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Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Dec 5, 2002

Vital links in a flyway chain

Amazingly, we continue to take fresh water for granted. This precious resource is vital for our survival and that of a vast array of other species, from microscopic creatures and aquatic insects, to fish and hordes of birds. In Lake Baikal in Siberia, at 1,737 meters the deepest lake in the world, there...
COMMENTARY
Dec 3, 2002

Japan must do its part in war

The Japanese government, acting under a special antiterrorism law, decided Nov. 19 to extend Japan's logistic support for U.S. forces for six months through next May. The decision calls for dispatching a transport ship and an escort destroyer to deliver heavy machinery from Thailand to Qatar for airfield...
COMMENTARY
Dec 1, 2002

Accusations put Pakistan on defensive

ISLAMABAD -- Weeks of adverse publicity surrounding the alleged exchange of Pakistan's nuclear knowhow for North Korea's missile technology has a familiar ring for South Asia's second-largest country. Many of the latest allegations have emerged from American newspaper sources. Although U.S. Secretary...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2002

Public art promoter pitches tours to take in Japan's aesthetic heritage

In the 1960s, contemporary art objects, usually sculptures, were brought out of museums and placed in public spaces, lumped under the category of public art.
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2002

Banks pushed on restructure efforts

Cabinet ministers urged the nation's major banks Tuesday to make further restructuring efforts to improve their financial health.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 27, 2002

Groove Collective forged in the fires of a mad experiment

In the fall of 1995, I spent many nights in a dank basement club called the Cooler, a former refrigerated warehouse in Manhattan's Meatpacking District. The neighborhood was raw -- the slaughterhouse smell of blood and death had coagulated in the cobblestones of Gansevoort Street and at night tall transvestite...
Japan Times
JAPAN / THROUGH THE DOOR
Nov 26, 2002

Japan tries to reform refugee system

Japan has often been criticized for closing its doors to asylum seekers. Following the high-profile incident in May at the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang, China, in which Japanese officials let Chinese police take a family of North Korean asylum seekers out of the compound, the government has...
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Nov 24, 2002

Author tells how individuals sacrificed for the company

Although Japan achieved high economic growth by increasing its industrial productivity, the group-oriented work system that formed the basis of that development effectively sacrificed the rights of the individual, according to freelance journalist Satoshi Kamata.
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2002

Lawyers call for execution debate

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations agreed Friday to draft guidelines for legislation to place a moratorium on executions to provide an opportunity for public debate on the matter.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 24, 2002

Spotlight on Sri Lanka

PROFILING SRI LANKAN CINEMA, by Wimal Dissanayake and Ashley Ratnavibhushana. Sri Lanka: Asian Film Center, 2000, 46 monochrome photos, 152 pp., $25 (paper) In this comprehensive history of Sri Lankan film, the authors suggest four levels through which a national cinema might be understood. First, it...
EDITORIALS
Nov 22, 2002

Achilles' heel in FTA progress

In a major shift of trade strategy, Japan is moving toward concluding bilateral and regional free-trade agreements. In January of this year the nation signed its first FTA with Singapore. Now it is negotiating a similar arrangement with Mexico. And looming over the horizon are FTAs with South Korea and...
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2002

Sept. 11 radically shifts policy priorities for U.S.

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have radically altered the policy priorities of the United States, which could have wide-ranging international implications for years to come, according to American experts taking part in a recent seminar in Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2002

NGO envoy views groups' activities as an effective form of diplomacy

Nongovernmental organizations play an extremely important role abroad, with their activities constituting an effective form of diplomacy, according to a new ambassador tasked with overseeing Japanese NGOs.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 21, 2002

Menopause for thought on heart attacks

In the years leading up to menopause, usually from the ages of 45 to 54, a woman's ovaries start to shrink, and the levels of the female hormones they produce, estrogen and progesterone, become irregular.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2002

Comatose man's kin irate as assailant still at large

A 41-year-old man who was punched by a passenger as he was getting off a train at a Tokyo station earlier this month remains in a coma and his assailant is still at large, much to the anger of the victim's family.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 20, 2002

Giambi sees big things ahead for 'Godzilla'

As hard as it is to imagine a Japanese ballplayer batting in the heart of the order for the New York Yankees, Jason Giambi won't second-guess Hideki Matsui's potential.
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2002

Government overspent in resort development

The government grossly overestimated demand and unnecessarily invested large sums in designated resort areas in 41 prefectures based on a law to promote and develop resort-related industries, according to a draft report by a study group of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2002

Group calls for end to flight drills

A group of local governments neighboring the U.S. Air Force Yokota base on Monday asked the national government to take measures to suspend all flight drills from the base, local government officials said.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Nov 18, 2002

Benefits of opening up to foreign labor

HONG KONG -- In the previous article in this series, I asked whether capitalism would be sustainable into the 21st century. In the article before that, I emphasized that never had the world seen so many democracies, but warned that there were risks that the conditions for maintaining the momentum of...
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2002

Emission-trading market to be tested in January

Japan is preparing for the test-run from next January of an emissions-trading market designed to combat global warming.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 16, 2002

East meets West moves over for East meets East

While accepting that cultural exchange is hardly a new concept, Astrid (de los Rios) Nishimaki has her own very individual slant on the subject. "My aim is to bring Latin America, Arab countries and Japan closer together through the lingua franca of artists and creators."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 16, 2002

Michiko Mitarai

This week has seen ceremonies setting up a new relationship between Goucher College, Baltimore, and Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo. An agreement reached for cultural and educational exchange between the two institutions represents, in fact, a rediscovery of an old, essential connection. For Michiko...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 15, 2002

Trade pact could trap ASEAN into state of irrelevance

HONOLULU -- Supporters of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) argue that numbers tell the story. And indeed, they do.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2002

Plan to accommodate abductees mulled

The government will soon compile a plan for the nation to take in the five Japanese abductees whom North Korea recently allowed to return home and their immediate families once Pyongyang agrees to let them leave, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Nov 14, 2002

Economy ratchets up 0.7% but downswing taking hold

The nation's economy spurted forward in the July-September quarter, growing 0.7 percent from the previous quarter, the Cabinet Office said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Nov 14, 2002

Profits must answer to ethics, expert says

The seemingly endless series of corporate scandals emerging around the world underscores the point that responsible business management is in the long term vital to making profits, according to the leader of a global group that promotes business ethics.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 13, 2002

Analysts skeptical over 'industrial revival body'

It might work. But probably not.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2002

Corporate whistle-blowers still left out in the cold

Prompted by a recent spate of corporate misdeeds, moves are afoot, albeit slowly, to provide legal protection for whistle-blowers.

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