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COMMENTARY
Aug 18, 2003

Responsibility to protect against state abuse

KUALA LUMPUR -- The annual Asia-Pacific Roundtable is an invaluable opportunity to take the pulse of Southeast Asian thinking about security issues. This year's meeting, the 17th, featured the usual U.S. bashing -- a predictable response to overwhelming American power and the Bush administration's readiness...
COMMENTARY
Aug 16, 2003

Bridging the U.S.-EU gap

LONDON -- Prime Minister Tony Blair sees it as his duty to try to bridge the gap that has widened between America and Europe since U.S. President George W. Bush came to power. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, European support for America was instantaneous and sincere, but American attitudes and behavior...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2003

Tanaka set to escape indictment for fraud

Prosecutors are expected to decide against indicting former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka, who stands accused of misusing the salary of her state-funded secretary, investigative sources said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Jul 29, 2003

A turning point for ODA

Japan's ODA Charter, which sets forth the basic principles and objectives of the nation's official development assistance, is to be revised for the first time since it was established 11 years ago. The Cabinet is expected to approve an updated version in late August.
EDITORIALS
Jul 26, 2003

Will a merger widen political choices?

That democracy is based on a free and fair election system goes without saying. A system that enables government to change is another vital feature of democracy. In Japan, power remains in the hands of the Liberal Democratic Party, although a large segment of the voting public is unhappy with the party....
COMMENTARY
Jul 24, 2003

Revolution's legacy at risk

PARIS -- After endless debate, which led for several weeks to huge strikes -- mainly in the transportation system -- and massive demonstrations, the French Parliament has largely approved, in spite of opposition from most unions, a bill reforming the laws on retirement. It will have two major effects:...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jul 20, 2003

'Potter': the order of parents

MOSCOW -- It is normal for a parent to distrust the things kids like. Having heard enthusiastic reports about some new product, be it a toy, computer game or movie, an average parent issues a suspicious grunt, thinking that it is probably overpriced, stupid and aggressive, and that the kid will never...
EDITORIALS
Jul 19, 2003

'Kenpo' deficit widens

Japan's health insurance system for private-sector employees (Kenpo) is sinking deeper into deficit. It is estimated that eight of 10 health insurance associations booked losses in fiscal 2002. At this rate, an increase in insurance premiums seems inevitable.
EDITORIALS
Jul 15, 2003

Referendum risks in Taiwan

Taiwan has won respect the world over for its democracy. The island's political development has proven the naysayers wrong: Chinese culture and democracy are not incompatible. It is ironic then that one of the key issues today is the possibility that Taiwan is becoming "too democratic." The call for...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 15, 2003

Scooter worry, motorcycles and doctors

Motor scooter We own a Honda Today motor scooter here in Tokyo which we'd like to bring with us back to the U.S. next year. How can we find out if we can do this? -- Tokyo Jack
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 11, 2003

Australia takes on role as sheriff of the South Seas

SYDNEY -- South Pacific island states, led by Australia and New Zealand, are gearing up for an historic intervention in the internal affairs of one their distressed members, Solomon Islands. An armed "invasion" should land within weeks.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2003

Opposition to target Cabinet with no-confidence motion

The opposition parties were united Wednesday behind a move to present a no-confidence motion against the Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi but remained divided over when it should be submitted, opposition lawmakers said.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2003

Japan wary of suspending KEDO

Japan called Friday for caution before a decision is taken to suspend a multinational project to build light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea because it could hinder a peaceful solution to the nuclear crisis, Japanese government officials said.
EDITORIALS
Jun 23, 2003

Tax system for an aging society

With Japanese society aging rapidly, what kind of tax reform is needed to cover soaring social security costs? The government's tax panel answer is that taxpayers must assume a greater burden. In a report presented to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi last week, the Tax Commission called for raising personal-income...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 17, 2003

Pensions, immigration and health

Hello again from Baghdad. It is definitely hot -- apparently 33 C the other day. Things here are settling down and the city is beginning to work again. What do you say about a 7,000-year-old-city? It just slowly gets on its way.
COMMENTARY
Jun 15, 2003

