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JAPAN
Sep 15, 2003

One in five Japanese 65 or older

The number of Japanese aged 65 or older has reached a record 24.31 million, or roughly one out of every five people in the country.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 13, 2003

Opportunity knocks for women in Japan's climate of change

With the days of the Asian Tigers long gone, and Japan Inc. now more of a pussy cat gone belly up, the talk is no longer about the world's second-biggest economy taking over the world, but about the profound structural changes that will be necessary just to keep it afloat.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 28, 2003

Asia's future leaders take center stage

SEOUL -- "If you've got it," as the saying goes, "flaunt it!" And Asia's "New Leaders" have got "the right stuff" in spades. But what to do with it?
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2003

Steep hike eyed for consumption tax

With demographic change affecting Japan's finances more every day, the government's tax panel proposed Tuesday the scaling back of tax breaks for the elderly and doubling the consumption tax to pay for rising pension and medical care costs.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2003

Steep hike eyed for consumption tax

With demographic change affecting Japan's finances more every day, the government's tax panel proposed Tuesday the scaling back of tax breaks for the elderly and doubling the consumption tax to pay for rising pension and medical care costs.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2003

Steep hike eyed for consumption tax

With demographic change affecting Japan's finances more every day, the government's tax panel proposed Tuesday the scaling back of tax breaks for the elderly and doubling the consumption tax to pay for rising pension and medical care costs.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 30, 2003

Was WWF3 a washout for citizens' rights?

While the outbreak of war in Iraq may have disrupted proceedings at the Third World Water Forum being held in Kansai, it also lent them deeper significance.
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2003

Water forum closes amid clash over privatization

KYOTO -- For eight days, and at a considerable cost to local taxpayers, the World Water Forum brought together international corporations in the water supply business, World Bank officials and a large number of Japanese construction and design firms, as well as senior government officials and thousands...
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2003

World Water Forum declaration

The following is a summary of the ministerial declaration adopted Sunday at the World Water Forum in Kyoto.
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2003

Forum closes with vows to prioritize water issues

KYOTO -- The 3rd World Water Forum closed Sunday with a declaration promising to make water issues a top priority among governments but failing to narrow the gap on the issue of privatizing water supplies and sanitation services.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2003

Water privatization not the answer: American activist

Patrick McCully had a revelation in India more than a decade ago. The campaign director of International Rivers Network witnessed indigenous people in Gujarat state, India, risking their lives to protest construction of a dam on the Narmada River. All were eventually arrested, but government officials...
EDITORIALS
Mar 16, 2003

Overcoming the water crisis

The world faces serious water shortages, yet the crisis is often overlooked because it seems so mundane. It is an urgent problem that must be tackled just as aggressively as other grave crises that threaten the future of humanity. The World Water Forum, which will meet in Japan for eight days from today,...
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2003

Population logs lowest growth in postwar period

Japan's population grew 0.11 percent in the year to Oct. 1, the lowest growth rate recorded in the postwar period, the Public Management, Home Affairs and Posts and Telecommunications Ministry said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 2003

Can we trust 'Davos man'?

The rich, the powerful and the famous last week descended once again on the Swiss village of Davos for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF). This year, the assembled luminaries pondered the loss of "trust" that has sapped institutions worldwide. The question is a vital one. Of the many...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2003

Nonbinding water forum declaration to tout private funds and rice paddies

The government has compiled the rough draft of a declaration to be adopted at an international conference on water issues in March, calling for a greater injection of funds and technology to make safe drinking water available to more people worldwide.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2003

Coping with a grayer world

Like globalization, population aging is a universal force with the power to shape the future. By 2050 the number of people aged 60 and over in the world will increase from 600 million today to almost 2 billion. In Japan, the proportion of the population aged 65 or over will climb from 17.2 percent in...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 12, 2003

Facing economic facts, even if it hurts

STRADDLING ECONOMICS AND POLITICS: Cross-Cutting Issues in Asia, the United States, and the Global Economy, by Charles Wolf Jr. Santa Monica, CA.: Rand, 2002, 210 pp., $20 (paper) You have to give Charles Wolf credit. It takes courage to reprint articles when some of the predictions included are flat-out...
EDITORIALS
Dec 13, 2002

High stakes in reducing poverty

In the 2002 edition of its annual "State of World Population" report, the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, or UNFPA, emphasizes that eliminating poverty and reducing the birthrate by raising the educational level of women will curb the population explosion, shrink the gap between rich and...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 16, 2002

Indians starve while grain is exported

MADRAS -- Hunger still stalks India. Fifty-five years after the British gave the country its freedom, 200 million Indians -- a fifth of the population -- still go to bed hungry. What makes this situation even more tragic is the fact that the government plans to export million tons of rice and wheat....
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2002

Regional plans sought for global water conference

The government said Tuesday it will call on countries and international organizations taking part in a conference in March on global water issues to adopt region-specific action plans, including those promoting aid for water improvement and facilities, officials said.
COMMENTARY / World / GUEST FORUM
Oct 20, 2002

Scarcity not to blame for pain of hunger

In 1945, the year the vicious war ended, there was famine in Italy, Russia, Bengal, Burma and much of China; and yet there were unsellable surpluses of food in the United States, Canada and some Latin American countries. Products could have been shipped, stored and sold in quantities large enough to...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 10, 2002

Women are the key to conserving Mother Earth

Danielle Nierenberg may work in the shadow of the White House, but she is clearly more enlightened than the man who lives there. At the end of April, the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute released a policy brief written by Nierenberg, a staff researcher. The title of her paper is a succinct statement...
COMMENTARY
Sep 8, 2002

Flawed jamboree had value

LONDON -- The vast jamboree at the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg involved a huge amount of partying and junketing. The costs of travel and accommodations for delegations of ministers and officials were huge. Was it worthwhile?
EDITORIALS
Sep 7, 2002

A 'disappointing' success

Ten days of haggling about the Earth's future in Johannesburg, South Africa, have yielded an action plan and a political declaration, though both are less ambitious that they might have been.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2002

Uncertainty overshadows Earth summit

The largest United Nations gathering in history is to start in Johannesburg in nine days' time, with nations reflecting on the progress -- or the lack of it -- toward achieving a more sustainable world over the past decade and wrangling over how to do a better job in the future.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2002

Study on aging finds most seniors active, healthy

The majority of elderly people in Japan are physically in good shape and socially active, according to the fiscal 2001 white paper on aging in society submitted and approved at Friday's Cabinet meeting.
EDITORIALS
Jun 10, 2002

Scientific analysis should come first

The government's decision to host an international project to build the next-generation thermonuclear experimental reactor in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, lacks a critical element: public understanding. The decision, prompted by a group of Liberal Democratic Party legislators promoting nuclear fusion...
BUSINESS
Jun 3, 2002

U.S. energy policy pushes new course

KANSAS — The Bush administration is attempting to direct global energy policy in a new direction five years after the landmark Kyoto agreement to roll back emissions of greenhouse gases.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 2, 2002

New threats to East Asian security

EAST ASIA IMPERILLED: Transnational Challenges to Security, by Alan Dupont. Cambridge University Press, 2001, 336 pp., $25 (paper) The way we think about national security is changing. Traditionally, the idea of protecting a nation focused on military contests over power, wealth or territory. Not surprisingly,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 9, 2002

Prices keep Electronic Toll Collection system from catching on

The Electronic Toll Collection system was introduced in March 2001 amid great expectations that it would ease the notorious traffic jams on Japan's expressways as it allows vehicles equipped with a transponder to pass through toll gates without having to stop to pay.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear