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JAPAN
May 26, 2004

Muslim clerics want more troops in Samawah

A key religious figure from the southern Iraqi city of Samawah asked Japan on Tuesday to send more troops to facilitate the city's rehabilitation.
JAPAN
May 26, 2004

U.N. asks Tokyo for Iraq maternal medical care funds

The head of the United Nations Population Fund expressed hope Tuesday that Japan will provide funds for the agency's project to improve maternal medical care in Iraq, where the situation has been deteriorating under the U.S.-led occupation.
JAPAN
May 25, 2004

70% positive on Koizumi trip: poll

Nearly 70 percent of respondents to a latest Kyodo News poll gave a positive assessment of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's one-day visit to North Korea on Saturday, but as many as 83.9 percent said they think the abduction issue remains unresolved.
JAPAN
May 25, 2004

70% positive on Koizumi trip: poll

Nearly 70 percent of respondents to a latest Kyodo News poll gave a positive assessment of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's one-day visit to North Korea on Saturday, but as many as 83.9 percent said they think the abduction issue remains unresolved.
JAPAN
May 25, 2004

Harassment issue untouched

News of the successes and failures in the reunification of the families of five Japanese who were repatriated after being abducted to North Korea have been plastered across the front pages of Japanese newspapers in the wake of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Pyongyang on Saturday.
EDITORIALS
May 24, 2004

A qualified success for Mr. Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has completed his second trip to Pyongyang. Unlike with his first visit, there were no surprises this time. He returned home with the families of four abductees, a promise to arrange a reunion between a fifth abductee and her three family members in Beijing, and pledges...
JAPAN
May 24, 2004

Political leaders weigh in on value of Koizumi's visit to North Korea

Political leaders continued debating Sunday the outcome of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, with an opposition leader denouncing it as a "big failure."
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 24, 2004

Hasuikes bring their children home

Kaoru and Yukiko Hasuike, two of the five abductees repatriated from North Korea in 2002, arrived back in their hometown in Niigata Prefecture on Sunday along with their son and daughter with whom they were reunited the night before for the first time in 19 months.
COMMUNITY
May 23, 2004

Show reflects growing 'green' economy

The words "Japanese technology" usually conjure up images of everything from cars and cameras to stereos and mobile phones.
JAPAN
May 23, 2004

Pyongyang summit falls short for kin of those still missing

Family members of Japanese still missing after being abducted by North Korea expressed indignation Saturday over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's failure to gain new information regarding their kin.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
May 22, 2004

Yuichiro Nakajima

World traveler and author Pico Iyer wondered "whether a new kind of being might not be coming to light . . . a 'Global Soul.' " In several ways Yuichiro Nakajima fits the definition. Without doubt he meets the requirement of achieving fusion of different cultures. Out of his 44 years, he has spent 18...
JAPAN
May 22, 2004

Freed abductees hope Koizumi brings their kin

The five Japanese repatriated in 2002 after being abducted by North Korea in 1978 expressed strong expectations Friday that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would return from his trip to Pyongyang with their eight family members.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 22, 2004

Queen of Orlane turns 70 (but who'd know it)

In 1960, Reiko B. Lyster answered a "help wanted" classified ad placed in this paper by Max Factor. She had no particular interest in working for a cosmetics company, but (having helped Marlon Brando on a film set just the year previously) the job as a translator appealed.
COMMENTARY
May 21, 2004

Risks of Pyongyang's favors

HONOLULU -- What a week! Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is packing his bags for another trip to Pyongyang to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, and the United States has announced a troop transfer from South Korea to combat duty in Iraq.
JAPAN
May 20, 2004

War bill seeks 'voluntary' cooperation during crisis

One of seven bills to augment war-contingency legislation enacted last June is dubbed by the government as a "citizen protection bill."
JAPAN
May 20, 2004

War bill seeks 'voluntary' cooperation during crisis

One of seven bills to augment war-contingency legislation enacted last June is dubbed by the government as a "citizen protection bill."
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
May 20, 2004

Schools sounding false alarms over child safety

A few weeks ago my younger son came home from school all excited. "Mom! Guess what?" he shouted from the entranceway as he kicked off his shoes. "The ku gave us a gohan buza!" I had been hard at work on an article and was a little slow making the transition to his eclectic mix of languages. Why would...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
May 19, 2004

Hanshin's relief trio has Tigers in hunt for repeat in CL

The Hanshin Tigers have a reputation of winning the Central League pennant once every other decade. Their last three titles came in 1964, 1985 and 2003, and their fans surely do not want to wait until 22-something for the next championship.
JAPAN
May 17, 2004

Tokyo eyes talks with Pyongyang in June

The government hopes to resume stalled normalization talks with North Korea in June if the families of former abductees are allowed to come to Japan as a result of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Pyongyang on Saturday, according to government sources.
EDITORIALS
May 17, 2004

Fresh hope for a reunion of families

In a renewed bid to improve relations with North Korea, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will visit Pyongyang on Saturday for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Mr. Koizumi's first one-day visit, in September 2002, led to the return home of five Japanese abductees, but the mission was only half...
JAPAN
May 17, 2004

Tokyo eyes talks with Pyongyang in June

The government hopes to resume stalled normalization talks with North Korea in June if the families of former abductees are allowed to come to Japan as a result of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Pyongyang on Saturday, according to government sources.
JAPAN
May 17, 2004

Jenkins must get out of North Korea: Abe

Tokyo must get the American husband of a Japanese former abductee to visit Japan no matter what the cost, Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Shinzo Abe said Sunday.
JAPAN
May 16, 2004

SDF vs. NGO -- an Iraqi tale of cost-effectiveness

Self-Defense Forces troops are not the only ones using Japanese cash to provide humanitarian aid in southern Iraq.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 16, 2004

Spring, summer, fall and winter haiku

HAIKU: A POET'S GUIDE by Lee Gurga, Illinois: Modern Haiku Press, 2003, 170 pp., $20 (paper). HAIKU: The Poetic Key to Japan, selected & introduced by Mutsuo Takahashi, photographs by Hakudo Inoue, design by Kazuya Takaoka, translated by Emiko Miyashita & Lee Gurga. Tokyo: P.I.E., 2003, 400 pp....
JAPAN
May 16, 2004

SDF vs. NGO -- an Iraqi tale of cost-effectiveness

Self-Defense Forces troops are not the only ones using Japanese cash to provide humanitarian aid in southern Iraq.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
May 15, 2004

Kyl Timmer

Several years ago when he was in a more junior capacity here, the present British ambassador to Japan, Sir Stephen Gomersall, founded the British Embassy Choir. The choir continued after he left. When he came again to Japan, Gomersall resumed his support of the choir. To have a British Embassy Choir...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 14, 2004

A special weekend in Izu to remember and enjoy

Last year was the 150th anniversary of the first appearance of U.S. Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry's "Black Ships" in Edo (now Tokyo) Bay. Their mission, by order of President Millard Fillmore, was to demand -- under threat of force if necessary -- that Japan, closed to the world for more than two...

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?