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COMMENTARY
Jan 21, 2002

Rule out leadership change

At the beginning of 2002, the political situation in Japan appears relatively stable. Compared with 2001, which witnessed a series of radical changes, the new year is likely to see Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pushing his reform plans ahead on the back of his huge popularity.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 20, 2002

Ladakh: India's timeless Buddhist jewel

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Once again tensions are mounting on the famous Line of Control that separates India and Pakistan. The crisis brings to mind images from an earlier pilgrimage I made to that area when I visited Ladakh, an almost inaccessible region in the state of Jammu and Kashmir that is known...
JAPAN / PROTOCOL PURSUIT
Jan 18, 2002

Emissions-trading plan put on back burner

Staff writer Until recently, trading in carbon dioxide emissions seemed destined for early introduction in Japan. The launch of such a system, however, is being put off as the government postpones key policy decisions to curb global-warming emissions.
BUSINESS / ON THE FRONT LINE
Jan 10, 2002

TSE rebound may prelude longer struggle

The continued firmness of share prices in New York in recent weeks has helped the Tokyo stock market rebound.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2002

Euro faces economic snags

LONDON -- The introduction on Jan. 1 of the euro currency into everyday use across 12 countries in one of the world's big three economic zones marks the accomplishment of a 50-year-old project to bring the continent together in partnership and mutual well-being as an alternative to the past periodic...
COMMENTARY
Jan 1, 2002

New national goal for Japan

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and subsequent developments have brought home to Japan a critical challenge it faces in the post-Cold War world: Establishing a new national goal and designing a national strategy geared to international cooperation.
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2002

Excerpts of Baker interview

The following are excerpts from U.S. Ambassador Howard Baker's interview with The Japan Times:
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 30, 2001

Rescuing Orientalism from the School of Said

FIGURING THE EAST: Segalen, Malraux, Duras and Barthes, by Marie-Paule Ha. Albany: State University of New York, 2000, 160 pp., $17.95 (paper) In its consideration of the East, the West has been accused of Orientalism, a theory developed by Edward Said to explain the way the West "constructs" the Orient...
BUSINESS
Dec 29, 2001

Jobless rate climbed to 5.5% in November

The unemployment rate climbed to 5.5 percent in November, setting a record high for the third consecutive month with job losses by middle-aged, full-time male workers showing a marked increase, the government announced Friday.
EDITORIALS
Dec 28, 2001

No public faith in Koizumi reforms

The first year of the 21st century has seen a great change in Japan's political landscape with the appearance of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Mr. Koizumi, who in April won the post of prime minister with an ardent call for "reforms without sacred cows," has been maintaining an unprecedentedly high...
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Dec 27, 2001

Get ready for Xbox

The last time an American company successfully launched a game console in Japan, Jesse Takamayama was the famous Hawaiian Sumo wrestler and Chad Rowan (aka Akebono) was still in high school. The last time an American company successfully launched a video game console in Japan, a famous hanafuda card...
EDITORIALS
Dec 26, 2001

Another security reminder for Japan

For the first time in the country's postwar history, there has been an armed clash between Japan Coast Guard patrol boats and an unidentified vessel. The truth of the incident, which took place in the nation's exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea over the weekend, is still largely shrouded in...
COMMENTARY
Dec 26, 2001

Building on the euro's success

PARIS -- Created in 1360 to help pay the ransom for King John II the Good following his capture by the Black Prince's English forces at the battle of Poitiers, the French franc is living its final days. From Jan. 1, it, along with the currencies of most other Western European nations, will be replaced...
SOCCER / THE BALD TRUTH
Dec 25, 2001

And the winner is . . .

My grandmother used to tell us that Christmas is a time for forgiveness, not just binge drinking and belching your way through the Bond movie as the 6 pounds of turkey you scoffed at dinner threaten to reappear from the nearest available orifice.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 19, 2001

2001 -- A sound odyssey

It was a year for rocking, for boppig, for grooving, for moshing, for swaying and of course, for listening. Taking one last spin through the sounds of the past 12 months, our music writers tell us what they heard.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 16, 2001

Bringing young and old together

GENERATIONS IN TOUCH: Linking the Old and Young in a Tokyo Neighborhood, by Leng Leng Thang. Cornell University Press, 2001, 209 pp., paper ($39.95) As Japan's traditional three-generation households go nuclear and fewer young couples have children, the care of the nation's elderly has become an increasingly...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 13, 2001

Global warming: WWF expert tells it like it is

Have difficulty getting your head around global warming? Join the club.
EDITORIALS
Dec 12, 2001

A lesson from Mr. Schroeder

Attention here has been focused on Japan's unprecedented response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States. Germany also has been grappling with the same issue amid a similar historical legacy. While Germany, too, has decided to send military forces to assist the U.S.-led coalition, the debate...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Dec 9, 2001

The climes they are a-changin'

Smokers probably have something to teach us about why it's so hard to believe in global warming.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2001

Face to face with Imperial evil

Japanese Devils Rating: * * * * 1/2 Director: Minoru Matsui Running time:160 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Dec 5, 2001

Handcrafted art to turn your head

There are more than a few Japanese artists these days who use what might be termed "obsessional" techniques to realize their work. Among the better known are Yayoi Kusama, who once glued thousands of postal airmail stickers to a canvas and who is best known for the ceaseless repetition in her "Infinity...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2001

EU overtures to Cyprus rattle Turkey

NICOSIA, Cyprus -- When you cross the "green line" between the Cypriot and Turkish-occupied parts of the city, you enter a zone that has frozen in time since war stopped on this eastern Mediterranean island 27 years ago.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2001

A (temporary) love affair with death

LONDON -- "I love death more than you love life," said Osama bin Laden in a recent interview, clearly convinced that this gave him moral superiority over the whole of Western civilization. There are plenty of young men in the refugee camps that litter the Muslim world who would make the same assertion....
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2001

Koizumi turns blind eye to reform of farm sector

When he roared into office in April, the maverick Junichiro Koizumi vowed to die hard in a fight against old guard forces within his own Liberal Democratic Party. His proclaimed mission was clear: to turn around the decade-long economic slump in the medium and long terms through "bold structural reforms...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2001

Over 5,000 suspect cows to be destroyed

The farm ministry said Thursday that all cows nationwide that have been fed meat-and-bone meal and other suspected sources of mad cow disease will be disposed of, after the nation's second case of the brain-wasting illness was confirmed Wednesday in Hokkaido, ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2001

Koizumi turns blind eye to reform of farm sector

When he roared into office in April, the maverick Junichiro Koizumi vowed to die hard in a fight against old guard forces within his own Liberal Democratic Party. His proclaimed mission was clear: to turn around the decade-long economic slump in the medium and long terms through "bold structural reforms...
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2001

Second Holstein confirmed with mad cow disease

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Wednesday it has discovered a second case of mad cow disease in its ongoing inspections, and a panel of experts convened by the ministry formally confirmed the case later in the day.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 22, 2001

Protecting the public from the threats of terror and depression

In his Sept. 30 New York Times article, "The Fear Economy," MIT economist Paul Krugman warned that the American public should be prepared for a possible deflationary spiral comparable to the Great Depression of the 1930s and Japan's milder but chronic depression of the 1990s. A major depression could...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Nov 20, 2001

Mysteries of the Matopos

The Matopos Hills near Bulaweyo have always had the reputation of being a little special, a little uncanny.

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