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BUSINESS
Aug 29, 2003

Firms lick their lips over flat-panel TVs

Major consumer electronics makers are rolling out the latest batch of flat-panel TVs for the all-important yearend shopping season.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Aug 28, 2003

Finding a sense of balance in the face of DSI

Every day, at a musk-melon-colored building near Okayama Station, children gather to play in a rather unusual-looking indoor playground. Guru Guru Meron Shima (Twirly Melon Island) is a privately-run day-care center for autistic and other special-needs children that started up in July. It is also, most...
COMMENTARY
Aug 25, 2003

Japan's global security role

The most important feature of Japan's latest white paper on defense is that it gives new direction to the nation's defense policy. First, the report emphasizes that developing a missile defense system is a "matter of urgent importance for defense policy."
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2003

Seoul should join interdiction group

WASHINGTON -- This fall much attention will be focused on the start of six-party multilateral talks in Beijing to stop North Korea's nuclear-weapons program. These talks, should they take place as committed to by Pyongyang last week, are a welcome development. For the first time in more than a decade,...
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2003

Japan missing out on Chinese legal advice: lawyer

Japanese firms should make better use of local legal services to control the risk of doing business in China as the country continues its progress toward the "rule of law," a Shanghai-based lawyer said at a recent seminar in Tokyo.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 12, 2003

Biculturalism, accessories and recession

Biculturalism, accessories and recession
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FRONT-RUNNERS
Aug 12, 2003

Ajinomoto's amino acid products draw athletes, health-conscious consumers

Don't be surprised if you see Seattle Mariners sensation Ichiro Suzuki downing an Ajinomoto Co. amino acid drink in the dugout at Safeco Field during a baseball game.
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Aug 7, 2003

A tale of two Afans reborn

Two thousand years ago, my native Wales had 98 percent forest cover. By 1950, when I was a little lad, woodland in Wales was down to 5 percent. I was born in Neath, where coal-mining wasn't particularly heavy, and where there were still wooded parks and groves of wild trees so I didn't really feel the...
BUSINESS
Aug 5, 2003

Five firms plan PC collection tieup

A Mitsubishi Electric Corp. subsidiary and four other companies will team up to collect and recycle used personal computers beginning in October.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2003

Major firms searched for bid-rigging clues

The Fair Trade Commission on Tuesday searched more than a dozen companies, including major machinery makers, in Tokyo and Osaka for evidence of bid-rigging in connection with local government construction contracts for sewage pumps.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 29, 2003

In search of senbei and more culture

Senbei fan Randall writes from California, reporting that around 1900 a Japanese gardener in San Francisco started serving cookies with thank you notes inside at that city's Japanese garden.
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2003

DPJ targets watchdog official over insurance merger role

The Democratic Party of Japan filed a criminal accusation Wednesday against Financial Services Agency Commissioner Shokichi Takagi, blaming him for trying to pressure Tokio Marine & Fire Insurance Co. to consolidate with an ailing life insurance firm last year.
COMMENTARY
Jul 21, 2003

Make way for the New Way

LONDON -- Politicians and gurus from around the world have been gathering in London recently for a grand conference on resuscitating the Third Way -- the hopeful idea that the future can be guided along a path lying somewhere between socialism and free-market capitalism.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2003

Satellite system to link ambulances, trained doctors

Researchers have developed a remote diagnostic system that can send doctors medical information on patients while they are still in an ambulance and heading for the hospital.
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2003

Loose talk in chat room costs operator

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday ordered the operator of an Internet chat room to pay a total of 4 million yen to a cosmetics firm and its head because content on one of its message boards defamed them.
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2003

Security cameras aid in crime fight, but at a cost

The key clue that led to the apprehension of a 12-year-old Nagasaki junior high school student for the July 1 murder of a 4-year-old boy was the image captured by a shopping arcade security camera of the youth walking with the victim near the scene of the slaying.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 13, 2003

Opportunity knocks for women in Japan's climate of change

With the days of the Asian Tigers long gone, and Japan Inc. now more of a pussy cat gone belly up, the talk is no longer about the world's second-biggest economy taking over the world, but about the profound structural changes that will be necessary just to keep it afloat.
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2003

Human rights lawyer to give talks on Middle East

An award-winning human rights lawyer from the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip will visit Japan to speak about the situation there and how global society can help the region move toward peace.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 10, 2003

Know what you eat

Trying to understand the debate over Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) is a bit like trying to pick up mercury. It seems solid enough, but try to grasp it and it slips away. Critics of GMOs might draw another parallel as well. Considering how pervasive GMOs are and yet how little we know about them,...
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2003

Tax official collected info on friends

A Tokyo tax bureau official has been reprimanded for illegally collecting personal information on people by pretending to be carrying out authorized tax investigations, sources said Monday.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 8, 2003

Watching the detectives

There's something to be said about Japanese police attitudes towards foreigners.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 6, 2003

Buried treasure: the mysteries and majesty of Nara

NARA -- At the end of 2001, the Emperor made a comment that received relatively little attention in Japan but one that will, without a doubt, stand as one of the most significant statements of his reign. In speaking about Japan's often troubled relations with the Korean Peninsula, the Emperor noted that...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 6, 2003

Labor pains

Story ideas for "trendy dramas" usually incorporate current issues that the target audience will be interested in. A major worry of young people right now, especially those attending university, is job prospects -- and the kind of work environment they'll have to face once they do get a job. Some of...
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2003

Japan eyes continental shelf mineral claim

Japan is planning a huge boost in research on rare undersea minerals around the country estimated to be worth trillions of yen, and wants U.N. approval for its claims on the continental shelf, government sources said.
EDITORIALS
Jun 30, 2003

Prepare for the next outbreak

The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which has claimed the lives of more than 800 people around the world, appears to have subsided. No new cases have been reported in mainland China, the epicenter of the disease, since June 11. Complete eradication will be difficult, though, and...
COMMENTARY
Jun 29, 2003

China a laggard in preemptive reforms

HONG KONG -- When China sacked its health minister and the mayor of Beijing on Easter Sunday for their mishandling of the SARS crisis, many political analysts predicted that severe acute respiratory syndrome would have the same effect on China that the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 had on the Soviet...
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2003

Taiwan protests SARS info on Web

Taiwan authorities lodged a protest Thursday with Japan's health ministry over a report on the World Health Organization's Web site that a man diagnosed in Tokyo as a probable SARS case is from Taiwan, ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2003

Taiwan protests SARS info on Web

Taiwan authorities lodged a protest Thursday with Japan's health ministry over a report on the World Health Organization's Web site that a man diagnosed in Tokyo as a probable SARS case is from Taiwan, ministry officials said.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji