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COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jan 21, 2003

Leaving Japan, getting organized and cash refunds

Being thankful Hello from Tokyo. For all of our complaints, isn't it wonderful to be in Japan? With war, hunger and strife rampant in the world, Japan, with all its problems, is an oasis. It's a good time to be thankful, as we enter the new year, for the simple blessings of peace, trains that run on...
EDITORIALS
Jan 13, 2003

In the year 20, or maybe 33, A.I.

Maybe you missed it amid the noisy merriment of the New Year, but Jan. 1 marked a birthday worth observing. Twenty years ago on New Year's Day, the Internet as we know it was born, ushering in the era of the World Wide Web -- the closest humanity may ever get to a version of J.R.R. Tolkien's mythic global...
BUSINESS
Jan 12, 2003

Nippon Life in deal to sell insurance to Chinese

Nippon Life Insurance Co. will soon become the first Japanese life insurance company to market policies in China on a full-scale basis, Nippon Life officials said Saturday.
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...
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2003

Abduction suspect gathered military info

A Korean resident in Japan suspected of having been involved in the abduction of a Japanese national in 1977 is also believed to have gathered military information for North Korea, investigative sources said Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Nov 13, 2002

The media and a jury system

A government panel on judicial reform is working on a bill that would create a Japanese version of the jury system. The idea is to allow selected citizens to work together with professional judges in deciding major criminal cases. The worry is that the bill might impose undue restrictions on media contact...
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2002

Disclosure of research poor: board

The Board of Audit has told a government-affiliated corporation distributing public subsidies to private schools that 31 universities did not sufficiently return to society the benefits of research made possible by a total of 2.1 billion yen in grants, corporation sources said Saturday.
COMMENTARY
Nov 7, 2002

How safe is nuclear energy?

Recent scandals regarding Tokyo Electric Power Co. safety inspection procedures have added a new sense of urgency to a long-standing question: "Are nuclear power reactors throughout East Asia being operated safely?"
JAPAN
Nov 6, 2002

China silent over missing Japanese

Chinese authorities have not provided any information on a missing Japanese working to help North Korean refugees in northern China and his interpreter, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2002

Almost half of Japanese oppose centralized registry

Less than 10 percent of Japanese people feel positive about the new national resident registry system, while nearly half oppose it, according to a private opinion survey released Saturday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 27, 2002

Osaka housewife refuses to be cowed in the face of city hall

The towering stone structure that is Osaka city hall sits like a fortress on Osaka's Nakanoshima island. It might intimidate some who walk into its dimly lit marbled lobby, but not Yoneko Matsuura.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 24, 2002

Getting up close and personal with global issues

While studying and researching in England several years ago, Eno Nakamura was surprised to find that Japanese and English children had strikingly different views of the future. That contrast convinced her of a critical need for Japanese schools to put more emphasis on "the future," and to get their students...
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2002

Pyongyang must tell the full story

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's meeting Friday with the families of those abducted by North Korean agents made it unmistakably clear that the understanding and support of those relatives -- and of the Japanese public in general -- is essential to progress in the normalization talks that are expected...
BUSINESS
Sep 17, 2002

Tepco set to release results of voluntary inspections

Tokyo Electric Power Co. will soon release the results of its voluntary nuclear reactor inspections in an attempt to appease local communities and restore its recently battered credibility, Tepco officials said Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / THE OKINAWA FACTOR
Sep 13, 2002

Okinawa's free-trade zones failing to attract companies

GUSHIKAWA, Okinawa Pref. -- The Acrorad Co. factory in Okinawa's Nakagusuku Free Trade Zone looks out on more than 100 hectares of empty lots.
COMMUNITY
Sep 8, 2002

London's black-cab elite

My Tokyo taxi driver loses the ability to speak for a second or two, then gushes: "They're simply the best. They're professionals. They do that test . . ."
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2002

Koizumi likely to address ship issue with Kim

Japan will urge North Korea at the upcoming summit in Pyongyang to stop sending vessels on espionage and other shady missions in the Sea of Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda indicated Thursday, in light of the suspicious ship pursued the previous day.
BUSINESS
Sep 5, 2002

FSA to map out measures to promote corporate disclosure

The Financial Services Agency plans to work out a package of measures to promote the disclosure of corporate information in the wake of scandals committed by leading Japanese companies, agency officials said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Sep 5, 2002

Home minister meets group over info security issues

The home affairs minister and representatives of a nationwide association of prefectural governors met Wednesday in Tokyo to exchange views on information security.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 5, 2002

Divorce issues, cheap traveling and getting ADSL

Divorce issues Dear Lifelines, My wife and I have been separated for three years. I do not see any hope for our marriage and feel we need to get a divorce. I have two children. What should I do? -- Tony in Chiba
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2002

Mitsui workers suspected of bribing foreign official

Employees of trading house Mitsui & Co. are being questioned on suspicion that they bribed a Mongolian government official last year to secure an order for a power project financed by the Japanese government, informed sources said Wednesday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 29, 2002

Clearing the air, resurrecting cash and finding a pet

Clearing the air With summer winding down, and in readiness for new seasonal beginnings, time to clean the slate.
COMMENTARY
Aug 26, 2002

Shrinking realm of privacy

LONDON -- Privacy is now increasingly recognized as an important human right, but its limits are not easy to define. How far, for instance, should the press be prevented from intrusive photography of VIPs? The media generally argue that it is their job to report on the movements and actions of public...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 22, 2002

Seeking medical redress and keeping control of Spam

What a day we live in! I am writing this week's column from Los Angeles, where The Japan Helpline began in 1975 and where we have our U.S. offices. As usual, we had an emergency here!
COMMENTARY
Aug 20, 2002

Forum breaks new ground

The recent meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum, or ARF, the Asia Pacific's premier track for security dialogue, has been applauded as a watershed for the institution -- and rightly so. The group's pledge to fight international terrorism breathed new life into the forum. But the real significance of this...
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2002

Child-care service company offers peace of mind for working mothers

OSAKA -- Rieko Ueda started her own business a year ago and expects it to turn a profit early next year, and yet part of her wishes it will someday go bankrupt.

Longform

It's back to the classroom for some residents as municipal governments across the country conduct lessons to learn how to use new technologies.
Can aging Japan go digital without leaving anyone behind?