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BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2001

WTO to approve Japan's rice tariffs as Uruguay backs down

When Japan introduced a controversial tariff scheme for its rice imports in April 1999, it was like a train departing before all passengers were on board.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 20, 2001

Charting the landscape of Japan's foreign affairs

JAPANESE FOREIGN POLICY TODAY, edited by Inoguchi Takashi and Purnendra Jain. New York: Palgrave, 2000, 316 pp. $59.95 (cloth). This collection of studies on Japan's foreign policy is edited by Takashi Inoguchi, professor of political science at the Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo,...
EDITORIALS
Feb 19, 2001

Name them and shame them

Money laundering was once considered a problem of "rogue" bankers. No longer. It is becoming increasingly clear that no one is immune to the siren song of easy profits. Earlier this month, major U.S. banks were slammed for their willingness to look the other way when dealing with ill-gotten funds. Public...
LIFE / Travel
Feb 19, 2001

Coming soon: cheap space travel

If all goes well, American millionaire Dennis Tito will this year become the world's first space tourist, flying on the Soyez rocket to the International Space Station. The ticket price? A cool $20 million. But a new fueling system developed by Andrews Space & Technology of Segundo, Calif., could soon...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2001

Falun Gong feels the heat

HONG KONG -- Former Indian Chief Justice P.N. Bhagwati perfectly illustrated the enormous gulf between the political cultures of India and China when he arrived in Hong Kong recently as part of a United Nations human-rights inspection team.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2001

Global warming to hurt millions of Asia's poor

Global warming has already started to affect the environment and a rise in sea levels will threaten up to 200 million people by 2080, according to a new report released Saturday.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2001

Writer ponders role of men today

As a youth, Masayoshi Toyoda wondered why he was expected to follow in the footsteps of his father in the family business simply because he was the only son, but had no way to express his feelings.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2001

Osaka leaders' talk fest serves up more than usual platitudes

KYOTO -- When the Kansai region's leaders gather here every year for a two-day seminar to discuss the regional economy, corporate heads, economists and local government officials pontificate on issues ranging from information technology to employment.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 18, 2001

Helmut Morsbach

Something Helmut Morsbach has been dreaming of for many years is about to become reality.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 18, 2001

Renoir's transition to Old Master

Renoir's world is a chocolate box, full of plump women, sweet children and pastel whirls. But even if you prefer paintings with more bite, do not dismiss Bridgestone's new Renoir exhibition. This interesting selection reveals a talent of more depth and restlessness than you may have seen before.
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2001

Private panel to advise on environment

A private advisory group to the prime minister will start deliberations as early as next month with the goal of charting a more environment-friendly path for Japan, government officials said Friday.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 17, 2001

Ukiyo-e treasures make brief return

The Baur Collection of ukiyo-e woodcuts by several of Japan's top masters is this country's own version of the Elgin Marbles. Perhaps this is why the 200 works are only on display so briefly. If you want to see these excellent examples of print art in their homeland, you have only a short time.
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2001

Departing Foley believes strength of ties will prevail

The following are excerpts from U.S. Ambassador Thomas Foley's interview with The Japan Times: What do you think the U.S. and Japanese governments should do to prevent overall bilateral relations from being damaged by the Feb. 9 accident in which a Japanese ship sank off Hawaii when it was hit by a...
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2001

Court upholds ban on publishing novel

The Tokyo High Court on Thursday upheld a lower court ruling ordering prizewinning novelist Miri Yuu and publisher Shinchosha Co. to halt publication of a short novel and pay 1.3 million yen to a former friend of Yuu's for violating her privacy.
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2001

Career bureaucrats increasingly opting out

An increasing number of young, fast-track career bureaucrats handling Japan's economic policymaking are leaving public positions, either because they are seeking better work in the private sector or because the recent government realignment is reducing their administrative authority.
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2001

Symposium discusses African conflicts

The key to resolving and preventing conflicts in Africa is empowering citizens and decentralizing political systems currently controlled by power elites, participants at a two-day Tokyo symposium on African conflicts agreed Thursday.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 16, 2001

This one's for the record

Call me a vinyl junkie if you will, but I'm one of those guys who files his memories with his music. I could tell you what record I played over and over when my first girlfriend went off to college and stopped answering my letters ("Love Will Tear Us Apart Again," Joy Division, just released as a funereal...
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2001

Departing Foley praises resilient ties, says relations will survive sub accident

The United States is determined to find out the cause of last Friday's accident in which a Japanese fisheries training ship was sunk when it was hit by a surfacing U.S. submarine off Hawaii, U.S. Ambassador Thomas Foley said in an interview with The Japan Times.
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2001

Government to consider towel influx

The government will look into the issue of surging towel imports from China if domestic towel makers want it to do so, Vice Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry Katsusada Hirose said Thursday.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Feb 16, 2001

Get out of my inbox

How much e-mail do you get a day? How much of it is junk mail? I get about 80-100 messages daily, and random sampling (i.e., the day I wrote this) shows that about 25 percent was unsolicited mailings, better known as spam.
EDITORIALS
Feb 16, 2001

The Lucie Blackman case

One piece of a sad, grim puzzle was solved last weekend when police confirmed that human remains found in a beach cave in Kanagawa Prefecture were those of a 21-year-old British woman missing since last July. The other piece of the puzzle -- who killed her, how, where and why -- is not quite in place,...
LIFE / Digital
Feb 16, 2001

From video game to big screen

HONOLULU -- Aki, the scientist/heroine of Square Picture's new movie "Final Fantasy," steps from the door of her space shuttle and surveys the wreckage that is Old New York.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 16, 2001

Somewhere over the rainbow lies a pot of bliss

In any creative activity, our powers of invention stimulate the mind, in much the same way fertilizer in a vineyard helps the grapes grow to make wine. By engaging these powers, particularly insight and synthesization, our mental and creative capacity is nurtured and nourished.

Longform

The building of new high-rise residential buildings has some alarmed that they could empty and fall into disrepair as Japan's population shrinks.
The high cost of letting Japan's condos crumble