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JAPAN
Jan 3, 2004

Just contemplating crime may soon be punishable

In the near future, it may become illegal for people to openly conspire to commit murder -- let alone follow through with the act or set the wheels in motion.
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2004

SDF dispatch decision like a double-edged sword

When Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi voiced his unequivocal support of the U.S.-led war on Iraq in March, he was left with little choice but to commit Self-Defense Forces troops to the country's postwar reconstruction effort.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jan 1, 2004

Knicks hiring of Thomas doesn't necessarily spell danger for Chaney

NEW YORK -- In view of Scott Layden's still smoldering dismissal, why would any clear thinker vaguely concerned with credibility hypothesize Knicks coach Don Chaney is in immediate danger of being fired?
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2004

Decision to dispatch SDF troops to Iraq a watershed for defense, security policy

Japan's decision to send Self-Defense Forces troops to Iraq, coupled with the decision to introduce a missile defense system, marks a major turning point for the nation's defense and security policy. Never in its 50-year history has the SDF been mobilized for noncombat duties in a foreign country in...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / A GAIJIN'S TALE
Dec 30, 2003

Postal service

Customer service in Japan never fails to amaze. The scene is Hiroshima Central Post Office.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 2003

A firmer Japan in the tussle with China

SINGAPORE -- The ASEAN-Japan Summit in Tokyo on Sept. 11-12 came at a crucial moment in ties between Tokyo and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi met with the ASEAN heads of state just as Japan is bottoming out from a decade of economic doldrums....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2003

Stalled Tokyo-Pyongyang talks frustrate abductees

The five Japanese abductees who returned from North Korea in October 2002 are about to usher in their second year since their repatriation in a state of anguish, hoping their loved ones who were not allowed to leave North Korea will be able to join them soon.
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2003

NEC staff to get 550,000 yen for baby

NEC Corp. said Friday it will give workers one-time allowances of 550,000 yen for newborn children starting next July.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 27, 2003

Homeless activist makes plea to save the trees

As you clear up after Christmas and prepare for New Year, spare a thought for American Vincent Dodson. He is spending his "holiday" as he passes every day, sleeping rough in the park beside the JR Yamanote line near Shibuya Station, and demonstrating against what he describes as "the wantonly wasteful...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2003

A chance for Europe to stand on its own

LONDON -- Disneyland, the Kennedy Space Center and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush were all on the agenda during the NATO Parliamentary Assembly's visit to Orlando, Florida, this month. Missing were members of the U.S. Congress. They weren't in Istanbul 12 months ago -- apparently because of problems with their...
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2003

New expressways to cost taxpayers 2.4 trillion yen

An advisory panel to the transport minister on Thursday approved construction of some 700 km worth of expressways at a cost of roughly 2.4 trillion yen.
BUSINESS
Dec 26, 2003

National wealth down to 2.79 quadrillion yen

Japan's national wealth, or net assets, at the end of 2002 shrank by 3.4 percent from a year earlier to 2.79 quadrillion yen, marking the fifth consecutive year of decline, the Cabinet Office said Thursday in a report for fiscal 2002.
BUSINESS
Dec 26, 2003

Ashikaga Financial seeks protection from creditors

Ashikaga Financial Group Inc., the holding company of recently nationalized Ashikaga Bank, said Thursday it has filed for court protection from its creditors with the Tokyo District Court under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2003

The image of Japan in ASEAN's dream

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- The Japan-ASEAN Summit on Dec. 11-12 has already been broadly analyzed and generally hailed as a kind of embryonic con- ceptualization of the long-term goal of creating an "East Asian Community." So what could one possibly add to this debate by comparing the reactions between...
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2003

Pyongyang offers to free abductees' kin -- but there's a catch

North Korean officials told Japanese lawmakers that Pyongyang is ready to send the family members of the five former Japanese abductees to Japan if they go to the Pyongyang airport to meet them, Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Katsuei Hirasawa said Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2003

Rightist group head implicates self, fellow suspects in shooting incidents

Investigators questioning members of a rightist group arrested in connection with a series of shootings earlier this year have identified the actual triggermen in some of the incidents, police said Wednesday.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 25, 2003

Be good to your rice and your rice will be good

"Aaaaah. Nihonjin dana . . . (Ahh, isn't this what being Japanese is all about?)"
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 24, 2003

Kazuo Matsui dropped the Big Egg for the Big Apple

Kazuo "Little" Matsui is set to be the next Japanese star to make a huge splash in the major leagues and become the latest toast of the town in New York.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2003

Japan paid Taiwan redress for wartime executions

Japan paid condolence money in 1953 to the families in Taiwan of Chinese diplomats executed by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, according to declassified documents released Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2003

Top court rules against ex-JNR workers

The long legal battle over the fate of former employees of the now-defunct Japanese National Railways seeking to be hired by the successor carriers created with JNR's 1987 privatization ended in their defeat Monday at the hands of the Supreme Court.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2003

Expressway plans get green light

The government and ruling coalition on Monday endorsed a privatization scheme for semigovernmental expressway operators that effectively fails to put the brakes on the completion of unfinished sections of the planned 9,342-km thruway network.
BUSINESS
Dec 23, 2003

Convenience store sales down again

Sales at convenience stores in Japan dropped 0.7 percent in November from a year earlier on a same-store basis, marking a ninth straight monthly decline, the Japan Franchise Association said Monday.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2003

Ministry vows immediate steps to improve correctional system

The Justice Ministry announced Monday it will act immediately to improve the correctional system and prison conditions, including taking steps to reduce inmates' mandatory work hours, allow outsiders to visit prisons and revamp all padded cells.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2003

Ground troops may go to Iraq next month

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has decided to send a unit from the main contingent of the Ground Self-Defense Force to Iraq late next month at the earliest to help with rebuilding efforts, government sources said Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2003

Is Kim sweating over dictator's capture?

HONOLULU -- Intelligence agencies from Seoul to Singapore would pay dearly for the answer to perhaps the most intriguing question in Asia arising from the capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein: What does the "Dear Leader" of North Korea, Kim Jong Il, who, like Hussein, is a charter member...
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Dec 21, 2003

Big steps for Tokyo's little jazz labels

Independent labels have always been a mainstay of the Tokyo jazz scene, but this year saw a bumper crop of good music coming from small labels. While many of these artists' recordings can only be found at their shows, stacked up neatly on fold-up tables at the back of the club, a number of the larger...

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