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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
Aug 18, 2003

Responsibility to protect against state abuse

KUALA LUMPUR -- The annual Asia-Pacific Roundtable is an invaluable opportunity to take the pulse of Southeast Asian thinking about security issues. This year's meeting, the 17th, featured the usual U.S. bashing -- a predictable response to overwhelming American power and the Bush administration's readiness...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Aug 17, 2003

Black widows striking back

MOSCOW -- Animalistic labels stick to terror. Adolf Hitler's commandos were called werewolves; terrorist cells in Turkey in the 1970s, gray wolves; now the Russian media have christened Chechen female suicide bombers black widows.
EDITORIALS
Aug 16, 2003

Time to reconfirm postwar values

It seems that the Showa Era (1926-89) -- a turbulent period best remembered for the Pacific War -- is fading fast into the past. Reinforcing that impression is the fact that a bill designating April 29 as "Showa Day," a national holiday dedicated to the memories of the Showa Era, passed the Lower House...
EDITORIALS
Aug 14, 2003

Unconditionally settle abduction issue

Japan and North Korea are expected to discuss the abduction issue on a bilateral basis during the six-nation talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis to be held late this month in Beijing. Japanese negotiators should demand that Pyongyang address this issue in good faith and allow abductees' relatives...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 14, 2003

The identity of the Arab world

DAMASCUS -- Fadil Shururu, chief political officer of Ahmad Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, has come a long way since I first met him 35 years ago in Jordan's Ghor Valley, seedbed of the newborn guerrilla movement that was to liberate the whole of the Palestinian...
COMMENTARY
Aug 13, 2003

U.S. can return to the moral high road

KUALA LUMPUR -- On Aug. 6, peace activists from around the world flocked to Hiroshima to pray for peace and remember those who died when the first nuclear bomb was dropped on that city 58 years ago. More subdued ceremonies marked the anniversary of the second, and we all hope last, use of nuclear weapons...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 13, 2003

Natacha Atlas: "Something Dangerous"

Beyonce Knowles is not a singer I would have pegged as a model for Natacha Atlas, but the coincidental similarities between Atlas' new album, "Something Dangerous," and the Destiny Child leader's chart-topping debut solo joint, "Dangerously in Love," go beyond their titles. Atlas dives headfirst into...
COMMENTARY
Aug 12, 2003

Test for Japanese diplomacy

The standoff over North Korea's nuclear-arms development is entering a new stage as officials of six nations -- the United States, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China -- prepare to meet soon in Beijing to discuss the threat. At Pyongyang's insistence, the U.S. will hold direct talks with...
BUSINESS
Aug 12, 2003

Goodwill sees record profit on outsourcing demand

Human-resources firm Goodwill Group Inc. on Monday reported a record group net profit for the year through June, thanks to strong demand for its outsourcing and nursing-care services.
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...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 9, 2003

U.S. need not fear the ICC

NEW YORK -- In recent years regional courts have been set up in Europe and the Americas to deal with the most serious human rights abuses committed by governments. International "ad hoc" criminal tribunals have been set up to deal with atrocities and massive killings committed in the former Yugoslavia,...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Aug 8, 2003

Agent, PSG made Ronaldinho saga all about the money

LONDON -- Before Manchester United's friendly against Barcelona last Sunday chief executive Peter Kenyon was asked who would be the first player from the Premiership champion to kick Ronaldinho.
EDITORIALS
Aug 6, 2003

Detours on the Mideast 'road map'

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been inching forward. There has been some progress as Palestinian officials continue to try to crack down on terrorists, and Israel dismantles some Jewish settlements in occupied territories. Predictably, each action generates its own reaction. Palestinian militants...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2003

Responsibility for Hiroshima

As Aug. 6 approaches each year, I cannot help wondering how my best friend perished in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Possibly, like many other children, he was burned to death under a collapsed school, where I found the scattered, burned bones of children a few days after the bombing. He was...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 3, 2003

Visitors to stay -- for the time being

GLOBAL JAPAN: The experience of Japan's new immigrant and overseas communities, edited by Roger Goodman, Ceri Peach, Ayumi Takenaka and Paul White. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, 241 pp., £65, (cloth). Many in Japan have been slow to accept the fact that international labor migration does...
COMMENTARY
Aug 2, 2003

Exaggeration leads to tragedy

LONDON -- Politicians always exaggerate, or at least embroider the facts. Like lawyers they have a case to make and an audience to persuade. So they emphasize the strongest points in their argument and slide over the weaker ones.
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2003

Osaka tourism gambling on casinos

OSAKA -- Local convention and tourism officials said Wednesday they would welcome the chance to build casinos here should the central government decide to legalize gambling.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Jul 31, 2003

Guest teachers build barrier-free minds

My 8-year-old wanted to use my computer. "I need to search the Internet for a picture of a kurumaisu," he said, in his usual blend of English and Japanese. Never mind that both his parents are American; he's lived in Japan since he was 5 and attends a Japanese elementary school. This qualifies him as...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 29, 2003

In search of senbei and more culture

Senbei fan Randall writes from California, reporting that around 1900 a Japanese gardener in San Francisco started serving cookies with thank you notes inside at that city's Japanese garden.
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2003

SDF troops will 'definitely' be dispatched to Iraq: Yamasaki

Japan will "definitely" send Self-Defense Forces to Iraq to take part in reconstruction efforts there, Taku Yamasaki, the ruling LDP's No. 2 official, said Sunday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2003

Koizumi vows to consider timing of SDF dispatch to Iraq carefully

The Diet on Saturday enacted controversial legislation to dispatch the Self-Defense Forces to help rebuild Iraq, with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pledging to carefully study the timing for the deployment to help guarantee the troops' safety.
Events
Jul 27, 2003

KANSAI: Who & What

Council to put Takarazuka in spotlight: The British Council's Kyoto office is inviting 60 people to a showing of a documentary film on the Takarazuka Revue, the Japanese all-women revue company, from 4:30 p.m. on Friday at the Japan Foundation's Kyoto Office in Nakagyo Ward.
COMMENTARY
Jul 26, 2003

Timing on dispatch of SDF turns up Koizumi weak spot

A couple of weeks ago I wrote that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was brimming with confidence after a bill proposing special measures to support the reconstruction of Iraq passed the House of Representatives in the National Diet. A likely political scenario for the fall -- one that anticipated a long-term...
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2003

Diet members tour execution chamber

Nine members of the House of Representatives Judicial Affairs Committee visited the Tokyo Detention House in Katsushika Ward on Wednesday morning for a rare view of its execution chamber.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 23, 2003

Top lobby set to restart party donations

The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) hopes to restore its political influence by encouraging member firms to pay donations to parties and by evaluating how the parties measure up.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 22, 2003

All's fare in Japan's cheap travel industry

An airline ad recently caught the eye of this seasoned traveler: "Daily, no-nonsense, non-stop 747 flights to your favorite destinations worldwide."

Longform

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