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COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 27, 2002

Newshungry TV viewers fighting for English service

To start off, we have a request from "Friends of Foxnews," who are working to keep Foxnews, the up and coming challenge to CNN and BBC and the only non-edited English language news program on SkyPerfecTV here in Japan.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 27, 2002

Japan's farmers start to go green

Hardly a week goes by without the emergence of some new scandal in the Japanese food industry. But whether it's the use of illegal additives or the mislabeling of imported meat as domestic, the outcome is the same: further breakdown in trust between consumers and the farmers and companies involved in...
COMMENTARY
Jun 24, 2002

There's a spoiler in China's dynamo economy

It is becoming a fad among the Japanese media to praise China as a new economic giant. Some reports say the fast-growing neighbor poses a serious threat to Japan's economy; others say China is emerging as "the factory of the world."
COMMENTARY
Jun 23, 2002

Pakistan's nuclear safety faces scrutiny

ISLAMABAD -- The arrest of the alleged "dirty bomber" in the United States last month once again is a reminder of the dangers posed by unchecked dissemination of nuclear knowledge, especially when it is dropped into the hands of militant individuals. That Jose Padilla, alias Abdullah al-Muhajir, would...
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2002

Council finalizes basic reform policy

The government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy on Friday finalized a basic economic reform policy that features such revitalization and tax reform measures as corporate tax cuts and consolidation of government expenditures in the fiscal 2003 budget.
BUSINESS
Jun 20, 2002

S&P upgrades Bpi rating on JAS

Standard & Poor's Corp. said Wednesday it has upgraded its Bpi rating on Japan Air System to B-plus-pi, while maintaining the BB long-term rating on Japan Airlines, with which JAS will integrate its operations.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2002

Nakatani says he takes full responsibility for Diet furor

Defense Agency head Gen Nakatani said Friday he is taking full responsibility for the turmoil in the Diet following the suspected attempt by senior ruling party members to withhold a report of a probe into the information disclosure scandal.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2002

Ruling bloc rams medical bills through committee

The ruling coalition rammed a set of medical reform bills through a House of Representatives committee meeting Friday, laying the groundwork for an increase in the ratio of medical expenses paid by salaried workers.
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2002

Frugal World Cup fans slay shops' cash cow

OSAKA — Shopkeepers here are disheartened by the impact the World Cup soccer finals are having on the area's economy.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2002

Transplant teaches Taro Kono a lesson

Although Taro Kono was determined from the beginning to save his father's life by donating part of his liver, the 39-year-old lawmaker of the Liberal Democratic Party said the decision-making process was tough for his family, even with a fair amount of knowledge about the procedure.
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Jun 14, 2002

Furigan fears prompt school safety drills

Journalists who write columns love to tie up their topics with current events. Still, I never thought I'd write about the World Cup soccer finals. I don't follow the sport, and I didn't see any connection between my education column and the international tournament. Until I saw the handout my kids brought...
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2002

Yamasaki suppressed defense report

Taku Yamasaki, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, effectively admitted Wednesday that he instructed the Defense Agency to withhold its full in-house report on how the agency systematically compiled private data on individuals seeking public information.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 13, 2002

Getting your just rewards for a lifetime of slog

Well here we are again. It's starting to get nice and hot and summer is well on us. Your questions and inquiries are coming in and we are also getting answers and ideas from our readers too. Great. That is just what we were hoping for.
COMMENTARY
Jun 11, 2002

Optimist has lost his bearings

The government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi continues to face greater difficulties than perhaps ever before. I previously criticized his Cabinet as beset with troubles, both at home and abroad, as a result of scandals involving lawmaker Muneo Suzuki, former Liberal Democratic Party secretary general...
COMMENTARY
Jun 10, 2002

Peculiarities that give pause

More than a year after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi debuted under the "structural reform" slogan, its real meaning remains vague. The pivotal question is, what aspects of the Japanese structure (systems and practices) should be changed, and how?
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 6, 2002

Communication need not be a medical emergency

In response to the newly arrived businesswoman seeking native English-speaking general practitioners/family doctors in Kansai and Kyoto, here is a quick round-up.
BUSINESS
Jun 5, 2002

Drastic changes proposed for telecom sector

An advisory panel charged with studying ways to promote information technology-related competition on Tuesday proposed drastically deregulating the nation's telecommunications sector.
BUSINESS
Jun 5, 2002

Computer server shipments down

Shipments of computer servers fell in the first quarter of 2002 for the first time in four years on a quantitative basis, a market research agency said Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 5, 2002

. . . but soccer hosts are a dream team on stage

As in soccer, so on stage. Japan-Korea collaboration (or is it Korea-Japan collaboration?) is happening all over.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 2, 2002

Who's got the scoop on the Shenyang Five?

The disagreement between the foreign ministries of Japan and China over the attempted defection by five North Koreans at the Japanese consulate in Shenyang was intensified by a comment made early on by LDP Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda. During a press conference, Fukuda looked at the assembled...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Jun 2, 2002

Snobbery will not be permitted

Once upon a time, wine in Japan was a hushed affair, conducted with starched linens and stiff-backed chairs. Elusive first-growth Bordeaux and top Burgundy accompanied the tense, dutiful rituals of business negotiations. The mood was earnest; the cost high. It sometimes seemed as if the highly codified...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 2, 2002

Looking behind life-or-death situations

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the murder of eight young children at the Ikeda Elementary School in Osaka. Shortly after that, a young man killed a child in a Kyoto schoolyard before killing himself when faced with arrest, thus reinforcing the fear among the general public that Japan's schools...
JAPAN / CLOSE NEIGHBORS
Jun 1, 2002

Chinese, South Korean students warm to Japan

To Lee Hee Jung, a 20-year-old South Korean student at Yokohama National University, Japan is closer to her mother country than the United States not only geographically, but psychologically.
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2002

Measuring China's pulse online

The spread of the Internet in China is turning out to be a boon for China watchers in Japan. The Web now serves as an outlet for news not found in newspapers or on television but that can be deemed important and valuable. It also offers an opportunity to learn about the real feelings Chinese people have...
JAPAN
May 30, 2002

Kyodo News photographed, videotaped asylum seekers

Kyodo News announced Wednesday that widely used photographs and videotape of the incident involving five North Koreans seeking asylum at a Japanese consulate in China earlier this month were taken by its reporters.
BUSINESS
May 28, 2002

Koizumi sits while tax reform tug of war rages

As the government intensifies discussions toward compiling a fundamental tax reform blueprint next month, a new priority is emerging -- using tax breaks as a tool to revitalize the economy.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 23, 2002

Scientists petition Japan to lay down harpoons

Early this week, readers of the New York Times may have been surprised to find among its pages a full-page petition, in English and Japanese, signed by 21 eminent scientists, including Richard Dawkins, E.O. Wilson and Jane Lubchenco, and the Nobel prize-winners Roger Guillemin, Sir Aaron Klug and Alan...
JAPAN
May 21, 2002

Pair plead guilty to killing groom

OSAKA -- Two men pleaded guilty Monday to the fatal beating of a 26-year-old prospective groom from Fukuoka Prefecture who had come here in April last year to attend a ceremony marking the exchange of engagement gifts.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 19, 2002

A lost textile art gains ascendancy

THE WORLD OF ROZOME: Wax-Resist Textiles of Japan, by Betsy Sterling Benjamin. Kodansha International, 2002, 224 pp., $49.95 (paper) If the art of "rozome" (wax-resist dyeing) were a moon in the sky, it would be full and glowing brightly. Having waned in importance as a textile-patterning process at...

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