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Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Aug 25, 2002

Hamako fires from the lips at today's lackluster Diet ranks

There have been many politicians who were well-known for their outspokenness while still serving in the legislature.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 24, 2002

Taking kids on a Disneyland home stay

If you stay in Japan long enough, there will come a time, equal to that of the Super Lotto, called "ongaeshi," when you have to pay back people who have helped you along your rocky limestone road to a comfortable life in Japan. I'm pretty sure that's why Japanese people always ask how long you have been...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 22, 2002

Seeking medical redress and keeping control of Spam

What a day we live in! I am writing this week's column from Los Angeles, where The Japan Helpline began in 1975 and where we have our U.S. offices. As usual, we had an emergency here!
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2002

English school exec sees kids as growth market

English-conversation schools in Japan are facing a major business opportunity as demand for their services for children increases, according to a senior local official of a top chain of foreign-language schools.
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2002

Employee-leasing agencies helping Chinese computer engineers to cash in

More Chinese computer engineers are coming to Japan via temporary-staff employment agencies, and some of them are finding a niche in the information technology industry, earning as much as 10 million yen a year.
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2002

Bon returnees weigh down transport

The return rush from the Bon midsummer holidays continued Sunday as vacationers jammed roads, railway stations and airports while returning to Tokyo from hometowns and tourist resorts throughout Japan.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Aug 19, 2002

Raze the barriers to inward investment

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The 21st century has not gotten off to a particularly brilliant start. Greed, corruption and dishonesty are pervasive. Scandals are rocking the world of business and politics in America and Europe. The chances of the Bush/Cheney administration becoming paralyzed by investigations...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 18, 2002

A monarchy for the masses

THE PEOPLE'S EMPEROR: Democracy and the Japanese Monarchy 1945-1995, by Kenneth J. Ruoff. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Ma., 2001, 331 pp., $45 (cloth) This intriguing and rewarding monograph examines the manner in which the Emperor system has been reinvented in postwar Japan to reflect and reinforce...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 16, 2002

Japanese rugby gears up for professionalism

Summer used to be a time for rugby players to either relax or pursue other sporting interests. Between the end of season tour (which generally involved a lot of drinking with a little rugby thrown in) and the start of preseason training in late August there was plenty of opportunity to pursue other interests....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2002

WWII survivors fear return to warpath

As wartime memories have faded in the 57 years since Japan's surrender in World War II, many aging survivors are anxious that the nation might follow the same path to war again.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2002

JETRO eyes networking role

To help revitalize the nation's economy, the Japan External Trade Organization must play a key role in supporting Japanese firms in building business networks in East Asia and invite foreign companies into Japan, the new JETRO chairman said.
COMMENTARY
Aug 15, 2002

The scrapheap of the brave

The fuss surrounding the Diet resignation of former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka has seen Japan and its media at their shallow, group-think, conservative, anti-individualist worst.
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2002

Settler, 22, struggles in bid to come to grips with Japanese, Chinese roots

Guan Lingxiang first came to Japan nine years ago with his parents and sister after his maternal grandmother, a war-displaced Japanese left behind in China in the chaos after World War II, returned to her native country.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2002

Nippon Ham officials grilled over labeling scam

Farm ministry officials on Monday afternoon questioned executives of Nippon Meat Packers Inc., better known as Nippon Ham, in connection with a beef-mislabeling scam involving one of its subsidiaries.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2002

Tour leader opens eyes to harsh realities of Vietnam

HO CHI MINH CITY -- Most tourists don't expect to be scolded by tour operators while vacationing abroad. But that's what they're in for when they join a tour led by Hiromi Tanaka of Sinh Cafe Tours in Vietnam.
COMMUNITY
Aug 11, 2002

One god to rule them all

All new regimes know their enemies. Having swept away the forces of the shogunate, the architects of the 1868 Meiji Restoration found themselves facing another foe. This fifth column was invisible: Its ranks were made up of yokai (ghosts) and bakemono (monsters), kappa (water sprites) and tengu (goblins)....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 10, 2002

For country, for Coca-Cola, for cool companies

Jud Taylor is not only George Taylor, but George P. Taylor IX. His father was a psychologist, his grandfather a doctor and (according to family lore) the generations stretch back to a blacksmith who signed the American Declaration of Independence, for Pennsylvania, in 1776.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 8, 2002

UNEP envoy strikes the right eco-chord

Tokiko Kato has been popular in Japan for decades as a singer and songwriter who is passionate about people and the planet. Two years ago, when the Environment Ministry asked her to act as a Special Envoy to the United Nations Environment Program it was a natural fit. Since then she has established herself...
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2002

Hiroshima mayor calls on the U.S. to 'sever the chain of hatred'

HIROSHIMA -- On the 57th anniversary of the first atomic bombing, the view from this reborn city was of a world that since Sept. 11 has turned its back on the message of the bomb's survivors.
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2002

State has let in three from North Korea

At least three people have been allowed to enter Japan from North Korea with the direct involvement of the Japanese government through secret channels since 1996, it was learned Sunday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 4, 2002

Reform by fiat and persuasion

INSIDE GHQ: The Allied Occupation of Japan and its Legacy, by Eiji Takemae. London: Continuum, 2002, 751 pp., $40 (cloth) The U.S.-led Occupation of Japan ended 50 years ago, but still casts long shadows over the country and remains hotly debated among scholars and pundits. It is indeed fortunate, therefore,...
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2002

Emergency defense legislation believed too vague

Political dynamics aside, even some Defense Agency officials admit the emergency-contingency bills the ruling coalition plans to carry over to the next Diet session were flawed from the start.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

Motorists rebel against exorbitant expressway fares

Hidenori Wago used to get angry when faced with the exorbitant fees exacted at the nation's expressway tollgates. Now, he has a solution: Drive through, don't pay.
COMMUNITY
Jul 30, 2002

Learning goes both ways in JET program

I first came to Japan in 1991 as an English instructor with the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program and ended up staying twice as long as I originally planned. Here are some recollections from that period.

Longform

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