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COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
May 7, 2005

Bush finds social security plan a hard sell

WASHINGTON -- One hundred days into his second term, President George W. Bush seems a bit adrift. He has dipped below the 50-percent level in approval ratings (47 percent). His "60 stops in 60 days" campaign to promote his program to reform Social Security has boomeranged, with fewer people supporting...
COMMENTARY
May 7, 2005

Grim outlook sways voters

PARIS -- On May 13, Jacques Chirac will celebrate the 13th anniversary of his first election to the presidency of the French Republic. Will he run for office again in 2007?
BUSINESS
May 7, 2005

Monetary base up 3% in April: BOJ

Japan's monetary base expanded 3 percent in April from a year earlier, marking a 51st straight monthly increase, the Bank of Japan said Friday.
BUSINESS
May 7, 2005

IYBank doubles net profit, helped by surge in affiliates

Online bank IYBank Co. said Friday it more than doubled its unconsolidated net profit to 10.84 billion yen in the year to March 31 due partly to the surge in the number of affiliated banks and consumer loan firms.
EDITORIALS
May 5, 2005

A historic visit to China

China closed a chapter in its history this week with the visit to the mainland by Mr. Lien Chan, the head of Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT), or Nationalist Party. Mr. Lien's trip was the first by a KMT leader since Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan in 1949, abandoning the country to Mao Zedong and the Chinese...
COMMENTARY
May 5, 2005

Britain's apolitical election

LONDON -- So powerful has been Prime Minister Tony Blair's dominance of British politics that Thursday's General Election has resolved into one question: Are you for or against his leadership?
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2005

Homecoming for Taiwanese icebreaker

BEIJING -- The just-ended visit of Lien Chan, the chairman of Taiwan's main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), to China symbolized the end of a long-standing intra-China feud and is undeniably a diplomatic breakthrough for both sides.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
May 5, 2005

Swallow tales to silence those who speak with forked tongues

It was 1969, and I was driving our open-topped Mercedes Unimog to Asmara to get some building supplies and other gear not available in Gondar, the nearest town to the Simien Mountain National Park in Ethiopia where I was then a game warden.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
May 5, 2005

Techno racing on the edge

The original "Wipeout" racing game hit the PlayStation in the midst of a worldwide cultural movement -- electronica. Beatboxes and keyboards were ringing in the new millennium as dance clubs saw renewed interest along with the club drugs that fueled the all-night raves. With its spacey visuals and techno...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 4, 2005

Mad artist myth no longer holds

The name Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) invariably invokes a legend -- the legend of a wild, creative genius, out of sync with the stilted, repressive atmosphere of Victorian Europe; who exploded in passionate art and self-destructive disregard of the banal parameters of everyday life; who followed his...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 4, 2005

Living tradition of court doll-making celebrated

"Gosho Ningyo Court Dolls and Paintings of the Modern Era,' currently at the Seikado Bunko Art Museum and coinciding with Golden Week, sets out to display the decorative flourishes and innovations of the late 19th century (late Edo and Meiji periods) through to the early 20th century. It was a time when,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
May 4, 2005

Girls in the company of wolves

For more than a decade female Japanese artists have been a dynamic force in contemporary photography, and now they are making big waves in other artistic media as well, as the phantasmagoric work of Tomoko Konoike best illustrates.
COMMENTARY
May 4, 2005

Some pits remain in Vietnam's growing bowl of cherries

LOS ANGELES -- The people of Vietnam -- who celebrated the 30th anniversary of the United States' final pullout from Saigon on April 30 -- are getting with the market-oriented, rich-is-glorious, we-love-anyone-with-money (including Westerners), China-clone program of economic reform (while keeping dissidents...
EDITORIALS
May 4, 2005

A new Constitution by the people

Fifty-eight years ago, on May 3, 1947, the postwar Constitution of Japan came into effect. Today this new national charter, underscored by its pacifist principles, is broadly accepted by the Japanese public. Yet, strange as it may seem, this is a constitution enacted by Imperial order, not by popular...
SOCCER / World cup
May 3, 2005

Shutout no problem

Japan midfielder Toshiya Fujita believes the Asian champions can take full advantage of FIFA's decision to hold their upcoming World Cup qualifier against North Korea behind closed doors.
COMMENTARY
May 3, 2005

University gap set to widen

One year has passed since Japan's national universities gained corporate status. How have they changed? Following are my personal views on the merits and demerits of some of the changes.
COMMENTARY
May 3, 2005

Journalism turns deadly in the Philippines

MANILA -- Many Filipinos are proud of the freedom the press enjoys in their country but this rosy picture has been tarnished by the killings of a number of journalists. With 13 Filipino journalists killed last year and four media workers murdered so far in 2005, the Philippines -- according to the Brussels-based...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 3, 2005

Turning back clock on gender equality

As the government emphasizes patriotism as part of the national school curriculum and discussion continues apace over revising Article 9, some LDP lawmakers are now calling for changes to the Constitution that may put equal rights and individual freedom at risk.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
May 3, 2005

If you get married and have children, what will you do with your career?

Miho Yamanaka I.T, 31 I work at a foreign bank and there are lots of women who took maternity leave. If I married a traditional Japanese man -- and he was a millionaire -- and I didn't have to work, then I wouldn't.
EDITORIALS
May 3, 2005

Nonproliferation plus disarmament

An international conference to review the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) opens at the United Nations Monday. The 1970 treaty is riddled with inefficacy, as illustrated by North Korea's nuclear-weapons program, Iran's moves to enrich uranium, and the existence of an international black market for nuclear...

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