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JAPAN
Sep 2, 2003

North Korea opens doors to tourists

North Korea has decided to resume accepting Japanese tourists after a five-month hiatus and has asked several travel agencies in Japan to recruit people to visit the country beginning Sept. 20, sources in the travel industry said Monday.
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2003

Japan planning to dispatch fact-finding team to Iraq

The top government spokesman said Monday that Japan plans to send a fact-finding team to Iraq to assess rebuilding the war-torn country.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 2, 2003

Baby names, death tax and crackers

Greetings from Baghdad, where it's 120 in the shade, the food is great, the people the best and electricity a dim memory. Oh, for the goodness of Japan.
BUSINESS
Sep 2, 2003

IRCJ opts to bail out ailing Mitsui Mining

The Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan announced Monday that it has decided to bail out Mitsui Mining Co. under its resuscitation program.
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2003

Three arrests made in 2002 killing of yakuza boss while under police watch

A gang leader and two others were arrested Monday on suspicion of murdering another yakuza boss in police custody at Nippon Medical School Hospital in Tokyo in February 2002, police officials said.
EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 2003

WTO's tantalizing drug deal

The Doha Round of trade talks, launched in November 2001, has been a slow and bitter slog, with little cause for optimism. That is why news last week of a deal on inexpensive medicines raised such high hopes. The prospect of an agreement could restore momentum as World Trade Organization members head...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Sep 1, 2003

Surge in JGB issuance proves need for Koizumi reform drive

The preliminary GDP figures for the latest quarter, released Aug. 12, show that Japan's economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.3 percent in the April-June period. The economy is on a continuing uptrend, with GDP having expanded six quarters in a row since the January-March period of last year.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2003

Japan's lesson for Europe

LONDON -- At some point last year, it became fashionable to compare the economic plight of Germany and, by extension, the euro zone as a whole with the situation in Japan. As recession bit into the country that used to be Europe's motor and as the 12-nation euro area began recording declining growth...
Japan Times
JAPAN / AFTER 2 1/2 YEARS
Sep 1, 2003

Koizumi renews confrontational posture

When he became prime minister in April 2001, Junichiro Koizumi boasted high public support, portraying himself as a lone wolf fighting old-guard politicians in the Liberal Democratic Party.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 31, 2003

Tips from the top

Feeling lucky? This time, you're certain, you just know the takarakuji is as good as yours.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 31, 2003

Great wave of artistic influence

HOKUSAI, by Gian Carlo Calza. London: Phaidon Press, Ltd., 2003, 336 pp., 700 illustrations, $59.95 (cloth). It was the West that first discovered the art of the Japanese woodblock print. Though popular in Japan, the prints were denied any kind of artistic standing until it became understood that abroad...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 31, 2003

Lottery yarns of yore

For at least 300 years, lotteries in Japan have been the stuff of dreams -- and nightmares. This is most evident in the stories about tomikuji (fortune lotto), a lottery that flourished in the Edo Period (1603-1867). These tales are found in the repertoire of rakugo comic monologues.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 30, 2003

Sugiyama leads Japanese trio into third round of U.S. Open

NEW YORK -- Japan's Ai Sugiyama, Shinobu Asagoe and Saori Obata all advanced to the third round of the U.S. Open on Thursday, an impressive Grand Slam showing by rising tennis stars from the Land of the Rising Sun.
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2003

Severe unemployment situation holds steady

The nation's seasonally adjusted jobless rate remained unchanged in July from the previous month at 5.3 percent as the severe unemployment situation continued, the government said Friday.
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2003

Ogi questions validity of IRCJ revival plan for bus firm

Transport chief Chikage Ogi expressed reservations Friday about an industry revival plan announced the day before by the government's Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan.
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2003

BTM to launch revival task force for borrowers

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi will launch a special task force in September to deal exclusively with corporate rehabilitation for some 3,000 troubled borrowers.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2003

Rightist smashes his car into LDP headquarters gate

A man smashed his car into the gate of the Liberal Democratic Party's headquarters in central Tokyo on Friday, but nobody was injured, police said.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2003

Aussies discover cost of being Big Brother

SYDNEY -- No good deed goes unpunished, says the cynic. And that's the way it's looking for Australia's efforts to bring peace and stability to the South Pacific.
BUSINESS
Aug 28, 2003

Fuji Heavy achieves auto takeoffs

KUZU, Tochigi Pref. -- Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. said Wednesday it recently conducted successful experimental automatic takeoffs and landings of small aircraft, the first successful tests of their kind in Japan.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Aug 28, 2003

A horror smorgasbord

With monsters in the hallways, blood on the wall and gross-outs lurking behind every corner, "Silent Hill 3" is an all-out assault on the player's sensibilities.
EDITORIALS
Aug 27, 2003

Argentina faces its past

Argentina's new president, Mr. Nestor Kirchner, faces many challenges, but none is as important as ending the "culture of impunity" that has existed in his country since democracy was restored some two decades ago. That process began last month with the government's decision to permit the extradition...
BUSINESS
Aug 27, 2003

Elpida Memory to create semiconductor subsidiary

Elpida Memory Inc., the sole domestic supplier of dynamic random access memory chips, said Tuesday it will establish a wholly owned semiconductor manufacturing subsidiary Sept. 1.
COMMENTARY
Aug 26, 2003

Fujimori case testing Japan

The Japanese government is facing mounting pressure from the Peruvian government for the extradition of former President Alberto Fujimori, who has been in exile in Japan since November 2000. Last March, Interpol issued an arrest warrant for the disgraced former leader and late last month, the Peruvian...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2003

New Zealand struggles to stay nuclear-free

MADRAS, India -- One of the first things that strikes a visitor to New Zealand are the innumerable signboards that proudly proclaim the small Pacific island country to be nuclear-free. Even the common man on the streets of Wellington or Christchurch or Auckland will tell you New Zealand fiercely protects...
EDITORIALS
Aug 25, 2003

In plainer language, please

Over the past two weeks, a new type of computer virus known as Blaster and its variants have attacked hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide, including in Japan. These viruses are different from those previously discovered. They expand rapidly across the Internet without any human intervention,...
EDITORIALS
Aug 24, 2003

Revisiting the Enola Gay

Fifty-eight years ago this month, a U.S. aircrew dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima from a lumbering B-29 that had been nicknamed Enola Gay in honor of the pilot's mother. Eight years ago, the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington mounted an exhibit of the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 24, 2003

Slowly does it

Great works of art take time.
COMMENTARY
Aug 23, 2003

Pawns for Tokyo's hardliners

Japan seems bound forever to want to embark on quixotic foreign-policy campaigns. Yesterday it was Tokyo's bizarre Northern Territories demands against Moscow. Today it is its equally bizarre abductee demands against Pyongyang.
COMMENTARY
Aug 23, 2003

U.S. a misunderstood giant

HONOLULU -- "Once the Bush administration is done attacking North Korea, will Vietnam be next?" This seemed to be the burning question in the back of many people's minds as I visited Vietnam for a series of lectures on U.S. foreign policy.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2003

Bandai's sword-brandishing robot begets yet another corporate acronym

CEO, COO, CFO and even CSO (chief strategy officer) are part of today's simmering pot of corporate alphabet soup as Japan Inc. increasingly adopts U.S.-style management regimens.

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go