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JAPAN
Jan 14, 2003

Renewable energy plan looks to wind, seawater, fuel cells

The Environment Ministry will begin developing a system in the next year to extract hydrogen from seawater to power fuel cells in hopes of creating a fully renewable energy supply, ministry officials said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 14, 2003

Japanese activists rally to antiwar cry

For three days last month, Ayako Nishimura and hundreds of students, pacifists, leftists and religious groups took their banners and bullhorns to the port of Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2003

DDT our best weapon in war on malaria

NEW YORK -- A serious debate is raging over the use of DDT to combat malaria. As one of the world's most serious tropical diseases, malaria kills more than a million people a year -- most of them young children. To a great extent, success in controlling malaria is owed to the use of DDT in spraying houses...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2003

Thais create Buddhist studies landmark

CHIANG MAI -- Against a background of terror, conflicts and violence worldwide, during times when consumerism and materialism have been elevated as never before on pedestals surrounded by a divine aura, a small group of modest but dedicated Thai scholars, monks and nuns have worked quietly and efficiently...
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Jan 13, 2003

Learning from living things, often the hard way

Since I write this column at home, school holidays are always a problem. It's impossible to get any work done with my kids hanging around. One day during the recent winter holidays, I complained about feeling pressured. The deadline for today's column was looming, but I didn't even have a topic.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 12, 2003

Ueda leads Hall inductees

Toshiharu Ueda, who as manager led the Hankyu Braves to three consecutive Japan Series Championships, was inducted into the Japanese Hall of Fame along with four other notable contributors to the game, baseball officials announced Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 12, 2003

Shopping queen shelves host 'illusion'

Popular writer Usagi Nakamura is known to many Japanese as "Shoppingu no Joo (The Queen of Shopping)," which is also the title of her popular column in the weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun. Nakamura, 44, who describes herself as "shop dependent," writes frankly about how she impulsively purchases luxury...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 12, 2003

Facing economic facts, even if it hurts

STRADDLING ECONOMICS AND POLITICS: Cross-Cutting Issues in Asia, the United States, and the Global Economy, by Charles Wolf Jr. Santa Monica, CA.: Rand, 2002, 210 pp., $20 (paper) You have to give Charles Wolf credit. It takes courage to reprint articles when some of the predictions included are flat-out...
MORE SPORTS
Jan 12, 2003

Waseda downs Kanto Gakuin, claims first university championship since 1989

A clear blue sky, a field in immaculate condition bathed in sunshine, a band entertaining the crowd before the game, 50,000 passionate rugby fans and two teams, playing vastly different styles, giving it their all for 85 minutes -- it could easily have been England vs. France at the Park de France in...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 12, 2003

A price on their heads

Help wanted: Able-bodied, handsome men required to wine and dine as many women as their schedules permit; some extracurricular cosseting may be called for. Educational requirements: None. Salary: Enough to make a salaryman gag.
EDITORIALS
Jan 11, 2003

A lead to the abduction mystery

A North Korean spy is now on the wanted list of the Japanese police for directing a plot to kidnap a Japanese national to North Korea in 1977. It is the first time that an arrest warrant has been issued for a North Korean directly involved in a kidnapping case. If he is arrested, it will shed light on...
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2003

Tone-deaf creator didn't cash in but ain't singin' the blues

NISHINOMIYA, Hyogo Pref. -- Back when Daisuke Inoue was a youngster banging drums with a local lounge band, he didn't think his invention for singalong soundtracks and a portable microphone would amount to much.
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2003

Probe into Takefuji expanded

OSAKA -- The labor ministry on Thursday expanded its investigation into consumer finance company Takefuji Corp. on suspicion it forced staff to work overtime and failed to pay wage premiums, according to ministry officials.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2003

Focus on cheaper premiums pays off for AFLAC

Consumers going after cheaper products do little to help the nation's deflation woes and usually end up hurting companies in the form of declining sales revenues.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 10, 2003

Kanda's shrine to the humble soba noodle

During this most auspicious of Japanese seasons, it seems as if just about every kind of food is imbued with momentous import. From the mochi in the o-zoni soup with which the New Year's morning is greeted to the array of colorful but austere o-sechi ryori tidbits, many of these dishes are appreciated...
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2003

Recession proving to be karaoke industry's ultimate sour note

After a decade in the karaoke business, lounge owner Kagura Muto has heard her share of sour notes. But business of late has been a different sort of flat.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jan 9, 2003

Democratic candidates burst out of the blocks

WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidates got the best Christmas present possible from former Vice President Al Gore when he opted to stay out of the 2004 presidential elections. The decision made him a winner as well. It could not have been an easy choice, but it was sound and courageous.
JAPAN
Jan 9, 2003

Pyongyang spy targeted by warrant

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department obtained on Wednesday an arrest warrant for a North Korean agent suspected of luring Yutaka Kume to Pyongyang in 1977, police officials said.
JAPAN
Jan 8, 2003

Court-ordered property auctions moving to Net

Information on properties up for public auction, currently only accessible at individual courthouses arranging the sales, will be posted on the Internet, Supreme Court officials said Tuesday.
SOCCER / J. League
Jan 8, 2003

'Mr. Reds' explains the reasons behind retirement

"I just thought it would be difficult for me to play in another uniform except the Reds' uniform," Urawa Reds and former Japan striker Masahiro Fukuda emotionally said of the reasons for his retirement on Tuesday at a Saitama hotel.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2003

No plan for snap election, Koizumi says

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Monday he has no plan to dissolve the House of Representatives and call a snap election this year, and pledged to employ all possible measures to fight deflation.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2003

U.S. options in South Korea

HONOLULU -- A drive to compel the United States to withdraw its military forces from South Korea is picking up steam with a curious alignment of advocates from the left and the right.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 7, 2003

Maker of stylus-free record player has got his groove back

SAITAMA -- His friends backed him up 15 years ago when he left his lofty position at one of the world's largest electronics makers and ended up at a small audio manufacturer. But when he decided to pursue a piece of analog equipment seemingly destined to die in an increasingly digital world, they wrote...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jan 7, 2003

Drunken driving, unhappy holidays, and shaping up

Under the influence Glen refused a drink with us on Christmas Eve with more than his usual reluctant zeal. He had just heard of someone who had been arrested in a car being driven by someone else. The acquaintance was relatively sober; the driver was not.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 7, 2003

Japan considers a flutter on casinos

It was a rare taste of Las Vegas in Tokyo, and for two days the casino crowds -- hosted by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara -- pumped the handles of slot machines and betted feverishly on the roulette wheel.
COMMENTARY
Jan 6, 2003

Time for a U.S.-South Korean divorce

WASHINGTON -- The United States has defended South Korea for 50 years. But newly elected President Roh Moo Hyun suggests that his nation might "mediate" in any war between America and the North. Whatever value the U.S.-ROK alliance once had has disappeared. The presence of 37,000 troops in South Korea...

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