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EDITORIALS
Aug 7, 2001

Legacies of the Gulf War

Eleven years ago, Iraq invaded Kuwait and set in motion a series of events that would culminate in the Persian Gulf War. The U.N. coalition drove the invader from Kuwait and humiliated the once-vaunted Iraqi war machine. But in the decade since that defeat, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has retaken...
SPORTS / TALK OF THE TIMES
Aug 6, 2001

Iwabuchi hoping for big season this year

Saracens and Japan flyhalf Kensuke Iwabuchi is hoping for a great season this year in England.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 5, 2001

Terrors, real and imagined

August means hot weather and ghost stories to add a little chill to the muggy air. Tonight, on TV Tokyo's "Sunday Big Special" (7 p.m.), host Tsurutaro Kataoka will explore various occultish phenomena for either your terrified delectation or your nonbelieving derision.
COMMENTARY
Aug 4, 2001

Donors can make a world of difference

ISLAMABAD -- As Tetsuko Kuroyanagi returns to Japan with promises of using her television appearances to raise awareness over the plight of women and children in Afghanistan, there's no doubt that her six-day trip to the central Asian war-torn country was a brave effort.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2001

Fight the good fight for press freedom

What strange set of circumstances could connect the issue of tax probes of South Korean media outlets with China's bid for the Olympics and the advertising policy of a Hong Kong bank? While it may not seem obvious at first glance, the linkage relates to freedom of expression.
CULTURE / Film
Aug 1, 2001

. . . And then there's angst

Ghost World Rating: * * * * 1/4 Director: Terry Zwigoff Running time: 111 minutes Language: EnglishNow showing If you're lucky, you made it all the way through high school as one of the in-group, one of the "normal" kids. The next least-bad fate was to not fit in, but remain convinced that somehow...
EDITORIALS
Aug 1, 2001

Breathing new life into the Tories

A political party that suffers a major defeat after 18 years in power is obviously in need of serious self-examination. If it repeats the experience four years later at an election marked by an unusually high degree of abstention, the need for wrenching change may well become inescapable.
COMMENTARY
Jul 31, 2001

Making decentralization work

In a recent report, a state panel urged the central government to transfer more tax-collection power to local governments and help them secure their own tax revenues. I have no objections to the proposal, made by the Decentralization Promotion Committee in its final report to Prime Minister Junichiro...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 29, 2001

A lively, authentic Edo view

JAPAN THROUGH AMERICAN EYES: The Journal of Francis Hall -- 1859-1866. Edited, annotated and abridged by F.G. Notehelfer. Boulder: Westview Press, 2001, 466 pp., 33 plates. $30. When Francis Hall arrived in Yokohama in 1859 he found that the place had "all of the newness of a Western town" and that...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2001

U.K. politics interferes with euro issue

LONDON -- It is a subject that most pragmatic politicians in Britain, including the prime minister and the front-runner for the leadership of the Conservative opposition, would prefer to ignore. Since the Tories were led toward electoral defeat in June by their obsession about Europe, the political establishment...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 24, 2001

Visiting educators find confidence lacking

Japan should make greater efforts to instill a sense of self-confidence in its children and help them to develop the ability to express themselves, according to foreign educators invited to speak at a recent discussion session in Tokyo.
SOCCER / World cup
Jul 21, 2001

Oita gearing up to play World Cup host

Oita, one of the 10 World Cup hosts in Japan, expects two things from hosting the World Cup next year -- to promote the southern city around the world and to make Oita Stadium recognized as a major sporting and cultural destination.
COMMENTARY
Jul 16, 2001

Avoid temptation of populism

The July 29 Upper House election is effectively a national referendum on the "reform without sacred cows" program of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration. The central question is whether "Koizumi reform" will jump-start Japan's stalled economy and put it back on the long-term recovery course....
CULTURE / Books
Jul 15, 2001

Dismantling stereotypes surrounding Japan's sacred entities

SHINTO IN HISTORY: Ways of the Kami, edited by John Breen and Mark Teeuwen. Richmond, Surrey, U.K.: Curzon Press, 1999, 368 pp., 45 British pounds (cloth); 15 pounds (paper). "Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami" is the first attempt in any Western language (and possibly even in Japanese) to offer...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 14, 2001

