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EDITORIALS
May 13, 2002

Conditions for SDF mobilization

National defense bills now before the Diet are drawing a mixed reaction from the public. In a Kyodo News poll earlier this month, nearly 50 percent said Japan needs emergency legislation to deal with military attacks from abroad, but when asked whether the package should be passed in the current Diet...
COMMENTARY / World
May 13, 2002

Prime minister or nationalist puppet?

CAMBRIDGE, England -- The ink was barely dry on my April 21 Japan Times article "Koizumi trade pitch misses," which stated Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was thinking of going to pray at Yasukuni Shrine, when the news came that he had gone. We were told that he had felt the need "to mourn those who...
BUSINESS / ON MANAGEMENT
May 13, 2002

Training for success -- crash and learn

Car wrecks always draw a crowd, as every driver knows, and that's true for the equivalent in business, too. Rubber-necking at someone else's trouble, many executives thank their stars that they're not caught in the pileup; most take the opportunity to remind themselves to be extra careful to stay out...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 12, 2002

The free press exercise their muscles

In addition to being Japan's Constitution Day and the United Nations' Press Freedom Day, May 3 marked the 15th anniversary of the unsolved murder of Asahi Shimbun reporter Tomohiro Kojiri in Kobe.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 12, 2002

When in doubt, just say 'wakarimasen'

Violent antisocial crimes by teenagers have sent shockwaves through Japan in recent years, hinting ominously at cracks in the very foundations of modern Japanese society. On a more mundane level, older Japanese often find themselves puzzled and annoyed by the everyday behavior of young people, who often...
COMMUNITY
May 5, 2002

What is terrorism?

Two weeks after the attacks on New York and Washington, an article by Susan Sontag, novelist, essayist, director, playwright and easily America's most provocative public intellectual, appeared in the now-famous black-cover issue of the New Yorker magazine. In it, Sontag excoriated Americans for their...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 2, 2002

20 years of writing on the wild side

The biological exuberance of the equatorial region is staggering to behold. Walking through a temperate forest (as one might find in many areas of northern Japan, the northern United States or across much of central Europe), it is commonplace to have a clear view for hundreds of meters -- even to the...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
May 1, 2002

Lopez puts tantrum behind him

Hiroshima Carp first baseman Luis Lopez says the problem between him and outfielder Tomonori Maeda has been put to rest. Marty Kuehnert, in his April 10 "Keen Edge" column, described how the teammates had nearly come to blows after Maeda twice failed to score from second base on outfield hits by Lopez...
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2002

Hansen's patients oppose society chair candidate

Former Hansen's disease patients have informed a national society for the disease of their opposition to having a controversial head of a sanitarium take the position of society chairman in the next election to be held in May, it was learned Sunday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 28, 2002

Stop the presses

At 7 p.m. on Oct. 11, 1946, it was quiet in The Japan Times newsroom in central Tokyo. The deadline for the next day's first edition had passed, and day-shift editors were ready to pack up and leave. Then, with no prior warning, a surprise visitor appeared in their midst.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Apr 26, 2002

Laughing all the way to English proficiency

"When Genki English visits our school, the kids simply love it," says Kimie Chu, an English teacher at Shin Tokorozawa preschool in Saitama Prefecture.
LIFE / Digital
Apr 25, 2002

Lie detection infiltrating everyday life

When Bill Clinton first said, "I never had sexual relations with that woman . . ." back in 1998, a report flushed that a new Israeli lie detector figured he was being truthful.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Apr 22, 2002

Gerontocracy and its perks sap resources

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- In 1999 I was invited to participate at a conference held in Tokyo under the title of "Management Challenges for the 21st Century." The first and keynote speaker was Jack Welch, former chief executive officer of General Electric, followed by about a dozen CEOs of major Japanese...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Apr 19, 2002

Perfect parenting . . . it's all in the labeling

Here's what mid-April in Japan means to me: The cherry blossoms have come and gone, the kids are back in school and mothers all over the country are suffering writer's cramp from labeling school gear.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Apr 12, 2002

