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JAPAN
Jan 6, 2004

Obituary: Tomokazu Sakamoto

Tomokazu Sakamoto, former chairman of NHK, died Wednesday of liver failure, NHK said Monday. He was 86.
EDITORIALS
Jan 3, 2004

Vote buying saps democracy

On the face of it, the much-touted drive for political reform in Japan appears to be going almost nowhere. On Monday, a Liberal Democratic Party legislator was arrested on charges of violating the Public Offices Election Law. Indeed, Japanese politics is locked in a never-ending cycle of corruption....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2004

Reliance on Komeito reflects LDP decline

Soon after the Nov. 9 general election of the House of Representatives, the Democratic Party of Japan compiled a thick report analyzing the results of all 300 single-seat constituencies.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2003

ASDF advance team off to Mideast

A 20-member Air Self-Defense Force team left Narita airport Friday for Kuwait and Qatar, spearheading Japan's deployment of military units to undertake humanitarian activities in Iraq.
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.
COMMENTARY
Dec 22, 2003

Time to revise unequal SOFA

A group of lawmakers of the governing Liberal Democratic Party is campaigning for the drastic revision of the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement. The group, headed by Lower House member Toshio Kojima, has come up with a proposal for revising SOFA in cooperation with a council of governors of 14 prefectures,...
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

Koizumi OKs SDF deployment plan

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Thursday approved a deployment plan for Ground Self-Defense Force troops bound for Iraq.
BUSINESS
Dec 18, 2003

Pension reformers give short shrift to the bigger picture

The political battle over public pension reforms may have subsided, but it's only a temporary lull.
EDITORIALS
Dec 17, 2003

Deepening ties with ASEAN

During two days of summit talks in Tokyo last week, leaders from Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, agreed to establish a broad-gauged relationship that includes not only trade and investment but also political and security cooperation. Described as the "Tokyo declaration,"...
BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2003

Boards here in need of outsiders: U.S. headhunter

A leading U.S. executive search firm has found that Japan's corporate boards have a smaller number of external directors than any other nation.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Dec 13, 2003

Timothy Minton

"While some professional British vocal groups have long-established reputations in Japan, my wife and I felt that few Japanese fans realized how those groups actually came into being, nor how their great expertise was acquired. The collegiate and cathedral choirs are at the root of the English choral...
BUSINESS
Dec 12, 2003

Regional bank bailout plan gets LDP nod

The Liberal Democratic Party approved a plan Thursday that will give the government greater freedom to inject public funds into troubled regional banks and credit unions.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2003

Ruling on quake insurance overturned

The Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a lower court ruling that ordered seven nonlife insurance companies and an insurance group to pay damages to people whose homes were damaged in a fire caused by the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake in Kobe and its vicinity.
COMMENTARY
Dec 9, 2003

Euro in big political trouble

LONDON -- When the euro was being planned some years ago, the austere German central bankers, led by the formidable Hans Tietmeyer, then the Bundesbank chairman, were adamant about one thing: The currency would work only if every member state adhered rigidly to the Stability Pact -- the set of rules...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2003

Reforming the United Nations

The United Nations is our collective instrument for organizing a volatile and dangerous world on a more predictable and orderly basis than would be possible without the existence of the organization. As the year that saw war in Iraq draw to a close, the future and prestige of the U.N. is under scrutiny...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDEN PATHS
Nov 27, 2003

Beauty out of a beast

In a megalopolis like Tokyo you are more likely to see gardens disappearing than otherwise. But here is an encouraging story about one that sprang up from almost nowhere and is now full of life.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2003

29-year fugitive won't be sent up

A 53-year-old former member of a leftist extremist group was given a suspended 18-month prison term Friday for offenses he committed in the early 1970s -- 29 years after he disappeared while out on bail.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2003

Tsujimoto admits to defrauding state out of cash for nonexistent secretaries

Former House of Representatives member Kiyomi Tsujimoto pleaded guilty Thursday to defrauding the state out of nearly 19 million yen in government-paid salaries for her policy secretaries.
BUSINESS
Nov 20, 2003

Nippon Keidanren eyes new donation plan

The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) will encourage its member corporations to make political donations in accordance with the size of their membership fees to the group, Keidanren sources said Wednesday.
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Nov 19, 2003

A helping handyman

Watching Didier Courbot at work, you would probably think he was a nut.

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