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JAPAN
Jan 25, 2002

Appeal over 'Sayama case' dismissed

The Tokyo High Court has dismissed a formal objection against its 1999 decision to deny a retrial for a man convicted of murdering a high school student in 1963, sources close to the court said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jan 24, 2002

A case for campaign finance reform

WASHINGTON -- Controversy is raging about the Enron collapse. Is it a political story? Is it a criminal story? Is it a business story? Is it a story about personalities? The Enron story is all three. The real question is which category is the most important. and that all depends on your perspective....
EDITORIALS
Jan 24, 2002

How to check nosocomial infection

Yet another outbreak of hospital-acquired group infection caused by serratia bacteria has occurred. At a hospital in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, a total of 12 inpatients on the same floor were infected, and seven of them died within a week. This is an extremely serious case of medical error.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2002

Swift decision eyed on state-backed financial firms

Nobuteru Ishihara, state minister in charge of administrative reform, told business leaders Wednesday he wants to reach a conclusion on the reform of government-backed financial institutions as quickly as possible.
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2002

Bodies from mystery ship cremated

KAGOSHIMA -- The bodies of two crew members from a suspected North Korean spy ship that sank in the East China Sea after exchanging fire with Japan Coast Guard vessels last month were cremated Wednesday, coast guard officials said.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 24, 2002

What was eating away at Judea's King Herod?

Herod the Great, King of Judea, died more than 2,000 years ago, in 4 B.C. He is remembered, among other things, for ordering the Massacre of the Innocents, the systematic execution of baby boys in Bethlehem. It was an attempt, if we are to believe biblical records, to kill the newborn Jesus.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 24, 2002

Eco-tours venture into forests and 'forests'

Two weeks ago, this column introduced Stefan Ottomanski as an educator who thrives on uncertainty. However, he is the first to admit that he did not acquire this trait by choice: It is simply a necessity in his classroom.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2002

Facing fraud charges, disgraced bureaucrat pledges to pay his debt

A former Foreign Ministry official pleaded guilty Tuesday to defrauding the government of 422 million yen by padding hotel bills during meetings of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Osaka in 1995.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 23, 2002

Love always, Janet

The Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan seemed to be an odd choice for Janet Jackson's press conference, not that her being in town for the Japan leg of the "All for You" world tour didn't count as news -- the banquet room was packed with reporters and TV crews. But Jackson isn't the kind of news personality...
SOCCER / THE BALD TRUTH
Jan 22, 2002

Japan must watch sex and vampires at World Cup

So Premier League side Bolton Wanderers finally saw the light and decided to give back Japan striker Akinori Nishizawa after just six months on loan from Cerezo Osaka. Anyone surprised?
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2002

Fictional kids' book tells of Afghan detainee plight

His family murdered by the Taliban, an Afghan boy called Mohammed comes to Japan as a refugee because his father had always told him the country was a peaceful one.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 22, 2002

Imprisoned in the devil's playground

After liftoff, Ariane rockets leave the Guiana coast and travel over three small islands known as the Islands of Salvation. These lie some 15 km off Kourou. For several hours after a launch, the only person allowed on the islands, now owned by the CNES, is one man who operates the cinetelescope. That...
LIFE / Travel
Jan 22, 2002

Imprisoned in the devil's playground

After liftoff, Ariane rockets leave the Guiana coast and travel over three small islands known as the Islands of Salvation. These lie some 15 km off Kourou. For several hours after a launch, the only person allowed on the islands, now owned by the CNES, is one man who operates the cinetelescope. That...
EDITORIALS
Jan 22, 2002

Houston, we have a problem

The fallout from the collapse of Enron, the Houston, Texas-based energy conglomerate, continues to accumulate. Enron's spectacular implosion -- the largest bankruptcy in history -- raises questions on issues ranging from accounting rules to White House access and influence. It might be a cautionary tale...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2002

Sign of hope: Afghan kids back in school

KABUL -- In Afghanistan, the interim administration led by Hamid Karzai faces a double challenge: keeping its population alive through the winter and starting to rebuild for the future.
BUSINESS
Jan 20, 2002

Metalworkers' union accepts pay-cut and work-share plan

A labor union for firms in the metal and machinery industries has agreed to accept a work-sharing system in which basic daily pay would be reduced by up to 5 percent for each hour cut from a day's work, union officials said.
COMMUNITY
Jan 20, 2002

Tandoori meets takoyaki in Kansai's Little India

KOBE -- The port city of Kobe, with the largest concentration of Americans and Europeans in the Kansai region, a few of whom have lived in Japan since the Taisho Era (1912-1926), has long been known as one of Japan's most Westernized cities.
COMMUNITY
Jan 20, 2002

Japan's homogeneous diversity

More than one in 100 people residing in Japan is a foreign national -- but not all of them are immigrants or expatriates from overseas. Koreans are the largest foreign ethnic group in Japan, numbering some 635,269 persons (or 37.7 percent) of a foreign population put at around 1.7 million. Many are the...
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2002

Agencies seek help for Aral Sea

When top officials from dozens of nations and international organizations convene in Tokyo on Monday for two days of discussions on the rebuilding of Afghanistan, they may not be aware that their efforts could spark unintended environmental and political side effects, according to experts.
COMMUNITY
Jan 20, 2002

When something Western this way came

Like a Yankee daimyo, on Nov. 23, 1857, Townsend Harris made a progress to Edo (now Tokyo) from his residence in Shimoda on the Izu Peninsula. Proceeded by an American flag made of Japanese crepe, Harris, on horseback, was escorted by a guard of six whose costumes bore the coat-of-arms of the United...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 20, 2002

Discussing the humane execution of the law

As far as I know, no one has tried to figure out why two of the most popular theatrical releases of 2000 in Japan were "The Green Mile" and "Dancer in the Dark," movies whose dramatic core involved capital punishment and whose moral compass pointed toward the opinion that noncombat state-sanctioned killing...
JAPAN / PROTOCOL PURSUIT
Jan 19, 2002

Role of forests seen leading environmental debate

Last of three parts Staff writer Forests are now at the forefront of climate-change debate in Japan.
JAPAN
Jan 19, 2002

'99 Ikebukuro rampage lands man on death row

A 26-year-old former newspaper delivery man was sentenced to death Friday for stabbing and clubbing two people to death and injuring six others in 1999 on a street in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district.
JAPAN
Jan 19, 2002

Seven die of infection caught in hospital

Seven patients have died and several more have been made ill at a hospital in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, from what is believed to be an infection spread within the facility, the institution said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jan 19, 2002

End of deflation expected in '03

Japan will see the end of deflation and achieve slight positive growth in fiscal 2003, when the government's structural reform programs and the Bank of Japan's credit-easing steps begin to take effect, a key government panel said Friday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jan 18, 2002

Great diving beetle

* Japanese name: Gengorou * Scientific name: Cybister japonicus * Description: This is a large, streamlined water beetle, highly adapted to an aquatic life. It is a powerful swimmer, with hind legs flattened like oars and fringed with long hairs. The body is green or black, with yellow-white bands...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2002

Dream on, Gordon Brown

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Just before Christmas, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown came out with the surprise announcement that he was proposing that member countries of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development address the question of poverty in the world by setting up a new...
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2002

Jichiro executives to exit over tax scandal

Seven senior officials of the nation's largest labor union announced Wednesday that they would step down to take responsibility for a tax-evasion scandal involving a former union chairman.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?