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BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Sep 18, 2006

China's tight yuan grip signals shortcomings as a global team player

Revaluation of the yuan, along with high oil prices, deceleration of the U.S. economy, and the euro's rise against the, yen was among the major topics discussed at the Group of Seven finance ministers' meeting in Singapore over the weekend.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2006

Decision on further North Korea sanctions may come Tuesday

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe suggested Friday the Cabinet may decide to impose financial sanctions against North Korea next Tuesday under a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Pyongyang's July missile launches.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 2, 2006

Showdown at Budokan

The rightwing reactionaries were arriving in their menacing black-and-white trucks, blasting military music. The politicians were shaking their fists and telling people to go to a garbage dump. The police had locked down all entrances to the Imperial Palace grounds. Riot police lined the road leading...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 28, 2006

Japan sleepwalks by design toward peace-renouncing poll

The Japanese people may soon be asked to make a momentous decision in a nationwide referendum. As I write this, the major political parties are at loggerheads over conditions under which that referendum will be conducted. Behind the closed doors of the Diet, but barely touched on in the media, this debate...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 17, 2006

Bid to address Congress has Yasukuni proviso

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's contentious visits to Yasukuni Shrine are a matter of religious freedom, the government said Tuesday, rejecting criticism leveled by a powerful U.S. congressman.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 17, 2005

Celtic's signing of volatile Keane difficult to understand

LONDON -- It is the time of the year when, because it is goodwill to all, we open the occasional Christmas present and say "excellent . . . just what I wanted," when the reality is "oh no . . . why was I given that?"
EDITORIALS
Aug 14, 2005

Mr. Bolton goes to the United Nations

A s expected, U.S. President George W. Bush used a recess appointment to name Mr. John Bolton his ambassador to the United Nations. The move is a result of the bitter, partisan divisions that dog politics in Washington D.C, and a sign of Mr. Bush's determination to send Mr. Bolton to the U.N. While his...
JAPAN
Aug 4, 2005

Officials' response to asbestos slipshod, critics say

Spurred into action following a surge in reports of asbestos-linked deaths across the country, the government last week unveiled a package of steps designed to better deal with the carcinogenic substance.
EDITORIALS
Jun 25, 2005

A mind to reduce waste

Two jointly announced government white papers -- one on the environment and the other on the establishment of a recycling society -- are the first such annual reports since the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty on global warming, went into effect in February following ratification by Russia in...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 29, 2005

Anger, not pity, is best response to poverty

In his new book, "Planet of Slums," the American urban historian Mike Davis paints a bleak picture of a world in which the poorest have become so marginalized that they have dropped off the economic radar. Over the past 20 years or so, globalization and the neoliberal policies of the International Monetary...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 20, 2005

Man United-Arsenal F.A. Cup final promises to be a belter

LONDON -- The joke doing the rounds as the F.A. Cup final between Arsenal and Manchester United approaches is that the kickoff should be put back from3 p.m. until after the 9 p.m. watershed.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 13, 2005

Tsutsumi used culture to amass, retain iron grip on power

"If you want Sundays off, don't be a manager in my company."
EDITORIALS
Apr 30, 2005

Treaty against nuclear terror

Recently the United Nations unanimously approved a treaty that outlaws the use of nuclear weapons by terrorists and their supporters. Incredibly, such actions were not illegal before. The treaty has been touted -- by the United States, no less -- as an important step in the fight against terrorism and...
EDITORIALS
Feb 22, 2005

More trouble ahead for Lebanon

The assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri on Feb. 14 has raised fears of a return to civil war in a troubled country and adds yet another wrinkle to the already complex equation in the Middle East. It is unclear who was responsible for the murder, but fingers are pointing at Syria....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Dec 11, 2004

Bill Hemmer

CNN claims that "American Morning," its flagship news program, is seen in more than 86 million households in the U.S. Here in Japan through CNNj, a partnership between CNN and Japan Cable Television, it may be seen in over 5 million households. This year marks the 20th anniversary of CNN's first live...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 2004

Brutality pays poorly in interrogation

HONOLULU -- After a Japanese soldier named Shuji Ishii was taken prisoner by American Marines on the island of Iwo Jima during World War II, he expected the worse, including being put to death. Instead, he wrote later in a memoir, he was astonished to find himself in a sanitary hospital and to be given...
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Nov 1, 2004

Japan now must ponder extending SDF mission

The tragic end to the Shosei Koda hostage crisis may influence Japan's policy of deploying its ground troops in Iraq, especially as their one-year mission will soon expire, officials and analysts say.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Sep 11, 2004

Russia's underbelly exposed

MOSCOW -- Date: Sept. 1-3, 2004.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ELECTION '04
Jul 3, 2004

Convict Tsujimoto seeks mercy of voters

OSAKA -- Kiyomi Tsujimoto likes to call herself the "wasabi of Japanese politics," whose job is to add some zest to the blandness of debate.
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2004

Foreign reporters mixed on Tokyo's new Mideast role

The Ground Self-Defense Force dispatch to Iraq has been viewed overseas by some as a significant political move by Japan to boost the role of its military on the international stage.
COMMENTARY
Mar 9, 2004

Perilous drop in readership

One long-standing trend in Japan has been the "shift away from print" -- an aversion to serious reading. For example, in the past four years, book sales have continued to decline. Compared with other countries, the books being read woefully lags in quality and quantity.
COMMENTARY
Feb 8, 2004

Politicians born of the media

MANILA -- The media has become a decisive factor in electoral politics in democracies throughout the world. I would even argue that it is impossible to find a democratic country today in which a candidate could win a majority without using the media. Whenever political parties or candidates campaign,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 9, 2003

Dancing through the storm in a D-cup

Much of the reporting about the Oct. 29 incident at Northwest University in Xian, China, in which three male Japanese exchange students danced in a university festival wearing brassieres and "fake genitals," gave the impression that the students' faux pas was a matter of cultural differences. What this...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 24, 2003

Antinuke regime crumbling

Speaking on the opening day of the U.N. General Assembly's disarmament committee on Oct. 6, Ambassador Sergio Querioz Duarte of Brazil noted that "to attain a nuclear-weapon-free world, it is vital to prevent nuclear proliferation, and at the same time, it is imperative to promote nuclear disarmament."...
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2003

Is Baghdad safe enough for SDF? Depends on which party you ask

The ruling bloc and the opposition parties are presenting completely conflicting reports on their respective fact-finding missions to Iraq, with the opposition arguing the Self-Defense Forces should not be dispatched to the area due to deteriorating security.
COMMENTARY
May 17, 2003

Let Asia resolve the North Korean crisis

WASHINGTON -- The Iraq war is over, but the Korean Peninsula is growing hotter. Obvious disagreement over policy toward the North has clouded South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun's visit to the United States, while Washington's recent nuclear talks with North Korea ended in acrimony. U.S. President George...

Longform

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