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EDITORIALS
Oct 30, 2003

Gearing up for a decisive election

Campaigning for the Nov. 9 general election, the first in the 21st century, officially kicked off Tuesday. The focal question is whether power will switch from the three-way coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party to the enlarged and emboldened Democratic Party of Japan. Put it another way, the...
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2003

Aum bred social cult of fear, passion for security

OSAKA -- The trial of Aum Shinrikyo leader Shoko Asahara effectively concludes when his lawyers present their closing arguments before the Tokyo District Court on Thursday and Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2003

Campaign rhetoric faces tougher scrutiny

Few voters in Japan -- or lawmakers for that matter -- ever took a serious look at political party election pledges, knowing they were simply vague policy slogans with little substance.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2003

Ogata, Ooka and others to receive Order of Culture

Former U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata will be awarded the Order of Culture along with four other recipients, according to the government's honors list released Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Oct 29, 2003

U.S. southeast interested in hydrogen cars

OSAKA -- A two-day meeting here between government and business representatives from seven U.S. states and Japan concluded Tuesday with discussion focusing on the future of the auto industry, especially the introduction of hydrogen fuel cells.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 29, 2003

Mediation is the medium

"It's a transmission station," says David Elliott of the Mori Art Museum, which opened to the public Oct. 18. "It's a beacon beaming things out to the rest of the city, intimately connected with it."
EDITORIALS
Oct 29, 2003

APEC makes the grade

The 10th annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders summit has come and gone, leaving the usual questions in its wake. Perennial doubts about the forum's relevance have been highlighted following the collapse of the last round of world trade negotiations. APEC members acknowledged this year's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Oct 29, 2003

250 reasons to be happy, then some

I'm happy! The reason I'm happy is I love art, and this month a total of four -- yes four -- new contemporary art spaces opened in Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Oct 28, 2003

Manifestos leave voters in the dark

Not all political parties campaigning for the Nov. 9 general election describe their campaign promises in the form of a "manifesto." But they all have a common objective: explaining their beliefs and policies to the electorate in clear language. Yet many descriptions are equivocal and even confusing...
JAPAN
Oct 28, 2003

Radiation leak 'could kill 400,000'

A large-scale radiation leak at a major nuclear reactor in Japan could kill more than 400,000 people and cost up to 460 trillion yen over 50 years, according to a study by a Kyoto Sangyo University researcher released Monday.
JAPAN
Oct 28, 2003

Nations target illegal exports to North Korea

Japan and seven Pacific Rim economies including China, South Korea and the United States agreed Monday to take effective measures to prevent North Korea from obtaining, through indirect exports, illegal products with military potential.
BUSINESS
Oct 28, 2003

Sony, DoCoMo team up for e-money cell phones

Sony Corp. and NTT DoCoMo Inc. said Monday they will jointly develop integrated circuit chip technology that will allow mobile phone users to pay for groceries and train fares using their handsets.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 28, 2003

Convicted Briton says he was drug run patsy

Most of us can name a time when our lives changed forever, but few can do so as precisely as Nicholas Baker: 11.30 a.m. on April 13, 2002.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 28, 2003

Skin care, leases and illegal tax

Skin problems NWW asks "where can I find an English-speaking dermatologist or specialist clinic in Tokyo area?"
JAPAN
Oct 28, 2003

Panel wary of plan to freeze cancer patients' ova

The ethics committee of the Japan Society of Clinical Oncology has compiled a proposal saying it is "too early" to approve of the freezing of female cancer patients' ova, society officials said Monday.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Oct 27, 2003

Road to stable exchange rates pocked with self-contradictions

By TERUHIKO MANO
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2003

Chain pulls sandwiches with GMOs

Subway Japan Inc., the Japanese affiliate of the major U.S. sandwich chain Subway Restaurants, has stopped selling sandwiches after its import dealer learned that the bread dough contains an enzyme derived from unauthorized genetically modified microorganisms.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2003

Rumsfeld set to pay visit on Nov. 14

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is expected to visit Japan on Nov. 14 to hold talks with Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba, Japanese government sources said Saturday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 26, 2003

Revealing more to life and death

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF YUKIO MISHIMA, by Henry Scott Stokes. Tuttle Publishing, 2003, 271 pp., $16.95, (cloth). One afternoon in the late 1960s, Henry Scott Stokes received a visit at the Tokyo office of the London Times from the writer Yukio Mishima, who declared to the startled young journalist, "You...
MORE SPORTS
Oct 26, 2003

Kyoto stoked for Triple Crown bid

Racing fans will be seeking out television sets Sunday and packing the stands at Kyoto Racecourse for the highly anticipated running of the 64th Kikkasho.
Japan Times
JAPAN / INTERNATIONAL RATIONALE
Oct 25, 2003

Narita airport prepares for battle with Asian hubs

NARITA, Chiba Pref. -- When Masatoshi Uchida joined New Tokyo International Airport Authority, the quasi-governmental organ that operates Narita airport, in 1977, he never dreamed he'd end up selling Hermes goods.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2003

Nippon TV producer in ratings scam

A producer at Nippon Television Network Corp. has bribed TV viewer rating monitors in a bid to manipulate the viewer ratings of his own shows, it was learned Friday.
BUSINESS
Oct 25, 2003

METI forms task force for plotting FTA strategies

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry launched a task force Friday to deal comprehensively with talks for a free-trade agreement, METI head Shoichi Nakagawa said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2003

Single-seat constituencies offer refuge for LDP elders who refuse to retire

Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, 84, is battling hard to defy attempts by the Liberal Democratic Party leadership to block his planned run in the upcoming general election.
BUSINESS
Oct 24, 2003

Trade surplus dips due to energy imports

Japan's trade surplus for the first half of fiscal 2003 slipped 0.8 percent from the same period last year, marking its first fall in two years.
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ARCHIPELA-GO
Oct 24, 2003

Where time flows slowly

Some places really do have the image thing sorted out. Mention of the name Kurashiki generally conjures up a warm picture of traditional Japan, a town where life trundles along at a gentler pace than elsewhere. What tends not to be conjured up is that Kurashiki is a city of 450,000 people living right...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2003

Koizumi fails to evict LDP elder

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi tried Thursday to persuade two octogenarian former prime ministers to retire from politics because of their age, effecting a quiet exit in the case of Kiichi Miyazawa but running up against a brick wall in the shape of Yasuhiro Nakasone.
JAPAN
Oct 23, 2003

TV show 'Oshin' to raise Iraqi spirits

The popular television drama "Oshin" will be broadcast in Iraq beginning later this month, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

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