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EDITORIALS
Aug 29, 2002

Inching toward normalization talks

Japan and North Korea are moving toward resuming the long-stalled talks to normalize relations. Foreign ministry officials from the two nations met in Pyongyang for two days earlier this week and agreed to continue consultations to explore the possibilities for restarting the negotiations. Also, Prime...
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2002

GMOs in 30% of 'organic' soybean

The farm ministry said Wednesday that 25 out of 80 randomly selected tofu and "natto" soybean products sold under organic labels were found to contain genetically modified soybeans.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Aug 29, 2002

'Dead to Rights' feels like John Woo with a joystick

Forget all the moralizing. "Dead to Rights," a new game for Xbox from Namco, is a mature game that earns the right to have strippers in thongs, dogs ripping out men's throats and more shootouts than Charles Bronson and Arnold Schwarzenegger saw in their entire careers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 29, 2002

Questions over foreigners' phone deposit

Last April, telecoms giant NTT announced the largest annual corporate loss in Japanese history -- 2 trillion yen. More than a third of it came from its cell phone subsidiary, NTT Docomo.
BUSINESS
Aug 29, 2002

J-Phone to recall faulty new handset

Cell phone service operator J-Phone Co. said Wednesday that one of its newly introduced handsets is experiencing problems with software related to Internet access.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2002

State admits PR materials whitewashed Hansen's role

The government admitted Tuesday that it failed to acknowledge in a variety of state booklets and videotapes that it was responsible for the forced isolation of Hansen's disease patients in the past.
BUSINESS
Aug 27, 2002

North Korean trade official visits to explain market reforms

A North Korean vice minister of trade is in Japan on an 11-day unofficial visit to explain Pyongyang's new market-based reforms to Koreans living in the country, a Korean association said Monday.
BUSINESS
Aug 27, 2002

Personal computer sales plunge 32.2%

Sales of personal computers in July fell 32.2 percent from a year earlier, the second-biggest decline on record, the Nippon Electronic Big-Stores Association said Monday.
COMMENTARY
Aug 26, 2002

Shrinking realm of privacy

LONDON -- Privacy is now increasingly recognized as an important human right, but its limits are not easy to define. How far, for instance, should the press be prevented from intrusive photography of VIPs? The media generally argue that it is their job to report on the movements and actions of public...
EDITORIALS
Aug 25, 2002

A sea of confusion

'L ord, what fools these mortals be." That was Shakespeare's Puck venting his exasperation. Unfortunately, things haven't improved much in humanity's sandbox in the intervening four centuries.
EDITORIALS
Aug 24, 2002

Feeding the frenzy

Make no mistake: The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush wants to wage war against Iraq. Whether it will do so is another matter; whether it should do so is yet another question. The skeptics received a real boost with the publication of a critique of U.S. foreign policy by former National...
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2002

Regional banks hit with negative rating

Moody's Investors Service Inc. on Friday gave Japan's regional banking sector a negative rating outlook.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2002

Tokyo seeks compensation for Mizuho computer fiasco

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government on Friday demanded that Mizuho Bank pay 17 million yen in compensation to cover losses caused by the bank's massive computer failure earlier this year, according to metropolitan government officials.
EDITORIALS
Aug 22, 2002

Reform of the highway corporations

A government panel discussing privatization plans for highway corporations has been meeting stiff resistance from a predictable source: the corporations themselves. They have held back some of the financial data requested by panel members, thus effectively blocking progress toward highway reform, a priority...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Aug 22, 2002

Life stranger than fiction at Fulham

LONDON -- If Junichi Inamoto is feeling warm after training he could always stand between coach Jean Tigana and "the chairman's adviser for football" Franco Baresi to cool down.
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2002

Kyoei Mutual to choose Zenkyoren over Millea

Kyoei Mutual Fire & Marine Insurance Co. is expected to abandon its plans to merge with Millea Holdings Inc. in favor of operating under the wing of the National Mutual Insurance Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives (Zenkyoren), company officials said Wednesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2002

World Bank to push for effective aid use

Amid increasing public scrutiny of Japan's overseas aid policies, the World Bank will increase cooperation measures to ensure that official development assistance from Tokyo is used more effectively to fight poverty, according to Yukio Yoshimura, newly appointed head of the World Bank's office in Tokyo....
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2002

Employee-leasing agencies helping Chinese computer engineers to cash in

More Chinese computer engineers are coming to Japan via temporary-staff employment agencies, and some of them are finding a niche in the information technology industry, earning as much as 10 million yen a year.
COMMENTARY
Aug 19, 2002

Pakistan must modernize as a nation state

ISLAMABAD -- Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, is eager to lament the breakdown of past Pakistani governments in justifying his own assumption of wide-ranging political authority ahead of elections in October.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 18, 2002

What a pair they are

If you are a viewer of Japanese television, you have no doubt seen a pair of celebrities known as the Kano sisters. Single-handedly -- or perhaps double-handedly is more appropriate -- these two have lent new meaning to the term "boob tube."
EDITORIALS
Aug 16, 2002

Aug. 15: day to renew peace efforts

The 57th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II passed quietly, in part because Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi skipped a visit to Yasukuni Shrine this month. His trip to the shrine last August stirred up controversy both here and abroad, particularly in China and South Korea. To avoid a similar...
Japan Times
JAPAN / THE OKINAWA FACTOR
Aug 16, 2002

The Okinawan dollar-yen juggling act

Tenth in an occasional series By MAYUMI NEGISHI Staff writer NAHA, Okinawa Pref. -- On Aug. 15, 1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard and introduced floating exchange rates, sending the greenback plummeting.
Japan Times
JAPAN / THE OKINAWA FACTOR
Aug 15, 2002

Postwar legacy holds key to identity of Okinawans

NAHA, Okinawa Pref. -- Akira Hamamatsu, 75, recalls Emperor Hirohito's surrender broadcast on Aug. 15, 1945, as little more than a garbled voice mixed with static.
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2002

Koizumi restraint sidelines Yasukuni row

One year ago, a diplomatic row erupted over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 13 -- two days before the anniversary of Japan's surrender ending World War II -- in the face of protests from China and South Korea.

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