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JAPAN
May 10, 2004

Koizumi can get abductee kin: Pyongyang

North Korea earlier this year told Japan through informal channels that it would allow the relatives of five repatriated Japanese to leave the country if Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi goes to Pyongyang to pick them up, government sources said Sunday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
May 2, 2004

Ryuichi Hirokawa: Picture this . .

With soldiers silhouetted against dramatic desert sunsets, or helicopters swooping over cityscapes, most mainstream-media photographs we see of the war in Iraq are nothing if not models of artistic composition and taste.
EDITORIALS
Apr 30, 2004

The return of SARS

China has reported several cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS, one year after declaring victory over the disease. The news comes on the heels of a new study that suggests that SARS might spread through the air. Troubling though these developments are, in some ways they are encouraging....
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Apr 22, 2004

Lives of Beckham, Keane provide tabloids endless fodder

LONDON -- An apology. Those of you hoping for a column that does not mention David Beckham or Roy Keane will be disappointed.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 18, 2004

Beijing Ripper goes chop-chop; New York whodunit has a rap

CHINESE WHISPERS, by Peter May. London: Coronet Books, 2004, 402 pp., £6.99 (paper). MURDER IN CHINA RED, by Dean Barrett. New York: Village East Books, 2003, 260 pp., $11.95 (paper). Honolulu Detective Charlie Chan made his literary debut in Earl Derr Biggers' 1925 novel "The House Without a Key."...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 13, 2004

No room for 'outsiders'

In "The Japanese," Japanologist and former U.S. ambassador to Japan Edwin O. Reischauer wrote that "no people have committed themselves more enthusiastically to internationalism than the Japanese or have so specifically repudiated nationalism."
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 22, 2004

Japanese monetary authorities must take the risk of making sense

Japanese monetary authorities have been trying to keep the yen-dollar exchange rate above 105, and even to push it to 110. While their actions, of course, affect the sentiments of currency exchange dealers, we should realize that exchange rate fluctuations are determined not just by economic factors,...
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2004

Koizumi, Fukuda repeat Iraq resolve

One year after the start of the U.S.-led war against Iraq, top Japanese officials are determined to keep ground troops in Iraq despite growing fears of terrorist attacks both at home and abroad.
EDITORIALS
Mar 13, 2004

Unrealistic claim of espionage

In 2001, a Japanese researcher was indicted in the United States on charges of industrial spying. Since he had already returned to Japan, the U.S. requested his extradition under a bilateral treaty. However, legal opinion here remains divided over whether he should be tried in a U.S court -- in other...
Japan Times
Events
Mar 12, 2004

Diagnosing what really ails Japan, Germany

BERLIN -- Japan and Germany, once the powerful engines of the global economy together with the United States, have had stagnant years since the 1990s.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2004

Service to rat online on illegal aliens a racist ploy: Amnesty

Amnesty International Japan on Friday called on the Justice Ministry's Immigration Bureau to stop its recently launched service to field e-mail tips on suspected illegal aliens, saying it promotes racism.
JAPAN / BULLETIN BOARD
Feb 17, 2004

Symposium to look at Bikini nuclear tests

A symposium to mark the 50th anniversary of a hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the Marshal Islands will be held Saturday in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2004

Bird flu lessons highlight change in Asia

SINGAPORE -- Avian flu has spread across 10 countries in Asia -- from China and Pakistan to Indonesia. A meeting in Bangkok at the end of January highlighted the flu's "regional dimension" as well as the necessity for a regional approach to eradicating it.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2004

Japan crosses the Rubicon

HONOLULU -- Japan has crossed the Rubicon, with surprisingly little opposition at home or abroad, by starting to dispatch armed soldiers to Iraq in their first deployment to a combat zone since World War II.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2004

Fukuda refuses to budge on WMD

The Japanese government believes "there is a high possibility" that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, despite congressional testimony to the contrary given by a former top U.S. arms inspector.
EDITORIALS
Jan 16, 2004

A dangerous flu season

While international attention has been focused on the prospect of the re-emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, scientists and health officials are concerned about the outbreak of another disease in Asia. Avian flu has been detected in three countries. It has killed thousands of birds...
EDITORIALS
Jan 14, 2004

Mr. Bush sets his sights on Mars

For as long as humankind has been capable of wonder, men and women have looked to the stars and dreamed. For centuries, they had to be content with just that. Only a mere half century ago, we first escaped the Earth's atmosphere; a decade later an American astronaut lowered himself to the lunar surface....
EDITORIALS
Jan 11, 2004

A bid for peace in South Asia

Welcome though it is, it is hard to be optimistic about the surprise announcement that India and Pakistan are ready to resume peace talks. The three wars the two neighbors have fought are reasons to both applaud the two governments' readiness to talk peace and to be skeptical about the prospects. Last...
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2003

Japan's eateries, stores in shock

Reports of the first case of mad cow disease in the United States dealt a blow Wednesday to Japan's food industry, which is still recovering from the fallout over the September 2001 domestic breakout of the fatal brain-wasting disease.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Dec 20, 2003

Colin Brown

Colin Brown says he is a lifelong rail fan. He has a strong personal interest additionally in "trams," the English term he uses for streetcars. His twin passions have brought him twice a year for the last six years to Japan. He praises especially "the discipline, smartness, courtesy and dedication of...
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2003

Japan balks at cooperating with China in orgy probe

The top government spokesman indicated Thursday it will be difficult for Japan to accept China's call to cooperate in an investigation into an orgy at a south China hotel in September involving hundreds of Japanese businessmen and Chinese prostitutes.
EDITORIALS
Dec 12, 2003

Russian reality test for Kyoto

It is still unclear whether Russia has decided to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. But reports that Moscow had rejected the proposal refocused international attention on the appalling lack of progress since the agreement was negotiated more than five years ago. Despite the now considerable...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Dec 11, 2003

A step back for democracy

MOSCOW -- Last Sunday's parliamentary elections in Russia have resulted in a sweeping defeat of democracy and a new start for the Russian nationalists.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 9, 2003

Pressures push Pakistan toward ceasefire

MADRAS, India -- According to an old Persian proverb, the man who digs a well ends up at the bottom of it. Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, may well be such a gravedigger.
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2003

South Iraq safe enough for SDF troops: Ishiba

Southern Iraq is in need of humanitarian assistance and is safe enough for Self-Defense Forces troops, Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba said Friday.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 28, 2003

Duff acquisition paying immediate dividends for Chelski

LONDON -- Somewhere on this planet the man working for Decca Records 40 years ago who told the Beatles they wouldn't make it and should try another career, may still be alive.
EDITORIALS
Nov 18, 2003

Graying Japan needs a road map

Falling birthrates and aging populations -- largely consequences of affluence and longevity -- are a common phenomenon in industrialized countries. Japan is no exception, yet it stands out as an extraordinary case, historically as well as globally. To our knowledge, few countries have experienced such...
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Nov 6, 2003

'Grotesque' cuts too close to the bone

Do the suffocating pressures of Japanese society produce monsters? Does trying to live by men's rules drive women crazy? These are two of the questions posed by Natsuo Kirino in her powerful new novel, "Grotesque."

Longform

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