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EDITORIALS
Feb 10, 2002

The lion king of Kabul

He was the most famous lion in the world," says the hand-painted metal sign hanging on an empty cage amid the ruins of Kabul's Zoo. His name was Marjan, and though the sign makes a bold claim on his behalf, it doesn't exaggerate.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 10, 2002

Wine-lovers go loco for Coco

ASHIKAGA, Tochigi Pref. -- Five hectares of misty hillside in Tochigi Prefecture contain one of Japan's best-kept secrets -- a tiny vineyard that may one day become this country's first producer of world-class wines.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Feb 10, 2002

Battle begins for security, 'other stuff'

WASHINGTON -- In his first formal State of the Union address, President George W. Bush portrayed the terrorism threat in stark detail, disclosing that American forces in Afghanistan have found diagrams of U.S. nuclear power plants and suggested that "tens of thousands of trained terrorists are still...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2002

Hire women, aged before foreigners, expert says

While Japan's unemployment rate is hovering at its worst level in the postwar era and manufacturers are shifting production abroad for cheaper labor, foreign workers seem to be enjoying their share of demand.
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2002

E-symposium finds solving conflicts peacefully requires long-term view

The e-symposium on conflict prevention entered its second day Thursday, with panelists concluding that peaceful resolutions to conflicts require a long-term view.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2002

Kansai forum hears calls for innovation

OSAKA -- "No guts, no glory" was the rallying cry for nearly 400 Kansai area business and government leaders Thursday, the opening day of the 40th annual Kansai Economic Seminar.
JAPAN / WORKING IT OUT
Feb 8, 2002

Calls mount for work-sharing as jobless ranks soar

KOBE -- Hatsue Okada, a 33-year-old nurse, works between 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. three days a week at a day-care center for elderly people in Kakogawa, Hyogo Prefecture.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2002

Investors shaky as critical phase looms

Tokyo stocks tumbled across the board again this week, mirroring a wholesale collapse in investor confidence.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2002

Canberra sticks to its policy on illegal immigrants despite growing protests

SYDNEY -- Just as Australian Prime Minister John Howard was addressing world economic leaders in New York on the profits to be made from investing here, Afghan asylum seekers held in detention camps in the Australian desert were trying to die in hunger strikes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 6, 2002

From Dakota to Nagoya with a pirouette

Next week will see the great and the good of the ballet world descend on Nagoya for the Fourth Japan International Ballet and Modern Dance Competition. This triennial event, inaugurated in 1993, is unusual among leading international dance competitions in featuring simultaneous classical and modern dance...
Japan Times
JAPAN / WORKING IT OUT
Feb 5, 2002

Are 'freeters' result of slump, source of next one?

Tomoko Noguchi, 22, got her first bar hostess job about three years ago, while studying to become an aesthetician at a vocational school.
COMMUNITY
Feb 3, 2002

Of nationhood and identity

Writer Ian Buruma was born in the Netherlands in 1951. He attended university in Japan and has spent a large part of his adult life in Asia. His nonfiction works include "The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and Japan," "Behind the Mask," "A Japanese Mirror" and "Voltaire's Coconuts." Buruma...
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2002

Despite being born in Japan, 7-year-old is deemed stateless

Ken was born in Japan to Thai parents. But Japan, where the nationality law is based on lineage rather than birthplace, considers him stateless.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 2, 2002

Lynn Hannachi

"Particularly at the present time, it is important to us to present Arab countries in a positive light. There is so much negative writing in the media, we seize the opportunities we can to portray our countries in favorable aspects," said Lynn Hannachi.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2002

Finance Ministry tries to regain past clout

The Finance Ministry, which once enjoyed the prestige of being the nation's top bureaucratic body but saw its power and influence erode in the late 1990s in a series of scandals, appears to be aligning with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's political initiatives to regain its former status.
EDITORIALS
Jan 29, 2002

Mr. Arafat's dwindling options

Jaffa Street is a popular thoroughfare in downtown Jerusalem, its stores and sidewalks invariably crowded with shoppers and pedestrians. It has also become one of the bloodiest frontlines in the war between Israel and Palestinians. Last week alone, there were two terrorist attacks on Jaffa Street. The...
BUSINESS
Jan 29, 2002

Keidanren, Nikkeiren still have hurdles to clear

The Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) and the Japan Federation of Employers' Associations (Nikkeiren) are putting the final touches on mandatory procedures for their much ballyhooed integration, scheduled for May 28.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jan 29, 2002

Learning Spanish under the volcanoes

Fancy learning Spanish? We're pleased to suggest four options.
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2002

Credit union forced customers to buy into golf club

OSAKA -- Kansai Kogin, a failed local credit union whose former executives were arrested last week in a breach of trust case, pressured recipients of loans in the late 1990s to buy memberships of a golf course operated by an affiliate by threatening to withdraw the loans, sources close to the case said...
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2002

Officers can't hide behind new IDs

The National Police Agency on Friday showed off a new police identification badge and pin created in an effort to better identify officers and improve accountability following a series of scandals.
BUSINESS
Jan 25, 2002

Asahi Bank shareholders OK merger

Asahi Bank's shareholders on Thursday approved a proposal to integrate operations with Daiwa Bank Holdings Inc., Asahi Bank officials said.
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2002

UNICEF aid head stresses Afghan crisis is not yet over

The head of a UNICEF emergency aid program in Afghanistan stressed Wednesday the humanitarian crisis is not over in the war-ravaged country despite the start of rehabilitation there, and urged continued international assistance.
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2002

Iranian foreign minister denies arms-smuggling allegations

Visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi on Wednesday denied Israeli allegations his country tried to smuggle arms on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 22, 2002

Japan should salvage the mystery vessel

Many Japanese might have rejoiced while watching television footage showing the recent sinking of an unidentified ship following an exchange of gunfire with Japanese Coast Guard cutters, but I was dismayed by Japan's fragile national defense system that was exposed by the incident in the East China Sea....
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2002

Elvis wannabe crooners soothe to 'Rabu Me Tenda'

Dressed in a black tuxedo, a middle-aged former company executive took the stage, cued the six-piece band and launched into Elvis Presley's version of the syrupy '60s ballad "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me."
BUSINESS
Jan 22, 2002

Bankruptcies rise 1.9%, leaving debt worth 16 trillion yen

Japan's corporate bankruptcies hit 19,441 in 2001, up 1.9 percent from the previous year, Teikoku Databank Ltd. said Monday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 22, 2002

The yet undiscovered beauty of Chekhov's hell

In 1890, Russian writer Anton Chekhov journeyed across the belly of Russia to its eastern border. It was a voyage of 9,656 km. His trip went well beyond the kind of journey that the travelers of today seek aboard the Trans-Siberian Express. Chekhov's destination was the the remote island of Sakhalin,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2002

Sign of hope: Afghan kids back in school

KABUL -- In Afghanistan, the interim administration led by Hamid Karzai faces a double challenge: keeping its population alive through the winter and starting to rebuild for the future.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2002

A rightist revival in Europe

LONDON -- For the past five years, the center-left has held the whip hand in Western Europe. Whether in the shape of Prime Minister Tony Blair's New Labour administration in Britain or the more traditionally leftwing Socialist-led government in France, social democracy has ruled in the major countries...

Longform

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