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JAPAN
May 30, 2001

Postwar Croatia looks to Japan

It was a surprise contact from the Croatian Foreign Minister in October that led the 62-year-old Drogo Buvac, formerly a journalist specializing in economics and international relations, to bethe new Croatian Ambassador to Japan.
BUSINESS
May 29, 2001

Petrochemical firms will have to disband price cartel

The Fair Trade Commission will order seven major petrochemical firms to scrap a polypropylene price cartel and pay billions of yen in penalties, sources familiar with the case said Monday.
JAPAN
May 29, 2001

MSDF divers may help raise Ehime Maru

At the request of the U.S. Navy, the government is considering sending divers from the Maritime Self-Defense Force to help raise the fisheries training ship accidentally sunk off Hawaii on Feb. 9 by a U.S. submarine, government officials said Monday.
JAPAN
May 28, 2001

Two die as loaded van flips during U-turn

OSAKA -- Two high school students were killed and seven other people injured early Sunday after a van they were riding crashed into a lane divider in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, police said.
COMMENTARY
May 28, 2001

British conservatives fighting an uphill battle

LONDON -- The campaign leading up to the June 7 election has been dominating the news in Britain. The Labor government is described as center left, but its policies are generally more conservative than those of the Liberal Democrats, who are really social democrats. The Conservative opposition have been...
JAPAN
May 27, 2001

73% of Japanese in favor of increased competition

Seventy-three percent of Japanese polled rated competition among enterprises as positive because it results in cheaper products and services, according to a Cabinet Office poll released Saturday.
EDITORIALS
May 27, 2001

When borders are better

Aliens come in many guises. There is the extraterrestrial kind, variously envisaged over the years as little green men, wrinkly creatures homesick for their own planet, curious kidnappers and genocidal invaders. There is the human kind -- people who fetch up in some foreign country and find themselves...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 27, 2001

Who says that women can't have it all?

Several weeks ago, this column covered TBS's romantic comedy series "Love Story," in which Miho Nakayama plays a not-so-successful book editor whose employer tries to force her to quit by assigning her to its most difficult author. Though, as with all "trendy dramas," this one is mainly about love, Nakayama's...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 27, 2001

Cosmetics companies give themselves a makeover

Truth in advertising has never been a strong concept in Japan, but no one flouts it as boldly as the cosmetics industry, which is understandable, since makeup itself is a form of deception. One company's antiwrinkle cream is said to "prevent aging," an obvious impossibility, while the manufacturer of...
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
May 27, 2001

Late shift at the Factory

Tokyo's art-party scene is alive and well and sometimes converges in Shibuya. One focal point is Uplink Factory, and one of the more interesting banners under which it rallies is an event known as "Ubique." Uplink Factory is an offshoot of Uplink Co., which, since 1987, has produced and distributed the...
JAPAN
May 27, 2001

Citizens to get say in road use

The Transport Ministry has decided to reflect local views in the use of roads near railway stations and shopping streets, according to ministry officials.
JAPAN
May 26, 2001

Magnitude 8.1 earthquake possible along Nagano fault line, panel warns

Part of central Japan could suffer a magnitude 8.1 earthquake if a temblor occurs near the Itoi River-Shizuoka fault line, a government panel said in a report Friday.
EDITORIALS
May 26, 2001

Help the world's poorest citizens

Politicians and pundits like to remind us that we live in an age of unprecedented prosperity, Japan's "lost decade" and the trillions of dollars of paper wealth that has vanished as a result of the current downturn in global stock markets notwithstanding. But for more than 600 million people -- one-tenth...
JAPAN
May 26, 2001

Koizumi issues state apology for Hansen's victims' abuses

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi issued a statement of apology Friday to former Hansen's disease patients for a government policy that forced them into decades of isolation.
JAPAN
May 26, 2001

New panel proposal is criticized as soft on violations by state

Concern over freedom of the press has been the media's main focus in covering a government panel's proposal to launch an independent human rights watchdog, while other key aspects have been largely ignored.
BUSINESS
May 26, 2001

Youth favors new Fuji chief

Kyoji Takenaka, the incoming president of Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., is determined to make the company a full-fledged global player with "premium brand" vehicles.
JAPAN
May 26, 2001

State seeks sales delay of controversial textbook

The government has asked a publisher to postpone selling a controversial history textbook until local education boards have selected which books they will have schools use, Education Minister Atsuko Toyama said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2001

Charting a course as wide as the region

To understand the logic that is driving the Bush administration's redesign of U.S. military strategy, overlay two maps. The first focuses on wealth and population. It highlights Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, some of the world's richest and most important trading nations. China, India and...
BUSINESS
May 25, 2001

Japan stumped by politics of AIDS

Japanese government officials are scratching their heads over a turn of events that has taken place since last summer's Group of Eight summit in Okinawa, where Tokyo tried to make the fight against AIDS a major topic.
JAPAN
May 25, 2001

Cabinet to reach out via e-mail magazine

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, basking in record approval ratings, hopes to score another hit with a weekly Cabinet e-mail magazine.
EDITORIALS
May 24, 2001

Stopping pork barrel at the source

Barely a month on the job, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has yet to flesh out his reform blueprint. In this sense, he can be likened to a painter who has only just finished the outlines of a portrait. Now, however, he is about to draw a bold nose smack in the middle of the canvas. We refer to his...
JAPAN
May 24, 2001

Energy initiatives at local level stressed

YASU, Shiga Pref. -- Initiatives by local governments in cooperation with residents are indispensable in cutting power consumption and promoting renewable energy, Takeshi Wada, a professor at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, said Wednesday at the opening of a meeting of local governments pushing green...
BUSINESS
May 24, 2001

Employees encouraged to start ventures

When Noriyuki Ichihashi, an employee of Itochu Corp., proposed his idea to the firm's Internet venture incubation office about a year ago, the trading house was quick to give him the green light. Within a month, the 34-year-old had set up a planning company.
JAPAN
May 24, 2001

Koizumi must deliver before hoopla fades

Staff writers Reformist Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi seems to know too well that what counts is his image.
COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2001

Rampant piracy posing political problems for Southeast Asia's policymakers

Piracy is alive and well in Southeast Asia, and it is posing political problems for policymakers. Piracy incidents in and around the Straits of Malacca and Singapore have recently increased at an alarming rate -- in both number and severity. But these modern pirates are a far cry from the swashbuckling...
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
May 24, 2001

Mizu-basho (Asian skunk cabbage)

"When summer comes, I think of Oze Under distant skies. Midst rising mists and shadowed ways Marsh lilies are blooming, And dreams are flowering, too. Where evening tints, azalea pink, Those far-off, distant skies."
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
May 24, 2001

Just plant grass, and mow it for 400 years

The Hosokawa family is deeply rooted to the history and development of Kumamoto. Hosokawa Tadatoshi (1586-1641) was granted the domain of Kumamoto (540,000 koku) by Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu in 1632 and started work on the gardens which became Suizenji Jojuen in the same year.

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