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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 15, 2002

Capturing today's relevant aspirations

On Oct. 8 I wrote about the second report by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, published Sept. 23, on reforming the U.N. An important innovation in this report (Chapter Two entitled "Doing What Matters") is that it actually tackles the substantive agenda of the organization's work program....
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 22, 2002

Time to change, or find another planet

First of two parts Next week, tens of thousands of politicians, bureaucrats, activists and policy analysts will descend on Johannesburg, South Africa, for the largest conference in human history: the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2002

Isle faces other uses after '08 Olympics rejection

OSAKA -- A report issued Friday by the city of Osaka advocates turning Maishima, a man-made island off Osaka that was the centerpiece of the city's failed bid for the 2008 Olympic Games, into a business, academic and recreation center.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2002

Diagnostic options seen skewed by dearth of autopsies, probes

Recent controversy over a diagnosis of sudden infant death syndrome has exposed deep-rooted divisions among Japan's SIDS researchers.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2002

Who's winning the 'coca war'?

LA PAZ, Bolivia — On a hot December afternoon last year, 150 farmers in Chimore, a town in the Chapare region of central Bolivia, unloaded bananas and pineapples onto the Santa Cruz-Cochabamba highway. There was no market in sight and even if there was, the goods were not for sale. Rather, they were...
BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2001

Panel threatens NTT with splitup

An advisory panel to the telecommunications minister said that Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. should be reorganized or split up if steps to promote competition in the telecom market fail.
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2001

JAL reports plunge in interim profits, sees red for full year

Japan Airlines Co. said Thursday that the Sept. 11 terror attacks caused its interim net profit to plunge 61.3 percent to 16.4 billion yen and may lead the group into the red by the end of fiscal 2001.
BUSINESS
Sep 5, 2001

Ota flies Kansai privatization kite

OSAKA -- Osaka Gov. Fusae Ota said Tuesday the operator of Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture could be fully privatized, either on its own or via a merger with another corporation.
BUSINESS
Jun 20, 2001

Nation must be aggressive on patents, white paper says

Japan must devise an aggressive strategy to obtain patents abroad so the nation's inventions can be recognized internationally, according to a government white paper released Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2001

Major banks' dud loans soar 1.7 trillion yen

The combined balance of the 16 major banks' bad loans, classified as requiring "special attention" for recovery, soared by 1.73 trillion yen in fiscal 2000 to 6.3 trillion yen, according to a Financial Services Agency report released Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2001

Koreans' dream of unity is still remote

SEOUL -- In less than a month, Koreans will commemorate the first anniversary of the historic inter-Korean summit. In mid-June last year, the leaders of the divided country met for the first time and vowed to open a new chapter in peninsular relations. Numerous political and academic events will take...
BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2001

Japan in quandary over Iran rail project

After several years of warming and rapidly advancing relations, Japan and Iran may be at a crossroads once again.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 23, 2001

Bush may not be wrong to reject Kyoto

U.S. President George W. Bush has announced his opposition to an international global-warming treaty, citing the harm it could do the U.S. economy and the costs it would impose upon its workers. Predictably, this decision not to pursue approval of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change generated a firestorm...
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2001

LDP panel pushes for collective defense

A panel of the Liberal Democratic Party called Friday for a change in government's interpretation of the Constitution so that Japan can engage in collective defense to reinforce its alliance with the United States in the Asia-Pacific region.
EDITORIALS
Feb 26, 2001

The IOC gets down to business

The International Olympic Committee is scheduled to select the host city for the 2008 Summer Olympics at a Moscow general meeting in July, according to the IOC rule that says selection should be made seven years before the summer or winter games are held. To collect the necessary data, the committee...
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 21, 2001

Tiny birds and dwindling treasure

BANGKOK -- Imagine for a moment that you are an edible-nest swiftlet. You are a dusky bird, tiny enough to fit in the palm of a hand. In southern Thailand, where you live, you soar above the turquoise waters and jungle-clad islands of the Andaman Sea. You build your nests inside island caves hidden by...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2001

New opportunities for Japan-U.S. ties

The administration of U.S. President-elect George W. Bush will include many pro-Japanese officials. This reflects U.S. political history. Many officials of President Bill Clinton's administration had served under President Jimmy Carter, who came to power 12 years earlier. For example, former Secretary...
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2000

Easier entry to Japan urged for participants in big events

An advisory panel to the Transport Ministry on Friday urged the government to introduce a "preclearance" system for customs, immigration and quarantine procedures for foreign participants in major international events, such as the planned soccer World Cup in 2002.
COMMUNITY
Nov 19, 2000

Abuse rife in culture with no rights for kids

Newly arrived and living on a "danchi" estate in 1986, I would often hear the heart-rending cries of small children standing outside in the cold and darkness pleading to be let back into their homes. In the West, the worst form of punishment is to be grounded. In Japan, it is the opposite, with children...
EDITORIALS
Sep 9, 2000

Dreaming of a better world

It is tempting to dismiss this week's Millennium Summit at the United Nations as pure hype. After all, it declared its aim was the eradication of poverty and war in the 21st century. Good luck. Yet, if the U.N. and its members do not hold such ambitions, then there is very little hope for our world in...
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2000

NTT urged to sell DoCoMo stake to promote competition

A trade ministry advisory panel has released a draft report Thursday that calls for terminating Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.'s monopoly on local telephone networks.
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 3, 2000

World Cup vote: Africa needs a good PR officer

The jury is not out on this one: Africa should be hosting the World Cup in 2006. The continent is long overdue, having made a significant contribution to world soccer in the past 20 years.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2000

Groups hit G8 inaction on illegal logging

As the Group of Eight major nations kick off three days of summit meetings in Okinawa today, environmentalists are mounting an effort to steal a slice of the limelight.
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2000

Japan urged to promote IT in developing nations

Japan should promote education in developing countries by offering international education programs over the Internet and by providing information technology training to school teachers and engineers in those nations, an Education Ministry panel said Monday.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2000

G7 to agree on reform of IMF lending process

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven economic powers are likely to agree on a set of reforms to International Monetary Fund lending mechanisms at their talks in Japan in July, a source in international finance said Monday.

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