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EDITORIALS
Jun 19, 2004

SDF's new role raises questions

Reiterating in effect what he had told U.S. President George W. Bush in a Japan-U.S. summit earlier this month, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced on Thursday that Japanese troops now stationed in Iraq will participate in the U.S.-led multinational force following the June 30 transfer of sovereignty....
EDITORIALS
Jun 16, 2004

New defense laws best left unused

Monday's Diet approval of defense-related bills signifies that Japanese security policy has entered a new phase. Now, Japan has a legal framework for defending itself against military attacks. This is no cause for complacency, however. The real challenge for the nation is to make greater efforts for...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 16, 2004

ReJoyce! Fans fete Bloomsday centenary

DUBLIN -- One hundred years ago today is the day described in arguably the greatest novel of the 20th century, James Joyce's "Ulysses." June 16, 1904, was when Joyce's hero, Leopold Bloom, set out on a meandering stroll through Dublin, and the date is now celebrated worldwide as Bloomsday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 15, 2004

Managing security alliances

The administration of President George W. Bush has recognized that new security threats and new military capabilities require a new U.S. global defense posture. Nowhere are those changes more evident than Northeast Asia, and on the Korean Peninsula in particular. The redeployment of U.S. forces in South...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 15, 2004

Casualty of war

"I do understand why that girl could do such a brutal thing, because I myself treated people cruelly during World War II, without any hesitation," says 82-year-old Masaichi Nishiguchi, a former military policeman (MP) in the Japanese Army.
Features
Jun 13, 2004

Shaking off 'shame'

In a civilized society, people should not be scared to talk about their ailments -- especially when the illness may have been contracted from medical product infected with a potentially fatal virus.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 13, 2004

Murakami's job guide for teens lights the pipe of dreams

In mid-May, NHK's nightly news feature "Closeup Gendai" looked at the current post-university recruitment situation from the viewpoint of the recruit. For the past decade, the main story with regard to this issue has been the difficulty of finding work as more and more companies restructured along nontraditional...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 12, 2004

The one-man national yacht movement

On my planet, the U.S., people change things at the grassroots level. In Japan, the root of the blade is often an "obaa-san" or "ojii-san," a single person out to change things. You can find these individuals all over Japan, conjuring up their own ways of making a difference in this country. I ran into...
EDITORIALS
Jun 11, 2004

Saying goodbye to Mr. Reagan

Friday, at a solemn state funeral in Washington, D.C., the United States formally bids farewell to Mr. Ronald Reagan, one of the most eminent, influential and widely liked U.S. presidents of the postwar era. Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone will be there to convey this nation's sincere condolences...
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 8, 2004

Power of LDP support groups waning

About 5,000 people gathered in Sapporo on May 23 to attend a convention of the national association of special post office chiefs, a longtime supporter of and the biggest vote-gathering machine for the Liberal Democratic Party.
BUSINESS
Jun 8, 2004

Foreign exchange pool at near-record level

Japan's foreign exchange reserves stood at $816.85 billion in May, up $1.88 billion from the previous month, the Finance Ministry said Monday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 5, 2004

Taking the long road to nowhere

Out on the straight freeways of higher enlightenment, many an astute Japan watcher has tied the cautious, noncommittal qualities of Japanese personality to various cultural and linguistic features, such as tightknit group society and ambiguous language structure.
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 4, 2004

Olympics for Ono?

Feyenoord midfielder Shinji Ono looks set to be picked for Japan's Olympic team as an over-age player for this summer's Athens Games, soccer sources said Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 2, 2004

Striking a balance in Geneva

The World Trade Organization opens three days of farm trade talks in Geneva on Wednesday. Japan, which maintains high tariffs on rice and other sensitive products, is likely to find itself on the defensive, as it did in previous talks. But maintaining a rigid policy of protection is not a sensible option....
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2004

Over 15 million use high-speed Net services

There were more than 15 million subscribers to high-speed broadband Internet connection services in Japan as of the end of April, a preliminary government report showed Monday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 1, 2004

'No sex please, you're teachers'

"I feel offended that anyone would tell me who I can or can't hang out with," says Brendan (not his real name), one of 6,000 foreign language instructors employed by Nova Corp. in Japan.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 31, 2004

Numbers show road to recovery fraught with inflationary risk

The preliminary GDP figures Japan released May 18 show that the gross domestic product in the January-March quarter expanded 1.4 percent (5.6 percent annualized) in real terms over the previous quarter. Compared with the same period in 2003, first-quarter GDP grew a robust 5.4 percent. The GDP has now...
JAPAN
May 30, 2004

Okinawa chief wants SOFA seen as national issue

Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine called Saturday for national attention on Okinawa's wish to revise the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement.
JAPAN
May 29, 2004

Two Japanese reported killed south of Baghdad

Two Japanese freelance journalists died after their vehicle was attacked by unidentified assailants in the city of Mahmudiyah, about 30 km south of Baghdad, a Foreign Ministry official in Tokyo quoted Iraqi hospital officials as saying Friday.
JAPAN
May 29, 2004

Locals take crime-prevention into their own hands

At the beginning of May, six security company workers started late-afternoon patrols of the Isezaki-cho district of Yokohama's Naka Ward.
JAPAN
May 29, 2004

Locals take crime-prevention into their own hands

At the beginning of May, six security company workers started late-afternoon patrols of the Isezaki-cho district of Yokohama's Naka Ward.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 28, 2004

Officials explore technology in effort to win gold in Athens

With the Athens Olympic Games looming, Japanese sports officials are exploring a variety of scientific devices and methods to secure as many gold medals for Japan as possible.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 28, 2004

Officials explore technology in effort to win gold in Athens

With the Athens Olympic Games looming, Japanese sports officials are exploring a variety of scientific devices and methods to secure as many gold medals for Japan as possible.
BUSINESS
May 27, 2004

Flexible stance planned for farm negotiations in new round of WTO talks

The government and the ruling coalition parties said Wednesday that Japan will take a flexible position on farm negotiations in the new round of global trade talks under the World Trade Organization.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 26, 2004

Forum highlights human-trafficking menace in EU

The May 1 expansion of the European Union was hailed as an economic boost for Europe, yet there is a dark side to this story.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 26, 2004

Forum highlights human-trafficking menace in EU

The May 1 expansion of the European Union was hailed as an economic boost for Europe, yet there is a dark side to this story.

Longform

Construction equipment sits idle in a park near Shiba Toshogu shrine in Tokyo's Minato Ward. While Japan has a history of treating its trees with reverence, green coverage is said to be lacking in most of the major cities.
Do Japan's trees no longer occupy the sacred space they used to?