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COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Oct 21, 2002

Contributing to the spread of democracy

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- In a recent editorial, the Financial Times admonished the European Union and its member states, "(for) having consistently failed to grasp the broad historic significance of the fall of the Berlin Wall nearly 13 years ago." It is in fact an awesome event, the significance of...
COMMENTARY
Oct 21, 2002

Confessions from North Korea

SEOUL/PUSAN -- They say that a little bit of confession is good for the soul, but North Korea's sudden burst of religion is creating a moral dilemma for Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul. First, Pyongyang decides to come clean on the kidnapping of Japanese citizens, admitting to Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 20, 2002

Turning into Japan's Everyman in a Nobel way

People who get selected to compete on Japanese trivia-based TV quiz shows are always getting asked questions about Japan's Nobel prizewinners. It's not as difficult as it sounds. Until two weeks ago, there were only 10 of them.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 19, 2002

Marines go out with a bang

Ryosuke Sawai and Koichi Hori each drove in three runs Friday as the Lotte Marines defeated the Kintetsu Buffaloes 8-3 in the final game of the Japanese baseball season.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 18, 2002

Och aye! Highland Games rollinto Tokyo

From Cowal to Kolwoon and from Braemar to Bangkok, wherever you find Scots, you'll find Highland Games.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 18, 2002

Insuring your health; ensuring your privacy

Health concerns Health continues to be a regular source of your questions. The issue was really brought home to me the other day when, following a 10-hour flight, with no sleep, I got up to give a speech and couldn't speak nor remember what I was supposed to stay.
COMMENTARY
Oct 17, 2002

Face down lobbies, factions

LONDON -- Why can't Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi carry out his promised reforms of the Japanese economy? Some may argue that he never really intended to reform the system and that his promises were all sham designed as a political boost. I don't agree, although I do question whether he and his close...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 17, 2002

El Nino plays havoc with drought-stricken Australia

SYDNEY -- First a devastating drought grips the nation. Now bush fires have begun burning down houses. And the real sting of summer is still months away.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 13, 2002

Confessions over a cup of coffee

ON TSUKUBA PEAK: Tanka by Hatsue Kawamura. Five Islands Press: Wollongong, Australia, z2002, 93 pp., $20/1,500 yen (paper) MEMORIES OF A WOMAN: Tanka by Harue Aoki. Mura Press, Tokyo, 2001, 204 pp., 1,800 yen (paper) Women poets have a long and industrious history in Japan, where they have been writing...
COMMUNITY
Oct 13, 2002

Saved by . . . 'a bad feeling'

Paul Malone turned down the adventure of a lifetime -- but his decision probably saved his life. The 30-year-old Australian is alive and well in Tokyo. Instead, he could so easily have been named in recent news reports as missing in the South Pacific along with former NBA basketball star Bison Dele and...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 13, 2002

You're never too old to read a good self-help book

The best-seller list currently features three volumes on living and aging well: "Oite Koso Jinsei" (Nothing Is More Human Than Aging), by novelist/politician Shintaro Ishihara; "Unmei no Ashioto" (The Footsteps of Approaching Fate), by novelist Hiroyuki Itsuki; and "Ikikata Jozu" (How to Live Well),...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 12, 2002

Success of globalization rests on good business reputations

These are not good times for business ethics in the industrialized nations. In spite of a carefully honed reputation for professionalism and honesty, businesses in the United States, Japan and Europe have seen scandals and problems. In the U.S. it has been the overstatement of profits by and exorbitant...
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 11, 2002

Fighters like American manager, but will he really be given chance?

It finally looks as if Japanese baseball is ready for a change.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Oct 11, 2002

"Time Stops For No Mouse," "Hairy Bill"

"Time Stops For No Mouse," Michael Hoeye, Puffin Books; 2002; 262 pp. It's a mouse's world.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 10, 2002

Suzuka special for Sato

Expectations are blooming each day for the rookie at the Japan Grand Prix. But don't remind Takuma Sato of Jordan Honda that his Japanese fans expect more than his sub-par performance so far during the 2002 season.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Oct 10, 2002

Disney lives in 'Kingdom Hearts'

"Kingdom Hearts" may be old news in Japan, where more than 800,000 people already own it, but it's new to the United States.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 2002

EU needs a common purpose

LONDON -- Since the original European Common Market was founded in the mid-1950s, the Continent sought a common economic role, to be followed by growing political integration. Now, there is general agreement on the first count that a new institutional framework is needed to give the community more political...
COMMENTARY
Oct 7, 2002

Seize the chance for peace

At their historic Pyongyang summit Sept. 17, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il opened a new chapter in the history of Northeast Asia by agreeing to resume bilateral talks on diplomatic normalization this month. The agreement was announced in the Pyongyang declaration...
COMMUNITY
Oct 6, 2002

Cramming for life

Haruka Nakagawa is a typical 22-year-old Keio University student: full of life and always on the lookout for fun. She is one of many students who find studying a bore, and are more often spotted off campus than on it.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 3, 2002

Cabrera cracks No. 55

TOKOROZAWA, Saitama Pref. -- For a while it looked like Alex Cabrera was going to have to adopt the song the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes play for Norihiro Nakamura every time he walks up to the plate: "Mission Impossible."
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 2002

Saving the banking system

The Bank of Japan announcement that it would purchase part of the stakes that banks hold in listed companies has raised question marks among investors.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2002

Give democracy a chance in postwar Iraq

LIMASSOL, Cyprus -- In recent months, the Iraqi debate has played in the news like a tennis match, with observers awarding points to U.S. President George W. Bush for his U.N. speech, then to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein for his shrewd move to admit inspectors "without conditions" -- subject, of course,...
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2002

N. Korean aid depends on abductions' resolution

Japanese economic aid to North Korea must be based on the settlement of the abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents, a Japanese official said Sunday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Sep 29, 2002

'Kabukicho guide' offers punters a walk on the wild side

Sporting a pinstripe suit, a wiry figure hovers on the main street of Shinjuku Ward's Kabukicho -- Tokyo's busiest and arguably seediest entertainment district.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 29, 2002

Exactly when does old age really begin?

"Put simply, we are having fewer children and living longer," says Michelle Gunn, an Australian journalist and social-affairs writer. Our time is undeniably the age of longevity.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 29, 2002

When mourning makes straight talk taboo

The shock that accompanied the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, quickly turned into a mood of national mourning that continues to hang over the United States a year later. As a form of social behavior, mourning comes with its own protocol, and in this particular case attempts to place the attacks...
BUSINESS
Sep 28, 2002

August unemployment rate unchanged at 5.4%

Japan's seasonally adjusted jobless rate in August was 5.4 percent, the same as in May, the Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry said Friday in a preliminary report.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2002

U.S. has not asked for more help: Nakatani

Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani on Friday denied media reports that the United States has asked Japan to expand the scope of its logistic support for antiterrorism military operations in Afghanistan.

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