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JAPAN
Apr 24, 2004

Surgeons in Chiba offer radical solution to obesity

Chiba University's advanced surgery department is conducting a procedure billed as the ultimate treatment for obesity, in which the size of the patient's stomach is drastically reduced.
EDITORIALS
Apr 23, 2004

Mr. Vajpayee has reason to smile

India ushered in the world's largest democratic pageant this week as it began the first phase of national elections. The vote will stretch out over three weeks, with counting and final results set for May 13. Blistering economic growth appears to be the springboard for yet another parliamentary majority...
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2004

Heed the warnings or accept the consequences: Koizumi

Aid workers and journalists who ignore government warnings to not travel to dangerous areas should accept responsibility for the consequences, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Thursday.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 2004

Lawmakers agree on penalties for lay judges who leak information

Ruling-bloc and opposition lawmakers have reached a basic agreement on penalties for proposed "lay judges" who leak information, deciding that only those who leak information on people involved in criminal cases will face prison, according to sources.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Apr 18, 2004

Revisiting an evil stereotype

MOSCOW -- Each country has a reputation. For France, it is wine and food; for Italy, wine, food and the pope; for Holland, canals; for Austria, skiing; for Russia vodka, snow and bears.
Japan Times
Features
Apr 18, 2004

New rich fashion a Shanghai style of sorts

SHANGHAI -- "There is nothing the Cantonese will refuse to eat, and nothing the Shanghainese will refuse to wear" is a popular Chinese adage harking back to Shanghai's 1930s heyday when it had a worldwide reputation for decadence and glamour.
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2004

Koizumi can't believe pair want to go back

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi expressed disbelief Friday that two of the three Japanese hostages recently released in Iraq want to return to the country to continue their activities.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 15, 2004

One day, Japan's 'losing dogs' will howl in unison

There's a new phrase out there and it's making a lot of people self-conscious. "Makeinu (losing dog)," which once meant nothing more than the literal translation, now indicates that swelling segment of the Japanese population: single people over 30.
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2004

Koizumi swipe at 'terrorists' downplayed

Government officials tried to play down allegations Wednesday that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has prolonged the crisis over three Japanese being held hostage in Iraq by calling their captors "terrorists."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 14, 2004

Interpreter's notes

Lost in Translation Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Sofia Coppola Running time: 102 minutes Language: English, Japanese Opens April 17 at Cinema Rise [See Japan Times movie listings] The dialogue of "Lost in Translation" never sizzles, never gets out of line, doesn't really reveal...
EDITORIALS
Apr 13, 2004

Little hope for Sri Lanka

Thirty years of civil war have done irreparable harm to Sri Lanka. The fight by the island's Tamils to secure a homeland has claimed more than 60,000 lives and deeply fractured the nation. A peace process appeared to be making progress, but divisions among Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority derailed those...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 13, 2004

No room for 'outsiders'

In "The Japanese," Japanologist and former U.S. ambassador to Japan Edwin O. Reischauer wrote that "no people have committed themselves more enthusiastically to internationalism than the Japanese or have so specifically repudiated nationalism."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Apr 13, 2004

Is patriotism a bad thing?

Minoru Hase CEO It's dangerous for Japanese culture because for younger people, these last 55 years we have been safe, so they have never had the experience of war, so they don't know how to express what they are thinking or feeling.
COMMENTARY
Apr 12, 2004

Disillusionment over Iraq

LONDON -- In March 2003, British Prime Minister Tony Blair apparently believed that there was an imminent threat that Iraq might use weapons of mass destruction. A majority of British voters were accordingly persuaded that Britain was probably justified in taking part in an attack on the tyrannical regime...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 11, 2004

'Experimental novelist' kicks the regular rulebook into touch

During a recent tour to Guam, members of the Tsunami Teetotallers (a Japan-based ad hoc rugby team) were left speechless when, during prematch introductions, their scrumhalf Richard Beard declared himself to be an English "experimental novelist."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 7, 2004

Korean love story heats up Japan

As a milestone in Japan's ongoing love affair with Korean entertainment, which has been deepening over the past few years, "The Hotel Venus" is a big one.
COMMENTARY
Apr 2, 2004

Bush bears burden of proof

WASHINGTON -- The ever nastier Washington fight between former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke and manifold Bush officials has taken on a "he said/she said" quality. It's hard to know who to believe. But having routinely undercut his credibility elsewhere, President George W. Bush should bear the...
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2004

Pension reform debate could turn into a battle for the ages

Diet deliberations on government-sponsored pension reform bills appear headed for turbulence, with the ruling and opposition parties locking horns over remarks by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi just days ahead of the Thursday start of debate on the contentious legislation.
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.
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?
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 29, 2004

Australia awakening to threat

SYDNEY -- A test on how well Australians can cope with an increasingly expected Islamic terrorist attack showed last week how little we have learned from New York, Bali and Madrid.
Events
Mar 28, 2004

KANSAI: Who & What

Major antique fair to be held in Kyoto: A major antique fair will be held April 2 to 4 at Pulse Plaza in Fushimi Ward, Kyoto.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 28, 2004

History behind a rocky democracy

INDONESIAN DESTINIES, by Theodore Friend. Cambridge: Belknap/Harvard University Press, 2003, 628 pp., $35 (cloth). INDONESIA: People and Histories, by Jean Gelman Taylor. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003, 420 pp., $39.95 (cloth). These two books complement each other nicely and contribute greatly...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 27, 2004

Angela B. Infante

After the end of World War II, Japanese people were in need. With the basic necessities of food, clothing and housing in short supply, and daily amenities almost unobtainable, the people suffered. Some concerned non-Japanese women living in Tokyo came together to provide help. They resurrected a prewar...
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2004

Foreign reporters mixed on Tokyo's new Mideast role

The Ground Self-Defense Force dispatch to Iraq has been viewed overseas by some as a significant political move by Japan to boost the role of its military on the international stage.
Japan Times
Features
Mar 21, 2004

One of a kind

The year was 1841. Japan was still the closed country it had been for two centuries by order of the feudal Tokugawa Shogunate; for a Japanese to go abroad, or return from abroad, were capital offenses. The arrival of U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry's four black-hulled steamships in Edo Bay -- and the...

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