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BUSINESS
Apr 23, 2004

Individual traders boost earnings of online brokerages

Online brokerages' earnings surged in fiscal 2003 due to active trading by individual investors during the recent stock market rally.
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2004

Chiefs of staff hold joint news conference

In what the Defense Agency says is the first time in the 50-year history of the Self-Defense Forces, the chiefs of staff of the three branches of Japan's military organization appeared together before reporters on Monday.
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2004

Most in poll back Tokyo Iraq efforts

About 68 percent of respondents to a Kyodo News survey released Saturday approved of how the government handled the hostage crisis involving Japanese civilians in Iraq, and more than 60 percent feel Tokyo was right to not cave in to the kidnappers' demand that Japan withdraw its troops from the country....
Japan Times
Features
Apr 18, 2004

New rich fashion a Shanghai style of sorts

SHANGHAI -- "There is nothing the Cantonese will refuse to eat, and nothing the Shanghainese will refuse to wear" is a popular Chinese adage harking back to Shanghai's 1930s heyday when it had a worldwide reputation for decadence and glamour.
COMMENTARY
Apr 18, 2004

Death of Deng's triangular relationship

HONG KONG -- One certainty emerges amid the democratic turmoil in Taiwan and Hong Kong and amid the authoritarian turmoil in the higher reaches of the Chinese Communist Party, which is skilled at concealing its innate factionalism: The triangular relationship between China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, as envisaged...
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2004

Koizumi can't believe pair want to go back

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi expressed disbelief Friday that two of the three Japanese hostages recently released in Iraq want to return to the country to continue their activities.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2004

Captives' families press on despite exhaustion

Despite visible exhaustion due to lack of sleep and anxiety, relatives of the three Japanese taken hostage last week in Iraq continued their desperate appeal Tuesday for the release of their loved ones.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Apr 13, 2004

Is patriotism a bad thing?

Minoru Hase CEO It's dangerous for Japanese culture because for younger people, these last 55 years we have been safe, so they have never had the experience of war, so they don't know how to express what they are thinking or feeling.
COMMENTARY
Apr 12, 2004

Disillusionment over Iraq

LONDON -- In March 2003, British Prime Minister Tony Blair apparently believed that there was an imminent threat that Iraq might use weapons of mass destruction. A majority of British voters were accordingly persuaded that Britain was probably justified in taking part in an attack on the tyrannical regime...
Japan Times
Features
Apr 11, 2004

Women in noh

Backstage at a noh theater in downtown Tokyo, the play was about to begin.
EDITORIALS
Apr 9, 2004

Putting Yasukuni in its place

Do Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo violate the constitutional separation of state and religion? It is a tricky question, legally and otherwise, that in the past has eluded a clear-cut judiciary answer. On Wednesday, however, the Fukuoka District Court ruled that...
BUSINESS
Apr 9, 2004

Intervention to continue, Tanigaki says

Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said Thursday that Japan will continue to intervene in the foreign-exchange market.
EDITORIALS
Apr 7, 2004

Coercion can't foster respect

A national flag and anthem are supposedly symbols of national unity. So it is with Japan's Hinomaru flag and "Kimigayo" anthem. Yet they remain a subject of simmering controversy, particularly in the realm of public education, because of the nation's history of militarism during and before World War...
BUSINESS
Apr 6, 2004

Japan may air chip gripes at WTO if it is barred from U.S.-China talks

Japan may file a complaint with the World Trade Organization if China refuses to allow it to join China-U.S. talks on a trade dispute over semiconductor products, a senior trade ministry official said Monday.
COMMENTARY
Apr 5, 2004

Peace mission in full swing

The humanitarian aid and reconstruction activities of the Self-Defense Forces in Iraq have gone into full swing following the deployment of 550 ground troops in Samawah. A year after the Iraq war started, Japan has now deployed a total of about 1,000 Ground, Maritime and Air SDF personnel in the country....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 4, 2004

A responsible attitude needed toward 'privacy'

Everybody knows what they mean when they say "privacy," but when it's used in a legal context the word turns squishy and slippery. For instance, it's difficult to grasp why Barbra Streisand sued a photographer last year for invasion of privacy because her estate appeared in two aerial pictures he took...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Apr 2, 2004

Warriors setting up Musselman as scapegoat for poor season

NEW YORK -- Golden State Warriors President Robert Rowell, whoever this faceless, dubiously qualified phantom may be, was quoted last week contending his team has "under-achieved."
COMMENTARY
Apr 1, 2004

Lowering risks from WMD

LONDON -- The decision of the Libyan regime to declare and destroy its weapons of mass destruction, or WMD, is clearly beneficial to world peace and is a most welcome development. But we should beware claims by some Western leaders that this has come about because the Libyan dictator has seen what happened...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 31, 2004

Hey mom! Just grow up

Laurel Canyon Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Lisa Cholodenko Running time: 104 minutes Language: English Open April 3 [See Japan Times movie listings] Used to be, not so long ago, that the sure-fire way to rebel against your parents, teachers and other adult authority was as...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 29, 2004

Australia awakening to threat

SYDNEY -- A test on how well Australians can cope with an increasingly expected Islamic terrorist attack showed last week how little we have learned from New York, Bali and Madrid.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2004

Tony Blair loses his touch

LONDON -- When he led the reformed British Labour Party to two overwhelming general election victories in 1997 and 2001, Tony Blair epitomized a new political generation that would sweep away both the cobwebs of traditional socialist policy and the increasingly incoherent, sleaze-tainted performance...
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2004

Troops in Iraq set to get down to business

The Ground Self-Defense Force troops deployed to the city of Samawah in southern Iraq will commence their humanitarian aid mission later this month.
COMMENTARY
Mar 22, 2004

BBC still plays a vital role

LONDON -- The British Broadcasting Corporation has one of the longest and respectable histories among the world's public-service broadcasting organizations. Since its establishment in the 1920s, it has built up an enviable reputation for independence and reliability.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2004

Injunction upheld against latest issue of Shukan Bunshun

The Tokyo District Court on Friday upheld a temporary injunction banning publication of the latest edition of the weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun, judging that one of its stories violates the privacy of former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka's daughter.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Mar 20, 2004

Back to the future in Russia

MOSCOW -- The outcome of Russia's presidential elections was known long before the polls opened March 14. President Vladimir Putin had successfully marginalized the opposition by placing mass media under state control and exiling tycoons who were supplying opposition groups with donations.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2004

Bombs and the ballot box

LONDON -- The defeat of the government in Spain that backed the war in Iraq is being widely seen in Europe as one of the most crucial events since the 9/11 attacks in New York set off the current war on terror. But the result of the election on March 14, which followed the bombings in Madrid that killed...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2004

Interference may cost Chen

I still do not understand why the Japanese and U.S. governments are intervening in Taiwanese affairs -- especiall since I believe the administrations of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and President George W. Bush are the best alternatives available at this time for both countries. Japanese and U.S....
COMMENTARY
Mar 13, 2004

Poll severely tests Indonesia

HONG KONG -- As the campaign for the triple-tiered Indonesian general election gets under way, the world's fourth-largest nation is displaying its democratic aspirations. It is also giving its weak administrative structure a severe test.

Longform

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