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SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Oct 3, 2002

New J. League boss to build on World Cup

On July 23, former Kashima Antlers president Masaru Suzuki succeeded Saburo Kawabuchi as J. League chairman after Kawabuchi retired from the post and moved on to take office as president of the Japan Football Association.
COMMENTARY
Sep 29, 2002

Signs the EU is coming of age

PARIS -- The most striking fact to emerge from the recent Germany elections is that for the first time a majority of voters in a EU member-state has been motivated by foreign-policy concerns. In the past, the country's worsening economic situation and high unemployment rate would have cost Chancellor...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Sep 29, 2002

How is marine Miyakejima now?

In early July 2000, Miyakejima Island's 7,000-year-old volcano roared back to life. Continual eruptions led to the entire population being evacuated over the next two months as emissions of very fine, extremely heavy ash were replaced by lethal gases gushing daily from a new 400-meter-deep crater. What...
COMMENTARY
Sep 28, 2002

U.S. report surprises few, worries many

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- I spent a week earlier this month in Vladivostok, Russia, lecturing to university students. Focusing on U.S. foreign policy, I was trying -- honestly, I can say -- to convince them that American foreign policy was less unilateralist than it seemed, and that the U.S. didn't deserve...
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2002

Arrest rate sinks below 20% amid crime surge

The arrest rate fell below 20 percent in 2001 for the first time since the end of World War II, according to the National Police Agency's annual white paper.
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2002

Pyongyang must tell the full story

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's meeting Friday with the families of those abducted by North Korean agents made it unmistakably clear that the understanding and support of those relatives -- and of the Japanese public in general -- is essential to progress in the normalization talks that are expected...
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Sep 27, 2002

It really is sink or swim in Japanese schools

Life is never dull when your children attend local school in a foreign country. My kids have been in Japanese school for two years, but things still catch me by surprise. My daily thrill, if you can call it that, is reviewing the stacks of purinto (handouts) from the school. I never know quite what I'm...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2002

Strike a balance in the Security Council

SEOUL -- While virtually all countries are agreed on the danger posed by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's surreptitious efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD), this is not the only -- or even the main danger -- facing the international community over how to respond to Iraq's noncompliance...
EDITORIALS
Sep 26, 2002

A harmful exception to the rule

Banking reform in Japan continues to disappoint. The general perception is that both authorities and banks are mostly taking stopgap measures, such as the Bank of Japan's plan to buy bank shares. Another notable example of expediency is the de facto reversal of the government decision to abolish full...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 26, 2002

Ozone hole? Soon it could be . . . 'what hole?'

Despite the international set-to over Iraq and caustic reviews for the recent U.N. Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, there is still some good news on cooperation and the environment.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Sep 25, 2002

Tumultuous art made in tumultuous times

It is always a pleasure to spotlight an exhibition that seems to have slipped in under the art radar, as is the case with the group show "Quobo -- Art in Berlin 1989-1999" now at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Sep 25, 2002

Laurel Aitken

In 1962, Jamaica achieved independence from Great Britain and the cocky, joyous feel of ska soon sprang up to embody the exuberance of the tiny island. Sadly, Jamaica's early expectations for independence were soon soured by poverty, violence and corruption. Reflecting the mood of the island, ska, too,...
BUSINESS
Sep 24, 2002

'Al-Qaeda' economist slams band-aid mentality

Masaru Kaneko calls himself an "al-Qaeda" among economic academics, noting that his position has won him no sympathy from the mainstream.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Sep 23, 2002

Youth must lead creative destruction

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The turn of the century is an important opportunity to engage in questioning and re-evaluating some of the global community's basic tenets, assumptions, policies and directions. On these matters we are being well-served by some excellent books.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2002

Media coverage of abductions criticized

OSAKA -- Korean residents of Japan expressed concern Friday over what they feel has been excessive coverage by the Japanese media of the North Korean abductions but comparatively scarce debate over Japan's legacy of its colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ENERGY EQUATION
Sep 21, 2002

Public role key to green-energy foothold

OSAKA -- While nuclear power provides about one-third of Japan's electricity, the government's goal for raising the share of alternative energy sources is a modest one -- from the current 1.2 percent to a mere 3.2 percent by 2010.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2002

Koizumi hints rice aid to North Korea may resume

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi indicated Friday that Japan may resume rice aid to North Korea before normalization of bilateral relations.
EDITORIALS
Sep 20, 2002

Following up the Pyongyang summit

North Korea's acknowledgment of its involvement in the kidnappings of Japanese nationals marks a major milestone in the off-and-on normalization talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang that began in 1991. With the negotiations resuming next month, following Tuesday's summit agreement between Prime Minister...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2002

U.S. seeks Japan support on Iraq, come what may

Despite Iraq's pledge Monday to grant United Nations arms inspectors unconditional access to suspected weapons sites, the international community should keep a watchful eye on Baghdad's next move, according to a U.S. expert on Middle East and Asia-Pacific security.
BUSINESS / ANOTHER LOOK
Sep 16, 2002

Outsourcing offers Japan Inc. a viable, new cost-cutting option

Regardless of the size of a company's operations, one of the most pressing issues for management is reduction of costs. With very low economic growth likely to continue for some time and deflation placing pressure on prices in many different industry sectors, management is being called upon to make more...
BUSINESS
Sep 16, 2002

Mortgage-lending confab aims to fire up European market

The movers and shakers of Europe's mortgage-lending industry are to attend an unprecedented conference that starts in Madrid on Sept. 22 in an effort to find solutions in light of globalization and ensuing difficulties they currently face -- including dilution within the financial services industry and...
COMMENTARY
Sep 15, 2002

Weaning Afghanistan off militarization

ISLAMABAD -- The U.N. secretary general's special representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, could not have chosen a more precise way to underline Afghanistan's predicament. During his latest trip to the central Asian country, he favored spending more on reconstruction and development work to rebuild...
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2002

KANSAI: Who & What

Women execs offered medical system info: Foreign Executive Women in Kansai, an organization of non-Japanese professional women working in the region, is hosting a dinner meeting from 6 p.m. on Sept. 26 at Hilton Osaka in the city's Kita Ward.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 15, 2002

A river of ill repute

THE MEKONG: Turbulent Past, Uncertain Future, by Milton Osborn. Allen & Unwin, 2001, 295 pp., b/w & color photos, $25 (cloth) The waters of the Mekong, the world's 12th-longest and Southeast Asia's foremost river, do not, like the Thames, run sweetly. Nor have they inspired poets to dream on the river's...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 15, 2002

The science of fiction: telling history as it was, and as it wasn't

DECEMBER 6, by Martin Cruz Smith (published in Britain as TOKYO STATION). Simon & Schuster: New York, 2002, 352 pp., $26 (cloth) THE MASTER OF RAIN, by Tom Bradby. Doubleday: New York, 2002, 452 pp., $24.95 (cloth) Try to imagine, for a moment, if Rick Blaine, the hardened expat cafe owner portrayed...
EDITORIALS
Sep 14, 2002

China's about-face on AIDS

After denying for years that it had a problem, China last week acknowledged the HIV-AIDS epidemic that is sweeping that country. But the relief that greeted this long-overdue candor was tempered by Beijing's admission that it has also detained the country's most outspoken AIDS advocate -- for exposing...
COMMENTARY
Sep 14, 2002

It's folly for U.S. to go it alone

LONDON -- "Go it alone" is clearly the prevailing mood in Washington. Officials and commentators alike argue that with the United States' overwhelming military might and Europe's alleged weakness, the world must be set right by unilateral American action, and the international community can either like...

Longform

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