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EDITORIALS
May 29, 2004

Reinstating a jury system

Japan is set to introduce a new criminal trial system by the end of this decade, in which professional and lay judges will deal with major cases on an equal footing. A judicial reform bill calling for the creation of the saiban-in (citizen judge) system passed the Upper House last week, making it certain...
JAPAN
May 29, 2004

British ambassador looks to deepen global partnership

Japan and Britain should deepen their partnership on global matters, including dispute settlements, British Ambassador to Japan Stephen Gomersall said in a recent speech in Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 28, 2004

Ancient port of quiet delights

By the time footsore travelers on the old Tokaido Highway made it to Otsu, the town must have been no unwelcome sight. Many of them would just have trudged some 500 km from Edo (present-day Tokyo), and Otsu was the last of the 53 official way-stations strung out along the great thoroughfare. Just 10...
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2004

New democracy masters coalition-building

HONG KONG -- Ironically, at a time when the United States is trying to bring instant democracy to the Middle East, Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation in the world, is undergoing a complex, three-tiered democratic election virtually unnoticed.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 27, 2004

Picking the brains of teenagers shows how we 'mature'

What an age we live in. Science is progressing in ever greater leaps and bounds. The way things are going, we might one day even understand that most enigmatic and mysterious of natural phenomena, the teenager.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 27, 2004

Soaring soybean prices hurt tofu makers

A historic rise in soybean prices driven by soaring demand in China is dealing a heavy blow to Japanese makers of traditional staples such as tofu and soy sauce.
EDITORIALS
May 26, 2004

A good start for Mr. Chen

Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian has passed the first test of his new administration. His inauguration speech was conciliatory in tone, reaching out to the millions of Taiwanese who voted against him and to the mainland by pledging not to take action that would increase tensions between the governments...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 25, 2004

The mane attraction

In 1979, Japan was in the Dark Ages. Dark that is, in terms of hair. No one dyed their hair any other color but black and when they reached for lighter tints, were considered a bit on the bizarre side.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 24, 2004

Making the shift from 'defensive' to 'offensive' restructuring

Most of the major Japanese corporations have released their earnings results for the latest business year ended in March. Many of them reported brisk earnings, including Toyota Motor Corp., whose net profit topped 1 trillion yen for the first time. According to the Bank of Japan's "tankan" survey and...
JAPAN
May 24, 2004

Political leaders weigh in on value of Koizumi's visit to North Korea

Political leaders continued debating Sunday the outcome of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, with an opposition leader denouncing it as a "big failure."
COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2004

On the move after decades of pacifism

A quiet pride is evinced in the dispatch of Japan's Self-Defense Forces troops for peacekeeping in Iraq even though the polls say a bare majority opposes the deployment. Says a business executive: "That's their profession; that's what they've been trained for."
COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2004

People of Myanmar need Asia's support to hasten their passage to democracy

BANGKOK -- It was ridiculous to hear Myanmar's prime minister, Gen. Khin Nyunt, call on the literati to collaborate with the government in building a military-dominated nation.
Japan Times
Features
May 23, 2004

Power and the People

North Korea is not the only country casting a long nuclear shadow over Japan and America. The citizens of both nations are right now under threat from precarious atomic programs -- ones which are being forced on them by their own governments.
JAPAN
May 22, 2004

Embattled MMC unveils 'last chance' survival plan

Japan's crisis-hit Mitsubishi Motors Corp. unveiled a survival plan Friday featuring a 450 billion yen cash injection, relocation of its head office from Tokyo to Kyoto and major cuts in its global workforce and Australian output.
JAPAN
May 22, 2004

Terrorist kept calling Japan

A senior al-Qaeda operative who hid from Interpol in the city of Niigata for more than a year made phone calls to two Japanese and 11 foreign Muslim men in Japan after he left the country last year, investigative sources said.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 22, 2004

Sacred flames and burning Tahiti dreams

On our sail through the Seto Inland Sea, whenever we pull into a harbor for the night, we never know what to expect. At Shiraishi Island, we found people wearing deer skins, blowing though bull horns and shooting arrows into the air. What's this?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
May 22, 2004

Yuichiro Nakajima

World traveler and author Pico Iyer wondered "whether a new kind of being might not be coming to light . . . a 'Global Soul.' " In several ways Yuichiro Nakajima fits the definition. Without doubt he meets the requirement of achieving fusion of different cultures. Out of his 44 years, he has spent 18...
JAPAN
May 22, 2004

Embattled MMC unveils 'last chance' survival plan

Japan's crisis-hit Mitsubishi Motors Corp. unveiled a survival plan Friday featuring a 450 billion yen cash injection, relocation of its head office from Tokyo to Kyoto and major cuts in its global workforce and Australian output.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 21, 2004

Toyota freshens image, goes after younger drivers

With video games, baby strollers and manicure kits to welcome visitors, dealers at a Toyota showroom in suburban Tokyo are working to convince buyers that today's models have nothing to do with their parents' boring old cars.
BUSINESS
May 21, 2004

Ultraeasy monetary policy goes unchanged

The Bank of Japan Policy Board left its ultraeasy monetary policy unchanged Thursday.
JAPAN
May 20, 2004

Asahara gives lawyer cold shoulder

Aum Shinrikyo cult founder Shoko Asahara has continually refused to meet with the lawyer who will handle his appeal against the death sentence, the lawyer said Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 20, 2004

Okada reinstates old guard on DPJ's executive roster

Democratic Party of Japan chief Katsuya Okada selected veteran lawmakers for the party's executive positions Wednesday to restore unity to the main opposition force.
EDITORIALS
May 20, 2004

Widening pension scandal

Japanese politics appears to be at the mercy of a widening pension scandal as one political leader after another bows out of posts for failing to pay national pension premiums. The latest casualty is Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, who on Monday announced he will not succeed Naoto Kan as president of the Democratic...

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan