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COMMENTARY
Jun 29, 2005

India: U.S. ally or independent power?

NEW DELHI -- The courtship between the world's most powerful and most populous democracies is in full swing, with a new international poll showing that at a time when anti-Americanism has spread across the globe more people in India have a positive view of the United States than in any other nation surveyed....
EDITORIALS
Jun 28, 2005

New president faces old problems

The victory of Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran's presidential election last week is only somewhat of a surprise. While relatively unknown, Mr. Ahmadinejad is a religious conservative who enjoyed the backing of powerful like-minded groups within the country and, equally important, the support of many...
EDITORIALS
Jun 27, 2005

More of the same with the Koreas

Three days of high-level talks between North and South Korea yielded little that could be called progress toward resolving the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula. That is not surprising. The North has maintained all along that the nuclear issue is a question to be settled between itself and the United...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jun 27, 2005

Economists, remember to mind your Ps and Qs

Children are told to mind their Ps and Qs when they go visiting. They must be on their best behavior. They have to be able to speak like well-educated young people. They have to know P from Q. Well, so do economists, actually.
EDITORIALS
Jun 26, 2005

A taxing matter

The nation's income tax revenue, which stood at about 27 trillion yen in 1991, is expected to dwindle to slightly more than 14 trillion, yen according to a fiscal 2005 budget estimate. The drop is due to a series of tax-reduction schemes put into place over the past decade to revive the sagging economy....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 26, 2005

Intriguing mix of loose ends and aimless youth

THE METHOD ACTORS, by Carl Shuker. Washington, D.C.: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2005, 512 pp., $16 (paper). There has been a great deal of discussion and debate about where literary modernism ends and postmodernism begins. The confusion arises in part because, far from being something entirely different than...
COMMENTARY
Jun 26, 2005

The beginning of empathy?

HONOLULU -- The strains in the Japan-South Korea relationship are far too deep-rooted for any single summit meeting to assuage. Rather, the objective of any summit should be setting the proper tone for bilateral relations. By this yardstick, the meeting Monday between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2005

Metropolitan assembly campaigning under way

Campaigning for the July 3 Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election officially got under way Friday, with 220 candidates vying for 127 seats.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2005

Secret data on reactor inspections leaked to Internet

Confidential information on nuclear power plant inspections was posted on the Internet recently by a virus in the computer of an employee contracted to do the inspections, Mitsubishi Electric Co. said Thursday.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jun 22, 2005

Horry's big shot took heat off Duncan

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Rasheed Wallace was more than a bit lucky the referees refused to acknowledge his appeal for a non-existent timeout after Tim Duncan's missed tip at the end of regulation in Game 5.
BUSINESS
Jun 22, 2005

NBS shareholder puts proxy up for bid

A document authorizing its bearer to attend a Nippon Broadcasting System Inc. shareholders' meeting Friday was offered for sale on the Internet auction site of Yahoo Japan Corp., according to Yahoo Japan officials.
BUSINESS
Jun 22, 2005

DoCoMo among firms kicking off annual shareholders' meetings

Annual shareholders' meetings kicked off in earnest this week, with the annual rite expected to peak June 29 as more than 1,000 listed companies face their investors.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2005

America's flexible notion of sovereignty

LONDON -- On May 9, in an interview in Moscow on CNN U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said "the United States, of course, recognizes that North Korea is a sovereign state."
EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 2005

A debate-challenged legislature

The Diet has extended its regular session by 55 days through Aug. 13 to continue the debate on proposed postal reforms. The extension gives Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi a make-or-break opportunity to realize his cherished dream of putting the unwieldy postal system under private management.
COMMENTARY
Jun 20, 2005

Politicos feeding off turmoil

MANILA -- These days the political class in the Philippines is preoccupied with other things besides governing. Attention is focused on what one commentator has termed "the worst crisis any administration" has ever experienced. The opposition is orchestrating turmoil and openly calling for the ouster...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 19, 2005

Life and times of a Heian-Period crime sleuth

Scrolling back in history THE DRAGON SCROLL, by I.J. Parker. New York: Penguin, 2005, 432 pp., $13.00 (paper). Now beginning a new series with Penguin, Parker has just released "The Dragon Scroll." While the third full-length novel to be published, it is the first, chronologically, in her series and...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 19, 2005

Veteran emcee Hiroshi Sekiguchi comes back with "The Shinso" on TV Tokyo and more

Several years ago, veteran emcee Hiroshi Sekiguchi hosted a variety show in which criminal cases, usually two or three decades old, were reviewed in detail. The names of the principals were changed, but the particulars of the cases were often familiar to viewers old enough to remember them. With the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 18, 2005

'Testament': Poems that speak of life's dark side

I meet two men in one: Tomonori Saito, who works for a shipping company in Tokyo's Shinagawa district, and Saion, the nom de plume of a young Japanese poet.
EDITORIALS
Jun 18, 2005

New era of bank card security

Bank deposit safety in Japan is threatened increasingly by people using forged or stolen cards to make illegal withdrawals. Now, members of the Diet are preparing to introduce a bill that would require all financial institutions -- including commercial banks, post offices and credit unions -- to compensate...
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2005

Journalist did not defame expert in tainted blood fiasco: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court overturned a high court decision Thursday, ruling that noted journalist Yoshiko Sakurai did not defame a late hemophilia expert in her writings about the infection of hemophiliacs with HIV from tainted blood products.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2005

Fuso has to recall another 424,600 vehicles

Scandal-tainted Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp. said Tuesday it will recall 424,600 large vehicles to repair minor defects overlooked during last year's probe into past cases of vehicle problems — even though one of the defects was reported in the late 1980s.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2005

Ex-Mitsui officials held in diesel filter scam

Tokyo police on Tuesday arrested two former Mitsui & Co. employees and a former executive of a Mitsui subsidiary on suspicion of fabricating test data to obtain official approval for a diesel particulate filter.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 11, 2005

Up in knots over natto

A reader from jolly ol' England recently sent this question:
COMMENTARY
Jun 11, 2005

Poor losers fan Filipino disenchantment

MANILA -- To characterize the public mood in the Philippines as depressed is no exaggeration. According to recent surveys, pessimism about economic prospects is on the rise, and a majority of Filipinos believe their quality of life has deteriorated in the past year. A recent Asian Development Bank survey...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 10, 2005

Sushi Ouchi: There's nothing to fear in naturally good sushi

Entering an old-school Edomae sushi shop for the first time can be daunting -- even for the most self-confident of us. The welcome is often so vocal it verges on the aggressive. The cedarwood counters look scrubbed to the point of sterility, the gleaming bright interiors afford little sense of warmth...

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