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COMMENTARY
Apr 12, 2003

Unilateralism is no solution

The war in Iraq is coming to an end with a decisive victory in sight for the U.S. and British coalition forces. However, I still have doubts about this military adventure. When it began, I described the invasion as President George W. Bush's "personal war without justification" against Iraqi President...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2003

Fukui race boils down to reactor factor

TAKAHAMA, Fukui Pref. -- Like many of her fellow shopkeepers in this small town along the Sea of Japan coast, Tomoko Kurahashi is ambivalent about the candidates for Fukui governor.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2003

War fuels Saudi fears and anger

RIYADH -- You won't find the newly published "Hatred's Kingdom" in any Saudi bookshop, but it is in such demand among high officials that the government has brought out a reprint of its own. Its author is Dore Gold, a hardline Israeli spokesman. According to him, the "hatred" in question is rooted in...
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2003

Diet begins debate on watered-down privacy bills

The House of Representatives on Tuesday began debating a package of controversial bills the government says will protect individuals' private information, as well as a counterproposal jointly submitted by four opposition parties.
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 Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 9, 2003

Taking it all back

Developing a "voice" of one's own is perhaps the ultimate achievement in music. As anyone who's ever touched an instrument or opened their mouth with the intention of expressing a musical idea knows, developing a voice is difficult to the point of being overwhelming. Conservatories, university music...
COMMENTARY
Apr 7, 2003

Diplomatic tests await Tokyo

Japanese diplomacy will face a real test over the question: How will the country participate in Iraq's postwar reconstruction?
EDITORIALS
Apr 6, 2003

Embedded in war's twilight zone

One of the most unusual things about the quite unusual war going on in Iraq is the presence of so-called embedded reporters, or "embeds," assigned to British and U.S. ground units, aviation units, ships and headquarters throughout the combat zone. The only difficulty is trying to figure out the significance...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 6, 2003

Popping up everywhere

GLOBAL GOES LOCAL: Popular Culture in Asia, edited by Timothy J. Craig and Richard King. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002, 310 pp. with illustrations, $24 (paper) It is commonly observed that as the political hegemony of the West has grown, so has its cultural dominance: Mickey Mouse, Elvis...
COMMENTARY
Apr 6, 2003

Finale in Baghdad may delay the peace

ISLAMABAD -- The Bush administration's race to take Baghdad, the grand finale in its military campaign, leads to many questions about what may turn out to be a much more lethal war than expected against an Islamic country. The United States may be heading toward military victory, but the conduct of the...
JAPAN
Apr 5, 2003

SARS carriers to be quarantined

A health ministry council decided Friday that individuals diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome will be forcibly hospitalized -- even if they refuse to seek treatment.
BUSINESS
Apr 5, 2003

Cabinet bickers over autonomy of local bodies

A dispute continued Friday among Cabinet members over who said what on the question of ways to increase local authorities' independence, with the public management minister criticizing the finance chief.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 5, 2003

Don't bargain Taiwan away

U.S. policy toward China underwent a major change in 2001. The new president, George W. Bush, viewed China as a rising power, intent on changing the Asian balance of power in its favor, and a threat to U.S. interests. In marked contrast to former President Bill Clinton, who called China "a strategic...
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2003

Kawaguchi to discuss Iraq in Britain

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi will visit Britain next week to discuss reconstruction aid for postwar Iraq and may also visit Germany and France, Foreign Ministry officials said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2003

Expert in resuscitating ailing firms to head IRC

The government has nominated Kazuhiko Toyama -- known as an expert in turning around apparently hopeless businesses -- as chief operating officer of a state-backed corporation given the task of doing just that.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2003

U.S. confidence not enough

LONDON -- America's notion of its national sense of "manifest destiny" has been a mainstay of its internal expansion and then its involvement with the world in the past century. This has frequently been of enormous benefit to the rest of the globe. But it can lead the most powerful nation on Earth into...
EDITORIALS
Apr 3, 2003

Spy satellites for peaceful use

Japan last week put its first Earth-circling spy satellites in orbit, acquiring its own capability to gather intelligence information from space about conditions in other countries. There is little doubt, considering recent developments in and around North Korea, that these two satellites are designed...
COMMENTARY
Mar 31, 2003

U.S. coalition unnerves allies

SAN FRANCISCO -- Although the United States didn't go to the United Nations for explicit authorization of an attack against Iraq, the Bush administration never abandoned attempts to craft a multilateral coalition in support of those efforts. But this government's view of "multilateralism" differs from...
EDITORIALS
Mar 31, 2003

Mr. Fukui makes a good start

With the war in Iraq clouding economic prospects, the immediate task for the new governor of the Bank of Japan, Mr. Toshihiko Fukui, is to shore up sagging confidence in the nation's economy, particularly the financial system. In this respect, he has made a good start. Several days after he took office...
COMMENTARY
Mar 31, 2003

Folly of liberation by force

The Pentagon calls the U.S. military campaign in Iraq "Operation Iraqi Freedom." This is clearly intended to reflect U.S.-British justification of their attempt to overthrow the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and "liberate" Iraq without a United Nations resolution.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Mar 31, 2003

Modesty marked this great man of letters

NEW YORK -- Herbert Passin, whom I had the honor of knowing, died on Feb. 26. Like kabuki expert Faubion Bowers, whom I also knew, Passin was a top graduate of the Military Intelligence Service Language School, which was established in 1941 in preparation for the coming war with Japan. Both did wonderful...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2003

U.S. will welcome Japan input in Iraq: CSIS expert

Postwar Iraq will need a heavy American military presence to maintain order, but Japan can also play an important role in providing humanitarian assistance and helping international organizations' efforts to rebuild the country, according to a senior member of a Washington-based think tank.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 30, 2003

War in Iraq puts Ishihara on the defensive

When Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara finally announced March 7 his intention to run for re-election, some people in the media speculated that it was the end of the colorful politician-novelist's aspirations for national office.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 29, 2003

Age of shifting coalitions

LONDON -- Despite the failure to gain backing from the United Nations, the war on Iraq has brought together a growing "coalition of the willing," as Washington dubs those who support the attack on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. It may have few active military members -- the United States, Britain plus...
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2003

Asahara again refuses to respond to questions by his own attorneys

Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara refused again Thursday to answer questions from his own lawyers, while victims of the cult's crimes called for him to receive the death penalty.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2003

Musical is well-suited to the times

"Can we sing a song of peace in a world that's full of fear?"
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 27, 2003

Fears over U.S. environmental ambush

Considering that the United States spends more for its military than any other nation on the planet, you might imagine the Pentagon taking a few extra steps to protect the environment -- but you'd be wrong.
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Mar 27, 2003

Libraries under attack

Are public libraries stealing the livelihoods of Japanese authors? So say writers and publishers as the number of books borrowed climbs while sales of books and magazines steadily decline.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat