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SOCCER / World cup
Apr 5, 2002

Don't worry, everything will be OK, says English Football Association

For anyone worried about English soccer hooligans blighting this summer's World Cup, Adrian Bevington, the English Football Association's communications manager, has one message: They won't be there.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Apr 5, 2002

Japan Grand Prix marks dawn of new era

The opening round of the 2002 Motorcycle World Championship will take place at the Suzuka race circuit in Mie Prefecture on Sunday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 5, 2002

Fruit fly

* Japanese name: Shojobae * Scientific name: Drosophila melanogaster * Description: This is a tiny (3-mm) fly, with red eyes and one pair of wings. It is almost too small to notice, yet the fruit fly is one of the world's most important organisms. Study of the fruit fly led directly to the science...
Japan Times
JAPAN / KANSAI BEAT
Apr 4, 2002

Win for Tigers in 2002 pennant race may spark Kansai recovery: analyst

OSAKA -- As a rabid Hanshin Tigers fan, Daiwa Research Institute President Koichi Kunisada seems pretty sure of the destiny of this year's Central League pennant -- it is bound for Osaka.
BUSINESS
Apr 4, 2002

China rife with opportunities: Li

The growing Chinese market presents huge investment opportunities for Japanese companies, Li Peng, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, said Wednesday in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2002

Mizuho Holdings sees new dawn

Mizuho Holdings Inc., the world's largest banking group by assets, made a fresh start Monday as its three core banks merged into two -- Mizuho Bank and Mizuho Corporate Bank.
SOCCER / World cup / EXCERPTS FROM PHILIPPE TROUSSIER'S BOOK
Apr 1, 2002

Breaking the inferiority complex

"Passion" is the story of Japan soccer team coach Philippe Troussier, his struggle to make it as a player and manager and his travels around France, Africa and Japan. In the book, Troussier also details his philosophy and thinking as he prepares for the World Cup in June. In this, the third of 10 extracts...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2002

The role of nuclear weapons is deterrence

How do we justify the paradox of using a weapon of mass destruction to stop others from acquiring them?
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Apr 1, 2002

Pundits part of the problem, not its solution

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- For years the Japanese government has been arguing that, as one of the biggest financial contributors to the United Nations, it should have a permanent seat on the Security Council. Japan does indeed bring lots of money to the U.N., but it does not bring much else. One of the...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2002

Who can blame U.S. for going it alone?

ATHENS -- It was a curious political moment in the cradle of democracy. A recent visit by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami sparked a flood of favorable media coverage about Iran -- and an avalanche of condemnation of America.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Mar 31, 2002

Sake with a raw bite

With the sakura in bloom -- in some places, anyway -- this is one of the best times for experiencing Japan's wonderful knack for tying just about everything in to the seasons. Clothing, food, drink, design; all seem to resonate with the sakura this time of the year. The sake world's seasonal equivalent...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 31, 2002

Secretarial problems claim 'woman of integrity'

Kiyomi Tsujimoto's departure from the House of Representatives last week was caused by the misappropriation of money that the state paid to one of her secretaries as a salary. However, as with so many elected officials before her, the Osaka native's main mistake, at least in the eyes of the media, was...
COMMENTARY
Mar 30, 2002

Japan's faulty north bearing

Former senior Liberal Democratic Party politician Muneo Suzuki is in disgrace for alleged improper dealings. But Foreign Ministry efforts to blacken his name further by selectively revealing details of his attempts to change the ministry's hardline Northern Territories policy go too far.
COMMENTARY
Mar 30, 2002

Power to the EU's people

LONDON -- Yet another disappointing European summit, this time in Barcelona, has left more and more people asking whether this is the right way to proceed with the European project. Is the existing European model the right one? The goal is supposed to be for a liberalized Europe to catch up with the...
COMMENTARY
Mar 30, 2002

Official foreign aid leaves needy wanting

LAHORE, Pakistan -- One of Lahore's small Christian communities sits on army land, and thus constitutes an illegal occupation in the government's view. Most homes have one room, the latrines are makeshift, and families are lucky to survive on $20 a month.
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2002

MMC president-to-be leaves no stone unturned

When he arrived in Tokyo more than a year ago from the Railsystem Unit of the DaimlerChrysler Group, Rolf Eckrodt, vice president and chief operating officer of Mitsubishi Motors Corp., gave each MMC executive a piece of the Berlin Wall encased in clear plastic.
EDITORIALS
Mar 28, 2002

A fairer tax system needed

Two years ago the Tokyo Metropolitan Government imposed a controversial tax on large banks doing business in the capital, with business size, not income, as the standard. Twenty-one banks (now 18 due to reorganization) filed a lawsuit seeking repeal of the tax. On Tuesday the Tokyo District Court ruled...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 28, 2002

Kill your television

"I know murder is a bad thing to do to society, but it was something I needed to experience."
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2002

Occupation and terrorism: Israeli-Palestinian politics from the barrel of a gun

JERUSALEM -- The political battle continues in the Middle East through gun barrels rather than across negotiating tables.
EDITORIALS
Mar 27, 2002

Developing a new perspective

In an era of unprecedented prosperity, it is important to remember how unevenly this vast wealth is spread. More than 1 billion people -- one-fifth of the world's population -- must live on less than $1 a day; nearly half the population survives on twice that amount. There has long been agreement that...
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2002

MMC to break even this business year: COO

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. will break even in the current business year, which ends Sunday, chief operating officer of the automaker said Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2002

A method to nuclear madness?

HONOLULU -- We were shocked and dismayed to learn that the Pentagon has allegedly been instructed to develop contingency plans calling for the use of nuclear weapons to deter or respond to a chemical or biological attack on the United States. We say "allegedly" because we are relying on (at best) secondhand...
COMMENTARY
Mar 25, 2002

There's more to a name than meets the eye

As someone who has crossed the Pacific Ocean over 450 times since 1956, I am constantly fascinated by the similarities and differences between the United States and Japan. Among the challenges facing someone who lives in both societies is that what is so positive in one country can often be so negative...
COMMENTARY
Mar 24, 2002

Struggling for freedom against the odds

HAVANA -- Inside Avenida 21, number 3014, a nondescript house in a Havana suburb, lives dissident Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz. Despite Cuba's greater engagement with the world over the last decade, "political repression has been increasing," says Sanchez.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 24, 2002

Seibu skates into 2-1 lead

The Seibu Railways Bears got two goals from Hideyuki Ueno on Saturday at Shin-Yokohama Ice Arena as they skated to a 4-1 win over the Kokudo Bunnies in Game 3 of the Japan Ice Hockey League finals, taking a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 24, 2002

Shaping up nicely

There is something about landscaped Japanese gardens that suggests timelessness, a phenomenon apparently contrary to that Japanese tendency to locate beauty in what is fleeting in this world.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Mar 24, 2002

Music, an improvised definition

Improvised music poses a considerable critical challenge. It now takes in such a wide variety of styles -- from jazz to minimalist electronica, from contemporary classical music to rock -- there is no one absolute set of criteria by which to judge it.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 24, 2002

Some gaijin pitfalls into which few have not plunged

I heard once that art is 2 percent creativity and the rest "derivativity."
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 22, 2002

Brand power key to profits, U.S. professor advises

Japanese manufacturers have long considered the quality of their products to be their greatest strength.

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