A quarter century ago, on Aug. 12, 1978, Japan and China signed a treaty of peace and friendship in Beijing, putting a legal end to the technical state of war between the two nations. With the United States and the Soviet Union locked in the Cold War, however, the treaty talks reflected the hard realities...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2003

Tanaka seen as comeback threat

Reports that prosecutors do not plan to indict former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka for allegedly misusing the salary of her state-funded secretary have set off a political firestorm not only in her home area but in Tokyo's political center of Nagatacho.
COMMENTARY / World / GUEST FORUM
Aug 9, 2003

War on terror requires a stronger UNSC

In a world where groups of thugs can take over failed states and modern technology enables small groups of fanatics to kill millions of people, more intervention by the international community in the sovereignty of individual nations will be necessary. Such intervention cannot be left to the United States...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Aug 7, 2003

"Tell the Moon to Come Out," "Illustrated Oxford Dictionary"

"Tell the Moon to Come Out," Joan Lingard, Puffin Books; 2003; 208 pp.
COMMENTARY
Aug 2, 2003

Exaggeration leads to tragedy

LONDON -- Politicians always exaggerate, or at least embroider the facts. Like lawyers they have a case to make and an audience to persuade. So they emphasize the strongest points in their argument and slide over the weaker ones.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2003

Terrorists find new haven in a quiet corner of Asia

SINGAPORE -- The failed mutiny by 300 Philippine Army soldiers, which gripped Manila's financial district for 21 hours on Sunday, highlighted the intricate problem of security and terrorism in Southeast Asia.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2003

Too rich, too complex to be run by slaves

HONG KONG -- China's new premier, Wen Jiabao, on his first visit to Hong Kong in his new job gave a resounding speech, declaring that local people were in charge of their own destiny. The question now is whether he meant it and whether the leaders in Beijing are prepared to trust the maturity of Hong...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2003

The transmutable Mr. Blair

LONDON -- Prime Minister Tony Blair is back in London after his whirlwind tour of Northeast Asia. For many of us the high point of his tour were the delightful moments at Tsinghua University in Beijing when, following a range of predictable questions that he answered with the usual bromides, he was asked...
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2003

Koizumi appears set to stay on by default

With the extended 190-day Diet session having closed Monday, lawmakers' attention is shifting to the Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election on Sept. 20, the new Cabinet that will immediately follow it and the expected House of Representatives poll in November.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2003

Suzuki aide gets suspended term in Kunashiri bid-rigging case

A former aide to arrested Lower House member Muneo Suzuki was handed a suspended 16-month prison term Monday for interfering in the bidding for a state-funded project on Kunashiri Island and conspiring with Suzuki to hide 100 million yen in donations.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 27, 2003

Fabrics for summer fun

MATSURI: Japanese Festival Arts, by Gloria Granz Gonick. University of Washington Press, 2003, 256 pp., $40 (paper). The UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History has published eight books on Asian textiles in the past 14 years, and it seems particularly proud of this latest addition "Matsuri," which focuses...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 27, 2003

The art of redemption

YOSHIMASA AND THE SILVER PAVILION: The Creation of the Soul of Japan, by Donald Keene. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003, 10 illustrations, 224 pp., $29.95 (paper). In the appropriate volume of his monumental history of Japanese literature, Donald Keene only once mentions the eighth Ashikaga...

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Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years