Red Army daughter seeks to set record straight

"My parents named me after the month of a certain political action," explains May Shigenobu. "But in Japanese I am known as Mei, which means 'life.' " The specific political operation to which she is referring? The bombing by Japanese leftwing radicals of Lod Airport in Tel Aviv on May 30, 1972.
SOCCER / THE BALD TRUTH
Jul 10, 2001

Troussier has no room for hanky-panky and circus animals

Its official: Philippe Troussier is not running a circus. The Japan coach was, in tabloid-speak, "gobsmacked" last Wednesday when he was quizzed about his team selection moments after Japan had defeated Yugoslavia 1-0 to win the Kirin Cup.
EDITORIALS
Jul 7, 2001

The world cannot afford to wait

The prospects for the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol remain cloudy as the United States continues to reject the world climate agreement. In his talks this week with British and French leaders following a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told them Japan...
COMMENTARY
Jul 5, 2001

It's all too lonely at the top

LONDON -- As predicted, the Labour Party won the June general election, giving Tony Blair a second term as prime minister. This is bad news for the media monster which, as we all know, has a voracious appetite but nonetheless a fastidious and restricted diet: sleaze, scandal, violence, betrayal. A large...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 2001

Wahid warms Australian-Indonesian ties

SYDNEY -- Staying or going, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid can number at least one advance during his troubled term in Jakarta. He has earned the awe, even respect, of often-critical neighbor Australia.
COMMENTARY
Jun 30, 2001

Koizumi: a new type of leader

Two months have passed since the inauguration of the popular administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Thanks to the prime minister's enormous popularity, the Liberal Democratic Party easily triumphed in this week's election for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, which was the first test for...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 30, 2001

Cracking foreign code

The problem with foreign languages is that they change all the normal rules. Normal language meaning YOUR native language, and not anyone else's. Those people who invented foreign languages changed the rules just so you wouldn't be able to imitate their language easily. Like protecting their secret code....
EDITORIALS
Jun 26, 2001

Promise of reform carries the day

Riding on the dynamics of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's popularity, the governing Liberal Democratic Party expanded its plurality strength from a pre-election total of 48 seats to 53 in Sunday's election for the 127-seat Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. Together with the 23 seats grabbed by New Komeito,...
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2001

LDP wins big in Tokyo assembly election

Tokyo voters rescued Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday, giving the battered party 53 seats in the metropolitan assembly and a new lease on life.
COMMENTARY
Jun 25, 2001

Textbook criticism on target

China and South Korea are demanding revisions in Japanese history textbooks approved by the government for use at middle schools, arguing that they contain distortions of facts. In making the demands, China singled out a textbook compiled by the Society for History Textbook Reform; South Korea directed...
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2001

Tanaka fails in bid to limit rival's question time

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka threw the Lower House Committee on Foreign Affairs into turmoil Friday after requesting that scheduled questions by Muneo Suzuki, a rival politician within her Liberal Democratic Party, be limited.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2001

Chongryon head wants to reach youth, offers olive branch to Mindan

The new head of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon), a pro-Pyongyang group, says the association sees the need to adapt to the demands of the younger generation and is ready to promote exchanges with the pro-Seoul Korean Residents Union in Japan (Mindan).
EDITORIALS
Jun 22, 2001

Reversing Europe's downturn

At the beginning of this year, there were forecasts that Europe could pick up the economic slack created by the U.S. downturn and Japan's continuing economic problems. The 12-nation common currency, the euro, was enjoying a rise against the dollar after falling steadily in the first year of its existence....
BUSINESS
Jun 20, 2001

State-backed firms face new accounting rules

An advisory panel to the finance minister unveiled on Tuesday new accounting guidelines for government-affiliated corporations as part of an effort to improve transparency in their management.
COMMENTARY
Jun 19, 2001

Three challenges for Koizumi

Approximately 50 days have passed since the Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was sworn in. Various opinion surveys have shown that its public approval ratings have climbed to nearly 90 percent from around 80 percent at the time of its birth, defying the usual pattern of approval rates declining...

Longform

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