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JAPAN
Sep 16, 2002

Talks' success hinges on 'abductions': Yamasaki

A Japanese official stated Sunday that progress on the issue of the Japanese nationals allegedly abducted by North Korean agents is necessary to the success of this week's North Korea-Japan summit.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 16, 2002

Dealing with Kim Jong Il

SEOUL -- Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang on Tuesday represents the biggest step in relations between the two countries since the end of World War II in 1945. Koizumi, though, must keep a cool head in the face of any strategic ploy that...
EDITORIALS
Sep 15, 2002

Make way for manga

A merican popular culture: We hear that phrase and immediately think of a juggernaut, a one-way tide rolling round the globe bearing its fatally attractive, tradition-squelching icons. It used to be John Wayne and jazz and Audrey Hepburn and Mickey Mouse. Then came McDonald's and Snoopy. More recently...
COMMUNITY
Sep 15, 2002

Love in a lovelorn land

Once upon a time, at a temple where homeless families were sheltering after a fire, a girl and a boy fell in love. Months passed. The burned-out neighborhood was rebuilt. The lovers were separated. Oh, misery! Oh, fleeting, unreal world!
COMMUNITY
Sep 15, 2002

Fight for the future

In a room at the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in Tokyo's Akasaka, Prussian Military Adviser Klemens Meckel studied a map showing the disposition of forces before the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2002

Louis Vuitton remains top earner

Louis Vuitton Japan remained in fiscal 2001 the biggest earner of declared income among Japanese units of famous overseas fashion brands, Teikoku Databank Ltd. said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2002

Foreign performers both young and old help keep traveling big top alive

KANAZAWA, Ishikawa Pref. A glimpse of the giant tent reveals that a traveling circus is in town.
COMMENTARY
Sep 13, 2002

Koizumi gambles for results

I'm not sure whether to be cautiously optimistic or pessimistic about Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to North Korea next Tuesday, but either way, "caution" is the watchword.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Sep 12, 2002

In praise of grass, glorious grass

Summer's heat is lingering on, but there are hints in the air that the glorious days of autumn are just around the corner. Fall in Japan is exciting for its famed tree foliage, but the weather is also perfect for gardening -- or for visiting parks during your lunch break or on days off.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 12, 2002

Words on Apple, more on pets and culture vultures

Last Apple bite As promised last time, Apple-man Anthony Walter of Caliburn responds to queries about Macintosh computers in Japan.
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2002

Koizumi urged to raise weapons issues with Kim

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Howard Baker on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to address U.S. concerns that North Korea is developing weapons of mass destruction on his landmark trip to Pyongyang next week.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 11, 2002

The maestro at work

MATSUMOTO, Nagano Pref. -- "What does everyone think?"
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Sep 8, 2002

Radio icon pulls plug on show after world-record 45 years

Her achievement is nothing special, she says. But the thing that has kept Chieko Akiyama going throughout her unprecedented career is the human energy radiating from the people she meets.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 8, 2002

The Japanese attachment to umbilical cords

In James Joyce's "Ulysses," the hero Stephen Dedalus imagines making a telephone call to Eden using an umbilical cord as a cable. The humor of the scene derives from the wry disregard that most Westerners have for this most curious of temporary appendages, this ultimate reason for the belly-button.
BUSINESS
Sep 7, 2002

Forex reserves break record again

Japan's foreign-exchange reserves hit a new record for the fifth month in a row at the end of August, rising $2.98 billion from a month earlier to $456.07 billion, the Finance Ministry said Friday.
COMMENTARY
Sep 7, 2002

Scandal's dangerous fallout

The nuclear-plant faults that Tokyo Electric Power Co. tried for years to cover up may not have been serious in themselves, but the effects of the coverups on Japan's nuclear debate will be catastrophic.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2002

Chiba children's home kids get glimpse of media workings

Five children from the Nonohana-no-ie Children's Home got a taste of the newsroom at The Japan Times and spent some time behind the microphone at radio Inter-FM recently, part of a program to prepare the youngsters for a working life outside the home.
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2002

Sumatra Island residents file dam lawsuit

Nearly 3,900 residents of Indonesia's Sumatra Island on Thursday filed a lawsuit in Tokyo, each seeking 5 million yen for damages caused by a dam Japan funded with official development assistance.
BUSINESS
Sep 6, 2002

Foreign vehicle sales see first rise in three months

Sales of imported motor vehicles in Japan rose 0.1 percent in August from a year earlier to 18,918 units, the first rise in three months, the Japan Automobile Importers Association said Thursday.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 6, 2002

Pro bowler Bohn masters the mind game

YOKOHAMA -- Parker Bohn III thinks, throws, reacts and thinks again. It's the same routine over and over. The 17-year pro bowler says 50 percent of the game starts and ends in his head.
BUSINESS
Sep 5, 2002

Computer server shipments decline record 17.7%

Shipments of computer servers in the April-June quarter in Japan registered record-low growth in both volume and value terms amid prolonged repercussions attributable to the collapse of the information technology bubble, a market research agency said Wednesday night.
EDITORIALS
Aug 31, 2002

Failure is not an option

Aside from its size, the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg is a touchstone that indicates how serious the international community is about reconciling its needs with the world's limited resources. It is billed as the largest United Nations gathering in history.
EDITORIALS
Aug 29, 2002

Inching toward normalization talks

Japan and North Korea are moving toward resuming the long-stalled talks to normalize relations. Foreign ministry officials from the two nations met in Pyongyang for two days earlier this week and agreed to continue consultations to explore the possibilities for restarting the negotiations. Also, Prime...
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2002

PCBs from military bases may be sent back to U.S.

The U.S. Department of Defense hopes to ship over 3,000 tons of materials containing polychlorinated biphenyls stored at military bases in Japan to the United States for recycling or disposal, officials at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 29, 2002

Land ministry budget up 16%

The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry said Wednesday it has requested a budget appropriation of 8.309 trillion yen for fiscal 2003, up 16 percent from its initial budget for the current fiscal year.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2002

Peace Boat activists land on disputed island

The Peace Boat, a ship owned by a nongovernmental organization of the same name, and more than 500 passengers landed on Russian-held Kunashiri Island off Hokkaido on Tuesday morning -- despite a Foreign Ministry request that they not visit the disputed islet.
BUSINESS
Aug 27, 2002

North Korean trade official visits to explain market reforms

A North Korean vice minister of trade is in Japan on an 11-day unofficial visit to explain Pyongyang's new market-based reforms to Koreans living in the country, a Korean association said Monday.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb