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COMMENTARY
Aug 21, 2004

Bad book with good message

LONDON -- Here's a slightly crazy story for these hot summer days. The book the whole world is reading on its holidays -- or at any rate the whole English-speaking world -- is called "The Da Vinci Code," by the American writer Dan Brown.
EDITORIALS
Aug 18, 2004

How will postal privatization help?

Japan's postal savings system, along with mail and insurance services, is to be privatized over a 10-year period beginning in 2007, according to the guidelines drawn up by the government's Economic and Fiscal Policy Council earlier this month. The question is how to transform the system into a viable...
COMMUNITY
Aug 15, 2004

Boys will be . . .

Paint fingernails, then dab on foundation. Lots of foundation. Lipstick and eye shadow go on next. Slip into a comfortable blouse, apply one final blast of VO5 to the hair -- and voila!
Japan Times
Features
Aug 15, 2004

Boys will be ...

Paint fingernails, then dab on foundation. Lots of foundation. Lipstick and eye shadow go on next. Slip into a comfortable blouse, apply one final blast of VO5 to the hair -- and voila!
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2004

Article 9 change signals desire to wage war: NGOs

Japan should not revise Article 9 of the Constitution because its Asian neighbors would regard such an act as proof that the country intends to wage war, nongovernmental organizations and intellectuals said at a symposium held in Tokyo on Wednesday.
OLYMPICS
Aug 13, 2004

Marathon expert Masuda says Noguchi has shot at gold

Former Japan Olympian and top marathon media analyst Akemi Masuda is not the kind of person to mince words when it comes to forecasting on her favorite sport.
COMMENTARY
Aug 13, 2004

An uphill battle for women

LONDON -- Morgan Stanley last month agreed to a $54 million out-of-court settlement to ensure that serious allegations of sexual discrimination against it did not come to trial in the United States. The bank proclaimed its innocence, but if it really had nothing to hide, why didn't it let the evidence...
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2004

Article 9 change signals desire to wage war: NGOs

Japan should not revise Article 9 of the Constitution because its Asian neighbors would regard such an act as proof that the country intends to wage war, nongovernmental organizations and intellectuals said at a symposium held in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2004

Kepco cost-cuts proved fatal: protesters

OSAKA -- Antinuclear activists in Fukui and Osaka prefectures said Tuesday the accident the day before at the Mihama atomic plant was due to Kansai Electric Power Co.'s attempts to cut costs and will negatively effect the utility's plans to burn MOX fuel in the reactor.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 8, 2004

All of Japan between two covers

JAPAN ENCYCLOPEDIA, by Louis Frederic, translated by Kathe Roth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002, 1102 pp., 48 illus., 14 maps, $59.95 (cloth). This large, beautiful and indispensable volume is a translation of "Le Japan: Dictionnaire et Civilisation," published in 1996, the year of the author's...
EDITORIALS
Aug 7, 2004

Rationale for denuclearization

Fifty-nine years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there is a disturbing sense that the world could be headed for more, not less, nuclear weapons. As the world's first and only atom-bombed nation, Japan is destined to do everything in its power to strive for the nonproliferation and...
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2004

No hurry to soothe China

The recent jeering of Japanese by Chinese soccer fans in the Asian Cup soccer tournament in China has not prompted Japan to speed up talks over a proposed secular war memorial, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 2, 2004

The alternative to Mr. Bush

U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president, is now officially embarked on what promises to be a close race for the White House. He made a good start at the party's national convention in Boston last week by pledging to restore "trust and credibility" to the presidency and rebuild Western...
EDITORIALS
Jul 29, 2004

The sustainable whaling option

I t has been just 100 years since Norway began hunting whales in the Antarctic seas, but celebration seems hardly warranted. The International Whaling Commission is effectively paralyzed because its 57 members, split almost equally between prowhaling and antiwhaling nations, are unable to assemble a...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jul 26, 2004

Separate but equal acts of reconciliation

NEW YORK -- In "My Life" (Knopf, 2004), former U.S. President Bill Clinton writes: "Elizabeth Eckford, who at 15 was deeply seared emotionally by vicious harassment as she walked alone through an angry mob, was reconciled with Hazel Massery, one of the girls who had taunted her 40 years earlier."
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jul 26, 2004

Despite its luck, Japan must not shirk reform

In the July 11 House of Councilors election, the main opposition force -- the Democratic Party of Japan -- made big gains while the leader of the ruling coalition -- the Liberal Democratic Party -- fell short of its modest target of a one-seat gain. Nevertheless, the LDP-led coalition government still...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 25, 2004

Cashing in on ideas

Thomas Edison's electricity, Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, the Wright Brothers' creaky biplane, H.G. Wells' time machine (OK, that last one hasn't happened yet), but through these world-changing discoveries, our daily lives have been made easier. Flick a switch and light banishes the darkness, pick...
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2004

Illegal foreign labor worries Japanese

More than 70 percent of Japanese are worried that an increase in the number of illegally employed foreign workers could undermine public safety and result in human rights abuses against the workers themselves, according to a government survey released Saturday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 23, 2004

PL boss set for Nozaki meeting

Pacific League President Tadao Koike said Thursday he has scheduled a meeting Friday in Tokyo with Hanshin Tigers President Katsuyoshi Nozaki to discuss moves by many of the Central League baseball clubs to keep the two-league system.
EDITORIALS
Jul 23, 2004

The Philippines' choice

The government of Philippine President Gloria Magapagal-Arroyo has withdrawn its forces from Iraq to save the life of a kidnapped Filipino. The gamble worked. The hostage, Mr. Angelo de la Cruz, was released unharmed this week and the nation -- like much of the world -- has rejoiced in his freedom. Unfortunately,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2004

Going global with civic virtues

How do we instill civic virtue in the global marketplace to civilize and tame it so that we arrive at the place where the market serves the people instead of where people are served up to the market? Around half of the world's 100 largest economies are private companies. This gives the private sector...
JAPAN
Jul 17, 2004

Jenkins should confess, plea-bargain: Baker

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Howard Baker suggested to senior lawmakers of the ruling coalition Friday that Charles Jenkins, an alleged U.S. Army deserter to North Korea, should seek a plea bargain, officials said.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?