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JAPAN
Oct 25, 2003

Japan Highway chief sacked

Land minister Nobuteru Ishihara officially sacked Japan Highway Public Corp. President Haruho Fujii on Friday, calling him an obstacle to the government's plan to privatize the debt-strapped entity by 2005.
COMMENTARY
Oct 24, 2003

Criticism prods Bush to tune diplomacy

So far, the war in Iraq and the issues surrounding North Korea have topped news of international events in 2003.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 23, 2003

'Israelization' of U.S. Middle East policy proceeds apace

BEIRUT -- Few disputed at the time that Israel was a factor that pushed U.S. President George W. Bush to go to war on Iraq. Just how much weight it had among all the other factors was the only controversial question. But what is clear, six months on, is that Israel is now a very important one indeed...
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2003

Germany's hard choices

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder won a critical victory Friday when Germany's Lower House of Parliament passed a package of social and labor market reforms. The bills are designed to reinvigorate the German economy, the once mighty engine of Europe that now appears infected with "the Japanese disease."
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2003

Hospitals opt to halt care for babies terminally ill

Some 85 percent of hospitals well-versed in treating newborns in Japan acknowledge scaling back or stopping treatment of terminally ill babies to allow them to spend their remaining days in peace with their families, according to doctors at an Osaka hospital.
COMMENTARY
Oct 15, 2003

Schwarzenegger should learn from Asia's strongmen

LOS ANGELES -- It looks as though California is getting some Southeast Asian strongman-style leadership. But will Arnold Schwarzenegger, California's new governor, prove half as effective as the two dominant personalities that have run Malaysia and Singapore these past decades? Or, in the end, will Schwarzenegger...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Oct 12, 2003

Keeping score on first ladies

MOSCOW -- Throughout the past 60 years or so, the problem-ridden relations between the White House and the Kremlin have been burdened with one more factor: the rivalry of the first ladies.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2003

Lower House dissolved

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dissolved the House of Representatives on Friday and set Nov. 9 as the date of a general election.
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2003

Netizens like DPJ over LDP by surprisingly big margin

The Democratic Party of Japan took a surprising and large lead in support ratings over the ruling Liberal Democratic Party by 61 percent to 19 percent in an Internet survey immediately after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dissolved the Lower House on Friday.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 10, 2003

English football's problems make mockery of 'beautiful game'

LONDON -- Had the Turkish Football Federation hatched a plan to severely disrupt England's preparations for Saturday's decisive Euro 2004 qualifying tie they could not have done a better -- or worse, depending on your viewpoint -- job than the visitors have done themselves.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Oct 9, 2003

Primaries and polls

WASHINGTON -- Here we are less than four months away from the actual start of the 2004 presidential race. Delegates will begin to be selected in late January. The preliminary season is in its final stage. The third quarter of 2003 proved to be reasonably decisive for the Democrats.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2003

Envoy sacking allegations denied

Vice Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi on Monday denied an allegation that the former Japanese ambassador to Lebanon was fired because he opposed Japan's support of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2003

Japan Highway president is sacked

Land, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Nobuteru Ishihara told Japan Highway Public Corp. President Haruho Fujii on Sunday to hand in his resignation Monday to take responsibility for the semigovernmental firm's controversial balance sheet.
COMMENTARY
Oct 4, 2003

Angst builds over next round with North

Japanese diplomacy appears to be in a lull with the situation in Asia centered on the problem with North Korea. Immediately after the six-nation talks were held in the first half of September, reports from Moscow suggested that the next round of six-nation talks would take place in Beijing in early November....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 3, 2003

Luxor: Pride of Italy, transplanted

You eat better at Italian restaurants in Tokyo than you do in Italy. A preposterous statement of unreconstructed chauvinism? An urban myth propagated by a few disgruntled tourists ripped off in Rimini? No, that is the considered opinion of a growing number of people familiar with both countries and their...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 2003

Few know but many fear where the U.S. 'road map' leads

BEIRUT -- By the summer of 2002, U.S. President George Bush had firmly set his new course: "regime change" and reform in the Muslim and Arab worlds, and, where necessary, American military intervention to achieve it.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2003

Diet session, poll each other's hostage?

The Diet will convene an extraordinary session Friday to decide whether to extend the antiterrorism law by two years, but this may not go off without a hitch: Lawmakers appear to have already shifted their attention away from this issue to the House of Representatives election expected for November....
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2003

Agriculture bodies spill beans on food output

A growing number of agricultural organizations are revealing the processes behind growing farm produce, much to the delight of health-conscious consumers and to the chagrin of some growers.
COMMENTARY
Sep 23, 2003

LDP factions losing clout

The Liberal Democratic Party is an assemblage of factions. Since it has held the reins of government almost continuously, the LDP has derived much of its vitality from factional power struggles for the party presidency and the prime ministership.
EDITORIALS
Sep 21, 2003

Sweden sends a message to Europe

Sweden has voted to reject the euro. European governments may be inclined to see the results as an expression of Swedish exceptionalism. That would be a mistake. Despite an emotionally charged campaign, the outcome reflects a careful consideration of the country's national interests. European leaders...
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2003

NPA may farm out parking patrols

An advisory panel to the National Police Agency recommended Thursday that police hire private companies to check on illegal parking and that the government change the law and allow police to go after owners of vehicles in collecting unpaid parking fees.
COMMENTARY
Sep 15, 2003

U.N. force key to Iraqi peace

LONDON -- The news from Iraq over the last month has been bleak, with U.S. and British forces continuing to suffer significant casualties. Bomb blasts last month at the U.N. headquarters and a Shiite mosque left many dead and wounded. Acts of sabotage have hindered the resumption of electricity and water...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 14, 2003

From West to East: Ian Buruma casts his light on the making of modern Japan

INVENTING JAPAN: 1853-1964, by Ian Buruma. New York: The Modern Library, 2003, 194 pp., $19.95, (cloth). This is a satisfying hors d'oeuvre that awakens readers' intellects while whetting their appetite for more substantial fare. It is a quirky, opinionated and selective narrative redolent of what is...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2003

U.S. can still turn it around

Two years have passed since hateful acts of terrorism shook America to its core and moved it toward a force-oriented and unilateralist world policy. This writer detests and condemns the cruel oppression by the Saddam Hussein regime against its people in Iraq and against its neighbors over the years....
COMMENTARY
Sep 10, 2003

China-Japan perception gap

WHITE FISH, Montana -- The accidental discovery of buried canisters of mustard gas, abandoned by Japanese troops in China over a half century ago, is only the most recent tangible reminder of the unfinished legacy of World War II. Forty Chinese workers were injured and one died after barrels of nerve...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 9, 2003

Waging war on the U.S. presence

If you're a reader of Japanese newspapers or a viewer of Japanese TV news, you're probably well aware of the U.S. military presence in Japan.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2003

LDP's No. 2 man loses defamation suit

Taku Yamasaki, the Liberal Democratic Party's No. 2 man, lost a defamation suit Monday when the Tokyo District Court rejected his demands that a magazine pay him damages for writing a report about his alleged mistress.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 9, 2003

Using the right words in Kosovo

When it comes to media access, Kosovo's population is spoiled for choices. No apartment block is complete without its symmetrical rows of white satellite dishes scanning the heavens for news and entertainment. One estimate has it that 75 percent of the population has media access. BBC and MTV are just...

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