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BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2001

Troubled Mycal may ax two stores

OSAKA -- The ailing Mycal Corp. supermarket chain may close the Ofuna Saty store in Yokohama and Shinsaibashi Vivre store in Osaka as part of its three-year restructuring plan, sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2001

L.A. market touted as gold mine for struggling midsize firms

Mired in a decade-long economic slump, Japan may not seem to be the most eager country to engage in massive direct investment abroad. But Lee Harrington, president and CEO of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., doesn't see it that way.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Mar 8, 2001

'Samurai' blazing a trail in XFL

Being a pioneer has its rewards, but as many a sports trailblazer has learned over the years, going where no one else has gone before is not all glory. In fact, it can be downright tough.
COMMENTARY
Mar 7, 2001

Agribusiness at a crossroads

LONDON -- Every industrialized country in the world has this idealized image: the farmer, full of robust common sense, tending his pig or his flock on his small land-holding, sturdily helped by his hardworking wife and children. He is close to the earth and nature. It is true that, in Japan or America's...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2001

Proceed cautiously in Irkutsk

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is scheduled to visit Irkutsk, Russia, on March 25 to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. What will happen if Mori steps down before then?
EDITORIALS
Mar 5, 2001

Mr. Bush focuses on the home front

The speech U.S. President George W. Bush delivered to a joint session of Congress last Tuesday was disappointing because it said little about the basic strategy the new U.S. administration intends to follow in the area of foreign policy and security. The speech focused on domestic and economic policies,...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 5, 2001

Paleolithic technology and the boom in cultural evolution

About 300,000 years ago something happened that was unlike anything in the previous few billion years, something that would have ever-expanding repercussions.
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2001

Osaka to emphasize dangers of lighting up

OSAKA -- Forget the bid for the 2008 Olympic Games or the opening of Universal Studios Japan. For those Osaka residents who have long suffered in the presence of cigarette smokers, a recent announcement by the city came as some of the best news in years.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 4, 2001

Into the dark maw of Kabukicho

There are a few Tokyo districts sufficiently unique and well-known to stand independent in their respective identities, glamorous Ginza, chic Shibuya and rockin' Roppongi being among the most obvious examples.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2001

South Korea's media and transparency

SEOUL -- As so often, one opinion stands against another: South Korea's opposition party has leveled an accusation against the government that by launching a tax investigation of the media it is in effect waging a war against the press. The government retorts that the tax investigation is a routine matter,...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Mar 3, 2001

New frontiers for hogaku

Music in Japan tends to be highly categorized. Ongaku is the Japanese generic term for music, but most Japanese understand it to refer to Western music (the word yogaku is more specific). Hogaku (Japanese music) indicates both Japanese music in general or, more specifically, the music of the Edo Period....
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Union wants to pressure Myanmar

The secretary general of a major global trade union body wants the international community to review its relations with Myanmar to pressure the military leadership to stop using its people as forced laborers.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 2, 2001

Fear, obsession hold back Japan-China ties

In recent years, Japan-China relations have been marked by almost incessant friction over issues ranging from historical questions to more mundane problems.
JAPAN
Mar 2, 2001

Earth Summit has to keep up with times

Globalization and scientific advances are reshaping the debate over environment and development policy and will merit attention at next year's Rio Plus 10 Earth Summit, according to a senior World Bank official.
COMMENTARY
Feb 27, 2001

A crash and a culture clash

The collision off Oahu Island between the Japanese fisheries training ship Ehime Maru and the U.S. nuclear-powered submarine USS Greeneville has drawn an unprecedentedly sensitive reaction from Japanese people. There are a number of reasons for this sensitivity on the part of the Japanese, and it is...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 26, 2001

Nice Treaty upholds Britain's interests

BRUSSELS -- A "stronger Britain in a wider Europe" has been the vision of a succession of British governments but increasingly this debate on the future of Britain in Europe is one in which the media is having to place severe constraints. The strong tradition of English exceptionalism and isolationism...
COMMENTARY
Feb 26, 2001

ODA without a conscience

I was interviewed recently by a British postgraduate student who was in Tokyo to write a doctoral thesis on Japanese policies relating to official development assistance. She met a Foreign Ministry official to obtain information about Japan's ODA policy guidelines, but she said the interview was disappointing...
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2001

Freeze on beltway complicates lives of residents

Shozaburo Kon did not expect to face the ordeal he eventually had to endure when he took the plan of his new house to a local office of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government 10 years ago.
EDITORIALS
Feb 25, 2001

Ode to the Oedo Line

You don't really notice it unless you go looking for it. Mostly, it's hidden away underground, catching the eye at street level only in places where its irrational exuberance breaks through: as a funky glass-tiled box at Akabanebashi, say, or huge, alien-looking metal leaf shapes at Iidabashi. Even the...
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2001

Former Philippines chief confirms Arroyo's rule

OSAKA -- Philippines president Gloria Arroyo need not call an election to confirm the presidency she claimed just over a month ago as the people and legal institutions recognize her legitimacy, former Philippine president Fidel Ramos said here Thursday.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2001

Former Philippines chief confirms Arroyo's rule

OSAKA -- Philippines president Gloria Arroyo need not call an election to confirm the presidency she claimed just over a month ago as the people and legal institutions recognize her legitimacy, former Philippine president Fidel Ramos said here Thursday.
COMMUNITY
Feb 22, 2001

The gentle hands and kind hearts of Toyko Union

The panda bears are hard at it. Up to their elbows in flour, they vigorously work their wooden rolling pins, then use cookie cutters to stamp out heart shapes from the flattened dough. Soon, a sugary aroma drifts down the halls.
BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2001

WTO to approve Japan's rice tariffs as Uruguay backs down

When Japan introduced a controversial tariff scheme for its rice imports in April 1999, it was like a train departing before all passengers were on board.
BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2001

WTO to approve Japan's rice tariffs as Uruguay backs down

When Japan introduced a controversial tariff scheme for its rice imports in April 1999, it was like a train departing before all passengers were on board.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 17, 2001

Going behind the scenes to explore the in-between

The meandering video and haunted music of perennial outsider Ken Ikeda, 35, make up the latest exhibition at SCAI The Bathhouse, that enduring home for Japanese avant-garde culture located out on the edge of the Yanaka cemetery in Tokyo's Taito Ward. "Behind the Scenes" seems a rather uncomplicated multimedia...
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2001

Departing Foley believes strength of ties will prevail

The following are excerpts from U.S. Ambassador Thomas Foley's interview with The Japan Times: What do you think the U.S. and Japanese governments should do to prevent overall bilateral relations from being damaged by the Feb. 9 accident in which a Japanese ship sank off Hawaii when it was hit by a...

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