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EDITORIALS
Mar 15, 2005

New leadership in Hong Kong

Hong Kong's chief executive, Mr. Tung Chee-hwa, resigned last week. His departure was in keeping with his entire term as chief executive: confused, messy and ultimately damaging to his office and Hong Kong itself. His replacement must break that tradition and restore the luster to Hong Kong's image....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 13, 2005

Out of the darkroom

JAPAN 1945 -- A U.S. MARINE'S PHOTOGRAPHS FROM GROUND ZERO, by Joe O'Donnell, foreword by Mark Selden, afterword by O'Donnell and Richard Lammers. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2005, 88 pp., 80 b/w photos, $39.95 (cloth). In September 1945, Joe O'Donnell, a 23-year-old U.S. Marine Corps photographer...
COMMENTARY
Mar 12, 2005

Opium again driving Afghan economy

ISLAMABAD -- This month's warning by the United Nations' main drug-monitoring watchdog that Afghanistan is in danger of becoming a narcotics-driven state should hardly come as a surprise.
EDITORIALS
Mar 10, 2005

Last chance for Daiei's survival

Daiei Inc., Japan's ailing supermarket operator, is ready to make its third -- and final -- attempt at rehabilitation. On Monday, the state-run Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan (IRCJ) formally selected trading house Marubeni Corp. and investment fund Advantage Partners as Daiei's business sponsors....
COMMENTARY
Mar 10, 2005

Avoiding sham democracy

LONDON -- There is all the difference in the world between democracy and constitutional democracy.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Mar 9, 2005

Legal action gives new definition to 'The Meaning of Ichiro'

Well, I must say, this one really takes the cake.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 8, 2005

Creating laws out of thin air

With terrorists striking fear into governments worldwide, Japan too is currently considering its own version of America's Patriot Act, to be passed in a year or two.
COMMENTARY
Mar 7, 2005

Let taxes spur carbon cuts

On Feb. 16, the Kyoto Protocol, aimed at curbing the air pollution blamed for global warming, took effect. To become valid, the accord had to be ratified by at least 55 countries, including developed countries that accounted for at least 55 percent of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions...
COMMENTARY
Mar 7, 2005

Japan and U.S. up the ante on Taiwan

HONG KONG -- China's relations with Japan, already strained because of territorial disputes and differing perceptions of history -- in particular, because of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to Yasukuni Shrine, Japan's memorial to its war dead, including Class A war criminals...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Mar 6, 2005

76ers must be patient while Iverson, Webber try to mesh

NEW YORK -- You can lead a compulsive scoring point guard to a recognized reservoir of talent but you can't make him feed it or feed off it.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 5, 2005

Marinos face major threat from rejuvenated Jubilo

Here is a team-by-team preview of the 18 clubs in the J. League's first division this season:
BUSINESS
Mar 4, 2005

Livedoor furor opens up M&A can of worms

As it gears up to pass new legislation that will make it easier for companies to merge or acquire other firms, Japan is getting cold feet.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Mar 1, 2005

Waltzing around the issues

MOSCOW -- Summits have gone to the dogs. Gone are the days when a meeting of two presidents could change the world overnight, redrafting borders, changing governments and ensuring peace or war.
Rugby
Feb 28, 2005

Rugby gods smile on Green Rockets

Having shown their allegiance to Wales in its cracking win over France in Paris on Saturday, the rugby gods traveled quickly to Tokyo to cast their celestial eyes over the 42nd All Japan Championship final at Chichibunomiya on Sunday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 28, 2005

Look for VAT hike on the agenda

It appears that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is pushing the consumption-tax issue onto the political agenda. During a Lower House plenary session earlier this month, he said, in effect, that the value-added tax should be increased as part of overall social security reform. Until recently, Koizumi...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Feb 28, 2005

Tracking Mishima's footsteps in Florida

NEW YORK -- Earlier this month, when our friends Lenore and Robert invited us to visit them in Naples, Florida, where they recently acquired a new apartment, I decided to accept their offer. Naples is where Yukio Mishima (1925-70) spent a few days during his first visit to this country in January 1952,...
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2005

Mad cow panel prodded to reach decision on tests

Farm minister Yoshinobu Shimamura urged a government panel Friday to draw a conclusion quickly on whether to terminate the blanket testing for mad cow disease, in order to lift Japan's 14-month-old import ban on U.S. beef.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 26, 2005

The woes of the misunderstood 'gaijin'

I've been a nonnative speaker of Japanese for 12 years now. I'll go weeks without speaking a word of English, since where I live, I'm the only "gaijin." But after several years of consistent hard work, I have trained the 700 people on my island to understand my gaijin Japanese. We are almost at the point...
EDITORIALS
Feb 25, 2005

Mr. Thaksin can't relax

Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections held earlier this month. That win followed a completion of a full term in office, a historic accomplishment in its own right. Yet victory has not ended Mr. Thaksin's worries. Violence in the country's southern...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2005

China can't use its leverage

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- In the North Korean nuclear crisis, there is a major difference between having leverage and the ability to use it. China has the former, but not the latter. North Korea has both.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Feb 24, 2005

A game darn near too scary

If you are looking for the biggest jolt video gaming has to offer, and you don't mind having nightmares, take a deep breath and try "Biohazard 4."
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 23, 2005

Foreign stars to battle Japan stars in March 14 charity game

Kudos: To Bobby Valentine, Trey Hillman, Tsutomu Ito, Kazuhiko Ushijima and all the players who will participate in the Pro Yakyu Charity Game at Tokyo Dome on Monday, March 14.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Feb 20, 2005

There's big, and Hoover Dam big

Take 4,360 cubic meters of concrete (enough to pave a single-lane highway from San Francisco to New York), add 21,000 workers (but deduct an average of 50 a day due to injury or death), stir in 5 million, 8-cubic-meter buckets of cement and 950 km of steel piping, then garnish the lot with a dog that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 20, 2005

Japanese sperm to hit the Big Apple

"You all have to pump this rhythm into your body," Daisuke Koshikawa shouted. "If you think this rhythm is not part of your body, you have to acquire it at any cost."
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 2005

In praise of a 'billy sook'

With spring just around the corner, what images pop into the mind? Naturally, you're thinking cherry blossoms and daffodils, spring lambs and fluffy chickens, dolls and kites, eggs and chocolate. But some of you will also be thinking rabbits, and you are in luck, because next month brings the publication...
EDITORIALS
Feb 19, 2005

Missile defense and civilian control

The Cabinet earlier this week approved a bill that would provide a legal framework for a missile defense (MD) system. During the current regular session of the Diet, the government is seeking approval of the proposed amendment to the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) Law plus a bill for creating an integrated...
COMMENTARY
Feb 16, 2005

Answering Pyongyang's divisive tack

HONOLULU -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's initial response to Pyongyang's surprise announcement that it felt compelled to suspend its participation in the six-party talks and that it had manufactured nukes was exactly right.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 15, 2005

Compromised NHK needs closer scrutiny

As someone who toiled for several years inside NHK during the early 1990s, it is bemusing to see the simplistic criticism of the quasi-official broadcaster by the Japanese media.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 13, 2005

Learn if your pet loves you in TV Tokyo's "Pochi-Tama" and more

Does your pet love you? It may sound like a pointless question, but this week the pet variety program "Pochi-Tama" (TV Tokyo; Fri., 7 p.m.) will offer a test that pet owners can take to determine the degree of affection that their dogs and cats feel toward them.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight