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EDITORIALS
Aug 14, 2003

Unconditionally settle abduction issue

Japan and North Korea are expected to discuss the abduction issue on a bilateral basis during the six-nation talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis to be held late this month in Beijing. Japanese negotiators should demand that Pyongyang address this issue in good faith and allow abductees' relatives...
EDITORIALS
Aug 10, 2003

The conservationists and the canary

The conservationists' string of laments is a familiar one by now. Even a child can name the elements: worldwide degradation of land, loss of habitats (especially in the rapidly shrinking tropical rainforests) and the accelerating extinction of species. In fact, the plaint has become so familiar that...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 10, 2003

Pulling away the curtains from the 'Princes of the Yen'

PRINCES OF YEN: Central Bankers and the Transformation of the Economy, by Richard A. Werner. London: M.E. Sharpe, 2003, 362 pp., $27.95, (paper). Richard A. Werner has written a rare book. "The Princes of the Yen" is a scholarly, thoroughly researched treatise on economics that reads like a detective...
BUSINESS
Aug 9, 2003

McDonald's cuts annual forecast

Struggling restaurant chain McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan) on Friday cut its full-year earnings forecast by about 50 percent due to weak sales during the first half of the year.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 8, 2003

DoCoMo satisfied with profit in April-June term

NTT DoCoMo Inc. posted a group net profit of 196.82 billion yen for the April-June quarter on sales of 1.25 trillion yen, company officials said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2003

Japan, North Korea may hold talks on abductees' families

Japan and North Korea may hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of the planned six-nation meeting over North Korea's nuclear threat, in order to discuss Pyongyang's abductions of Japanese nationals, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda hinted Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 7, 2003

Renewing the nonnuclear vow

Wednesday marked the 58th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Three days later, on Aug. 9, 1945, a second atomic bomb exploded over Nagasaki. This is the time for all of us to remember the tragedy and renew our vow to establish world peace and eliminate nuclear weapons.
COMMENTARY
Aug 6, 2003

Too early to toast Kim's cooperation

HONOLULU -- Let's not open up the champagne too quickly! The announcement that North Korea finally has agreed to attend multilateral talks "to resolve the nuclear issue" is good news indeed . . . if they actually show up at the yet to be scheduled meeting. But sitting down at the table, as important...
EDITORIALS
Aug 5, 2003

Japan's role in Korea talks

The good news about North Korea is that it is now willing to talk in an expanded forum including Japan, South Korea and Russia. Whether this will lead to substantial progress in the nuclear standoff has yet to be seen, but at least the way is open for six-nation talks attended also by the United States,...
BUSINESS
Aug 5, 2003

Execs less downbeat over economy after pickup in earnings, share prices

An increasing number of major Japanese businesses are less pessimistic about the economy, as earnings and share prices have started picking up, according to a recent Kyodo News survey of executives at 100 big firms.
SOCCER / World cup
Aug 5, 2003

New coach happy with Beckham

Real Madrid's coach said Monday that David Beckham is experiencing some problems communicating with his new teammates as he works hard to fit into the all-star side of the Spanish soccer powerhouse.
BUSINESS
Aug 5, 2003

Sweden to get Toshiba mail-sorters

Toshiba Corp. said Monday it has won a $12 million contract to supply the Swedish postal service with advanced mail-sorting equipment.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2003

When hemlines start rising, don't sell short

NEW YORK -- Short skirts are in the news again. Hemlines are rising and, if you believe in statistical correlation, whenever hemlines go up, so do profits and business activity. No one has a logical explanation for this phenomenon, but it has held true for the past 30 years.
EDITORIALS
Aug 4, 2003

LDP leadership race heating up

With the end of the regular Diet session, the political focus has shifted to the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership contest in September. The LDP ballot is attracting all the more attention because it is expected to be followed by a general election, possibly in November.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 4, 2003

Abductees cite coercion in kids' letters

Yasushi and Fukie Chimura, who were abducted to North Korea 25 years ago and repatriated last October, said Sunday that North Korea appears to have told their daughter in the reclusive state that her parents are being detained in Japan.
EDITORIALS
Aug 3, 2003

Season of mellow mindlessness

It's August, which means that, technically, we are well into summer's decline. The days are getting shorter, and September is next up on the calendar. But that is not how it feels. September seems as far off as New Year's.
COMMUNITY
Aug 3, 2003

Greg's compassion with a camera was thousands of words

Big and burly, Greg Davis could walk into our club wearing his customary boots, windbreaker, open-necked shirt and wide grin, and we would be transported to some dusty Central Asian dictatorship or clawing Cambodian jungle -- a remembrance that the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan started off as...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 3, 2003

SDF bill provides ammo for DPJ bid for power

The photos and footage of opposition lawmakers trying to prevent a July 25 vote in the Upper House on a Liberal Democratic Party-sponsored bill to send Self-Defense Forces to Iraq were all over the media last week, which is understandable considering how action-packed the Three Stooges-like melee was....
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2003

Economy, deficit least served by budget caps

Although the government faces two important goals -- shoring up the fragile economy and cutting its enormous budget deficit -- the cap on core fiscal 2004 budget outlays the Cabinet endorsed Friday only increases concern that neither can be achieved anytime soon.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 2, 2003

North Korea will compete in Osaka

OSAKA -- North Korea will compete in the World Judo Championships to be held in Osaka in September and plans to send a contingent of four men and four women athletes, judo sources told Kyodo News on Thursday. It will be North Korea's fourth straight World Championships appearance since the 1997 Paris...
MORE SPORTS
Aug 1, 2003

Triumphant Kitajima returns home

Japanese swimming sensation Kosuke Kitajima, who returned to Japan earlier Thursday, vowed gold meals in next year's Athens Olympics when he met education minister Atsuko Toyama. Reporting to Toyama at her office on his dazzling performance at the recent World Championships in Barcelona, the 20-year-old...
BUSINESS
Aug 1, 2003

RCCJ enlists six banks for revival bids

Resolution and Collection Corp. of Japan has concluded contracts with six banks to farm out corporate rehabilitation efforts under a trust system, the president of the government-backed loan collection body said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2003

Prisons told to end dodgy job schemes

The Justice Ministry ordered correctional institutions in mid-July to put an end to deceitful manufacturing-work schemes, including disguising the country of origin of products, according to documents obtained Wednesday by Kyodo News.
BUSINESS
Jul 31, 2003

Koizumi denies postal plan report

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi denied Wednesday he plans to set up an official committee on privatizing Japan's postal services to boost studies that his private panel conducted in 2001 and 2002.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2003

GDP growth could exceed forecast

The nation's gross domestic product growth in fiscal 2003 may exceed the government forecast of 0.6 percent, with stronger economic activity coming in the latter half of the year, Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Tuesday.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
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