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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / A GAIJIN'S TALE
Oct 7, 2003

Taking stick

Hanging around on matsuri day in my town in Akita-ken, these two old guys invited me to a pre-matsuri party. Sensing a great opportunity to meet the locals, I sat around a table guzzling massive amounts of hot sake with about 20 old geezers.
COMMENTARY
Oct 7, 2003

Japan's diplomatic needs

In his second Cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi retained both Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and Defense Agency Director General Shigeru Ishiba. This promises continuity in Japan's foreign and defense policy, at least for the next three years in which Koizumi is likely to serve as...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 7, 2003

Time to come clean on foreign crime wave

For those who read and watch the Japanese press, these are scary times. Foreign crime is allegedly on the rise, members of the new Koizumi Cabinet are making clear policy statements against it, and the National Police Agency is ready for a new push.
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2003

FTC to issue 'Star Wars' warning

The Fair Trade Commission is planning to issue a warning to a movie distributor for discouraging sales of discount tickets for "Star Wars Episode 2," in violation of the Antimonopoly Law, industry sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2003

Rash of rice burglaries continues

Rice was stolen in three separate incidents Sunday morning in Niigata, Ibaraki and Chiba prefectures amid a rising number of thefts following this autumn's poor harvest.
EDITORIALS
Oct 6, 2003

Can Rengo stand up for the weak?

Over the years the image of Japanese trade unions as labor's standard bearer has become steadily tarnished. Their activities no longer hit the headlines except during annual labor-management negotiations. Even the name "shunto" -- the spring labor offensive -- now seems almost irrelevant because the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2003

Tanaka delays declaring, disappointing supporters

Former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka, despite the strong urging of her supporters, stopped short Sunday of officially announcing her candidacy in a general election to be held in November.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2003

Japan Highway president is sacked

Land, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Nobuteru Ishihara told Japan Highway Public Corp. President Haruho Fujii on Sunday to hand in his resignation Monday to take responsibility for the semigovernmental firm's controversial balance sheet.
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2003

Industry sounds out of key in its campaign against P2P

WASHINGTON -- The recording industry seems to believe that there is no greater enemy of all that is good and wonderful than peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing technologies. Thus the Recording Industry Association of America's campaign to sue grandkids and grandparents who violate copyrights by swapping...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2003

Taiwan trying to shake off the old labels

HONOLULU -- In ancient China, a rational sage named Hsun Tzu fashioned what came to be a principle of Chinese thought, the rectification of names. It was vital to clear thinking, Hsun Tzu said, that things be called by the right name.
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2003

Japan's priority: offsetting pull toward jobless recovery

U.S. President George W. Bush's military unilateralism has destabilized the world order to such an extent that, facing a dearth of low-risk, high-return investments, Western investors have descended on the Japanese stock market.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2003

DPJ adds five pledges to election manifesto

Pledging to take power in the upcoming general election, the Democratic Party of Japan and the Liberal Party celebrated their merger Sunday at a national convention in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2003

Temperatures fall around nation

Mount Hakkoda in Aomori Prefecture was capped with snow Sunday for the first time this year as temperatures around Japan fell to levels usually seen in mid-October, the Meteorological Agency said.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2003

British National Party must be stopped

BRUSSELS -- There has been a step-change in the activity and success of the British National Party. It is now a serious element in electoral politics. Driven by new ways to attract voters, party members no longer cry "repatriation." Instead, their slogan "pensioners before asylum seekers" is aimed at...
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2003

Ishiba: Iraq dispatch not due to U.S.

Japan is not dispatching the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq because it was requested to do so by the United States, but because Japan's interests are involved, Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba said Sunday.
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2003

China girds for wider influence in Asia

HONG KONG -- China's efforts to defuse the North Korean nuclear crisis have been trumpeted in headlines around the world, but it has been just as active in other parts of the region, a reflection of its increasing regional influence.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Oct 6, 2003

Why short-circuit ourselves in a battery-operated world?

We live today in a world of information and communications technology. For all the wonders it can work, it is actually quite fragile, dependent on a whole host of things to ensure it operates smoothly.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2003

Soga reveals depth of sadness over her divided family

Hitomi Soga, who returned to Japan last year for the first time since being abducted by North Korean agents in 1978, has revealed her loneliness in a letter sent to Kyodo News.
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2003

Man sought over tax evasion involving K-1 held in U.S.

A Bangladeshi man implicated in a tax evasion case involving a Japanese promotion firm for the K-1 martial arts organization has been arrested in New York on suspicion of assault, sources said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2003

SDP's scandal-hit Tsujimoto rules out run for old Diet seat

Kiyomi Tsujimoto, an outspoken former opposition lawmaker indicted on charges of defrauding the state, indicated Saturday that she will not stand in the House of Representatives election expected to be called next month.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell