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JAPAN
Oct 5, 2001

UNHCR seeks more aid as Afghan crisis looms

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is urging Japan to make further financial contributions to help with the expected influx of Afghan refugees into Pakistan and other neighboring countries, a top UNHCR official said.
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2001

NPA says assault team braced for terrorism

The National Police Agency is prepared to mobilize its special counterterrorism unit in the event that U.S. facilities and other designated locations in Japan come under threat of terrorist attack, NPA officials said Wednesday. Should concrete information about a potential attack become known, the Special...
BUSINESS
Oct 4, 2001

Japan faces a balancing act

The global economic woes triggered by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States will probably put Japan in the dilemma of trying to reconcile reform with growth, when finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of Seven major economic powers gather Saturday in Washington.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 3, 2001

Can-do creators fill in city 'gaps'

One of the biggest problems with Tokyo's avant-garde art scene is finding it.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2001

Obituary: Kokontei Shincho II

Kokontei Shincho II, a master of "rakugo," the traditional Japanese art of comic monologue storytelling, died Monday morning of liver cancer at his home in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, his family said. He was 63.
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2001

GLOCOM to hold information society seminar

The International University of Japan's Center for Global Communication will present a seminar in Tokyo on Oct. 16 on the roles of women and foreigners in an information society, which will compare Japan's situation with those in the U.S. and elsewhere in Asia.
BUSINESS
Sep 28, 2001

Shiokawa says Japan still open to Indonesia's ODA needs

Despite a planned cut in the overall amount of official development assistance dished out to Indonesia in fiscal 2002, Japan will attach "due consideration" to Indonesia's needs, Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa told visiting Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Thursday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 27, 2001

Can God damage your health?

On Sept. 15, the Oxford evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins published a piece in The Guardian called "Religion's misguided missiles." With customary antireligious zeal, the Charles Simonyi professor for the Public Understanding of Science gave his explanation for the attacks on New York and Washington,...
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2001

Caution urged on backing U.S. forces

Japan should think twice before moving to support U.S. military retaliation for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, a volunteer aid worker said in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2001

SDF, economic reforms top Diet session agenda

With a 72-day extraordinary Diet session convening today, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his government face two major challenges: seeking consensus on Japan's support for expected U.S.-led military operations against terrorists and on steps to help the flagging economy.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2001

Debate, don't deploy SDF: ex-bureaucrats

Two former top bureaucrats want the government to tell the international community what Japan can do within the limits of its war-renouncing Constitution to help the expected U.S.-led military retaliation for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2001

Tokyo remembers terrorism victims

Amid tight security, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, foreign dignitaries, and the general public joined a prayer service Sunday for the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 23, 2001

'Comfort' education at expense of standards?

Earlier this year, the Education Ministry announced a set of guidelines for public schools that go into effect next April. These changes include reduction of the school week to five days, a 30 percent cut in "academic content" and the development of "general studies," the gist of which remains vague...
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Sep 23, 2001

Hip-hop takes responsibility

Once upon a time, hip-hop reflected -- and reflected upon -- the urban experience: It was another black art form akin to jazz. These days, its purpose appears to be to give suburban white teenagers a vicarious thrill. In the commercially driven dichotomy of contemporary hip-hop, the gangstas and their...
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2001

Vivre's demise will leave a gap in Osaka

OSAKA -- The bankruptcy of the Osaka-based Mycal group earlier this month sent shock waves through the business and financial worlds.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 22, 2001

Minako Suzuki

When she was a little girl, Minako Suzuki used to like "dreaming of being someone else." Many little girls play similar pretend games. In Minako's case, her pretending led her professionally and as a volunteer to the world of entertainment.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 22, 2001

Dyeing to make a difference with fair trade clothes

The world this week is sadly less of a global village than it was 10 days ago. At least Kusum Tiwari is back in India, safe and sound after her first trip to East Asia, and two weeks in Japan.
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2001

Japan risks ties if slow to back retaliation by U.S., expert says

The United States is expecting Tokyo to cooperate and assist in tackling its current crisis in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, and Japan may not be able to maintain its good relations with the U.S. if it fails to act quickly, according to an American specialist on...
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2001

Koizumi wants SDF to support U.S. action

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday instructed Cabinet members to study the possibility of drawing up a new law that would allow the Self-Defense Forces to give logistic support to the U.S. should the Americans follow through with military threats made after last week's terrorist attacks.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 16, 2001

Documenting an unprecedented disaster

Crises, it is often said, bring out the best and the worst in people. In the case of the terrorist attacks that took place in the United States on Tuesday, the best was illustrated by citizens waiting five hours to donate blood, while the worst was exemplified by service stations gouging customers for...
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2001

North Korea nixes visit by aid monitors

North Korea has refused entry to a Japanese government mission planning to inspect the distribution and use of rice shipments provided by Tokyo, Foreign Ministry officials said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2001

Psychiatric care still mired in Dark Ages

Staff writer Unlike the common image of mental institutions with tight security and barred windows, the Yowa Hospital in Nerima Ward, Tokyo, looks no different than a general hospital.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 12, 2001

How Madden sees things

Director John Madden came late to the "Corelli" project, but that didn't mean he wasn't prepared, as evidenced by the careful, considered comments he made at a Tokyo press conference last week. While Madden may be working with Hollywood's top stars these days -- and few are hotter than Penelope Cruz,...
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Sep 12, 2001

You ain't nuthin' but a henjin

What a wacky guy Junichiro Koizumi is. When he's not battling bureaucracy or trying to revive the ailing economy, Japan's unprecedentedly popular prime minister likes nothing better than to chill out and listen to the music of the King: Elvis Presley.

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