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COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 9, 2004

Rumble in the whiteboard jungle

Our article on the state of eikaiwa teaching in Japan provoked a flurry of responses. Here's a selection of readers' letters
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Mar 9, 2004

Freecycling, sun lamps and dancing

Clothes, fabrics, toys Anne recommends a charity organization in Stellenbosch, South Africa, that helps people in shanty towns to get back on their feet. "They're always looking for donations of secondhand clothes, dress fabrics and toys for the creche."
COMMENTARY
Mar 9, 2004

Perilous drop in readership

One long-standing trend in Japan has been the "shift away from print" -- an aversion to serious reading. For example, in the past four years, book sales have continued to decline. Compared with other countries, the books being read woefully lags in quality and quantity.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2004

Fujitsu-Hitachi venture to boost plasma display output

A joint venture between electronics makers Fujitsu and Hitachi will build a new plant for plasma display panels in southwestern Japan to cope with rising demand for PDPs in flat-panel TVs and public information monitors, the company said Monday.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2004

Sony to mass produce LCD panels in '05

Sony Corp. said Monday it will start mass producing large liquid crystal display panels in summer 2005 at a joint facility it will launch with Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 9, 2004

Terao opts out of short track worlds

Satoru Terao has asked to be withdrawn from the national team for the upcoming World Short Track Speed Skating Championships after failing to recover from an elbow injury, the Japan Skating Federation said Monday.
EDITORIALS
Mar 8, 2004

No end to political scandals?

Once again, a lawmaker has had to resign from the Diet after admitting to having borrowed somebody's name to misappropriate the state-paid salary of a bogus secretary. This time, the scandal involves Mr. Kanju Sato of the Democratic Party of Japan, a former minister of home affairs and chairman of the...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 8, 2004

Speed key to making most of new tax pact

On Feb. 27, a new Japanese-U.S. treaty on taxation was finally submitted to the Diet for ratification by the legislature. The treaty, if approved, will make dividends and royalties earned by U.S. subsidiaries in which the Japanese parent firm has a stake of more than 50 percent tax-free, doing away with...
COMMENTARY
Mar 8, 2004

Northeast Asian safety valve

The six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons held in Beijing late last month ended without agreement on ways of achieving the complete abandonment of Pyongyang's nuclear programs. Little progress was made toward resolving differences between the North on one side and Japan, the United States...
COMMENTARY
Mar 7, 2004

EU's false trilateral dreams

LONDON -- The idea that the European Union should be run and managed by a hard core of countries, meaning France, Germany and -- if it can be coaxed along as well -- Britain, is once again doing the rounds.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 6, 2004

Sato back on track

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) Almost a full season out of Formula One racing didn't dull Takuma Sato's appetite for the sport, or his sense of adventure.
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2004

Japan to provide $450 million to Iraq

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Friday that Japan will provide $450 million to international trust funds to promote the reconstruction of Iraq and disburse 2 billion yen to nongovernmental organizations.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Mar 6, 2004

Despite track record, scrutiny of Ferguson remains relentless

LONDON -- Perhaps the real truth as opposed to what we have been told will never be known.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2004

A maritime nightmare in the making

HONOLULU -- A nightmare in the making is a potential lash-up between seagoing pirates and organized terrorists in Southeast Asia, and it has Asian and American security officials sweating.
BUSINESS
Mar 5, 2004

Koizumi to woo foreign investors on TV

Hoping to boost foreign direct investment in Japan, the government has resorted to a weapon that has proved to be quite powerful at home: Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 5, 2004

Tax barriers coming down

WASHINGTON -- Last November, with little fanfare, the governments of the United States and Japan concluded and signed a treaty for "the avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income."
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Mar 4, 2004

New Akutagawa winners offer hope

It's been amazing to experience all the excitement surrounding the latest winners of the Akutagawa Prize, a famous literary prize awarded twice a year to promising, new authors. While TV cameras and photographers crammed Tokyo Kaikan, newspapers and magazines wrote breathless descriptions of what the...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 4, 2004

Cut-price Bentley coupe to be launched in Japan

A cut-price coupe of the British luxury brand Bentley will be launched in Japan, possibly in May, Bentley Motors Japan Vice President Tim Mackinlay said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
Mar 4, 2004

China shines as host at arduous standoff

HONG KONG -- The second round of the six-party talks in Beijing on North Korea's nuclear weapons program went off relatively well even though there was no breakthrough. While the United States and North Korea may not agree on much, both agreed that China had done an excellent job as host and mediator....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 3, 2004

Girls just wanna kill men

Fukuro Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Kaneto Shindo Running time: 119 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Kaneto Shindo thoroughly deserves the title of Grand Old Man of Japanese movies. Now 92, he has been a scriptwriter and director...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 3, 2004

Once upon a time he made a good film

Once upon a time in Mexico Rating: * * (out of 5) Director: Robert Rodriguez Running time: 101 minutes Language: English Opens March 6 [See Japan Times movie listings] Robert Rodriguez is one of those directors who shot to fame in the early '90s, a fabled time when the words "independent...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2004

Tokyo venture plans to market humanoid robots

A venture business in Tokyo said Tuesday it will market at the end of 2004 a doll-size humanoid robot for roughly 500,000 yen as one of the first humanoid robots to be offered to general consumers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 3, 2004

Edo craftsmanship in full flower

Located in Kitanomaru Park, a famous cherry blossom viewing spot in Kudanshita, central Tokyo, is the National Museum of Modern Art's Crafts Gallery. It seems appropriate that during the flowering seasons of ume (plum) and cherry the gallery should be hosting a show titled "Flower Design." The exhibition,...
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2004

Secret operations rock Blair's boat

LONDON -- From the moment Tony Blair let it be known that he had decided to send troops to Iraq, his days of smooth government were over. The decision unleashed all the dark forces of suspicion and a sense of illegality that are usually contained by democratic institutions. As the prime minister battles...

Longform

Wealthier women in the prewar era had been the targets of various media-related health campaigns that mistakenly encouraged them to avoid everything from riding bicycles to reading novels when their monthly cycles came around.
Menstruation in Japan: Breaking the silence, slowly