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JAPAN
Apr 29, 2001

New Defense Agency chief seeks clarification of Article 9

Newly appointed Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani on Friday expressed opposition to reinterpreting the war-renouncing Constitution to allow Japan to engage in collective defense.
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2001

Japan and ASEAN mull free trade pact

Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will next week set up a study group on the conclusion of a free trade agreement in a bid to compete with emerging powerhouse China and growing trade blocs in Europe, as well as both North America and Latin America, government sources said Saturday....
CULTURE / Books
Apr 29, 2001

Oral history exposes Japan's wartime enslavement of POWs

UNJUST ENRICHMENT: How Japan's Companies Built Postwar Fortunes Using American POWs, by Linda Goetz Holmes. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2001, 202 pp., $24.95. During World War II, nearly 50,000 U.S. soldiers and civilians became prisoners of the Japanese. Approximately half of this total "were...
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2001

Ordinance to preserve strait-separated cityscapes

The municipalities of Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture and neighboring Kitakyushu are set to enact identical ordinances aimed at preserving the landscape of the Kammon Strait separating them.
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2001

Koizumi floats popular vote for nation's prime minister

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who has broken the norm in his Cabinet lineups, on Friday called for revising the Constitution to introduce a popular vote for the nation's top leader.
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2001

Hiranuma reiterates themes toward economic revitalization

Reappointed Economy Minister Takeo Hiranuma said a comprehensive approach of combining the disposal of problem loans and assets, creating new businesses and implementing regulatory reforms is needed to revitalize the economy.
EDITORIALS
Apr 28, 2001

Fit punishment for tragic error

Cmdr. Scott Waddle, skipper of the USS Greeneville, the nuclear submarine that collided with the Japanese fisheries training vessel Ehime Maru, resulting in the loss of nine lives, has been found guilty of violating military law. Offered a choice between retiring or explaining his actions at another...
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2001

Opinions split on Tanaka promotion

While Junichiro Koizumi's appointment of Makiko Tanaka as foreign minister took the nation by surprise, some experts warn she could be a mixed blessing for the new prime minister despite her strong popular appeal.
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2001

Incoming economic ministers promise to work hard

Economic ministers in the newly formed Cabinet of Junichiro Koizumi said Thursday that they will try hard to pull the nation out of its long economic downturn and help accelerate the disposal of banks' bad loans.
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2001

Koizumi chooses his top party officials

Junichiro Koizumi, the newly elected Liberal Democratic Party president, set about putting the party's house in order Wednesday by selecting the three lawmakers who will hold the top LDP slots.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 27, 2001

Is Asia's little dragon awakening at last?

CAMBRIDGE, England -- When Vietnam set out on the path of economic liberalization in the early 1990s, everyone expected another Asian miracle, Chinese-style. The liberalization program adopted by the country, known as Doi Moi, was expected to bring about the same radical reforms of economic policy that...
BUSINESS
Apr 27, 2001

BOJ, Tokyo differ on growth

Economic projections for fiscal 2001 made by the Bank of Japan's Policy Board members range from a contraction of 0.1 percent to a growth of 1 percent, all of which are below the government's 1.7 percent growth forecast.
COMMUNITY / THE PARENT TRIP
Apr 27, 2001

Being completely fair

When I brought my children to Japan a year ago, I expected they'd pick up on certain things faster than me. I did not, however, anticipate that they'd so quickly succumb to the Japanese national obsession with janken.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2001

Hijackers' daughters to get visas

The Foreign Ministry will issue visas to three women who have been living under political asylum in North Korea due to their parents' activities in the former Red Army Faction, their support group said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2001

Pork ban eased for three EU nations

Japan on Wednesday lifted an import suspension on pork and pork products from Denmark, Finland and Sweden because there is little possibility the products are affected by foot-and-mouth disease, the Agriculture Ministry said.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 26, 2001

New land law still ignores public voice

Owning property in Japan is a constitutional right, but it has its limits. The government can take private property for uses that advance the public welfare.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2001

Foreign Ministry panel urges discretionary funds be reduced, monitored

A Foreign Ministry panel of outside experts on Tuesday urged the ministry to reduce the amount of secret diplomatic funds and strengthen its inspection system in order to regain public trust in the wake of a fraud scandal involving a former ministry official.
BUSINESS
Apr 25, 2001

Daiei's operating revenue falls below 2 trillion yen

Ailing supermarket operator Daiei Inc. said Tuesday it suffered a 10.2 percent year-on-year decline in fiscal 2000 operating revenue on a parent-only basis, bringing in 1.98 trillion yen and falling below 2 trillion yen for the first time in a decade.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2001

Bush defers decision on selling Aegis ships to Taipei

WASHINGTON -- In a decision closely watched by China, President George W. Bush deferred deciding on Taiwan's request to buy U.S. destroyers equipped with high-tech Aegis combat radar equipment, leaving open the possibility of future sales if Beijing's military threats against the island persist, officials...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2001

Global green alliance swells Down Under

SYDNEY -- The trouble with hosting an international Greens convention is that the host country draws the criticism. Japan is still agonizing over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Now Australia is left holding the bag following far-reaching pro-Kyoto support demonstrated at last week's Canberra talkfest.
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2001

Koizumi vows to destroy forces blocking reforms

Garnering a whopping 87 percent of the local vote in the LDP's presidential primaries, maverick reformer Junichiro Koizumi on Monday vowed to "destroy" forces standing against his reform agenda and launch a Cabinet free of the party's factional shackles.
LIFE / Travel
Apr 24, 2001

Conserving world heritage in Dunhuang

DUNHUANG, China -- Approaching China across the Eurasian continent, one crosses the Tianshan mountains only to be confronted by the mighty Taklamakan Desert, with its sinister epigraph: "If you go in, you won't come out." At Kashgar, the Silk Road divides into two branches, skirting the northern and...
LIFE / Travel
Apr 24, 2001

A tale of two Thai tribes

BAHN BOON YEUN, Phrae Province, Thailand -- Small, wild-haired figures in ragged clothes move barefoot through the moonlit mango grove. Some carry archaic muskets as long as spears, others squat beside soot-stained shacks murmuring to each other in the darkness. Inside a big wooden house at the heart...
COMMENTARY
Apr 23, 2001

Textbook serves Japan poorly

A junior high-school history textbook edited under the direction of a nationalist group, the Japanese Society for Textbook Reform, continues to stir controversy both here and abroad. The textbook recently received the green light from the Education and Science Ministry after the editors accepted all...
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2001

Koizumi poised to clinch poll, prime ministership

Former Health and Welfare Minister Junichiro Koizumi was running far ahead of his main competitor, former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, in the LDP presidential primaries Sunday, virtually assuring his victory to replace Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 2001

Tokyo-Beijing relations expected to decline despite visa conditions

Although the government cited "humanitarian reasons" in deciding to issue an entry visa to former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui, the Foreign Ministry recognizes the decision will have political implications and will certainly serve Tokyo-Beijing ties yet another blow.
JAPAN
Apr 21, 2001

Koreans weigh merits of gaining Japan citizenship

Staff writer One Hokkaido resident is too proud to give up his South Korean nationality despite the disadvantages it brings while living in Japan.
BUSINESS
Apr 21, 2001

Coalition to cut tax on small capital gains

The ruling coalition on Friday finalized proposals for revising securities taxes, which feature incentives for individual investors to boost flagging markets.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 21, 2001

A time of rapid change and slow speech

Are you, or have you ever been, a member of the Japanese workforce? Like cards, you have been shuffled and dealt out to a different department or location within your company, as if you worked for Trump.
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2001

LDP's Tokyo politicians voice dissent

They are closely watching the Liberal Democratic Party presidential race. In fact, they will be the first to receive the verdict of voters on the party under its new leader.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat