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LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Nov 20, 2003

Empty school buildings: reuse or recycle?

Not far from where I live, there's an elementary school with just 36 students. It's not a private school. It doesn't have a special curriculum. It's a regular public school designed to serve several hundred students. But the neighborhood has changed into a business district, and the few residents who...
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2003

Koizumi, Kanzaki sign new policy agreement

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and New Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki signed a new policy agreement Tuesday in preparation of kicking off their two-party ruling coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party in the special Diet session that starts Wednesday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 15, 2003

Definitely don't go to this restaurant!

What would the Japanese do without all those magazines telling them what to do and where to go? There are fashion magazines with detailed instructions on how to apply eye makeup, recreational magazines that suggest "date courses" in which you take your date on a pre-planned route that includes a trendy...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 6, 2003

Condo owners lose appeal against state-offered discounts for unsold flats

The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling rejecting compensation demands from purchasers of condominiums sold by the former Housing and Urban Development Corp., which later subjected unsold units to heavy discounts.
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2003

SDF death payment in Iraq to go as high as 100 million yen

The next of kin of any Self-Defense Force member who dies in the line of duty in Iraq will receive up to 100 million yen in condolence money, a senior Defense Agency official said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Oct 29, 2003

Democracy for whom?

WASHINGTON -- Although the Bush administration won formal U.N. recognition for its rule in Iraq, that diplomatic victory is likely to yield few allied troops for occupation duty. In fact, even Turkey, which agreed to dispatch 10,000 soldiers after Washington's approval of $8.5 billion in loans, is now...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 28, 2003

Skin care, leases and illegal tax

Skin problems NWW asks "where can I find an English-speaking dermatologist or specialist clinic in Tokyo area?"
COMMENTARY
Oct 27, 2003

Resuscitating Japanese labor

Following a protracted economic slowdown, the labor movement in Japan is in the doldrums. The unionization rate has fallen to about 20 percent due to stepped-up corporate restructuring and widespread worker distrust of unions. The nation's top labor federation, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation,...
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2003

LDP oldsters to be odd men out come poll time?

The seniority-based ethos in the Liberal Democratic Party is under threat, with the party leaders putting an upper age limit on the selection of some candidates for the next House of Representatives election.
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2003

Lead units of SDF to be sent to Iraq as early as December

Japan will dispatch an advance unit of Ground Self-Defense Force troops to Iraq as early as December under a special law to support the rehabilitation of the country, government sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2003

Diet session, poll each other's hostage?

The Diet will convene an extraordinary session Friday to decide whether to extend the antiterrorism law by two years, but this may not go off without a hitch: Lawmakers appear to have already shifted their attention away from this issue to the House of Representatives election expected for November....
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2003

Break the Mideast impasse

EDMONTON, Canada -- When the U.N. General Assembly opened its 58th annual session on Sept. 19 with a moment of silence in memory of the U.N. staff killed and injured as a result of the terrorist attack in Baghdad last month, its 191 member governments renewed their pledge to uphold the principles of...
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2003

Panel calls for reinterpretation of the antiwar Constitution

In light of the nuclear threat posed by North Korea, the government should alter its interpretation of the Constitution and allow Japan to exercise the right of collective defense, according to a report compiled Thursday by an advisory panel to Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi.
COMMENTARY
Aug 31, 2003

France's long, hot summer

PARIS -- Fifty-three thousand deaths in August against 40,000 the same month in 2002: This has every chance of being the minimum toll of the unprecedented heat wave France has known this summer, with daytime peaks of more than 40 degrees Celsius vs. a seasonal norm of 27 degrees.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 24, 2003

Voices from the past help explain the present

SERVING OUR COUNTRY: Japanese American Women in the Military during World War II, by Brenda L. Moore. Rutgers University Press, 2003, $60 (cloth), $22 (paper). Building on her previous studies of racial issues, gender issues and military sociology, Brenda L. Moore has analyzed and documented an unusual...
COMMENTARY
Aug 24, 2003

Looking for a few bad men

LONDON -- Will Prime Minister Tony Blair's government fall as a result of the inquiry being led by Lord Hutton into the apparent suicide of weapons expert Dr. David Kelly? Unlikely.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2003

Baron of porn spills it all

HONG KONG -- His pictures beamed across the nation's television stations and front pages of all of its newspapers from down market tabloids to sober-sided broadsheets: the grin on his face was as wide as a melon and he held, fanlike, a huge wad of currency notes for all the world, like a television game...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 10, 2003

EDO: City spirit of an era

Whether it's the floating world of ukiyo-e, the stately rites of sumo, the meticulous craft of netsuke, the minimalist art of Japanese gardens or the decorums of the samurai, what we today regard as the traditional values of Japan took shape in what's known as the Edo Period.
COMMENTARY
Aug 9, 2003

Political world prepares for fall showdown

The first half of 2003 was volatile both internationally and domestically. Severe acute respiratory syndrome hit China, other Asian countries and Canada at the beginning of the year and spread around the world. Then, in the Middle East, war broke out when the United States and Britain invaded Iraq, overthrew...
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2003

Antiterror bill debate to continue

A special committee of the House of Representatives decided Friday to carry over to the next Diet session a bill to extend the antiterrorism law for two years.
COMMENTARY
Jul 2, 2003

Drive for European unity gets a boost from Iraq war

PARIS -- Two months ago, the European Union seemed bound to be one of the major casualties of the trans-Atlantic rift generated by the Iraqi war. Now, however, the climate is improving.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2003

Envoy seeks meeting with Suu Kyi

Ambassador to Myanmar Yuji Miyamoto is trying to confirm the whereabouts of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi following revelations by a U.N. envoy that she was being held in a Yangon prison earlier this month, Senior Vice Foreign Minister Tetsuro Yano said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2003

Envoy seeks meeting with Suu Kyi

Ambassador to Myanmar Yuji Miyamoto is trying to confirm the whereabouts of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi following revelations by a U.N. envoy that she was being held in a Yangon prison earlier this month, Senior Vice Foreign Minister Tetsuro Yano said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2003

U.S.-EU axis of divergence

LONDON -- When the war in Iraq ended, politicians, diplomats and commentators in Europe stressed the need to repair the rift that had grown up between the United States and countries led by France and Germany, which had opposed the invasion. There was a general anticipation that relations would revert...
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2003

Opposition parties boycott Diet over 40-day extension

The four opposition parties made good on their threat and jointly boycotted all Diet proceedings Wednesday to protest the ruling bloc's decision to extend the current Diet session to July 28.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2003

Opposition parties boycott Diet over 40-day extension

The four opposition parties made good on their threat and jointly boycotted all Diet proceedings Wednesday to protest the ruling bloc's decision to extend the current Diet session to July 28.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2003

War bills all but clear Upper House

A special committee of the House of Councilors approved a set of war-contingency bills Thursday, effectively guaranteeing the legislation's enactment at Friday's Upper House plenary session.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2003

War bills all but clear Upper House

A special committee of the House of Councilors approved a set of war-contingency bills Thursday, effectively guaranteeing the legislation's enactment at Friday's Upper House plenary session.

Longform

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