The man who gave the JET program liftoff

The JET program marks its 15th anniversary this year. Today the country's largest teacher-exchange program, it all started from the simple dream of a young British banker called Nicolas Maclean.
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2002

Hiranuma to urge U.S. to give up steel tariffs

Trade minister Takeo Hiranuma said Tuesday he will urge the United States to drop its emergency tariffs on a range of steel imports in a meeting Thursday with visiting U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick.
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2002

Koizumi gives up on lifting legal ban on post privatization

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has given up on eliminating a legal clause banning the privatization of the new public corporation slated to take over the government-run postal services in 2003, posts minister Toranosuke Katayama said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2002

Asian issues carry much weight on global stability

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. -- There were times when relations between the European Union and Japan suffered from having a narrow focus, centered on economic matters.
COMMENTARY
Apr 7, 2002

Gloom looms before Koizumi

The outlook for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration, which previously enjoyed high approval ratings and looked set for continued success, has taken a dramatic turn for the worse.
COMMUNITY
Apr 7, 2002

A dicey history

The earliest reference to gambling in Japan -- found in the eighth-century, 31-volume "Nihon Shoki (Chronicle of Japan)" -- states that in 685 AD, Emperor Temmu passed the time playing a dice game similar to backgammon called sugo-roku (double sixes). Once his successor Empress Jito assumed the throne,...
COMMENTARY
Apr 2, 2002

Ending myths about lifestyle

LONDON -- Japan 2001, a major manifestation of Japanese culture in Britain, ends this spring. Consisting of more than 2,000 events large and small, it has had a significant impact and has helped to spread understanding of Japan among people throughout Britain.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Apr 1, 2002

Pundits part of the problem, not its solution

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- For years the Japanese government has been arguing that, as one of the biggest financial contributors to the United Nations, it should have a permanent seat on the Security Council. Japan does indeed bring lots of money to the U.N., but it does not bring much else. One of the...
COMMENTARY
Mar 30, 2002

Japan's faulty north bearing

Former senior Liberal Democratic Party politician Muneo Suzuki is in disgrace for alleged improper dealings. But Foreign Ministry efforts to blacken his name further by selectively revealing details of his attempts to change the ministry's hardline Northern Territories policy go too far.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2002

A silver lining in Gujarat state's riots

The death of around 800 people in the recent riots in Gujarat state was a sobering reminder of the primeval passions and tribal savagery that can be unleashed so ferociously at a moment's notice in India. They were an antidote to the unbridled optimism that saw only an emerging information-technology...
COMMENTARY
Mar 19, 2002

Class struggle joins Marx in the dustbin

HONG KONG -- Last Wednesday, a top official declared that, as a result of the market economy, "people's jobs and status keep changing" in China today, and there are "differences and contradictions between communities, between industries and between regions." These remarks by Li Ruihuan, China's fourth-ranking...
EDITORIALS
Mar 18, 2002

Steeling for a fight

During the Vietnam War, a peculiar strand of U.S. logic was revealed when an official argued that a village had to be destroyed to save it from the North Vietnamese. A version of that tortured thinking has been resurrected recently as U.S. officials have struggled to justify President George W. Bush's...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Mar 18, 2002

'Gerontocrat' academicians with myopia

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- After Harvard Professor Ezra Vogel's famous book "Japan as Number One" appeared in 1979, the West experienced a "learning from Japan" boom. I fully participated in this movement in both of its manifestations: publications, seminars etc., and the establishment of university Japanese...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 14, 2002

Noam Chomsky: America is a leading terrorist state

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- Noam Chomsky, a linguistics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is world-famous as the originator of the "Transformational Grammar" theory, a framework of principles accounting for all language-specific rules.
LIFE / Travel / FLOWER WALK
Mar 7, 2002

Childlike delight amid a forest of flowers

Camellia, or tsubaki in Japanese, has always been integral to this country's culture. Mentioned in ancient chronicles and legends, it is also used as a design motif for noh costumes, is highly regarded in ikebana arrangements and was prized by Tokugawa shoguns. Without the flamboyance of sakura, tsubaki...

Longform

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