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EDITORIALS
Feb 25, 2003

Less than reassuring words

Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven industrialized countries held one of their regular meetings last weekend in Paris. Two days of discussions produced a statement promising efforts to stabilize and stimulate their economies and a pledge to convene again in the event of an emergency....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2003

Farm minister admits ex-secretary pocketed cash

Scandal-plagued farm minister Tadamori Oshima admitted during a special Diet session Thursday that a former secretary pocketed a 6 million yen political donation in 2000.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2003

Talks may focus on but won't solve fundraising scandals

A spate of recent fundraising scandals involving Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers has sent shock waves through the Diet, prompting the LDP-controlled Lower House Budget Committee to schedule a special session Thursday to discuss money in politics.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 20, 2003

The real story on Beckham and the boot

LONDON -- Imagine if the boot was on the other foot -- and in this case the phrase could hardly be more appropriate.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 19, 2003

Dragons made right move in getting rid of disgruntled Millar

The Chunichi Dragons did the right thing in giving up the contract of outfielder Kevin Millar. Sure, the team had a legitimate beef, and owner Bungo Shirai had every right to insist Millar honor the agreement to which he had committed. But, really, why try to force the guy to play here when he clearly...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 16, 2003

When you need a hand ...

Married with two children, 46-year-old Kumiko Mashima thinks her life is just about perfect. She met her loving husband through an omiai -- a formal introduction arranged by a go-between with a view to marriage -- and they both adore their daughters. But before she found her way into her husband's arms,...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 13, 2003

Ensuring age is the crown of life

The English scholar John Bailey said his wife Iris Murdoch, a prolific, perfectionist novelist and lecturer, became like "a very nice 3-year-old" as her Alzheimer's disease progressed. The disease made the proteins in her brain "misfold" and collapse, forming clots called amyloids that disrupt normal...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2003

Tokyo appeals bank tax ruling

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government on Monday appealed to the Supreme Court a Jan. 30 Tokyo High Court decision saying a tax imposed exclusively on major banks operating in the capital is illegitimate.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2003

Murder suspect may have killed before

A 29-year-old man charged with committing a murder in July in Tokyo was served a fresh warrant Monday in connection with a slaying in 2000, police said.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2003

Asian bridges via Okinawa

SINGAPORE -- Earlier this month a closed-door workshop and open public symposium focused on bridging the divisions within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and those between Japan and Okinawa as well as on strengthening the ASEAN-Japan partnership through governance, human security and community-building....
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2003

Key consumer-prices gauge slides for third consecutive year

The key gauge of consumer prices fell a record 0.9 percent in 2002 for the third straight year of decline, the government said Friday in a preliminary report.
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2003

Sogo finishes court-ordered rehab drive

Sogo Co. said Thursday the Tokyo District Court has certified that the department store chain, which went under in 2000, has successfully completed legal rehabilitation procedures under the Civil Corporate Revival Law.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2003

Review of moneylender interest rate caps triggers tug of war

A tug of war is under way over a government plan to review the upper limit on interest rates that consumer finance firms and other nonbank moneylenders can levy.
BUSINESS
Jan 21, 2003

'02 bankruptcies second most on record

There were 19,458 corporate bankruptcies in 2002, the second-highest figure in the postwar period, Teikoku Databank Ltd. said Monday.
JAPAN
Jan 19, 2003

Surveillance of Aum to continue on grounds it still poses threat to public

The Public Security Examination Commission has decided to keep the Aum Shinrikyo cult under surveillance for another three years, sources said.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2003

New price index shows the same decline -- but steeper

The domestic corporate goods price index stood at 95.8 on a yearly average for 2002 against a base of 100 for 2000, down 1.9 percent from 2001 for the second consecutive yearly decline, the Bank of Japan said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2003

Coping with a grayer world

Like globalization, population aging is a universal force with the power to shape the future. By 2050 the number of people aged 60 and over in the world will increase from 600 million today to almost 2 billion. In Japan, the proportion of the population aged 65 or over will climb from 17.2 percent in...
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 17, 2003

M's, A's matched up in Tokyo

"Godzilla" is now a New Yorker, but Japan will have plenty to cheer about when the baseball season arrives in the spring.
COMMENTARY
Jan 16, 2003

Silence isn't golden for Korean peace

HONG KONG -- As the latest Korean crisis has developed, one contradiction has been obvious: The Bush administration refused to talk with North Korea until Pyongyang abandoned nuclear blackmail and returned to honoring all the treaties and agreements that it has recently repudiated. Yet the Bush administration...
COMMENTARY
Dec 29, 2002

Resist the potions of the past

LONDON -- "Capitulation bottom" is the ugly and inelegant phrase used by financial analysts in London to indicate the low point in the cycle of investor optimism and pessimism -- the point where investors give up in despair, sell their shrunken shareholdings, if they can find a buyer, and start putting...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2002

ASEM painfully short on substance

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- ASEM, the Asia-Europe meeting process, was born in a climate of general euphoria in 1996 in Bangkok. The idea to bring together the combined potentials of the European Union and of several important Asian players looked promising and, fundamentally, it is still valid today.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 25, 2002

Dancing to the Eastern wind of change

Asian performers of contemporary dance embody an inherent contradiction. With their Asian physiques and being raised in Asian cultures, they perform an art form that was pioneered by Isadora Duncan (1878-1927) and developed in the West.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2002

A healthy contrast to politics in Beijing

HONG KONG -- The openness, mutual personal criticism and freedom displayed during the latest Taiwanese election were a refreshing contrast to the secrecy, sycophancy and control displayed before, during and after the Chinese Communist Party's 16th Congress.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 2002

Asia, in a nutshell

In Douglas Adams' future dystopia novel "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," a giant computer finally determines the answer to the meaning of life: 42. The joke was that nobody knew the question.

Longform

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