'Propaganda' effort reflects U.S. image

HANOI -- I just wrapped up a 10-day speaking tour for the U.S. State Department after participating in the department's Public Diplomacy (PD) program, which sends folks to speak to universities, think tanks and public forums. The trip took me to the Russian Far East (Vladivostok and Sakhalin) and Hanoi,...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 14, 2003

Swallowing hook, line and endoscope

I am not squeamish by nature.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jun 12, 2003

Duncan not interested in Kidd stuff, says Spurs need a big man

NEW YORK -- "Did you hear New Jersey is offering to sign and trade Jason Kidd for Tony Parker?" I asked Tim Duncan while walking him to the team bus following Game 3 of The NBA Finals, whose highlight, so far, is Dikembe Mutombo turning 90 before the Nets did.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 8, 2003

Taisho Sophisticates

TAISHO CHIC: Japanese Modernity, Nostalgia, and Deco, text by various contributors. Honolulu Academy of Arts, 2002, 176 pp., 7,390 yen (cloth). There are certain historical periods that resonate with a style and sophistication that is inimitable. They last for only a short, intense few years. The Restoration...
BUSINESS
Jun 5, 2003

Memo suggests FSA horseplay

Opposition lawmakers on Wednesday revealed what they claim is a letter and an internal memo from a Resona group whistle-blower suggesting that the Financial Services Agency pressured Resona to window-dress its capital adequacy ratio to prevent its insolvency from surfacing.
EDITORIALS
May 29, 2003

Heroes with asterisks

The world's attention was briefly diverted from Iraq, SARS, the economy and other rolling crises this past month by the deeds, both old and new, of three men obsessed with icy worlds that most of us will never see.
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2003

Euro's supporters face uphill battle in Britain

LONDON -- If a strong economy and a strong currency are meant to go hand in hand, the 12-nation euro zone is disproving conventional wisdom, and posing stiff challenges for policymakers with implications for the wider world economy.
EDITORIALS
May 13, 2003

Streamlining state subsidies

In a move toward greater local autonomy, a government panel has submitted a report to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi calling for large cuts in state subsidies to local governments, including a reduction in government payments for public education. Currently the central government pays half of the salaries...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
May 12, 2003

Flush with victory in Iraq, Bush sets his sights on defending the White House in 2004

WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush last week became the first American president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to declare victory in a foreign war. FDR named May 8, 1945, V-E Day for victory in Europe, and Aug. 14, 1945, V-J Day for victory over Japan. Bush proclaimed May 1, 2003, V-I Day, in grand...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
May 7, 2003

One door opens, another one closes

"The closing of a door can bring blessed privacy and comfort -- the opening, terror. Conversely, the closing of a door can be a sad and final thing -- the opening a wonderfully joyous moment."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
May 4, 2003

Alice Walker: Love makes her world go round

Alice Walker is best known as the author of "The Color Purple," her 1983 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the lives of African-American women in the Deep South early in the 20th century -- which Steven Spielberg made into a film in 1985 starring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey.
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 2003

Coping with American power

SINGAPORE -- The victory of the United States over the Saddam Hussein regime was hardly an unexpected outcome. What remains really uncertain now is how the U.S. will use its postwar clout to create and manage international and regional order. The U.S. approach will shape the stability of Asia.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 1, 2003

Radioactive fallout courtesy of U.S.

In 1789, a German chemist, Martin Heinrich Klaproth, announced that he had discovered a new element in the dull black mineral pitchblende. He named it after the planet Uranus, itself discovered only eight years earlier.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2003

Is Koizumi's political star waning?

Last weekend, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was on the campaign trail alongside Liberal Democratic Party candidates fighting Diet by-elections in Tokyo and Ibaraki Prefecture.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 25, 2003

ASEAN needs to rise from '97 ashes

With many of its member nations still unable to recover from the impact of the region-wide financial crisis of the late 1990s, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations must "reinvent" itself so it can play a significant role in the regionalism that is emerging in East Asia, a think tank expert from...

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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