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Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2003

Counting down to victory, Hanshin fans warned Dotombori River is full of toxic sludge

As ardent Hanshin fans count down to the roaring Tigers' much-awaited baseball title, environmentalists wary of the revelers' ultimate expression of rapture -- a dive into Osaka's Dotombori River -- warn that the waterway is full of toxic sludge.
COMMENTARY
Sep 10, 2003

China-Japan perception gap

WHITE FISH, Montana -- The accidental discovery of buried canisters of mustard gas, abandoned by Japanese troops in China over a half century ago, is only the most recent tangible reminder of the unfinished legacy of World War II. Forty Chinese workers were injured and one died after barrels of nerve...
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2003

Policy package turns out to be a collection of vague promises

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi hopes to realize a primary budget balance in the early 2010s and create more than 5 million jobs, according to his long-awaited policy package released Monday.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2003

Koizumi to pledge 2% nominal growth

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will promise to secure nominal economic growth of at least 2 percent by fiscal 2006 in his policy package for the upcoming Liberal Democratic Party presidential election, a key aide said Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2003

Competing visions fuel leadership struggle

SEATTLE -- The buzz in the media about the "power struggle" between Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and his prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas (also called Abu Mazen), is misleading. The issue at stake is not simply the drive for power.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 7, 2003

For Barry Eisler, when it rains, it pours

In Tokyo this month to promote his latest work and research story ideas, Barry Eisler shares his thoughts on the art of fiction -- and martial arts.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2003

Demand rises for goods from legally logged trees

The popularity of products made from trees certified as having been legally logged is spreading in Japan as consumers become more environmentally aware.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Sep 4, 2003

About the bears and the bees

This story is really about honey, a spoonful of which I have in my morning tea. Without it the day just doesn't seem to go right. Together with my old friend Mr. Shimada, I've been producing the finest honey for the last 20-odd years. However, first I have to tell you about my lovely "false acacia" trees....
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 4, 2003

Labrador tea and forests to walk on

During the heat of a Honshu summer it is hard to imagine that there are hints of tundra here, or that refreshing tea might come from an unusual source. However, the alpine regions of high-altitude Japan, and small areas of the cool, fog-shaded regions closer to sea level in southeast Hokkaido, not only...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2003

Lawmaker wants transplant law revised

Six years after the implementation of the Organ Transplant Law, moves are afoot to alter one of its core conditions for using organs from brain-dead donors -- the donor's prior consent.
COMMENTARY
Sep 2, 2003

One-sided bilateral relations

TOKYO -- The conventional wisdom on the other side of the Pacific is that U.S.-Japan relations are the best they've ever been. The view is very different in Japan. Here, an increasing number of voices argue that the benefits of the relationship only flow one way. On a recent visit, I was continually...
EDITORIALS
Aug 30, 2003

Justice served in Osaka

On June 8, 2001, a disgruntled jobless man stormed an Osaka elementary school, wielding a kitchen knife, and killed eight children and wounded 13 others and two teachers. "This is an unprecedented case of atrocity in the nation's criminal history," the Osaka District Court stated in its death sentence...
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2003

Ogi moves to rescue ailing airlines

Transport minister Chikage Ogi on Friday unveiled a package of comprehensive measures aimed at supporting the troubled airline industry.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Aug 27, 2003

Tabaimo pulls ahead of 'fun art' pack

Although she has only recently turned 28, I am starting to think Tabaimo is one of Japan's most important artists. Here's why.
COMMENTARY
Aug 25, 2003

Japan's global security role

The most important feature of Japan's latest white paper on defense is that it gives new direction to the nation's defense policy. First, the report emphasizes that developing a missile defense system is a "matter of urgent importance for defense policy."
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2003

Encouraging signs from the Chinese world

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- If one focuses on the totality of the Chinese world, there have been several positive signs recently. With international media attention generally fragmented, it perhaps would be worthwhile to try to compile a synthesis of what we have witnessed lately.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 24, 2003

Samurais are in a league of their own

With the launch of the Top League (the new professional league for rugby union in Japan) just three weeks away and the World Cup due to start on Oct. 10, it is easy to forget that there are in fact two codes of rugby.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2003

Making free trade work for all

MANILA -- Trade ministers from around the world will meet in Cancun, Mexico, next month to assess progress in making the ongoing series of World Trade Organization negotiations a "development round." Their success in achieving that goal will have a profound effect on the future of hundreds of millions...
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2003

Japan missing out on Chinese legal advice: lawyer

Japanese firms should make better use of local legal services to control the risk of doing business in China as the country continues its progress toward the "rule of law," a Shanghai-based lawyer said at a recent seminar in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2003

Enronization of the Bush administration

WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush has become the new Kenneth Lay. As chief executive officer of the former juggernaut Enron Corp., Lay presided over a network of deception and malfeasance that led to one of the greatest investor ripoffs in U.S. corporate history. Enron inflated reported income and...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Aug 16, 2003

Gopalakrishnan Venkataraman

For Gopalakrishnan Venkataraman, his work is his passion. Newly appointed as regional director, East Asia, of Indiatourism, he could hardly be a happier man. He believes in his product. It excites him. India, he says, is a journey of mind and soul, of the five senses, of self-discovery and self-fulfillment....
EDITORIALS
Aug 15, 2003

Ambiguous signs of economic change

At first glance, Japan's latest GDP figures look impressive. In the second quarter of this year, April through June, the gross domestic product in real terms, excluding the effects of price change, expanded 0.6 percent from the previous quarter for an annualized rate of 2.3 percent. Thus the economy...
EDITORIALS
Aug 12, 2003

Time to rethink Japan-China ties

A quarter century ago, on Aug. 12, 1978, Japan and China signed a treaty of peace and friendship in Beijing, putting a legal end to the technical state of war between the two nations. With the United States and the Soviet Union locked in the Cold War, however, the treaty talks reflected the hard realities...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 10, 2003

Making tracks across moor and marsh

In the autumn of 1865, two Victorian gentlemen set off on foot from the Yorkshire town of Settle. They walked north through moorland haunted by the lonely cry of rooks, struggled through marshes, scaled mountains, skirted lethal potholes, were lashed by shrieking winds and stinging rain and, for most...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2003

Japanese nuclear arsenal looks unlikely

WASHINGTON -- Speculation is rife about whether North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons could drive Japan to develop a nuclear arsenal. Some opinion leaders have even suggested that America should exploit this prospect to scare China into resolving the North Korea nuclear crisis. However, the reality...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 10, 2003

EDO: City spirit of an era

Whether it's the floating world of ukiyo-e, the stately rites of sumo, the meticulous craft of netsuke, the minimalist art of Japanese gardens or the decorums of the samurai, what we today regard as the traditional values of Japan took shape in what's known as the Edo Period.
EDITORIALS
Aug 9, 2003

SDF must meet constitutional tenets

It has been 50 years since the Self-Defense Forces were created to protect the peace and independence of Japan and to deal with foreign acts of aggression. It is fitting, therefore, that the white paper on Japan's defense for this milestone year, released this week by the Defense Agency, takes up future...
BUSINESS
Aug 9, 2003

McDonald's cuts annual forecast

Struggling restaurant chain McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan) on Friday cut its full-year earnings forecast by about 50 percent due to weak sales during the first half of the year.
BUSINESS
Aug 6, 2003

Tokyo deletes 'weak' from economic outlook

The government Tuesday raised its assessment of the economy for the first time in five months in the wake of a recent stock rally and new signals from the United States.
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ARCHIPELA-GO
Aug 3, 2003

Where the crowds head to cool off

With the rainy season coming to a close, Japan starts to slide into its dog days. As thermometer and hygrometer levels nudge to swelteringly high levels, many Tokyoites feel the burning need to escape the busy, cramped shopping streets of the city and find relief and peace of mind . . . in the busy,...

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat