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JAPAN
Feb 21, 2002

Prince Takamado may go to Seoul for World Cup

Prince Takamado, honorary president of the Japan Football Association, will probably attend the opening ceremony of the World Cup finals in Seoul, according to government sources.
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 2002

So little to celebrate

Last Saturday, North Korea celebrated the 60th birthday of "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il, which marked the beginning of four months of festivities. It is hard to imagine what the country is celebrating, apart from survival: The economy is in a mess and shows no sign of improving, and the North Korean government...
BUSINESS / ON THE FRONT LINE
Feb 20, 2002

Nikkei signals spring rebound not in cards

The Nikkei average, which hit an all-time high of 38,915.87 on the final trading day of 1989, has been languishing at around 10,000 in recent months.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2002

Woman calls British ex-POWs to Japan

LONDON -- Keiko Holmes had expected hostility, but when she attended the annual conference of the British Far East Prisoners of War Association in London in 1991, the bitterness harbored by the more than 1,000 veterans and their families present nearly erupted into violence.
EDITORIALS
Feb 19, 2002

Economic revival vital to alliance

Tuesday's summit meeting in Tokyo between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. President George W. Bush helped further strengthen personal rapport and mutual understanding between the two leaders. Mr. Koizumi reconfirmed that the U.S. president is a strong supporter of his structural reforms. Similarly,...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2002

Taiwan, mainland jockey for influence

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- What is going on across the Taiwan Strait and within Taiwan becomes more of a puzzle with each passing day.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2002

Unfounded fears of language pollution

SANTA MARIA, California -- Imagine ending up in jail for signing a petition requesting that your university offer foreign-language courses. It would be difficult to conceive of in most parts of the world, but it happened in Turkey. Seventeen Kurds were accused by a special security court of "promoting...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 17, 2002

Atrocity and intrigue in a troubled land

AFGHANISTAN: A New History, by Martin Ewans. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2001, 239 pp., 12,600 yen (cloth) The exorbitant price of Martin Ewans' "Afghanistan: A New History," coupled with the word "new" in the subtitle, is enough to attract attention. But as it turns out, the book is new only in...
COMMUNITY
Feb 17, 2002

Waseda and Keio: rivals to the core

It was Oct. 22, 1933, at the Jingu Baseball Stadium. The winner of the day's So-Kei (Waseda vs. Keio) match would lift the trophy for the year.
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2002

Antiwar campaigners to donate documents to Vietnamese museum

Members of a Japanese group that campaigned against the Vietnam War will visit Ho Chi Minh City later this month to donate materials and documents detailing their activities in the 1960s and 1970s to the state-run War Remnants Museum.
EDITORIALS
Feb 14, 2002

Too clever by half?

The limits of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's strategy to isolate, undermine and eliminate Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat were plainly evident last week. Although recent events have given Israel the upper hand in the struggle against Palestinians and Islamic extremists -- the two...
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2002

Animated film festival kicks off Friday in Tokyo

An international festival on animated films opens Friday at Tokyo's Big Sight convention center along Tokyo Bay.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2002

Shonan merger plan races clock, though some balk

With its gently arching coastline overlooking Enoshima Island in Sagami Bay and a distant view of Mount Fuji and the Hakone mountain range, the Shonan area in Kanagawa Prefecture triggers memories of songs and movies about the picturesque area.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2002

Crown Princess resumes official duties, visits with kids

Crown Princess Masako has resumed her official following the birth of her daughter, Princess Aiko, in December and attended an award ceremony for a youth book-report contest in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward with her husband, Crown Prince Naruhito.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Feb 10, 2002

TV sports trump freedom; public loses

MOSCOW -- There is no television broadcast in Russia anymore that is independent of the Russian government. Having applied the poisonous gas of legal niceties, the Kremlin has shut down the last stronghold of dissent, the vocal and opinionated TV-6. It was the coup de grace in Russian President Vladimir...
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2002

Kawaguchi reaffirms ties with China, South Korea

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi held separate phone conversations Saturday with her Chinese and South Korean counterparts to reaffirm relations with the neighboring countries, a Foreign Ministry official said.
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Feb 10, 2002

Uncork a bottle of pure passion

This Valentine's Day, ignore the boxes of waxy, stale chocolate at the supermarket. Give up on forcing rhymes into a bad love poem. Never mind the refrigerated roses from the florist, their heads already on the verge of drooping.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 8, 2002

Arimori strides for success in life after marathon

Winning an Olympic medal, you would think, would be the greatest honor an athlete can achieve.
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Feb 6, 2002

We've got high expectations

A while back, I was whingeing about how Japan needs a music awards show that has more popular input. Well, the good folks at MTV Japan have done something to help remedy that problem. On May 24, it will host the first-ever MTV Video Music Awards Japan.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Feb 3, 2002

Clearly making the grade isn't such an easy task

One of the biggest barriers to learning about sake is the terminology used to define the various grades. It is not a simple linguistic matter, as even the average Japanese person, more often than not, does not know specifically to what the terminology refers. These terms were not coined at once, nor...
COMMENTARY
Feb 2, 2002

Afghanistan faces danger of donor fatigue

ISLAMABAD -- International pledges worth more than $3 billion from donors at the Tokyo conference called last month to discuss the reconstruction of Afghanistan are unprecedented. Never before has Afghanistan been the beneficiary of such a substantial largesse.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2002

Despite being born in Japan, 7-year-old is deemed stateless

Ken was born in Japan to Thai parents. But Japan, where the nationality law is based on lineage rather than birthplace, considers him stateless.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2002

E-symposium to focus on Sept. 11

The Japan Center for Preventive Diplomacy and The Japan Times will jointly sponsor an electronic symposium on the theme of "The Future of Conflict Prevention in the post-September 11 World," from Feb. 6 to Feb. 14. Supported by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, the online symposium again promises to be...
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2002

Diet passes 2.5 trillion yen extra budget

The Diet on Friday passed the government-proposed 2.5 trillion yen second supplementary budget for the current fiscal year, securing funds for programs to shore up the economy and prevent it from falling into a deflationary spiral.
EDITORIALS
Feb 1, 2002

Mr. Greenspan's cautious confidence

With trillions of dollars riding on his every utterance, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan picks his words with extreme care. He once cautioned listeners that if he made himself clear, then he had been misunderstood. But there was no mistaking the tone of Mr. Greenspan's comments last week...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 31, 2002

Backhand compliment earns volley

The most significant volley that Marcelo Rios had to face at this year's Australian Open was the volley of abuse he received from female professionals after describing the women's game as a "joke."
EDITORIALS
Jan 29, 2002

Mr. Arafat's dwindling options

Jaffa Street is a popular thoroughfare in downtown Jerusalem, its stores and sidewalks invariably crowded with shoppers and pedestrians. It has also become one of the bloodiest frontlines in the war between Israel and Palestinians. Last week alone, there were two terrorist attacks on Jaffa Street. The...
CULTURE / Music
Jan 27, 2002

Merchant's rich harvest

When Natalie Merchant was a member of 10,000 Maniacs, the seminal '80s folk-rock group, her songs betrayed a liberal social consciousness. In contrast, her 1995 solo debut, "Tigerlily," was willfully insular: a song cycle of love-gone-bad and a glum, some might say pissed-off, cover portrait. Characterized...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji