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JAPAN
Jan 8, 2003

Tokyo hoping for swift response to IAEA ultimatum

Japan wants North Korea to respond promptly to an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution giving it a final opportunity to halt the reactivation of its nuclear facilities and dismantle its nuclear weapons program, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a news conference Tuesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 7, 2003

Slump has silver lining: Cosmo chief

The economic slump offers unprecedented opportunities for new firms looking to carve out a niche in Japan, according to Kumi Sato, president of Cosmo Public Relations Corp., a Tokyo-based marketing consulting firm.
COMMENTARY
Jan 6, 2003

Time to rock economic boat

After remaining in the doldrums for more than 10 years, the Japanese economy is now plagued by deflation. The Tokyo Stock Exchange's benchmark Nikkei index has fallen to the 8,500 level, and the nation's unemployment rate remains high. Last fall the government announced a policy package for expediting...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Jan 6, 2003

Atavistic racism: greatest impediment

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- A central argument of many observers of Japan, myself included, is that there has been very little change and no leadership. The two are interwoven: leadership is required to generate and manage change. The Japanese system that was quite appropriate, dynamic and robust in the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2003

Non-bureaucrat lands public post

Koichi Minaguchi, a former vice chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Ex- ecutives, will be the new governor of the Japan Finance Corporation for Small Business, government sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Jan 4, 2003

North Korea abductees to be made eligible for financial help

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is to officially recognize 15 Japanese -- including the five people who returned to Japan on Oct. 15 -- as victims of abduction by Pyongyang, it was learned Friday.
COMMENTARY
Dec 31, 2002

Koizumi losing ability to lead

The most striking impression about 2002 is that the world has become increasingly insecure. When two jetliners hijacked by suicide terrorists crashed into New York's World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, old-fashioned big-power games ended and a new struggle between civilized society and international...
COMMENTARY
Dec 30, 2002

Missiles challenge diplomac

Defense chief Shigeru Ishiba's rash remarks regarding a joint Japan-U.S. missile defense project deviate from Tokyo's official defense policy and could give the impression that Japan is advancing the bilateral initiative beyond research to the development stage.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 29, 2002

Koma Square -- a new years' tale by RK

1997-99 He woke to the sound of a prerecorded voice booming from the nationalists' minitruck rolling through their neighborhood, making the windows rattle. Shirtless on the tatami, his bare back pressed to the ribbed weave, he heard the voice as part of his dream and then part of the day, and then...
COMMENTARY
Dec 22, 2002

Abductee hysteria in Japan

That old saying about democracies being their own worst enemies is getting a good workout in Japan's abductee dispute with North Korea. By any standards, North Korea's willingness to release five Japanese abducted in the 1970s following Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Sept. 17 breakthrough visit to...
COMMENTARY
Dec 16, 2002

Highways amid the shambles

In its final report submitted Dec. 6, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's advisory commission for privatizing four road-related public corporations called for a halt to runaway highway construction. The report warns against the "triangle of collusion" among "road tribe" legislators, related bureaucrats...
EDITORIALS
Dec 14, 2002

Words must be matched with deeds

Japanese diplomacy in the post-Cold War era has been mostly passive, except in a few groundbreaking areas such as participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations. One reason for this, according to a report from a foreign policy advisory group, is that the domestic political situation has remained unstable...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 11, 2002

Relax, Australia's not invading anyone

SYDNEY -- To hear some Southeast Asian leaders sound off lately, a casual observer might suspect Australia is about to invade Indonesia or Malaysia or even the Philippines. Such is the folly of listening to "news" as whipped up by audience-boosting television channels fed by headline-grabbing politicians....
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2002

Myanmar's generals allergic to dialogue

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and many world leaders have welcomed the recent release of 115 political prisoners from various prisons in Myanmar. At the same time, many leaders have voiced concerns about the more than 1,000 remaining political prisoners, human rights abuses and the lack...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2002

China has robbed Keio University, Japan's Foreign Ministry of their independence

NEW YORK -- Japan has been in an uproar since five of its citizens who were abducted by North Korean agents more than 20 years ago were allowed to return home Oct. 15. But an even more ominous event for the country, though not prominently reported by the mass media, occurred last month: the "kidnapping"...
EDITORIALS
Dec 1, 2002

Out of the garret

Here's what the late English poet Philip Larkin had to say 30-odd years ago on the subject of money: Clearly money has something to do with life/ -- In fact, they've a lot in common, if you enquire. . . .
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Unemployment at 5.5%

Japan's seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose to 5.5 percent in October after remaining at 5.4 percent for five straight months, matching the record high posted last December, the government said Friday in a preliminary report.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2002

Court rules against disabled in vote suit

The government's refusal to accept mail-in ballots filled out on behalf of physically disabled people is not an illegal act meriting damages, but it violates their voting rights and is unconstitutional, the Tokyo District Court ruled Thursday.
COMMENTARY
Nov 29, 2002

A state led by the power of nine

HONG KONG -- While many foreign press reports recently stressed the ways in which China was becoming more capitalist, only London's Financial Times cautioned readers about how the country remains indubitably communist.
BUSINESS
Nov 29, 2002

Cigarette tax examined as reform item

A tax hike on cigarettes is being considered as part of tax reforms for fiscal 2003, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Thursday.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2002

Hardline aide has Koizumi's ear when it comes to Pyongyang policy

A foreign policy hardliner has gained a stronger presence in the administration since he accompanied Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to Pyongyang for his historic Sept. 17 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2002

Diet enacts law on intellectual property rights

The Diet enacted a basic intellectual property law Wednesday that the government hopes will promote the emergence of eminent scientists like Koichi Tanaka, who won the 2002 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2002

Labor ministry eyes spending spree to help jobless

The labor ministry called on the government Tuesday to spend 931.4 billion yen out of a planned supplementary budget to fund employment-related measures and other welfare steps.
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2002

Keep tax cuts under 1.5 trillion yen, Shiokawa says

Tax cuts for the next fiscal year should not top 1.5 trillion yen, Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Tuesday, citing the country's tight fiscal conditions.
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2002

190 million yen for funeral, tomb for Prince Takamado

The Cabinet approved a plan Tuesday by the Imperial Household Agency to spend 190 million yen on funeral services and the construction of a tomb for Prince Takamado, who died last week.
Japan Times
JAPAN / THROUGH THE DOOR
Nov 26, 2002

Japan tries to reform refugee system

Japan has often been criticized for closing its doors to asylum seekers. Following the high-profile incident in May at the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang, China, in which Japanese officials let Chinese police take a family of North Korean asylum seekers out of the compound, the government has...
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2002

Tokyo-Pyongyang talks in limbo

Japan and North Korea will probably not resume bilateral normalization talks before the end of November because the two sides remain at odds over several key issues, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda indicated Monday.
BUSINESS
Nov 26, 2002

Kumagai Gumi, Hazama report plunges in profits

Midsize general contractors Kumagai Gumi Corp. and Hazama Corp. on Monday reported sharp declines in sales and profits for the first half to Sept. 30, blaming a shrinking construction market and mounting debts.
BUSINESS
Nov 26, 2002

FSA to allow life insurers to cut yields

To ward off bankruptcy amid the deteriorating investment climate, the Financial Services Agency will allow life insurance companies to reduce the investment returns they have promised to policyholders, sources said Monday.
EDITORIALS
Nov 25, 2002

Birth of a new NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was reborn last week. The alliance has added seven new members, all former Eastern bloc countries, extending NATO's territory to Russia's borders in the Baltic and to the Black Sea. Yet unlike the last round, this time Moscow accepted the expansion without protest....

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past