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Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2002

Send abductees home before talks: Tokyo

The government wants the surviving Japanese who were kidnapped by North Korea to return to Japan before it resumes diplomatic normalization talks with the Stalinist state next month, officials said Wednesday.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Sep 19, 2002

Shine on you crazy plumber

Mario, Nintendo's world-famous plumber/mascot, may be the oldest active character in video games, but he's certainly not washed up. Neither is "Super Mario Sunshine," Mario's latest adventure.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 17, 2002

Breaking down the barriers

SEOUL -- A merican presidents, soccer stars, paying tourists and the occasional squad of Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders airlifted in to boost U.S. troop morale regularly bus through select checkpoints in the Korean demilitarized zone, but otherwise this 246-km-long, 4 km-wide strip of land is one desolate...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 16, 2002

A step forward for Japanese diplomacy

Frustrated with attempts to re-engage with the Bush administration, North Korea has reached out to alternative sources of support, sidestepping the United States for the moment by turning to Tokyo. Like a good boxer who knows how to bob and weave to elude his opponents and then land a telling blow, Pyongyang's...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 15, 2002

Simplicity, the mother of perfection

First impressions are everything. You can tell a good restaurant from the moment you walk through the door. It could be a visual cue or the general layout, a subtle feeling that the feng shui is right. It could be the way you are greeted at the door, the movements of the chef or the reassurance of seeing...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Sep 15, 2002

Sake-shopping picks that really hit the spot

There exists, where you would least expect it, a marvelous oasis for sake shopping. Yoshiike department store, just outside Okachimachi Station and just across from the entrance to Ameyokocho, has a fantastic selection of sake and a plethora of sake utensils to go with it.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2002

Tepco not to be punished in reactor crack scandal

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has decided not to file a criminal complaint against Tokyo Electric Power Co. for allegedly running nuclear reactors it knew were cracked, government sources said Saturday.
SUMO
Sep 13, 2002

Taka tumbles again

Takanohana suffered a setback in his comeback from injury as the yokozuna went down to his second defeat against a rank-and-filer at the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament on Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2002

Two wetlands slated for protection

Two wetlands should be added to the list of wildlife preserves with the aim of registering them under an international convention on wetlands to be held in Spain in November, the Environment Ministry's Central Environment Council decided Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2002

Families of hijackers arrive in Japan

Six relatives of Japanese radicals who hijacked a Japan Airlines plane to North Korea in 1970 arrived in Japan on Tuesday night, five of them children of the hijackers who were born and raised in the communist state.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 12, 2002

Agreeing to disagree makes no sense at all

The deluge of posters, pamphlets and platitudes that roared out of Johannesburg during the 2002 Earth Summit has ended, though to no one's surprise this summit's conclusions were much the same as those of the first Earth Summit in Rio a decade ago.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Sep 12, 2002

Super Monkey's on my back

You'll have to excuse me if this week's column is a bit short. Sega has just released "Super Monkey Ball 2" (SMB2) and I am having a hard time tearing myself away from the television.
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2002

Nation's centenarian population quadruples in 10 years

The number of current centenarians in Japan and those who are due to be centenarians by the end of September reached a record high of 17,934 as of Sept. 1, with 84 percent of these women, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2002

Unauthorized bolts used to fix Fukushima nuclear reactor

A panel set up by Tokyo Electric Power Co. to investigate the company's coverup of nuclear reactor faults has discovered that unauthorized bolts were used to repair a reactor at Tepco's Fukushima No. 1 plant, company sources said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2002

Once again at ground zero

LOS ANGELES -- Japan is once again at a historical tipping point, what could be called a political ground zero. Japan has been at ground zero two other times in its modern history and both times the outcome was not pretty.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 11, 2002

The maestro at work

MATSUMOTO, Nagano Pref. -- "What does everyone think?"
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Sep 8, 2002

Radio icon pulls plug on show after world-record 45 years

Her achievement is nothing special, she says. But the thing that has kept Chieko Akiyama going throughout her unprecedented career is the human energy radiating from the people she meets.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2002

Tepco put reactors back on line despite reports of over 20 faults

Tokyo Electric Power Co. put reactors at its two nuclear power plants in Fukushima Prefecture back on line this summer without conducting inspections, even after the company received reports of possible problems, informed sources said Saturday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 8, 2002

Across continents by cab

For most people, all it takes to get from Tokyo to London these days is an air ticket and a 12-hour flight. But for taxi drivers Takemasa Irie and his son, Takeshige, the journey was much longer and far more grueling, and jet lag was nowhere on their long list of concerns. They were going to drive all...
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2002

Officials at Tepco HQ 'not aware' of coverups

After concluding its inspections of facilities operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co., the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency suggested Friday that top Tepco officials were not involved in a systematic coverup of structural problems at the firm's nuclear plants.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2002

Chiba children's home kids get glimpse of media workings

Five children from the Nonohana-no-ie Children's Home got a taste of the newsroom at The Japan Times and spent some time behind the microphone at radio Inter-FM recently, part of a program to prepare the youngsters for a working life outside the home.
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2002

Crimes by foreigners on the rise

The number of crimes committed by nonpermanent resident foreigners in the first six months of this year jumped 25.8 percent from a year earlier to 15,424, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2002

Tepco in-house probe reveals division chiefs' coverup role

An internal probe by Tokyo Electric Power Co. has determined that division chiefs ordered at least three coverups of structural problems at Tepco nuclear plants, company sources said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Sep 5, 2002

Unions build political power

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President George W. Bush spent Labor Day just like he did last year. He attended a union picnic in Pennsylvania. The difference is that last year he was courting the steelworkers. This year it was the carpenters. He and his advisers seem intent on improving his showing among union...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 5, 2002

Reaching out to Japanese hit on Sept. 11

Nearly a year ago, on Sept. 11, the Japan Helpline undertook its most difficult aid effort since the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck Kobe back in 1995.
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2002

Osaka system telephones tax delinquents

OSAKA The Osaka Regional Taxation Bureau has introduced a computerized telephone calling system to remind taxpayers to pay overdue taxes.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan