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BUSINESS
Feb 18, 2003

Average monthly pay dropped 2.4% in 2002

Average monthly pay in all industries in 2002 fell 2.4 percent from the previous year to 343,480 yen, the government said in a revised report Monday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 16, 2003

Don't be too quick to jump on the bondwagon

Two weeks ago, post offices and financial institutions began taking orders for new Japanese government bonds targeted exclusively at individuals and set to go on sale March 10. Post offices immediately booked sales for all 50 billion yen worth of bonds they were entrusted with, and the remaining 280...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2003

Antiwar protesters march in Tokyo

Thousands of people took to Japan's streets Saturday to protest against a probable war in Iraq.
COMMENTARY
Feb 15, 2003

Why hasn't Saddam killed all Americans?

WASHINGTON -- Americans all should be dead. At least, Americans all should be dead if the Bush administration is correct about Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. It believes there is nothing today that prevents a weak and isolated Iraq from striking the United States, the globe's dominant power.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 15, 2003

Local boy with a liking for the finer things in life

Living in Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's "furusato" (hometown), it seems likely that Hisataka (Issa) Koizumi is related.
EDITORIALS
Feb 14, 2003

Japan's role in solving Iraq issue

How should Japan deal with the Iraq crisis? The question is gaining urgency as the United States gears up for a military campaign. Yet the government has so far given only vague answers, though the ambiguity is not difficult to understand. During a Diet debate on Wednesday, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 13, 2003

Yokohama mayor targets bureaucracy, apathy

First in a series of articles focusing on young politicians with the potential to change Japan. These articles will appear every other Thursday. KANAKO TAKAHARA Staff writer Yokohama Mayor Hiroshi Nakada is hoping to use the city, which has a population of some 3.5 million people, as a platform from...
JAPAN
Feb 13, 2003

New probe of abductee cases urged

The National Police Agency and the Justice Ministry's Public Security Investigation Agency were handed lists Wednesday of about 200 Japanese who vanished under mysterious circumstances and are suspected of having been abducted by North Korea.
JAPAN
Feb 13, 2003

Essay contest for Japanese-language students

Graduates and undergraduates studying the Japanese language overseas are being invited to take part in an essay contest organized by the nonprofit Japan Return Program, with the winners earning themselves a trip to Japan.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 13, 2003

NFL wants Japanese cheerleaders

The National Football League will hold a cheerleading audition in March for Japanese women, NFL Japan recently announced.
COMMENTARY
Feb 13, 2003

The 'vision thing' still matters

LONDON -- In the ideal Middle East "dream scenario," U.N. weapons inspectors, gently prompted by American and British intelligence information, stumble on stores of chemical and biological weapons hidden in Iraq.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Feb 12, 2003

Mountain man who walked the path of art

"Born alone, will die alone; come alone, will be gone alone; study alone, walk alone": This is said to have been the mantra of one of Japan's greatest 20th-century artists, the boisterous, arrogant and brilliant Rosanjin Kitaoji (1883-1959).
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2003

Matsushita to propose cutting annual pay hikes

OSAKA -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. is planning to reduce or abolish regular annual pay hikes awarded under its seniority-based system, company officials said Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 9, 2003

Newer, smarter sentinels

There is no new thing under the sun, said the quotable author of Ecclesiastes a few thousand years ago. Won over by its pith and poetry, we have always regarded that statement as self-evidently true. Lately, though, we have begun to wonder if the exact opposite isn't the case. Sometimes it seems as if...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 9, 2003

In search of lost worlds

Most Westerners have heard about the legend of Atlantis, but how many have heard about the lost kingdom of Nan Mador? Like Atlantis, Nan Mador was supposedly as big as a continent, and stretched from Micronesia in the South Pacific all the way to Easter Island off the coast of Chile.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2003

Business service sector suffered in '02

The stagnant economy continued to deal severe blows to Japan's business service industries in 2002, as exemplified by a 6.5 percent decline in billing at advertising agencies, the first decline in three years.
Japan Times
JAPAN / PREFECTURAL FARE
Feb 8, 2003

Yamaguchi outpost touts relaxed alternative to madding crowd

The fresh air of Yamaguchi Prefecture may be far removed from Tokyo, but stepping inside Oidemase Yamaguchi Kan (Welcome-to-Yamaguchi Building), its outpost in the Nihonbashi business district, can make a visitor feel half-way there.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2003

Koizumi provides tacit support for U.S. attack

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi hinted Thursday that Japan would support a U.S.-led military offensive against Iraq "as an ally of the United States."
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2003

Ancient voices, timeless tales brought back to life

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- "Thai" or "Tai"?
EDITORIALS
Feb 7, 2003

Inaction is not an option

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell made the case for international action against Iraq at the United Nations Wednesday. In a calm and measured presentation, punctuated with displays of audio tapes, satellite photos and other intelligence information, Mr. Powell argued that Baghdad had committed a "material...
COMMENTARY
Feb 6, 2003

Misperceptions fuel Korean crisis

BRUSSELS -- The crisis in Iraq overshadows everything. Yet far more dangerous is the Korean crisis. At worse, the Iraqi crisis will lead to a conventional war with tens of thousands of casualties. In contrast, millions of lives could be at risk in the Korean crisis -- triggered by U.S. revelations that...
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2003

Transsexuals, sex-change advocates fight on against social, registry snub

Transsexuals and their supporters have teamed up to seek public acknowledgment of those who suffer from gender identity disorder and to pressure the government into allowing sex changes to be recorded in official documents.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 6, 2003

Freaks that are something to quack about

In 1832 the young Charles Darwin embarked on one of the most epic journeys in the history of biology, if not of all science. As a naturalist on the H.M.S. Beagle, Darwin saw things that challenged the prevailing view of how life arose. On returning to England five years later, he began work on what he...

Longform

It's back to the classroom for some residents as municipal governments across the country conduct lessons to learn how to use new technologies.
Can aging Japan go digital without leaving anyone behind?