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EDITORIALS
Jun 29, 2004

Talks give reason for hope

Although the third round of the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis yielded little more than a commitment to meet again, for the first time, there are grounds for genuine optimism. The United States and North Korea finally appear to be discussing solutions in earnest. To help them along,...
COMMENTARY
Jun 29, 2004

Can Koizumi expect a rally?

Security is the key word for the July 11 Upper House election, which focuses on two major issues: pension reform and Self-Defense Force participation in a multinational force in Iraq. At stake are Japan's social security system (including pensions, health care and nursing services for the elderly) and...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 29, 2004

Stay-at-home sales agents cash in on Internet revolution

Housewife Tomoko Kobayashi puts on her Web businesswoman's hat at 9 a.m., after all her morning chores are out of the way.
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2004

Fishing net supplier attracting investors after conversion to investment banking

What was once a major Tokyo-based seller of fishing nets has recently been attracting the attention of foreign and domestic investors, both individual and institutional, thanks to a unique business strategy and an astonishingly fast pace of growth.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 27, 2004

H. Art Chaos explores poetry in motion

One of Japan's most innovative dance companies will tackle the challenging task of giving form to an almost forgotten music and dance concept, developed by a composer some 90 years ago.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 27, 2004

A feast of culture on Hokkaido menu

Modernization and industrialization have ensured that the traditional lifestyle of the Ainu has been destroyed as thoroughly as the traditional customs of their Japanese neighbours.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 26, 2004

Iain Gibb

Sometimes, depending on where he has been and where he is going, Iain Gibb may be seen dragging a wheeled suitcase along a Tokyo street. People who wonder may be surprised to learn that inside the suitcase are a leg of lamb, bagpipes and a complete Scottish outfit. The lamb is Iain's shopping, to be...
BUSINESS
Jun 26, 2004

Internet, TV shopping shift firms' focus toward mail-order market

A growing number of retail corporations that once sold mostly over the counter are concentrating more on the mail-order market, made popular by the Internet and television shopping programs.
BUSINESS
Jun 26, 2004

Postal services effort to get more staff

The government will boost the number of people working for the office in charge of privatizing Japan's postal services to around 80 by late July, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 25, 2004

Bringing science and society closer

The connection between science and technology, on the one hand, and our daily life, on the other, is growing closer and increasingly wide-ranging. To see that relationship, we have only to think of the example of advanced medicine, in which information and images obtained via cell phones or the Internet...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 25, 2004

The heartbeat of Aomori

Remoteness is not without its attractions, especially in crowded Japan. And on the main island of Honshu, you would be hard pressed to find a place of human habitation further from the baying crowds than Aomori Prefecture. Curled like a pincer around Honshu's northern tip, Aomori, the capital, is a characterless...
EDITORIALS
Jun 24, 2004

Parties stake out their positions

Campaigning for the July 11 Upper House election, set to start Thursday, has already been under way for all practical purposes, as key members of the ruling and opposition parties hit the hustings across the country. On Monday, at a joint debate session at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo, party...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 23, 2004

Naughty and nice, sugar and spice

Shimotsuma Monogatari Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Tetsuya Nakashima Running time: 103 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Youth fashion in Japan used to march in lockstep from trend to trend, led by magazines with names like pandas...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 22, 2004

Visa cards, pensions and thesaurus info

Visa card Is it possible to get a zero annual fee Visa or Mastercard from a Japanese bank? It is quite common in the U.S., but I have never heard of or seen one here.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / A GAIJIN'S TALE
Jun 22, 2004

Food for thought

I was standing on a relatively crowded late afternoon train, quietly eating a sandwich when I heard in slow, but perfect, English: "It is thought . . . impolite . . . to eat . . . while standing . . . in Japan."
BUSINESS
Jun 22, 2004

KDDI to offload PHS business

KDDI Corp., the nation's No. 2 mobile carrier, officially announced Monday that it has agreed to sell its PHS business to the Carlyle Group, a U.S. private equity fund, for 220 billion yen.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 20, 2004

Esoteric ways of the samurai

THE PERFUMED SLEEVE, by Laura Joh Rowland. New York: St. Martin's Minotaur, 326 pp., 2004, $24.95 (cloth). SENSEI, by John Donohue. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 258 pp., 2004, $23.95 (cloth). For the ninth time since his 1994 debut in "Shinju," Sano Ichiro ("the shogun's most honorable investigator...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 20, 2004

New Komeito to emphasize noncombat SDF role in Iraq

With campaigning for the July 11 House of Councilors election officially starting Thursday, New Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki says his party has to get the message out that the Self-Defense Forces will stick to humanitarian activities even after joining a U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 20, 2004

Talent agencies enjoy the biggest laugh

Yoshimoto Kogyo, one of the biggest talent agencies in Japan, recently announced that it plans to build a new 1,000-seat comedy theater in Shinjuku. The company already operates a 458-seat theater in the Shinjuku Lumine building, and like that one the new venue will present only Yoshimoto acts. The company's...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 19, 2004

Kohei Yamada

For 27 years Kohei Yamada has worked professionally in different capacities for the Young Men's Christian Association. As a gerontologist deeply committed to community care, he says he looks for quality in the life of the elderly. "In Japan, very often people with good will take care of the elderly,...
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 17, 2004

Ono out of squad for Asian Cup

Feyenoord midfielder Shinji Ono was omitted from a provisional 30-man squad for Japan's defense of the Asian Cup kicking off in China next month and is set to join the country's Olympic team as an over-age player, the Japan Football Association said Wednesday.
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Jun 17, 2004

When the summer vacation is just too long

Just try to find something for foreign kids to do in Japan in the summer. There aren't many options, even if your children speak Japanese, as mine do. The most difficult period of all is the five or six weeks after international schools close down but Japanese schools are still in session.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 16, 2004

A sea monkey and a gentleman

Umizaru Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Eiichiro Hazumi Running time: 120 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Japanese studios used to grind out contemporary action movies by the dozen, with one company, Nikkatsu, specializing in them from...
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2004

Monetary policy to stay intact: BOJ

The Bank of Japan's policy-setting panel left its monetary policy unchanged Tuesday, dismissing speculation that its ultraeasy monetary grip might be coming to an end amid recent economic recovery signs.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 15, 2004

Free guides, counseling and a bet

Howzat! Graham, Operations Manager at the YC&AC (Yokohama Country & Athletic Club) located in Naka-ku, Yokohama, follows up an enquiry about cricket from Jake on June 1.
Japan Times
Features
Jun 13, 2004

Front-line fighters

Squeezed between stacks of files and computer equipment in a two-room apartment in Tokyo's Takadanobaba area, Chizuko Ikegami and several volunteers are manning the phones. Round the clock, day in, day out, PLACE Tokyo receives calls from people desperately seeking advice after being diagnosed with...
MORE SPORTS
Jun 12, 2004

Yamaguchi one stroke off pace

WILMINGTON, Del. -- Japan's Chiharu Yamaguchi fired a bogey-free 4-under-par 67 to grab a tie for second place, one shot off the pace in the first round of the LPGA Championship on Thursday.
COMMUNITY
Jun 12, 2004

Natural Healing Center valuable online resource

There is a misleading blonde blue-eyed softness about Sascha Hewitt. Actually she is as strong as on ox, which she ably demonstrates by lugging three heavy bags from her home in Tokyo's Shimo-Meguro to where we meet in Shibuya.

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers