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JAPAN
Nov 3, 2002

Almost half of Japanese oppose centralized registry

Less than 10 percent of Japanese people feel positive about the new national resident registry system, while nearly half oppose it, according to a private opinion survey released Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Nov 1, 2002

Don't haggle over abduction issue

The latest round of Japan-North Korea talks on normalizing relations, held in Kuala Lumpur earlier this week for the first time in two years, was conspicuous by the lack of substantial progress. The two sides remained far apart on North Korea's nuclear-weapons program and the fate of Japanese citizens...
EDITORIALS
Oct 29, 2002

Mr. Putin's worst nightmare

Events of the last few weeks should have put to rest any naive belief that anyone, anywhere is somehow safe from the dangers posed by terrorism. The cowardly bombing of a Bali nightclub and the hostage-taking in a Moscow theater last week are only the most recent attacks by terrorist groups with a taste...
COMMENTARY
Oct 29, 2002

Liberalize farm trade now

LONDON -- Reform of the European Common Agricultural Policy, or CAP, is essential if the European Union's expenditures are to be contained and remain acceptable to European voters as a whole. This summer the European Commission floated some proposals for changes designed not to reduce the overall burden...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Oct 28, 2002

Words of wisdom on U.S. interventionism

NEW YORK -- Searching the Internet for information on immigration in the United States, I came across President Grover Cleveland's message to Congress on Dec. 18, 1893. In it he detailed his opposition to the annexation of Hawaii. At the start of that year, a self-styled Committee of Safety, led by foreign...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 27, 2002

The long goodbye

Without a traditional funeral, common thinking goes, the departed souls of Japanese would aimlessly wander the earth for all eternity. The ritual occupies the very core of the Buddhism practiced in Japan today, and the fees charged for it -- as high as the price of a luxury car -- are a main source of...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Oct 27, 2002

Before I go, these are a few of my favorite things

After precisely eight years, this is to be the final installment of the Nihonshu column. It has been extremely enjoyable write it over the years. The amount I have learned along the way has been nothing less than phenomenal -- and it only got more interesting as time went on.
EDITORIALS
Oct 26, 2002

How to address nuclear safety

Oct. 26 is designated as Nuclear Energy Day to mark the startup of Japan's first experimental nuclear-power reactor 39 years ago. Since then the nation's nuclear energy development program has made spectacular advances. This year's anniversary, however, is marred by a series of shocking revelations that...
COMMENTARY
Oct 21, 2002

It's not what Bush says but how he says it

HONOLULU -- The controversy swirling around President George W. Bush's foreign policy is remarkable for two things. The first is the consensus regarding its content. Observers generally agree that the Bush foreign policy is muscular, unilateralist and dominated by political realists who practice power...
EDITORIALS
Oct 17, 2002

Abductees' brief reunions with kin

Five of at least 13 known Japanese nationals who were kidnapped by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s returned home on Tuesday aboard a government-chartered plane. But their family reunions -- the first since they disappeared in the summer of 1978 -- will be temporary; they are scheduled to return...
COMMENTARY
Oct 14, 2002

Testing times for Koizumi

Japanese politics is entering a crucial period. On Sept. 30, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reshuffled his Cabinet for the first time since taking office in April 2001. The reshuffle, however, was limited in scale. Moreover, he kept his party's executive lineup unchanged.
EDITORIALS
Oct 9, 2002

An intolerable double standard

It has been two years since the Mideast peace process began to unravel, throwing Israel and the Palestinians into recurring bouts of violence. The cycle of bloodshed shows no signs of ending anytime soon, with Palestinians repeating terrorist assaults on Israeli citizens and Israel retaliating by military...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 2002

EU needs a common purpose

LONDON -- Since the original European Common Market was founded in the mid-1950s, the Continent sought a common economic role, to be followed by growing political integration. Now, there is general agreement on the first count that a new institutional framework is needed to give the community more political...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Oct 7, 2002

Brainstorming to bring positive change

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- In an article on the IMF/World Bank meeting in Washington last month entitled "A Washington gathering of incompetents," Gerald Baker, while lambasting policyma- kers in the United States and the European Union, handed the first prize for incompetence to Japan. "Every time it...
COMMENTARY
Oct 3, 2002

Iraq, yes -- but why now?

LONDON -- Everyone seems agreed that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is a very nasty piece of work, a brutal tyrant with homicidal tendencies who cannot be trusted one inch.
COMMENTARY
Oct 2, 2002

Once-cool Britannia begins to boil

WASHINGTON -- Britain split along three rift lines last week and it's hard to see where they might meet again. Perhaps only an Anglo-American attack on Iraq could unite the nation against such mind-boggling folly and terrifying, costly megalomania.
EDITORIALS
Sep 30, 2002

Japan and China need new framework

Sunday marked the 30th anniversary of the normalization of Japan-China relations. But the citizens of both nations are not in much of a celebratory mood despite the pomp and fanfare of commemorative events. Maturity is hardly the right word to describe the state of Sino-Japanese ties. Opinion polls show...
COMMENTARY
Sep 30, 2002

Japan as a 'banana republic'?

The announcement that the governor of the Bank of Japan was considering the purchase of company shares held by Japanese banks at market prices has done nothing to reassure opinion in Britain about the state of the Japanese economy. The general view remains, to quote the Financial Times, "that price deflation...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2002

Peacemaking efforts deserve applause

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- International public opinion seems focused almost exclusively on the issue of Iraq these days while other important regional developments are relegated to the back burner. Among the developments that deserve greater attention are the moves toward peace in Sri Lanka.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 29, 2002

When mourning makes straight talk taboo

The shock that accompanied the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, quickly turned into a mood of national mourning that continues to hang over the United States a year later. As a form of social behavior, mourning comes with its own protocol, and in this particular case attempts to place the attacks...
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2002

Pyongyang must tell the full story

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's meeting Friday with the families of those abducted by North Korean agents made it unmistakably clear that the understanding and support of those relatives -- and of the Japanese public in general -- is essential to progress in the normalization talks that are expected...
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2002

U.S. has not asked for more help: Nakatani

Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani on Friday denied media reports that the United States has asked Japan to expand the scope of its logistic support for antiterrorism military operations in Afghanistan.
EDITORIALS
Sep 27, 2002

Mr. Schroeder's postelection dilemma

Germany's center-left ruling coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens won a narrow victory in Sunday's parliamentary election, bucking the rightist trend in France and elsewhere in western Europe. It was also a Pyrrhic victory earned at the expense of the German-American relationship....
Japan Times
SOCCER / World cup
Sep 26, 2002

Arcane rule kept 'Alex' from playing in Premier League

"A player must have played for his country in at least 75 percent of competitive 'A' team matches he was available for selection for, during the two years preceding the date of the application." (Law regarding work permit arrangements for non-European Economic Area soccer players).
SUMO
Sep 23, 2002

Maru overpowers Taka to take title

Yokozuna Musashimaru overpowered fellow-yokozuna Takanohana on the final day of the Aki Basho to win his 12th title with a 13-2 record. It was the 31-year-old Hawaiian-born yokozuna's third yusho this year; he also triumphed in March and May.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2002

Media coverage of abductions criticized

OSAKA -- Korean residents of Japan expressed concern Friday over what they feel has been excessive coverage by the Japanese media of the North Korean abductions but comparatively scarce debate over Japan's legacy of its colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2002

Koizumi backs BOJ bad-loan disposal measures

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Thursday the government will take every possible measure in cooperation with the Bank of Japan to accelerate the disposal of nonperforming loans and prevent a financial crisis.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2002

Koreans in Japan react to revelations, fret over compensation

Korean residents in Japan have expressed dismay at the fate of some of the Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea and at the obscuring of the issue of compensation from Japan for its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

Longform

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