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JAPAN
Apr 16, 2003

Caution shown on staff dispatch to Iraq

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Tuesday the government will carefully consider whether to dispatch staff to the U.S.-led administration of occupied Iraq.
BUSINESS
Apr 16, 2003

Ishihara banking plan welcomed

Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka welcomed on Tuesday plans by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara to establish a new type of bank to help spur the local economy.
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2003

Japan lags behind in e-government programs: report

Japan still lags behind in terms of the maturity of e-government programs for the implementation of online services by state agencies, according to a recent survey by U.S. consulting firm Accenture.
EDITORIALS
Apr 14, 2003

Easing cash flow for small firms

Small businesses in Japan are having severe cash-flow difficulties, even though the Bank of Japan is pumping plenty of money into the banking system. This is because debt-burdened banks are following restrictive lending practices. In an unprecedented move to help those cash-strapped companies, the central...
COMMENTARY
Apr 13, 2003

Thailand seeks an advantage

HONOLULU -- Southeast Asian politicians and business professionals continue to insist that China's rise is "an opportunity, not a threat" to their future. That sounds a lot like whistling past the graveyard. The Chinese market is so big and has such a wealth of human and material resources that conventional...
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2003

DPJ to hold talks on Liberals merger

The Democratic Party of Japan will hold individual meetings this week with all of its rank-and-file lawmakers over a proposed merger with the Liberal Party, DPJ lawmakers said Saturday.
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2003

Town asked to store nuclear waste

Tokyo Electric Power Co. presented a plan Friday to Mayor Masashi Sugiyama of Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture, to build storage facilities there to hold up to 6,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel, Tepco officials said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2003

Odaiba beach not even safe for sewer rats to dip in

It's Tokyo's premier beach -- a strip of wave-washed sand carefully constructed more than a decade ago in a multibillion yen project to give the sprawling capital an ultramodern waterfront.
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2003

Cloned beef may hit grocery stores later in the year

A health ministry report released Friday says that meat and milk of cows cloned from the somatic cells of adult animals are safe for human consumption.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 10, 2003

Immune system linked to mating habits

David Beckham might wear a sarong and Takuya Kimura of SMAP may sometimes wear lipstick, but in humans, most males are dull compared to the females. In other animals, of course, the opposite is true: it is the males that are showy, brightly colored, flashy.
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2003

Diet begins debate on watered-down privacy bills

The House of Representatives on Tuesday began debating a package of controversial bills the government says will protect individuals' private information, as well as a counterproposal jointly submitted by four opposition parties.
BUSINESS
Apr 8, 2003

Japan, Vietnam concur on investment accord

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his visiting Vietnamese counterpart, Phan Van Khai, agreed Monday on the basics of a bilateral investment treaty that would give each country most- favored nation status.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2003

Hope for English advocates in special zones

The public education system has long been criticized for its uniformity as well as, according to academics and business leaders, its inability to improve the overall English-language skills of the Japanese people.
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2003

Fraying business sentiment augurs poorly for recovery

Dented by falling stock prices and fears that the war in Iraq will hurt any nascent economic recovery, business sentiment remained weak in March, according to a key Bank of Japan survey released Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2003

New farm minister follows Oshima's lead

New agriculture minister Yoshiyuki Kamei said Tuesday he will seek a "realistic and balanced" agreement on farm trade liberalization during World Trade Organization negotiations, adopting the same stance as his disgraced predecessor.
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2003

Two Japan medical teams in Iraq to leave due to deteriorating security

Japan decided Monday to expedite the pullout of two medical teams in Iraq due to deteriorating security, Senior Vice Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said.
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2003

Truant kids tend to stay away up to two years, study finds

Children who refuse to go to school due to bullying and other reasons miss an average of 18 months to two years of class, according to a recent report by the education ministry.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 30, 2003

Was WWF3 a washout for citizens' rights?

While the outbreak of war in Iraq may have disrupted proceedings at the Third World Water Forum being held in Kansai, it also lent them deeper significance.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2003

Yakuza pestering civil servants

A National Police Agency poll of 2,956 local-government departments that deal directly with the public found that about 30 percent of them have had confrontations with gangsters, and around 70 percent of those faced extortionist demands in the past year alone.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2003

More exceptions to preadmission exam eyed

A plan by the education ministry to allow graduates of Western-style schools to skip the preadmission tests for national university entrance exams may be expanded to include graduates of ethnic Asian schools, education minister Atsuko Toyama said Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2003

Offensive capability may be needed: Ishiba

Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba said Thursday "it is worth considering" whether Japan needs an offensive military capability to protect itself from missile strikes.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2003

With Hu comes a hint of interesting times

HAINAN, China -- The 3,000-plus delegates to the annual two-week meeting of China's National People's Congress, or NPC, have packed their bags and gone home. It was an unusually important meeting this year. In addition to the usual rubber-stamping of the Chinese Communist Party's policy proposals for...
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2003

25,296 without homes: survey

The number of homeless people in Japan stood at 25,296 earlier this year, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2003

Lower House seeks Sakai's resignation

The House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday calling for Takanori Sakai, a Lower House member arrested earlier this month for allegedly falsifying political funds reports, to resign.
BUSINESS
Mar 25, 2003

Fukui weighs up asset risk options

BOJ Gov. Toshihiko Fukui indicated Monday that he is willing to consider measures such as buying riskier assets from banks to help money flow into the economy, although he added that the central bank must tread lightly.
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2003

Water forum closes amid clash over privatization

KYOTO -- For eight days, and at a considerable cost to local taxpayers, the World Water Forum brought together international corporations in the water supply business, World Bank officials and a large number of Japanese construction and design firms, as well as senior government officials and thousands...
COMMENTARY
Mar 24, 2003

Smashing the payoff triangle

The history of the Liberal Democratic Party includes a long list of money scandals. The recent arrest of Lower House lawmaker Takanori Sakai, charged with violating the Political Funds Control Law, is the latest reminder.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 23, 2003

Practice makes perfect

COPYING THE MASTER AND STEALING HIS SECRETS, edited by Brenda Jordan and Victoria Weston, with an introduction by J. Thomas Rimer. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2003, 248 pp., 14 color plates, 52 monochrome photos, $50 (cloth) As Thomas Rimer writes in his introduction to this interesting collection...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 22, 2003

Painter enhances nature to give ikebana new life

About to spend four days in Tokyo curating her students' work for an exhibition -- "Collaboration with Nature" -- at Sogetsu Kaikan in Akasaka, Liga Pang juggles cooking lunch and packing bags as we talk.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.