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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 20, 2003

Dancing detectives

A LOYAL CHARACTER DANCER, by Qiu Xiaolong. New York, SOHO Press, 2002, 351 pp., $25 (cloth) Popular fiction can be a fairly reliable indicator of changing public sentiments. One harbinger that the Cold War was beginning to wind down was the appearance of the now-famous police procedural novel. Such novels...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2003

Journalist offers renewable energy as solution to wars fought over oil

OSAKA -- Humans may someday cease to fight over oil when the sun becomes our main source of energy, according to 64-year-old German journalist Franz Alt.
EDITORIALS
Apr 16, 2003

Time to pull out the road map

As the war in Iraq reaches its final phases, attention is shifting to other fronts in the Middle East. None is more important than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. U.S. President George W. Bush promised to push for peace in the region after the Baghdad government fell. While some doubt his determination...
EDITORIALS
Apr 15, 2003

Party influence continues to wane

With public interest drawn to developments in the ongoing Iraq war, the first round of elections in local governments and assemblies featured low-key campaigning and a generally poor turnout. The media has not shown great interest in hyping up the local poles. And established political parties have tended...
COMMENTARY
Apr 15, 2003

Koizumi still Japan's best hope

The publicity given to the quarreling between members of the Japanese Cabinet, including accusations of lying, the resignation of the minister of agriculture and the difficulty Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apparently had in finding a suitable successor suggest that his government cannot last much...
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2003

Real test for Ishihara lies ahead

Despite his resounding re-election victory in Sunday's vote, Shintaro Ishihara's real test as Tokyo governor lies in the four years ahead, experts say.
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2003

Ishihara wins in landslide as gubernatorial elections close

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara was re-elected in a landslide in Sunday's nationwide local elections to choose governors and members of prefectural and municipal assemblies.
EDITORIALS
Apr 11, 2003

Aceh peace accord breaking apart

Separatist rebels in the Indonesian province of Aceh have fought the government for more than a quarter of a century. Last December, Jakarta and the Free Aceh Movement (known by the initials GAM) signed a peace agreement. Hopes that the accord would yield an enduring peace have been betrayed during the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / IN WITH THE NEW
Apr 10, 2003

Japan needs spine to stand up, cut its losers: Koike

ITAMI, Hyogo Pref. -- While many Japanese politicians claim knowledge of or interest in Middle Eastern affairs, few if any can match the credentials of Lower House member Yuriko Koike of the Liberal Democratic Party.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2003

Options in Korea after Iraq

SEOUL -- The war in Iraq is casting a long shadow over the impending crisis on the Korean Peninsula and, in particular, on North Korea's nuclear ambitions and intentions. Last month in Seoul, antiwar protesters succeeded in delaying a vote in the National Assembly on dispatching 700 noncombat engineers...
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2003

School texts cite 9/11, toe line on SDF

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States and subsequent war in Afghanistan are included in most high school textbooks that survived the latest round of screening by the education ministry.
COMMENTARY
Apr 8, 2003

Past guides U.S. postwar policy

LONDON -- The United Nations will only play a marginal role in postwar Iraq. The "transitional" administration will remain firmly in American hands, with some British, Australian and other coalition-member support, until there is an Iraqi government ready to take over the new Iraq. A hopeful estimate...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2003

Muslim 'jihad' not always a call to arms

HONOLULU -- In the flickering images on the television tube, anti-American Muslim demonstrators in Cairo, their faces contorted in anger, promised they would rush to Iraq to take up arms against the American invaders in a "jihad" to defend Islam.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Apr 6, 2003

Like no other country on earth

"Bom . . . bash . . . bom . . . bash . . ." The savage thud of big drums echoed off the alley walls, shook the cobbles and rattled the wonky Belgian shutters.
EDITORIALS
Apr 4, 2003

Diet turbulence likely in second half

As the Diet moves into the second half of its 150-day regular session, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration appears headed for more difficult times, politically and economically. The first half ended without a major hitch. The fiscal 2003 government budget -- the most important legislative...
EDITORIALS
Apr 2, 2003

A timely resignation

It's deja vu all over again. Yet another lawmaker has fallen into disgrace over money scandals. On Monday Mr. Tadamori Oshima, the minister of agriculture, fisheries and forestry, resigned his post in order to take responsibility for the alleged graft and misuse of campaign funds by his former secretaries....
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2003

Obituary -- Hyosuke Kujiraoka

Hyosuke Kujiraoka, a former vice speaker of the House of Representatives, died Tuesday of colon cancer at his home in Adachi Ward, Tokyo, his family said. He was 87.
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2003

Koizumi, Yeltsin discuss importance of bilateral trust

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and visiting former Russian President Boris Yeltsin discussed on Tuesday the need to boost bilateral trust in dealing with political issues as well as energy projects.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2003

Koizumi's power appears to be slipping

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has gone from bypassing his party's power brokers to pleading with them -- unsuccessfully.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 31, 2003

The economics of friendly fire

Friendly fire is a terrible thing to be a casualty of. But such things happen in the battlefield. As has indeed been happening in the Iraqi war zone.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2003

Fujimori dismisses Interpol notice

Peru's disgraced former president, Alberto Fujimori, has shrugged off Interpol's notice for his arrest on murder and kidnapping charges, insists he is innocent and promises that he will someday return home to Peru.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 30, 2003

Behind the silver screen

THE FLASH OF CAPITAL: Film and Geopolitics in Japan, by Eric Cazdyn. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2002, 316 pp., $21.95 (paper) Those who dislike that branch of criticism and cultural studies that has come to be known as "theory" will probably not care for Eric Cazdyn's "The Flash of Capital:...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 30, 2003

Risks of selected 'free trade'

A marked trend in world affairs since the 1980s has been a series of bilateral and regional free-trade agreements, or FTAs, in Australasia, the Americas and Asia, not to mention Europe. Japan, having largely stayed out of these, is now at least contemplating the idea with some selected trade partners....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2003

46 vie for governorships; economy, war emerge as key issues

Forty-six candidates applied Thursday to run in 11 gubernatorial elections April 13 in Tokyo and 10 other prefectures, marking the official start of campaigning that is expected to focus on the economy and support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2003

Lower House seeks Sakai's resignation

The House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday calling for Takanori Sakai, a Lower House member arrested earlier this month for allegedly falsifying political funds reports, to resign.
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2003

Kyoto water forum opens amid internal wrangling

KYOTO -- A two-day meeting of ministers from 170 countries opened Saturday in Kyoto at the World Water Forum, with delegates making firm promises to deal with the world's water crisis.
COMMENTARY
Mar 22, 2003

Difficult task of buying a few good allies

WASHINGTON -- The United States may dominate the globe, but it is almost alone in the war against Iraq. Even the offer of some $30 billion in aid could not procure basing rights from Turkey, a longtime ally.

Longform

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