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JAPAN / PRIVATIZING PAINS
Aug 22, 2001

Loss-riddled oil entity first to face privatization ax

Kyodo News The proposal by the government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to scrap Japan National Oil Corp. and turn it into a private company as part of his structural reform scheme will leave the privatized firm with many problems unresolved.
SOCCER / THE BALD TRUTH
Aug 21, 2001

Clowns at the circus of soccer

I was buttering my muffins the other morning when my Australian mate Nezbo called. So obviously I had to tell him how crap the Aussies are at soccer, didn't I?
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2001

Ending Chinese interference

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 13, backtracking on his vow to make the visit Aug. 15, the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II. Although he signed his name and title in the visitors' register, Koizumi would not say whether his visit to the shrine...
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2001

Nakatani climbs Fuji to warm ties with U.S.

Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani on Sunday climbed Mount Fuji, Japan's highest peak, along with about 40 U.S. servicemen stationed in Okinawa in an effort to improve relations between Japan and the United States.
BUSINESS
Aug 20, 2001

Obstacles to decentralization must embrace independence

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi won big gains for his Liberal Democratic Party in the Upper House election and has been re-elected uncontested to a new two-year term as LDP chief. But the tasks ahead of him are mounting, and one of the biggest is the decentralization of administrative power.
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2001

New memorial to war dead planned after Yasukuni furor

The government has come up with a plan to build a nondenominational cenotaph for the nation's war dead in the wake of the diplomatic furor caused by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, government sources said Saturday.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 19, 2001

Politico battled clans, bureaucrats

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF OZAKI YUKIO: The Struggle For Constitutional Government in Japan. Translated by Fumiko Hara. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2001, 455 pp., $35 (hardback) Well into this fascinating account of Japanese politics, which spans the period from the beginning of the Meiji Era...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 17, 2001

India's hardliners wait as pressures wear out premier

When the Agra summit between India and Pakistan failed last month, it was widely feared that its biggest victim would be the Indian prime minister: Atal Bihari Vajpayee might have to go.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2001

Population decline not all bad news

Japan's population is charting a downward trajectory.
BUSINESS
Aug 15, 2001

Singles' consumer confidence falls

Consumer confidence among single-person households fell in the April-June period from a year earlier for the second consecutive quarterly fall, according to a government survey released Tuesday.
CULTURE / Art
Aug 15, 2001

Flights of fancy

Like a captivated child watching a magician's tricks, we demand to know "how?" How, that is, did a surge of Italian creativeness 600 years ago seemingly lay the foundations of the modern world?
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2001

Compromise visit could dilute 'Koizumi effect'

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's decision Monday to bring forward his controversial visit to Yasukuni Shrine may have saved face for opponents at home and abroad to a certain degree.
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2001

Volunteers to be sought for disaster info network

The Cabinet Office is considering establishing a disaster preparedness program and soliciting volunteers to work for local governments as coordinators and contact points for victims, government sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2001

BOJ further eases credit policy

In a bid to improve the corporate outlook and fight falling prices, the policy-setting panel of the Bank of Japan decided Tuesday to further ease its grip on credit and boost liquidity by 1 trillion yen.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2001

Workers' views on economy worsen

A monthly survey of workers close to the man on the street shows that views on the current and future states of the economy are at their lowest since the survey was launched in January 2000, the Cabinet Office said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 10, 2001

Easing the pain of reform

Japan's unemployment rate stood at 4.9 percent in June, setting the worst post-World War II record for two consecutive months. It is likely to go up higher still, as Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's economic-reform plans received a solid mandate in the July 29 Upper House election. For one thing, bad-debt...
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2001

Japan considers retaliating over saury fishing issue

Japan will consider retaliating against Russia's granting of fishing rights to other countries in waters around Russian-held islands claimed by Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2001

No contenders file for LDP presidency

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will be re-elected as president of the Liberal Democratic Party today, allowing him to stay in office for two more years.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Aug 9, 2001

Times get tougher for Bush

WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush has now been in the Oval Office for a little more than one half year, and it has been the best of times and the worst of times for him.
BUSINESS
Aug 9, 2001

Support for U.S. bases may be cut

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa hinted that defense spending, including its financial support as host nation for the U.S. military, will be reviewed for possible cuts in the fiscal 2002 budget, a senior government official said.
BUSINESS
Aug 9, 2001

Civil servants may face second year without a raise

For the second year in a row, the National Personnel Authority has recommended withholding a pay raise for employees of the central government in a belt-tightening move reflecting the severity of the economic downturn.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2001

Cabinet trio plan to visit Yasukuni on surrender day

Three of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's 17 ministers confirmed Tuesday they will visit Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 15, the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.
BUSINESS
Aug 8, 2001

Deflation to stay for a few years

A team of private-sector economists and financial market participants agreed Tuesday that Japan will not be able to shake off deflation for a few more years, a government official said.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2001

Princess Akiko cleared for Oxford

The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a plan for Princess Akiko, 19, the elder daughter of Prince Tomohito of Mikasa, to study at Oxford University's Merton College in Britain from October to June as a privately financed student.
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2001

Obituary: Masahisa Aoki

Masahisa Aoki, a former director general of the Environment Agency who turned to politics after a career in newspapers, died Monday of a heart attack at a hospital in Saitama Prefecture, his family said. He was 78.
COMMENTARY
Aug 6, 2001

Voodoo economics rule the day

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's oft-repeated slogan, "There will be no economic recovery without structural reforms," sounds familiar to most Japanese.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.