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Japan Times
JAPAN / ELECTION 2003
Nov 7, 2003

Illusory promise of freeways exacts a toll

There is no such thing as a freeway in Japan. For decades, it has been a given for drivers that if they use expressways they must pay the tolls, even though they've been promised that someday when the construction debts disappear so will the tollbooths.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 5, 2003

Borderless abstraction

The Oxford Dictionary of 20th Century Art defines Op Art as: "an exactly prescribed retinal response . . . repeated small scale patterns arranged so as to suggest underlying secondary shapes or warping or swelling surfaces."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 5, 2003

Freed architecture

Rem Koolhaas, recently awarded the 2003 Praemium Imperiale for architecture, is prolific to the point of relentlessness. Looking at the stream of bold, innovative and aggressively hip buildings Koolhaas' Rotterdam-based office has produced, one well-known Japanese architect was prompted to liken him...
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2003

Is media scrabbling for scoops or scraps?

Since late July, when a special law allowing the dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq was enacted, the Japanese media has engaged in a fierce battle to report when, where and how many personnel will be sent to the war-ravaged country.
EDITORIALS
Nov 2, 2003

Long words for a short bear

'I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words Bother me," Winnie-the-Pooh once famously said. Words like "merchandising" would certainly have Bothered him, or "licensing rights" or even "royalties." Those were all buzzing around the Pooh legacy like bees around a honey pot last week, after a U.S....
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2003

Ishihara unrepentant over slur

An unrepentant Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara on Friday reiterated claims that Koreans had chosen Japanese rule rather than face Chinese or Russian governance when Japan annexed the Korean Peninsula in 1910.
COMMENTARY
Oct 31, 2003

Economic freedom pays off

MANILA -- More than a decade ago, the global confrontation between the West and the East ended with a convincing victory for the liberal paradigm. The ideological triumph of the Western political and economic concept was so pervasive that some argued that mankind had reached the "end of history."
COMMENTARY
Oct 30, 2003

Europe rues decline amid shift to Asia

PARIS -- Officially, we were discussing Russia's place in Asia. It was hard to tell whether the French senator/historian on the panel was warning of Moscow's return to great-power status or urging it on. He was no crypto-communist, however: For him, Russia's resurgence would signal the return of multipolarity...
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2003

Campaign rhetoric faces tougher scrutiny

Few voters in Japan -- or lawmakers for that matter -- ever took a serious look at political party election pledges, knowing they were simply vague policy slogans with little substance.
BUSINESS
Oct 29, 2003

U.S. southeast interested in hydrogen cars

OSAKA -- A two-day meeting here between government and business representatives from seven U.S. states and Japan concluded Tuesday with discussion focusing on the future of the auto industry, especially the introduction of hydrogen fuel cells.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Oct 29, 2003

250 reasons to be happy, then some

I'm happy! The reason I'm happy is I love art, and this month a total of four -- yes four -- new contemporary art spaces opened in Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Oct 28, 2003

Manifestos leave voters in the dark

Not all political parties campaigning for the Nov. 9 general election describe their campaign promises in the form of a "manifesto." But they all have a common objective: explaining their beliefs and policies to the electorate in clear language. Yet many descriptions are equivocal and even confusing...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 28, 2003

Convicted Briton says he was drug run patsy

Most of us can name a time when our lives changed forever, but few can do so as precisely as Nicholas Baker: 11.30 a.m. on April 13, 2002.
EDITORIALS
Oct 27, 2003

The reality of pension reform

With a general election around the corner, major political parties in Japan are playing up pension reform as a top campaign promise. That is only to be expected as the average age of the Japanese population rises at an accelerated pace. The question is what should and can be done to build a sustainable...
EDITORIALS
Oct 26, 2003

Discord over LDP's retirement age

Age seems to matter in politics as well. With the Liberal Democratic Party having set a 73-year age limit for candidates running for Lower House seats under the proportional representation, or PR, system, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Thursday asked two elder politicians -- former Prime Ministers...
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2003

NTV to probe producer who bribed TV monitors

Nippon Television Network Corp. will set up an in-house investigation panel on Monday to look into the scandal involving a producer who bribed TV viewer rating monitors in a bid to manipulate the ratings of his own shows, the company said Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 26, 2003

Writer behind the writer

As a reporter in Tokyo in the late '60s, what was your professional interest in Yukio Mishima?
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2003

Ishihara tells Fujii to hold his tongue

Transport minister Nobuteru Ishihara said Friday he would not comply with a request by Haruho Fujii for exemption from the public servant's oath to keep official secrets.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2003

New tests challenging TOEIC stronghold

Scoring 500 points on the TOEIC English proficiency test is a prerequisite for promotion to section chief or a higher managerial position at construction machinery maker Komatsu Ltd.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 24, 2003

Fiji routs Cherry Blossoms to keep quarterfinal hopes alive

TOWNSVILLE, Australia -- Japan's honeymoon in North Queensland came to an abrupt end at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Thursday as Fiji used its in-depth knowledge of Japanese rugby to defeat the Cherry Blossoms 41-13.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 24, 2003

Antinuke regime crumbling

Speaking on the opening day of the U.N. General Assembly's disarmament committee on Oct. 6, Ambassador Sergio Querioz Duarte of Brazil noted that "to attain a nuclear-weapon-free world, it is vital to prevent nuclear proliferation, and at the same time, it is imperative to promote nuclear disarmament."...
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2003

End of two-track system no help to women

As the protracted economic slump prompts companies to shed the time-honored practices of lifetime employment and seniority-based wages, another victim of the cost-cutting ax is the two-track hiring system that has effectively kept women's wages lower than men's.
Japan Times
JAPAN / PARTY LINE
Oct 23, 2003

JCP to stick with criticism of Koizumi, U.S. security ties

The Japanese Communist Party has no plans to change tack ahead of the upcoming general election, training its guns on the policies of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, whom it accuses of pandering to big business and the United States.
BUSINESS
Oct 23, 2003

Direction error spurs drug recall

Major drugmaker Eisai Co. said Wednesday it will recall a cough medicine and expectorant in view of an erroneous description in the directions inside the package.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Oct 23, 2003

Bush backers open their purses

WASHINGTON -- It has stopped! U.S. President George W. Bush's men have determined that his slide has ended. The latest round of polling has him in the mid to low 50s.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 23, 2003

'Israelization' of U.S. Middle East policy proceeds apace

BEIRUT -- Few disputed at the time that Israel was a factor that pushed U.S. President George W. Bush to go to war on Iraq. Just how much weight it had among all the other factors was the only controversial question. But what is clear, six months on, is that Israel is now a very important one indeed...
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2003

Lawyer slams immigration process as Muslim is deported

A Muslim woman from a West Asian country who had applied for refugee status in Japan was deported via Narita airport last week, despite the fact that preparations for legal action on her behalf were under way, it was learned Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2003

Kin of suspected abductees fight uphill war

OSAKA -- On the morning of July 7, 1973, 18-year-old Noriko Furukawa of Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture, left home for a beauty parlor appointment without telling her mother, with whom she had promised to go shopping that afternoon.

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