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EDITORIALS
May 5, 2003

Compromise for Mideast peace

A new road map for peace in the Middle East has been proposed to the two parties in the conflict, Israel and Palestine. The Palestine problem is the main focus in ascertaining the shape of a new order in the Middle East following the Iraq war. The new plan, which aims for a comprehensive settlement,...
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2003

State-paid pensions short on funds, faith

Mariko Horiuchi, a 30-year-old part-time English-language teacher living in Tokyo, wonders if she should trust what the government promises for her future: a sound retirement covered by state pension benefits.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2003

CPI declines for fifth straight year

The key gauge of nationwide consumer prices fell 0.8 percent in fiscal 2002 from the previous year, declining for the fifth consecutive year, the longest skein on record, the government said in a preliminary report Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2003

Death sentence for killer confirmed

The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday upheld the death sentence for a man convicted of murdering six female employees during a jewelry store raid in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, in June 2000.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2003

Aum flailing amid vacuum left by Asahara

In early February, a 37-year-old former member of Aum Shinrikyo launched a Web site featuring transcripts of past lectures by the cult's founder, Shoko Asahara.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 22, 2003

ASIMO gets job at Takashimaya

ASIMO, the humanoid robot developed by Honda Motor Co., started work Monday as a department store clerk for customer services at Takashimaya Co. in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Apr 19, 2003

Industrial output figure upgraded

Industrial production in February was revised upward to a seasonally adjusted fall of 1.6 percent from January, according to a report Friday by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
Japan Times
JAPAN / INTERNATIONAL RATIONALE
Apr 9, 2003

Domestic firms missing out on slice of medical device market

Dr. Kiyoshi Namba is a hard-core believer in medical technology. A breast cancer specialist, Namba has invested heavily in state-of-the-art medical equipment at his two clinics in Miyazaki Prefecture, claiming this provides exactly what he needs to counter the killer disease -- the earliest detection...
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2003

FTC fines firms over cartel formation

The Fair Trade Commission has ordered three petrochemical firms to pay a total of 2.04 billion yen in fines for forming a polypropylene price cartel in 2000, FTC officials said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2003

80% fear Japan will be involved in war

Looking apprehensive, Masaharu Ito sits on a bench beside an approach road lined with stalls leading to Kogan Temple in Tokyo's Toshima ward. He has just finished paying homage at the shrine.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 30, 2003

Was WWF3 a washout for citizens' rights?

While the outbreak of war in Iraq may have disrupted proceedings at the Third World Water Forum being held in Kansai, it also lent them deeper significance.
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2003

Raising access fees would hurt NTT as well as rivals: telecom expert

A fierce battle is raging within the telecom sector over whether the access fees charged by NTT firms for use of their telephone infrastructure should be raised.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Mar 26, 2003

Life: the home movie, Japan: the video game

Two very different female video artists have brought pleasantly complementary exhibitions of their recent work to the Tokyo Opera City Gallery. Elija-Liisa Ahtila, 43, from Finland, and Japanese artist Tabaimo, 27, both opened with impressive solo efforts at the spacious Shinjuku gallery Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2003

Magazine vindicated in top court privacy ruling

The Supreme Court on Friday overturned a Nagoya High Court ruling that ordered a weekly magazine to pay compensation for violating the privacy of a man accused of taking part in murders in 1994 when he was a minor.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 15, 2003

Air Shakur dies after accident

Air Shakur, winner of the Satsuki-sho and the Kikka-sho in 2000, died Thursday evening due to complications from a broken leg, the Japan Racing Association said Friday.
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2003

CGPI slips year on year, rises month on month

The corporate goods price index fell 0.9 percent in February from a year earlier, the Bank of Japan said in a preliminary report Thursday.
COMMENTARY
Mar 9, 2003

Bush will need a quick victory over Iraq

HONOLULU -- Last week U.S. President George W. Bush laid out his vision for the Middle East. For the most part, the text read like any other: It was a stump speech designed to drum up support for "regime change" in Iraq.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 9, 2003

All eyes on Russia's Far East

RUSSIA'S FAR EAST: A Region at Risk, edited by Judith Thornton and Charles E. Ziegler. Seattle: National Bureau of Asian Research, University of Washington Press, 2002, 498 pp. (paper). The Russian Far East is a land of contradictions. It is a vast territory of 6.2 million sq. km., roughly one-third...
COMMENTARY
Mar 8, 2003

Japan's oil diplomacy is dead

LOS ANGELES -- Since September 2001, Tokyo has come a long way toward redefining its international security interests. One significant result of this is that should any American hostages be taken in the war with Iraq or anywhere else in the Middle East, the Japanese are not likely to be indifferent to...
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2003

Second surrogate birth comes amid moves for ban

A maternity clinic in Nagano Prefecture that in 2001 helped in Japan's first birth from a surrogate mother assisted in the birth of a second child through the same method last year, according to lawyers.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2003

Official handed suspended term

The Tokyo District Court handed a former Foreign Ministry official a suspended prison term Thursday for misusing funds and rigging bids for government aid projects for Russia.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 6, 2003

Do you want to live forever? We might do soon

The Anglo-Irish poet Jonathan Swift said "Every man desires to live long; but no man would be old."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2003

Flood of opinions solicited for water forum

OSAKA -- Water is everyone's business, and so it is perhaps only natural that preparations for the Third World Water Forum -- which starts later this month in the Kansai region -- include activities to raise awareness and get the public more involved.
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2003

Sharp collared in tax-evasion bid

OSAKA -- The Osaka Regional Taxation Bureau has told Sharp Corp. that it failed to declare 400 million yen in income over three years to last March 31, including 100 million yen the firm deliberately hid, sources said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Feb 28, 2003

EU approves Mitsubishi Electric codes

An influential European Union board has approved two types of ciphers developed by Mitsubishi Electric Corp. as "highly practical and strong cryptographic algorithms," the electronics company said Thursday.
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2003

Wanted Red Army member left trail in Philippines

Kunio Bando, a key member of the Japanese Red Army militant group who is on an international wanted list, may have been in the Philippines around summer 2000, according to sources.

Longform

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