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COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
May 2, 2002

The life and times of a Manchurian girl

NEW YORK -- The New York Times' recent reprinting of a cartoon showing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat gagged and bound to a chair while Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presses him to "say something! do something!" made me think of Rikoran, known today mainly as Yoshiko Yamaguchi.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 1, 2002

Tracking systems try to tackle food safety

Shoppers are now being invited to check with their own eyes that what something is labeled is what they actually eat.
COMMENTARY
Apr 22, 2002

Defense bills only a first step

Japan has moved a step closer to enacting emergency security legislation to deal with direct military attacks on the nation. Last Wednesday, the government introduced in the Diet a package of three bills for such emergencies.
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE EXTRA
Apr 20, 2002

Troussier raising more questions than answers

The only answer anyone in the press room could come up with was: "Well, he's French, isn't he."
SOCCER / THE BALD TRUTH
Apr 16, 2002

Careful with that tree, Eugene!

After months of teetering on the brink of full-blown silliness, World Cup organizers finally appear to have plunged into a vortex occupied by Teletubbies, giant talking tadpoles and Benny Hill lookalikes.
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Apr 16, 2002

Economic panel wants to go its own way on FTAs, farm trade

In a rather belated move aimed at giving the languishing Japanese economy a badly needed shot in the arm, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's key economic panel has put yet another sacred cow on its reform agenda: agriculture.
EDITORIALS
Apr 11, 2002

Steel-trade row's global jolts

With the world economy globalizing as never before, the possibility is growing that trade disputes may also assume global dimensions, with dire implications for the world's free-trade system. A case in point is the current international trade dispute sparked by the U.S. decision last month to impose...
EDITORIALS
Apr 9, 2002

The OIC's blind eye to terror

Defining terrorism should be easy. Innocent people should not be made targets for political purposes. Otherwise, none of us are safe. Yet some individuals -- and sadly, some governments -- continue to accept that "one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter." That makes them complicit in the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 6, 2002

Y.E.S.: An English teaching system that works

In 1994, Northern-Ireland born Douglas Young was running two small branches of his English conversation school Formula 1 in the pottery town of Kasama, Ibaraki Prefecture. He and his English wife then moved to Hitachi Naka, where Douglas opened a main office and Alison had her first child. The family...
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2002

Court wants ex-minors to talk

The Tokyo High Court decided Wednesday to question two of three defendants in a civil damages suit who were accused of murdering a 15-year-old girl in Saitama Prefecture in 1985, when they were minors.
BUSINESS
Mar 29, 2002

Government experts butt heads over path to recovery

Discord is increasing between two key government panels debating whether to prioritize tax cuts or fiscal belt-tightening.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 28, 2002

Insights from alumni are just one perk of the job

As a university professor, March ought to be a pleasure. There are no classes and few meetings. It is, though, a bittersweet month. Students who have become an integral part of the fabric and rhythm of my life are graduating. Most of the names and faces will fade, but many will be remembered, and a few...
EDITORIALS
Mar 26, 2002

Double-edged law for juveniles

The Liberal Democratic Party is preparing a bill designed to deal with "social conditions detrimental to the sound development of juveniles" -- conditions that induce or encourage sex and violence on the part of children. Although there is no question about the need to promote the healthy development...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 16, 2002

Conspiracy behind itty-bitty kitty tails

There is one question about Japan that even the Japanese cannot answer: What has happened to all the cats' tails? I have never seen a kitten without a tail, but adult stray cats in Japan seldom have tails. Although many Japanese have offered theories, no one seems to really know the answer.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2002

Bush-league diplomacy mars Asian tour

They have taken the Stars and Strips down in Tiananmen Square. Meanwhile, in the Great Hall of the People, U.S. President George W. Bush's visit is almost forgotten as the last meeting of China's National People's Congress before the 16th Party Congress in November has begun.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Mar 9, 2002

Democrats challenging Bush on defense

WASHINGTON -- As the month began, Democrats were beginning to question President George W. Bush's handling of the war against terrorism.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2002

Rarefied democracy of the Arab world

LONDON -- Bahrain produces little news of interest to the rest of the world, but now something remarkable has happened there. On Feb. 14, Emir Sheik Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa declared that Bahrain will henceforth be a democracy where he will reign only as a constitutional monarch. If he keeps his promise,...
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2002

Deflation plan to sink cash into crisis banks

The package of measures to fight deflation that is to be compiled by the government later this week will call for the injection of public funds into the nation's banking sector should the threat of a financial crisis deepen, according to government sources.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 24, 2002

Going places depends on where you're from

Two thirtyish Japanese junior execs both applied for an opening at "Worldbeater Tech," a subsidiary of an offshoot of a spinoff of a fat-cat blue-chip company.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Feb 21, 2002

Silver lining in Enron scandal: campaign finance reform

WASHINGTON -- It may look like Enron Corp. is the only game in town, but that would be far from the truth. A lot is going on these days, although Enron certainly has taken a big chunk of the capital's attention. There are hearings galore and press conferences in between. To what end? Good question. This...
COMMENTARY
Feb 11, 2002

Fixing the Foreign Ministry

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi paid a high price for sacking Makiko Tanaka as foreign minister — a free fall in his Cabinet's popularity ratings. The debacle highlighted three major problems involving the Foreign Ministry:
EDITORIALS
Feb 9, 2002

Lackluster debate hinders reform

Japan faces an urgent need to make a sweeping transition comparable in magnitude to the periods that followed the Meiji Restoration and the end of World War II. But judging from the plenary debates conducted in both Houses of the Diet this week, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's program of national...
Japan Times
JAPAN / WORKING IT OUT
Feb 5, 2002

Are 'freeters' result of slump, source of next one?

Tomoko Noguchi, 22, got her first bar hostess job about three years ago, while studying to become an aesthetician at a vocational school.
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2002

SAS route expansion plan halted

Scandinavian Airlines System has suspended a plan to extend its routes in Asia in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, but it will go ahead with a plan to introduce bigger airplanes to the region, Jorgen Lindegaard, president and CEO of SAS Group, said in Tokyo.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 3, 2002

It's not just who's cast but how they're cast out

A nother milestone in Japan-Korea cultural relations is achieved with the two-part drama special "Friends" (TBS, Monday and Tuesday, 9 p.m.). Japanese idol Kyoko Fukada and Korean heartthrob Wonbin portray a couple who meet in Hong Kong and then strike up a cross-Japan Sea e-mail exchange that turns...
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2002

Yet more political corruption

The issue of political corruption is again coming to a head. This time around, a former secretary to Mr. Koichi Kato, one-time secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, is suspected of tax evasion, while an ex-aide to Mr. Michihiko Kano, deputy chief of the Democratic Party of Japan, is charged...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jan 30, 2002

Prizewinner who's passing on the torch

When I mentioned in a column last year that Lee U Fan had won the Japanese Art Association's Praemium Imperiale award for painting, this provoked a number of questions from readers.
COMMENTARY
Jan 28, 2002

Toughen the antigraft law

"The establishment of political ethics is fundamental to parliamentary politics," states the code of political ethics approved by the Diet in 1985. "We must conduct ourselves with integrity and strive to eradicate political corruption."

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