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COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2004

On the move after decades of pacifism

A quiet pride is evinced in the dispatch of Japan's Self-Defense Forces troops for peacekeeping in Iraq even though the polls say a bare majority opposes the deployment. Says a business executive: "That's their profession; that's what they've been trained for."
JAPAN
May 22, 2004

Police raid retired teacher who raised flag, anthem ruckus

Police on Friday raided the house of a former Tokyo high school teacher who distributed copies of a magazine story at a school commencement ceremony dealing with the controversy over the Hinomaru flag and "Kimigayo" anthem.
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2004

AIDS: China's titanic threat

NEW YORK -- The recent warning by the Chinese government that HIV/AIDS is spreading rapidly in the country and that new and urgent measures are needed to combat the infection marks an important step in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This is particularly remarkable because, at the beginning of the epidemic,...
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
May 20, 2004

Schools sounding false alarms over child safety

A few weeks ago my younger son came home from school all excited. "Mom! Guess what?" he shouted from the entranceway as he kicked off his shoes. "The ku gave us a gohan buza!" I had been hard at work on an article and was a little slow making the transition to his eclectic mix of languages. Why would...
JAPAN
May 17, 2004

Japan may participate in U.N. force in Iraq: Ishiba

Defense Agency Director General Shigeru Ishiba indicated Sunday that Japanese troops may participate in a U.N. multinational force in Iraq under a new U.N. resolution.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 7, 2004

Ozawa suggests DPJ chief Kan should quit over pension scandal

Ichiro Ozawa, deputy president of the Democratic Party of Japan, suggested Thursday that DPJ chief Naoto Kan should resign because he failed to pay the mandatory premiums for the basic pension system while serving as health minister in 1996.
JAPAN
May 2, 2004

DPJ reveals Constitution proposals

The Democratic Party of Japan has decided to include the phrases "exercising the right of self-defense" and "maintaining the Self-Defense Forces" in an interim report on constitutional reform scheduled to be compiled this month, party sources said Saturday.
COMMENTARY
May 2, 2004

Taiwan Strait status quo grows riskier

HONG KONG -- The Shanghai Communique, signed by U.S. President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1972, asserted: "The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States Government...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 1, 2004

Reverend mom gives a good name to activism

Quite how the Rev. Claudia Genung (a surname of French Hugenot origin) fits everything into 24 hours is beyond all understanding.
COMMENTARY / World
May 1, 2004

China lacks sincerity in seeking apologies

GUATEMALA CITY -- It is a constant refrain of officials in Beijing that no other country should interfere with its internal affairs or even pass comment on events that occur inside China. However, this insistence on "noninterference" only works one way since Chinese officials often venture opinions on...
Japan Times
Features
Apr 25, 2004

Reluctantly putting the hanging case

Despite official data showing public support for capital punishment running at around 80 percent, few Japanese are willing to openly defend the death penalty.
MULTIMEDIA
Apr 24, 2004

Rachad Farah

As he prepares to leave Japan for his next diplomatic posting, Rachad Farah, ambassador of the Republic of Djibouti, admits he cannot help but have "a heavy heart." He has been here 15 years, and to leave is wrenching even though he goes to an attractive new posting. For the last 10 years, he has been...
JAPAN
Apr 21, 2004

LDP panel eyes changes to Constitution preamble

A constitutional research panel of the Liberal Democratic Party has decided to prioritize the compilation of draft revisions to the preamble of the country's war-renouncing Constitution, LDP sources said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 14, 2004

Lessons still unlearned

Timely or what! Just as Japan's autocratic leaders appear to have junked war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution -- with news last week of SDF aircraft even having transported armed U.S. soldiers into Iraq -- along comes "Taiko Tataite Fue Fuite (Playing Drum and Flute)," which vividly portrays...
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2004

Malpractice-death coverup appeal fails

The Supreme Court rejected on Tuesday an appeal by the former director of a Tokyo hospital who was convicted of violating the Medical Practitioners Law by failing to notify police of a malpractice death within 24 hours.
COMMENTARY
Apr 10, 2004

A fight that does not finish

Tokyo's angry reaction to the threatened retaliatory killing by Iraqi militants of three young Japanese civilians taken hostage this week reminds one of how much the impasse in Iraq parallels the 1960s quagmire in Vietnam.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2004

Prime minister pledges Yasukuni return

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday that he will keep visiting Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine despite a Fukuoka District Court ruling that his August 2001 trip there, the first of four, violated the Constitution.
JAPAN
Apr 5, 2004

Kanzaki favors defining SDF in the Constitution

New Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki suggested Sunday he would support a constitutional amendment that would define the Self-Defense Forces.
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2004

Tanaka's daughter won't appeal

The daughter of former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka has decided not to appeal a high court ruling that rescinded an earlier injunction banning sale of a weekly magazine that featured an article about her divorce, her lawyers said Saturday.
Events
Mar 31, 2004

South Korean economy bedeviled by serious woes: writers

While Japan's economy may finally be bidding farewell to the "lost decade" of the stagnant 1990s, growth in South Korea, once noted for its rapid recovery after the 1997 Asian crisis, is slowing down amid serious problems like mounting household debts.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2004

New coalitions of the willing seek change

While I was in London in January, The Guardian newspaper ran a front-page story about an independent evaluation of some of Britain's leading international charities that tried to help southern Africa avoid a food crisis in 2002-2003. The evaluation concluded that the charities had overstated the seriousness...
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2004

Ishiba sorry for 'autistic forces' jibe

Defense Agency Director General Shigeru Ishiba apologized Friday for saying earlier this week that the Self-Defense Forces are sometimes referred to as "the autistic forces."
Japan Times
JAPAN / POLITICS IN FOCUS
Mar 16, 2004

LDP policy panel calls the shots, not Diet

The Diet shall be the highest organ of state power, and shall be the sole lawmaking organ of the State. Thus reads Article 41 of the Constitution.
COMMENTARY
Mar 14, 2004

Getting Beijing to mind its own business

WASHINGTON -- China routinely vilifies any comment on its political practices as unwarranted outside "interference." Yet Beijing is always ready to lecture America on its policies.
COMMENTARY
Mar 10, 2004

No easy answers to immigration issues

LONDON -- A fundamental principle of the European Union has been freedom of movement within it and the right to work in any member country. This principle has, however, been undermined by the decision of some EU founder states to limit immigration from the new member countries in Eastern Europe for varying...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 7, 2004

Yayoi Kusama: Lost and found in art

Yayoi Kusama was just shy of 30 when she left her hometown of Matsumoto in Nagano Prefecture and headed to America to meet her hero, the painter Georgia O'Keeffe.

Longform

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