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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 7, 2002

Love will tear them apart

Lovers who say goodbye in the last reel exist in Hollywood films -- remember Rick and Ilsa in "Casablanca"? -- but far more common are variations of Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard's happy stroll into the sunset in "Modern Times."
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2002

Hospitals and schools fear buildings not quake-proof

About half of Japan's schools and hospitals fear their buildings would not stand up to a major earthquake, a Cabinet Office survey shows.
EDITORIALS
Jul 4, 2002

Malaysia without Mr. Mahathir

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has announced that he plans to step down. It is difficult to envision that country without Mr. Mahathir at the helm: He provided Malaysia with its energy, its backbone and its vision. His pride and sharp tongue also made him a lightning rod for criticism, but...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2002

Lawyers defend poisoning suspect's silence

Legal experts and journalists in Japan sometimes forget that defendants in criminal cases are guaranteed the right to remain silent.
BUSINESS
Jul 2, 2002

Hiranuma wants East Asia economic zone to include India

Trade minister Takeo Hiranuma on Monday said Japan should spearhead efforts to form an East Asia economic zone that could embrace India and incorporate two-thirds of the world's population.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2002

Arrangement keeps Hong Kong on track

Since assuming the post of principal representative for the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Tokyo a little more than a month ago, I have found tremendous interest here in what has been happening to Hong Kong following its reunification with China on July 1, 1997. About five years before reunification,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 30, 2002

Please, Hama, don't hurt 'em

Actor Masatoshi Nagase became a star in Kaizo Hayashi's 1993 tribute to Cinemascope noir, "The Most Terrible Time in My Life," as private detective Mike Hama, a none-too-veiled tribute to Mickey Spillane's hard-boiled shamus Mike Hammer. The movie was a hit, both domestically and overseas (England's...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 30, 2002

Some beer to call your own

When my Japanese friends hear that I make my own beer at home, they invariably ask me, "Does it taste good?" When I pour them a glass in response, their next comment is usually, "Wow, it has foam!"
COMMENTARY
Jun 29, 2002

A dangerous new doctrine

LONDON -- "I will not wait on events while dangers gather." Thus speaks U.S. President George W. Bush -- and in doing so appears to state, in plain and simple language, a revolutionary new doctrine that upends five decades of thinking about global security.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 29, 2002

Cheering on Special Olympics, seeking volunteers

It is confusing to discover that Kayako Hosokawa has three offices in a building in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki. Two are neighbors -- "so convenient," she observes, nipping to and fro. The other is on the fifth floor, below. It is even more confusing to learn she has a fourth office, in Kumamoto, close to the...
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2002

Cup cohosts' ties thaw, at least on individual level

OSAKA — When the excitement over the World Cup finals subsides, many may wonder whether cohosting the event actually helped improve relations between Japan and South Korea.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 28, 2002

Flawed peace plan reflects U.S. illusions

AL-BIREH, West Bank -- Monday's long-awaited speech by U.S. President George W. Bush was to set the pace for the Palestinians and Israelis to step back from the vicious and bloody cycle of violence that has gripped them for nearly two years. Instead, Bush and his administration have publicly adopted...
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2002

Japan-Myanmar panel set to hold final meeting

Amid a rapid easing of political tension in Myanmar, a key joint economic panel of Japanese and Myanmar government officials and private-sector experts will hold what is supposed to be its last meeting next month.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 27, 2002

Chinese invasion making waves in Japan

The other day, I happened to be on the platform of JR Kichijoji Station as a Sobu Line express pulled in. Wanting to be certain it would stop at the next station, Nishi-Ogikubo, I inquired to the young man standing next to me. In halting Japanese, he said that he was Chinese and didn't understand my...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 27, 2002

Swimming against the tide of marine good sense

Several years back, the Fisheries Agency of Japan began claiming that whaling is necessary to protect valuable fisheries. The agency argues that if we do not kill whales, they will eat millions of tons of fish that are rightfully destined for human consumption. Since some whale populations are increasing,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 27, 2002

Japan's farmers start to go green

Hardly a week goes by without the emergence of some new scandal in the Japanese food industry. But whether it's the use of illegal additives or the mislabeling of imported meat as domestic, the outcome is the same: further breakdown in trust between consumers and the farmers and companies involved in...
EDITORIALS
Jun 23, 2002

What's 'Onion' in Chinese

You have to feel a little sorry for those fellows over at the Beijing Evening News. Here they are a global laughingstock, and they still don't get why. But was it altogether their fault? Those of us who have tried and failed to comprehend humor, let alone satire, in a foreign language are privately thinking,...
COMMENTARY
Jun 23, 2002

Pakistan's nuclear safety faces scrutiny

ISLAMABAD -- The arrest of the alleged "dirty bomber" in the United States last month once again is a reminder of the dangers posed by unchecked dissemination of nuclear knowledge, especially when it is dropped into the hands of militant individuals. That Jose Padilla, alias Abdullah al-Muhajir, would...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2002

Brazilian win provides diversion from hard knocks

OIZUMI, Gunma Pref. — Cheers and car horns echoed through this rural industrial town, home to thousands of Japanese-Brazilian and Latin-American residents, heralding Brazil's 2-1 victory over England on Friday in a World Cup quarterfinal match.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 20, 2002

'Sufficient' steel exemptions on way: U.S. business chief

The steel dispute between Japan and the United States will calm down shortly because Washington is expected to exempt more products from its import safeguard tariffs, including those from Japan, the head of the largest business lobby in the United States said Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 19, 2002

More revenue for local governments

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is seeking tax reform to revive economic vitality, but he wants to limit tax cuts to the extent that they do not exacerbate the budget crisis. In other words, he is opposed to stimulating the economy at the expense of fiscal discipline. So no major tax cuts are planned...
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2002

Youth sex on rise, as are serious infections

Sex education expert Atsuko Yoshida is alarmed by the increasingly decadent lifestyle of youth that has made them more susceptible than ever to sexually transmitted infections.
BUSINESS
Jun 19, 2002

Germany poised to displace Japan as world's second-largest aid donor

Japan may be replaced by Germany as the world's second-largest aid donor in 2006, only five years after losing to the United States its long-held status as No. 1, according to a Foreign Ministry document obtained Tuesday by The Japan Times.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 18, 2002

Comparing Botswana, Japan unfair: ambassador

In many ways, Botswana is an African success story, boasting the world's fastest-growing income per capita over the past 35 years.
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2002

Key to corporate survival

Recent revelations about the mislabeling of foods and the use of illegal food additives by Japanese companies suggest a collapse of corporate ethics. The latest incident -- mislabeling of chicken by Zen-Noh Chicken Foods, an affiliate of the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2002

Algeria's liberation has lessons for Mideast

VANCOUVER, British Colombia -- Israel's hopes that its massive operation on the West Bank would halt the terror bombing have died with a new wave of attacks. Many bomb-making facilities were destroyed in the operation, but Palestinian rage has increased and the slaughter continues.

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