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BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2001

Advice sought on energy services

Japan Research Institute, an affiliate of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., said Thursday it has tied up with two U.S. energy service ventures to get advice on launching new services when Japan's energy market is expected to be opened further.
COMMENTARY
Aug 24, 2001

The time for talking is over

LONDON -- Too much has been expected from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, but that is partly his own fault. There seems to have been too much "spin" and too little action. Time is not on his side as the Japanese economy splutters.
COMMENTARY
Aug 23, 2001

Put U.S. retirement scam out to pasture

WASHINGTON -- Social Security is in crisis, but only a serious administration commitment will overcome the Democrats' determination to keep Americans locked in this inferior government retirement system.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Aug 23, 2001

Get that tropical feeling with hibiscus on your balcony

Summers just wouldn't be the same without hibiscus flowers. Hibiscus create the feeling of some tropical paradise -- even in city centers. Those of you who have balcony gardens can easily cultivate a number of hibiscus species.
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2001

'Ichiban Utsukushii Natsu'

EDITORIALS
Aug 22, 2001

An 'unstrategic' strategic meeting

The meeting last week in Moscow between U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov -- the first time top U.S. and Russian defense officials have discussed strategic issues -- ended unsuccessfully. That should come as no surprise given the perception gap that exists...
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2001

Saudi investment pact going nowhere

Nearly four years after Japan and Saudi Arabia agreed to form a pact to rev up Japanese private investment in the world's largest oil-exporting country, negotiations remain stalled and the treaty hangs in limbo.
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2001

Honda plans to produce Odyssey in China in 2003

Honda Motor Co. plans to begin producing Odyssey minivans in China in 2003 because it anticipates continued growth in the automobile market there, company officials said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2001

Bridging the gap

Ichiban Utsukushii Natsu Rating: * * * * Director: John Williams Running time: 95 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing For decades, foreign directors have been going to Hollywood and making movies with American settings, stories and stars that American audiences have accepted as their own. Charlie...
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2001

Mourning enters space, cyberspace

New kinds of mortuary services are emerging in Japan to reflect diversifying values, ranging from virtual graves on the Internet to the transferal of ashes into space.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2001

Sakhalin to back Japan on fishery ban request

The governor of Russia's Sakhalin region, Igor Farkhutdinov, said he plans to propose that the central government ban fishing by foreign boats in waters around Russian-held islands claimed by Japan, Sakhalin Radio reported Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2001

NEC, Matsushita units tie up on 3G software

NEC Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Matsushita Communication Industrial Co. formally announced Tuesday an alliance to develop common software architecture for next-generation (3G) multimedia cellular handsets.
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 22, 2001

Noda's kabuki brings the house down

The lobby of the Kabuki-za in Higashi Ginza -- the mecca of kabuki -- was swarming with people last week, ahead of the start of this year's noryo kabuki (summer festival of kabuki).
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2001

Japan hopes to improve ties through intellectual exchanges

In a bid to put Japan's often stormy relations with China and South Korea on a more stable footing over the long term, the government is embarking on a multimillion-yen program to promote friendship and mutual understanding among the three Asian neighbors.
Events
Aug 21, 2001

Kansai airport ignoring feasibility concerns

OSAKA -- As Kansai International Airport approaches its seventh birthday Sept. 4, a number of serious problems are casting clouds over the occasion.
BUSINESS / TAKING STOCK
Aug 21, 2001

Credit-easing steps by BOJ give light relief

The Tokyo stock market staged a strong rebound earlier last week, reacting positively to the Bank of Japan's decision to further ease its grip on credit.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 21, 2001

The diamond town that time forgot

Morning dawns on Luderitz, but you'd barely notice. A dense bank of sea fog has rolled in overnight, and the small German colonial town near the southern tip of Namibia is lost; a place of shadows, half-glimpsed Gothic churches, haunted-house mansions and the ghostly glimmer of muted lights.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2001

Obituaries: Junichiro Itani, Sumiko Takahara

Junichiro Itani, an internationally renowned anthropologist and professor emeritus at Kyoto University, died of pneumonia at a Kyoto hospital Sunday, his family said Monday. He was 75.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2001

Ending Chinese interference

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 13, backtracking on his vow to make the visit Aug. 15, the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II. Although he signed his name and title in the visitors' register, Koizumi would not say whether his visit to the shrine...
COMMENTARY
Aug 20, 2001

No place for arrogant science

LONDON -- Scientific and technological research and development have contributed significantly, particularly in the last century, to our understanding, health and general well-being.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2001

Yasukuni still casts a long, ugly shadow

The annual official visits to Yasukuni Shrine by Japanese government dignitaries in recent years have raised controversy and negatively affected Sino-Japanese relations. This summer was no exception, as Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi paid homage at the shrine on Aug. 13, two days before his previously...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2001

Kim Jong Il's quaint trip to Moscow

BANGKOK -- Decades before European socialism crumbled, taking the Soviet Union down with it, young Russian communists were already having a hard time taking North Korea seriously. There on the distant Pacific coast was this bizarre and demanding little client state; extreme in its isolation, brutal in...
BUSINESS
Aug 20, 2001

Obstacles to decentralization must embrace independence

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi won big gains for his Liberal Democratic Party in the Upper House election and has been re-elected uncontested to a new two-year term as LDP chief. But the tasks ahead of him are mounting, and one of the biggest is the decentralization of administrative power.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2001

Suicide bombers targeting peace process

LONDON -- Fifteen Israelis, half of them children, were killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber in Sbarro's pizzeria in Jerusalem on Thursday. A comparable number were killed by a suicide bomber at a Tel Aviv disco in June. These outrages have a far greater impact on public opinion at home and abroad...
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2001

New memorial to war dead planned after Yasukuni furor

The government has come up with a plan to build a nondenominational cenotaph for the nation's war dead in the wake of the diplomatic furor caused by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, government sources said Saturday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 19, 2001

Natural resources

FUKUOKA -- More than 100 years of mining has given the town of Tagawa, Fukuoka Prefecture, a masculine, working-class character, with widespread associations of gangs and violent crime. Abandoned concrete plants and mines line its hilly outskirts, and a coat of dust covers its many boarded-up shops....

Longform

Pedestrians commute through Shibuya Station in central Tokyo, an area that is almost never devoid of people.
As the rest of Japan shrinks, Tokyo grows