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JAPAN
Mar 1, 2003

Scholars fear dangers of igniting patriotic fervor

Scholars from Japan, South Korea and China warned against a resurgence of nationalism in Japan when they gathered at a symposium on history textbooks and related issues this week in Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 1, 2003

Mary Kilgarriff

Mary Kilgarriff says she grew up in a service-minded family in Ireland. "When I moved to Japan in 1990, I was struck by the absence here of the type of community service that I took for granted. I approached the Irish ambassador at that time, Jim Sharkey, and his wife, Sattie, and with their support...
COMMENTARY
Feb 25, 2003

Build stronger ties with Seoul

The North Korean crisis has entered a new stage now that the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, has referred the issue of Pyongyang's nuclear-weapons development to the U.N. Security Council. The isolated Stalinist state, which created a similar crisis a decade ago, has resumed its program...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 23, 2003

Going for the least-worst option

CASE STUDIES IN JAPANESE NEGOTIATING BEHAVIOR, by Michael Blaker, Paul Giarra and Ezra Vogel. Washington D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2002, 170 pp., $12.50 (paper). Mercifully, we are long past the time when a book like this focused on a Japanese exceptionalism that bordered on cultural...
EDITORIALS
Feb 21, 2003

Clarify refugee policy

The incident in which four North Korean citizens who had fled from their country entered a Japanese school in Beijing and asked for asylum in Japan has posed a sobering question concerning Japan's refugee policy. Acting on lessons from the incident at Japan's consulate general in Shenyang last May, the...
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2003

Defense Agency concluded in '95 that nuclear arms aren't worth it

The Defense Agency compiled a report in 1995 that said there would be no merit to Japan developing nuclear weapons, it was learned Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2003

Stand shoulder to shoulder with U.S.

The following is an unofficial translation of an appeal made Thursday by 39 members of the Japan Forum on International Relations. Related news story
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2003

Third-country plan eyed in asylum probe

Japan will consult with Chinese authorities in an effort to allow four asylum seekers from North Korea who entered a Japanese school in Beijing to be moved to a third country, government sources said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
Feb 20, 2003

Farcical economic flip-flops

Japan's economic debate has moved from the bizarre to the ridiculous. Just two years ago we were told that fiscal restraint was the key to economic recovery. Annual bond issues to finance government spending would not be allowed to exceed 30 trillion yen ($250 billion). In other words, cutting demand...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 19, 2003

Dragons made right move in getting rid of disgruntled Millar

The Chunichi Dragons did the right thing in giving up the contract of outfielder Kevin Millar. Sure, the team had a legitimate beef, and owner Bungo Shirai had every right to insist Millar honor the agreement to which he had committed. But, really, why try to force the guy to play here when he clearly...
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2003

ASEAN official eyes political, cultural cooperation

The relationship between Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations should encompass political, security and cultural cooperation, as well as economic concerns, a senior ASEAN official said Monday in Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 15, 2003

J.A. Stam

At the end of the 1960s, when Joop Stam was a student at Keio Kokusai Center in Tokyo, people used to say: "That young man from Holland will go a long way. He typifies the modern young scholar, who is eager and able to take advantage of today's opportunities."
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2003

Farm chief nixes WTO proposal

Farm minister Tadamori Oshima on Thursday rejected a WTO panel chief's proposal that would cut import tariffs on farm produce by up to 45 percent.
EDITORIALS
Feb 13, 2003

Helping 'refugees' from the North

North Korea is creating a new headache for the Japanese government: the plight of North Korean residents and their Japanese spouses who have now returned secretly to Japan from that impoverished communist state via China. The problem came to the fore last month when a Japanese woman who had gone to the...
COMMENTARY
Feb 12, 2003

Koizumi shirking top duty

Over the past year, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi appears to have all but lost his enthusiasm for military contingency legislation. Protecting the lives and property of the Japanese people from armed attack is the most important duty of the prime minister as the supreme commander of the Self-Defense...
COMMENTARY
Feb 11, 2003

Sacrifices for material gain

In the 1980s, Japanese economists used to boast of their country's economic prowess and deride U.S. economic decline. To be sure, the U.S. manufacturing industry in those years fell into a miserable condition, and the nation suffered from ever-expanding trade and budget deficits. Yet things began changing...
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2003

Yanase, BMW join hands

The Japan-based units of German automaker BMW AG and import car dealer Yanase & Co. said Monday they will work together to promote sales of BMW cars in Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 11, 2003

Kawaii sea lion back in spotlight

Celebrity sea lion Tama-chan is causing a flap yet again.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 9, 2003

Role models for a changing nation

One welcome exception to the gloomy news in Japan last year was the unexpected awarding of a Nobel Prize in chemistry to an apparently ordinary company worker. Koichi Tanaka's steadfastness, lack of personal ambition and open, nice-guy persona were a refreshing throwback to a less cynical age, and his...
COMMUNITY
Feb 9, 2003

How green is your green?

What a difference a decade makes.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 8, 2003

Faith Bach

From her home in Boston, Faith Bach says she always wanted to come to Japan. "I don't know why. These things just happen," she said. She was not encouraged by her parents, who "were not in any way interested in Japan." They had bequeathed her in childhood love and understanding of theater, providing...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2003

North Korea escapees form help group

A group of escapees from North Korea announced Wednesday they have formed an association to help support them in Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2003

How the 'modern' code was cracked

The headless body of a woman in her 50s was laid on a straw mat inside a hut at Kotsukahara in Edo's Senju area. Born in Kyoto and nicknamed "Aochababa," sketchy court records indicate the woman had been convicted of killing her adopted children. She had been executed by beheading that very morning,...
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2003

New furrows in the field of medicine

It is often said that medicine in Japan is still far behind the West. This is true, unfortunately, in terms of patients' rights advocacy, malpractice-prevention measures, the medical education system, and hospital amenities and working conditions.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2003

Parties to a revolution

An odd Edo Period drawing is kept at Waseda University Library in Tokyo. A designated important cultural asset, it shows 29 Japanese men wining and dining around three tables as they celebrate New Year's in 1795. Some hold wine glasses, others chat over what appear to be Western dishes. On the wall is...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2003

One-man media airs his views

It's 10 a.m. Sunday, and TBS TV's "Sunday Japon" show is getting under way. American entertainer Dave Spector, a regular panelist, shares the stage with a former porn actress, a Korean journalist and a member of the Diet. After an hour of exchanging ripostes with the others on major international and...
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2003

Economy top priority: Koizumi

Admitting that the Japanese economy is struggling to find a way out of the recession, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made clear Friday that reviving the economy will be his top priority for this year, declaring he will take "all available policy measures" to fight deflation.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2003

Lifetime of missed chances

LONDON -- On Jan. 22, two of the world's leading powers celebrated the 40th anniversary of a remarkable reconciliation. At the historic Palace of Versailles, France's President Jacques Chirac and Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder toasted a treaty signed in 1963 by their visionary predecessors, Charles...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2003

Escapee from North Korea stirs refugee debate anew

The high-profile case of a Japanese woman who returned to Japan on Wednesday after fleeing North Korea has rekindled debate over the government's lack of adequate support measures for others in similar circumstances, as well as its reluctance to accept refugees.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old structure that used to house a samurai family that was part of the Kato clan that ruled over the area where Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, now exists.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan