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Reader Mail
Jun 3, 2007

Old image of Serbia sells

The May 24 article "Appeasing Serbia hurts EU," by Natasa Kandic and Mabel Van Oranje, is one-sided in the sense that it focuses on Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica without making single mention of the more democratic President Boris Tadic, who is far more dedicated to turning former Bosnian...
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2007

Ex-farm bureaucrat takes helm at ministry

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has appointed a 48-year-old agriculture policy expert in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and a former farm ministry bureaucrat as the new farm minister to replace Toshikatsu Matsuoka, who committed suicide Monday.
COMMENTARY
Jun 1, 2007

Name game toughens Taiwanese parties

HONG KONG — The dispute over the renaming of a memorial hall in Taiwan would be hilarious if it were not for the very serious political tensions that are pitting the two main political parties against each other.
JAPAN / Q&A
Jun 1, 2007

Poll-wary ruling bloc gropes to fix pension fiasco

The government is facing a crisis over its handling of the creaky public pension system, in part because the Social Insurance Agency scrambled the data on 50 million premium payments during a bungled shift to computerization in the 1980s. Since it cannot identify who made the payments, many pensioners...
SOCCER
May 30, 2007

Andean nations protest FIFA ruling on altitude

LA PAZ (AP) Bolivia President Evo Morales says FIFA's decision to ban all international soccer matches above 2,500 meters discriminates against Latin America's high-altitude nations.
EDITORIALS
May 30, 2007

Suicide that conceals facts

The suicide of farm minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka amid political funds scandals is both shocking and sad. It is regrettable that he chose to kill himself rather than sincerely answer questions over the suspicions surrounding him. Mr. Matsuoka's suicide should come as a political blow to Prime Minister...
EDITORIALS
May 28, 2007

Strategic Economic Dialogue stumbles

The increasingly shrill dialogue between the United States and China over economic issues should sound familiar to many Japanese. A swelling U.S. trade deficit with China has led to demands by Washington for the revaluation of the Chinese currency, threats of trade sanctions from Congress, and angry...
COMMENTARY
May 28, 2007

More compelling than common sense

The following statement appeared in an article on the opinion page of The Japan Times in July 2003: "The main result of the U.S. action (in Iraq) will probably be to turn a nation free from al-Qaida links into yet another hotbed of anti-U.S. 'terrorism,' and to push one of the few secular Middle Eastern...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 27, 2007

Baby hatch gives rise to empty moralizing

Every year the national Parent-Teacher Association conducts a survey to find out which television shows people either want or don't want their children to watch. Two programs always make it to the top of the disapproval list: "London Hearts," a variety show hosted by the coarse comedy duo London Boots,...
JAPAN
May 25, 2007

Survivors of WWII air raids begin case for compensation

Civilian survivors of U.S. air raids on Tokyo during World War II testified in court Thursday in a bid to win compensation for their suffering and, ultimately, to put the brakes on the government's drive to amend the war-renouncing Constitution.
JAPAN
May 24, 2007

Matsuoka tells Diet he won't talk about office expenses

in attendance. KYODO PHOTO
COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2007

Appeasing Serbia hurts EU

This month has been a bad one for the cause of human rights in Europe, as Serbia was allowed to begin its six-month presidency of the Council of Europe, the Continent's oldest political body.
BUSINESS
May 24, 2007

Rules on U.S. beef stay: government

There are no immediate plans to relax the food-safety restrictions on imports of U.S. beef despite a decision by an international body that says some of them are not necessary, the government said Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 18, 2007

Panel mulls lowering voting age to 18

A government panel that is expected to lower the voting age to 18 held their first meeting Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 18, 2007

Economy grew just 0.6% in quarter

The economy grew 0.6 percent in the January-March quarter for the ninth consecutive quarter of growth after corporate spending slowed, the Cabinet Office said in a preliminary report released Thursday.
EDITORIALS
May 17, 2007

Politicians must come clean

The Tokyo High Court has given a suspended 10-month prison term to former Chief Cabinet Secretary Kanezo Muraoka for hiding a 100 million yen donation from the Japan Dental Association to the Liberal Democratic Party's then top faction headed by the late Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto. The crux of...

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
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