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JAPAN
Jan 30, 2002

Baker says Bush will focus on economy during visit

U.S. President George W. Bush will express his support for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's economic reforms when he visits Japan next month, and the Japanese economy will be one of the major topics of discussion, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Howard Baker said Tuesday.
COMMUNITY
Jan 26, 2002

Still passing on her father's ideals of democracy

Yukika Soma can't see very well these days. Her eyesight is fine, she says; it's just she has trouble controlling her eyelids. She still comes into her Nagata-cho office three or four days a week at the Ozaki Yukio Memorial Foundation, named after her father, but nowadays a young assistant escorts her...
BUSINESS
Jan 25, 2002

Continue with energy reform, USTR's Huntsman says

Despite the collapse of Enron Corp., the U.S. energy giant that pushed liberalization of the Japanese energy market, Japan should continue with its own efforts to open the lucrative sector, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jon M. Huntsman Jr. said Thursday in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2002

O'Neill against relying on weak yen for recovery

In an apparent move to step up pressure on Japan, U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill warned Wednesday that Tokyo should not resort to a weak yen to revive the long-ailing economy.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2002

Get market forces on the side of reform

There are episodes in history that deservingly draw our attention -- some very small in scale but major in impact. In American history, one such moment at the start of the Revolutionary War has come to be known as "the shot that rang through the world." Another such momentous event recently appeared...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 22, 2002

U.S. backs reform drive: Powell

The United States fully supports Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's ongoing reform drive and expects Japan to become the world's "economic engine" again, U.S. State Secretary Colin Powell told the prime minister on Monday.
EDITORIALS
Jan 21, 2002

Activating the Kyoto treaty

The international agreement on climate change, better known as the Kyoto Protocol, is expected to take effect later this year, perhaps in September. But the United States, the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, is conspicuously absent from the ratification process. The U.S. boycott is certainly a serious...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Jan 21, 2002

Charades begin with 'Narita neurosis'

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Some 10 years ago, a Japanese student at an institute in Bologna where I was a visiting professor produced an essay in which he wrote "because Japan has a unique culture, it is misunderstood and discriminated against by other countries."
COMMUNITY
Jan 20, 2002

Kabukicho: where worlds collide

About 1 a.m. on the morning of Sept. 1, 2001, a fire of undetermined origin swept through the No. 56 Myojo Building in Shinjuku's Kabukicho district, resulting in the deaths of 44 people on the upper two floors. While investigators say they have ruled out arson, stories in the tabloid press continue...
COMMUNITY
Jan 20, 2002

When something Western this way came

Like a Yankee daimyo, on Nov. 23, 1857, Townsend Harris made a progress to Edo (now Tokyo) from his residence in Shimoda on the Izu Peninsula. Proceeded by an American flag made of Japanese crepe, Harris, on horseback, was escorted by a guard of six whose costumes bore the coat-of-arms of the United...
JAPAN / PROTOCOL PURSUIT
Jan 19, 2002

Role of forests seen leading environmental debate

Last of three parts Staff writer Forests are now at the forefront of climate-change debate in Japan.
JAPAN / PROTOCOL PURSUIT
Jan 18, 2002

Emissions-trading plan put on back burner

Staff writer Until recently, trading in carbon dioxide emissions seemed destined for early introduction in Japan. The launch of such a system, however, is being put off as the government postpones key policy decisions to curb global-warming emissions.
BUSINESS
Jan 18, 2002

Tokyo set to cut the umbilical cord

An aging, even failing, parent still carrying a grown-up child piggyback is about to stave off collapse by finally letting the child walk by itself -- at least for a short distance.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 16, 2002

Cambodian aid raises concern

Through its involvement in Cambodia since the U.N. peacekeeping process began in 1991, Japan has played a positive role in attempting to bring peace and development to Cambodia. Japan's generous aid program has brought some significant benefits to Cambodians over the past 10 years. These include a glistening...
EDITORIALS
Jan 16, 2002

A 'Koizumi doctrine' for Asia

In his policy speech Monday in Singapore, the last stop on his five-nation tour of Southeast Asia, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi set the tone for Japan's diplomacy toward the evolving region. Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, he stated, should strengthen ties by "acting together...
COMMENTARY
Jan 14, 2002

Hardly another Argentina

LONDON -- "What is the difference between Japan and Argentina?" Answer: "five years." That was the riddle, or sick joke, said by the Financial Times in London to be circulating in Tokyo over the recent holidays. My immediate reaction was that the idea behind the question was silly and showed ignorance...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 13, 2002

No recovery in sight for Japanese book publishing industry

One often sees references in the Japanese media to the "lost decade" that followed the burst of the speculative bubble in the early 1990s, but the publishing world has only suffered a half decade of negative growth. After five consecutive years of falling sales, however, it can no longer ignore systemic...
COMMUNITY
Jan 13, 2002

Fishy facts and figures

* The global fish harvest topped 120 million tons in 1998, a threefold increase over 1960.
EDITORIALS
Jan 10, 2002

A tough diplomatic challenge

In his first year in office, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi devoted most of his energy to promoting his economic-reform agenda. In doing so he demonstrated considerable leadership, supported by record public-approval ratings. In 2002, he faces an equally tough challenge on the diplomatic front. His...
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2002

Merrill Lynch to ax 20 branches

Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co. said Wednesday it will drastically reduce its retail brokerage business in Japan, closing 20 of its 28 branches.
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2002

Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul to hold unprecedented economic talks

Japan, China and South Korea will soon launch a high-level economic dialogue forum to spur trade and investment and forge closer financial relations amid a rapidly changing economic landscape.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2002

More troubling than another spy boat

SEOUL -- Pyongyang surely can be said to have stepped over the line once it is confirmed that the suspected spy boat that played tag with the Japanese Coast Guard last month was indeed from North Korea. The incident has led Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his administration to perform an...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 6, 2002

Dewi Sukarno: 'Miss Ambition' who's done it her way

Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno has become a well-known Japanese media figure in recent years and has just raised some $90,000 for victims of terrorist attacks in the United States.
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2002

JET Program doing its job but in need of reform: expert

The Japan Exchange and Teaching Program has improved English education in Japan and has promoted mutual cultural understanding between Japanese and people from other countries since its inception in 1987, according to the chairman of the program's evaluation committee.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 3, 2002

Death of domestic coal leaves legacy for future

Four decades of protection for the domestic coal mining industry are nearly at an end as the government moves to procure stable and more economical supplies from abroad.
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2002

Defense policy emerges from 2001 with new face

Kyodo News About 110 sailors aboard the Maritime Self-Defense Force minesweeper Uraga reached Yokosuka port in Kanagawa Prefecture on New Year's Eve and were received with welcoming cheers by their families and fellow MSDF ranks.
BUSINESS
Jan 1, 2002

Nikkeiren pushes job-sharing to stabilize unemployment

Employers and employees will eventually agree on wage cuts in the form of work-sharing as they undergo the much expected pains of ongoing structural reforms initiated by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the chief of Japan Federation of Employers Association (Nikkeiren) said.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami