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Events
Mar 31, 2004

South Korean economy bedeviled by serious woes: writers

While Japan's economy may finally be bidding farewell to the "lost decade" of the stagnant 1990s, growth in South Korea, once noted for its rapid recovery after the 1997 Asian crisis, is slowing down amid serious problems like mounting household debts.
COMMENTARY
Mar 31, 2004

Madrid attack redefines EU

LONDON -- The bomb outrage and mass slaughter of train commuters in Madrid on March 11 has changed the face of European politics in more ways than one.
Japan Times
Events
Mar 31, 2004

Journalists cautious on FTA talks

Is Japan ready to become a leader of Asia by opening its market to the rest of the region in ways commensurate with its status?
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2004

Japan, U.S. agree on troop crime suspects

Japan and the United States have agreed in principle to allow U.S. officials to be present as part of the investigators' side when Japanese police question U.S. military personnel suspected of a crime, diplomatic sources said Sunday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 28, 2004

Zen and the art of Beatnik haiku

JACK KEROUAC: Book of Haikus, edited and with an Introduction by Regina Weinreich. Penguin USA, 2003, 240 pp., $13.00 (paper). Jack Kerouac (1922-69), the King of the Beats, started writing haiku with the belief that this short poetic form was an avatar of Zen, and he pursued both haiku and Zen to his...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2004

Japan grills isle intruders; China demands their release

Police on Thursday questioned seven Chinese activists who landed on disputed territory in the East China Sea the previous day and plan to hand them over to prosecutors for allegedly violating immigration laws.
EDITORIALS
Mar 25, 2004

A bullet tips Taiwan's ballot

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian won last weekend's national election by a sliver. A mysterious assassination attempt on the eve of the ballot may have provided the margin of victory. The protests and charges of misconduct that followed the announcement of the results were predictable. It will take time...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Mar 25, 2004

System rebooted: 2004 is about to get cool

By the looks of things, I'm not the only one who's been a little busy this winter.
JAPAN / TALKING SHOP
Mar 22, 2004

When words fail, American logistics expert talks bottom line

How do you break the news to a warehouse manager or a trucking company boss that they are about to lose their biggest client?
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 22, 2004

Japanese monetary authorities must take the risk of making sense

Japanese monetary authorities have been trying to keep the yen-dollar exchange rate above 105, and even to push it to 110. While their actions, of course, affect the sentiments of currency exchange dealers, we should realize that exchange rate fluctuations are determined not just by economic factors,...
COMMENTARY / World / GUEST FORUM
Mar 22, 2004

Madrid terror has lessons for Koizumi

WASHINGTON -- Three days after the terrorist bombings in Madrid, the March 14 election in Spain ended in an unexpected victory for the Socialist Party.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 21, 2004

A different kind of matrimony

TWINKLE, TWINKLE, by Kaori Ekuni, translated by Emi Shimokawa. New York: Vertical Inc., 2003, 172 pp. $19.95 (cloth). This is an excellent translation of Kaori Ekuni's 1991 novel, "Kira Kira Hikaru," a popular best seller that was made into a very good film by Joji Matsuoka the following year.
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2004

Deal reportedly reached on U.S. military suspects

Japan and the United States are expected to agree soon to U.S. officials being present during interrogations of U.S. military personnel suspected of serious crimes such as murder or rape, negotiation sources said Saturday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 21, 2004

Nothing lost in translation of mum music

It's important to say the band's name correctly: mum, which is always written without an initial capital letter, is pronounced "moom." The band itself is from Iceland, and the name has no meaning.
EDITORIALS
Mar 20, 2004

Time to readjust foreign policy

A year after the United States went to war against Iraq, Japanese people are asking themselves what it really meant to Japan. All questions begin with a central fact that underscores Japanese foreign policy: Japan and the U.S. are bound closely together under a bilateral security treaty. Yet many are...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2004

Future of Taiwan at stake in elections

NEW YORK -- No less than the future of Taiwan is at stake in the presidential election Saturday. If President Chen Shui-bian is re-elected, Taiwan's move toward becoming an independent state will accelerate and the Taiwan-China impasse will harden. If the Lien Chan/James Soong ticket wins, China will...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2004

Tanaka's daughter seeks fines for publisher

The daughter of Diet lawmaker Makiko Tanaka has sought a court order forcing a publisher to pay fines of 30 million yen for every day that a weekly magazine featuring an article about her private life remains on store shelves, it was learned Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Mar 17, 2004

Stability under a strongman

As expected, Russian President Vladimir Putin was re-elected by a landslide in Sunday's presidential election. His leadership now seems almost unchallenged. Opposition parties are weak. Parliament is obedient. Key government posts are held by Putin loyalists. Mr. Putin's tightened grip on power may bolster...
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2004

Protesters slam Kepco MOX plan

OSAKA -- Antinuclear protesters on Tuesday called on Kansai Electric Power Co. not to restart its mixed-plutonium uranium oxide (MOX) program and demanded a public hearing before the utility signs any contracts with a French firm to manufacture the fuel.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 17, 2004

Oshii talks softly, but carries a big script

Before I interviewed Mamoru Oshii, his publicist asked if I would need an interpreter. "He tends to mumble," she explained. No, I didn't need an interpreter, but I did turn the volume of my tape recorder on high, fortunately. Looking a decade younger than his 52 years, with a mane of unruly black hair,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / POLITICS IN FOCUS
Mar 16, 2004

LDP policy panel calls the shots, not Diet

The Diet shall be the highest organ of state power, and shall be the sole lawmaking organ of the State. Thus reads Article 41 of the Constitution.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / A GAIJIN'S TALE
Mar 16, 2004

Murdering the language

It was shortly after we moved to Japan and I was making a serious effort to learn and communicate in Japanese.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 14, 2004

The Siamese revolution through the eyes of an 'impartial' Jesuit

HISTORY OF SIAM IN 1688, by S.J. Marcel Le Blanc, translated and edited by Michael Smithies. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2004, 212 pp., 625 baht (paper). This volume is the most recent in the "Treasures from the Past" series published by Silkworm Books Co., a series that deserves credit for bringing...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 14, 2004

India's nukes pose paradox for nonproliferation regime

NEW DELHI -- At the conclusion of their midlevel official talks in Islamabad on Feb. 16-18, India and Pakistan outlined an aggressive timetable for wide-ranging peace talks on Kashmir, nuclear safeguards, terrorism and other topics leading up to talks between the two foreign secretaries in May or June...
MORE SPORTS
Mar 14, 2004

Toshiba, Kobe Steel to meet in title game

Toshiba Brave Lupus will be hoping to get rid of an unwanted tag when it takes part in the final of the 41st Japan Championship at Tokyo's National Stadium on March 21.
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2004

Hapless hikers earn Iraq police shakedown, Tokyo's wrath

Two young Japanese travelers wandering in southern Iraq earned the wrath of top government officials Friday, after they were temporarily detained and interrogated by local police.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2004

Iraqi sovereignty remains a distant goal

SEOUL -- Let's start with the obvious but often overlooked topic of what isn't taking place in Iraq today. Commentary to the contrary, sovereignty is not being handed back to Iraqis on June 30; it isn't even on the table.
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2004

Disgraced Sato worth 100 million yen

The bank accounts of Kanju Sato, a former home affairs minister accused of defrauding the state, and his wife have a combined balance of more than 100 million yen, according to investigative sources.

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