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SOCCER / World cup
Feb 28, 2002

Asia must earn extra spot: Blatter

If Asia wants an extra automatic berth to future World Cups, then it will have to earn it, FIFA president Sepp Blatter told the Japanese media on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2002

Bill to pave way for signing pact on convict transfers

The government plans to submit during the current Diet session a bill governing procedures relating to the transfer of convicts between Japan and other nations, according to government sources.
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2002

Free-lancers, Web 'media' under bill

A human rights bill being prepared to, in part, protect individuals from excessive media coverage will apply to freelance reporters working in all media -- including the Internet -- as well as reporters employed by news organizations, the government said Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 26, 2002

Constitutional reform debate low-key

The parliamentary debate on constitutional reform is making little headway two years after it formally began in both Houses of the Diet. The Constitutional Research Committee, created in both Houses in 2000 to make a comprehensive review of the national charter, is expected to submit a report in 2005....
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2002

Fight against deflation like a many-edged sword

The government plans to formalize a comprehensive policy package Wednesday to combat deflation.
BUSINESS / TAKING STOCK
Feb 26, 2002

Banks to need public funds

The question now is whether the government should inject public funds into banks anew to stabilize the financial system.
COMMENTARY
Feb 26, 2002

Bush's policies give allies reason to worry

U.S. President George W. Bush's "axis of evil" statement in his State of the Union message has worried not only the European Union but also America's Asian allies, particularly Japan and South Korea. South Korean President Kim Dae Jung's "sunshine policy" toward North Korea is now in danger of collapsing,...
EDITORIALS
Feb 25, 2002

Reviewing ODA for Central Asia

Central Asia has occupied an important position in Japan's official development assistance for the past several years. In fact, our nation is the largest aid donor to the region. With the situation there changing dramatically in the wake of the antiterror war in Afghanistan, now is an opportune time...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2002

Help the huddled masses

To Canberra's continuing irritation, the scandal of the Norwegian freighter Tampa will not go away. It now turns out that the Australian government's election victory last year may have been conceived in deceit and born in sin.
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2002

LDP awaits report to rule on Suzuki testimony

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party will decide whether party heavyweight Muneo Suzuki should testify as a sworn witness in the Diet after the Foreign Ministry submits a report on its probe into his suspected involvement in various scandals, LDP Secretary General Taku Yamasaki said Sunday.
BUSINESS
Feb 25, 2002

Hurdles need to be overcome on road to recovery

The second session of the economic conference held at the London Business School turned to the changes that Japan needs to implement to lift the world's second-largest economy out of recession.
BUSINESS
Feb 25, 2002

Possible global meltdown 'frightening'

The final session of the London Business School economic forum considered the recovery of the global economy. In her opening statement, Noriko Hama, research director at Mitsubishi Research Institute Inc., said, "We might just as well be talking about no recovery of the global economy.
COMMUNITY
Feb 24, 2002

No end to stress in modern Japan

Thirty-year-old Hiroko Sato was having her hair done, just as she had every month for the past several years, when suddenly she began to feel ill. First, she felt dizzy, then nauseous, then her hands started to go numb. She tried to shrug it off, but when she rose from her chair, she fainted.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 24, 2002

I want my DVD: The word is out on the small screen

Now that our shelves contain a lot more than books -- CD-ROMs, VHS tapes, DVDs -- it is worth reconsidering a question that occasionally interests the resident foreigner: How do you find Japanese films with English subtitles?
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2002

Mr. Hun Sen's gamble

The United Nations has withdrawn its support for Cambodian efforts to mount a war crimes tribunal. The decision has dismayed governments that had hoped the world body would assist Phnom Penh as it tried to provide some justice for victims of genocide during the years of Khmer Rouge rule. The U.N. acted...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2002

New strains of anti-Semitism

LONDON -- Sixty years after the Holocaust, is anti-Semitism spreading in Europe? The question is being asked increasingly in a number of countries, notably Britain, which fought the Nazis through World War II, and France, which lived for four years under a collaborationist regime that persecuted Jews...
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2002

Psychiatrist says child-killer 'not schizophrenic'

OSAKA-- A psychiatrist who testified Thursday at the trial of Mamoru Takuma, the man charged with murdering eight children and injuring 15 other people at an Osaka primary school in June, cast doubt on Takuma's history of schizophrenia prior to the crime in question.
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2002

Diplomats impress at Japanese speech contest

What most touched the hearts of the audience may not have been their fluency in Japanese and experiences of culture shock, but their insights into daily life summarized in a five-minute speech.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2002

Lifetime employee laments end to her dream of promotion

Setsuko Tanao, an employee at Nomura Securities Co., has fought for gender equality in the workplace since joining the firm's Osaka branch as a high school graduate in 1961.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Feb 21, 2002

Xbox gets a bit 'Wreckless'

Xbox is coming to Japan on Friday, and by all accounts, Japanese game players are pretty excited. Microsoft's new video game console is clearly the most advanced and most powerful video game console on the market. It is more powerful than Nintendo's GameCube. Sony's PlayStation2 is not even in Xbox's...
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2002

Mitsubishi Materials Kenzai, Nozawa suspected in price cartel

The Fair Trade Commission searched about 30 Mitsubishi Materials Kenzai Corp. and Nozawa Corp. outlets Tuesday on suspicion they ran an illegal sales cartel for construction materials.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 20, 2002

Onward klezmer voyager

Like people, music travels. How else could a handful of Japanese musicians have come to embrace klezmer, a centuries-old Eastern European folk music historically associated with traditional Jewish weddings?
COMMENTARY
Feb 19, 2002

Koizumi fast losing his luster

The entire affair involving Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's dismissal of Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka on Jan. 29 reminded me of an old saying that "nothing is predictable in politics." Following Koizumi's move, his government's public-approval rating plummeted to about 50 percent after remaining...
EDITORIALS
Feb 19, 2002

Economic revival vital to alliance

Tuesday's summit meeting in Tokyo between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. President George W. Bush helped further strengthen personal rapport and mutual understanding between the two leaders. Mr. Koizumi reconfirmed that the U.S. president is a strong supporter of his structural reforms. Similarly,...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2002

Will Blair err as Icarus did?

LONDON -- No European leader rode higher in the reaction to the Sept. 11 attack in New York than Tony Blair. The British prime minister immediately rallied to the American cause, enunciated the need to fight terrorism in ringing tones and committed troops to fight in Afghanistan. At last he had emerged...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2002

Moving beyond the Kashmir problem

MADRAS, India -- Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's recent visit to Washington began with a plea for third-party intervention in Kashmir, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan.
COMMUNITY
Feb 17, 2002

Japan and competition: You gotta have 'wa'?

Third-century Chinese visitors to Japan were struck by the easygoing equanimity of Japanese women. "All men of high rank," they reported, "have four or five wives; others, two or three. The women are faithful and not jealous."
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2002

Threats to U.N. 'legitimacy'

The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush began with a clear and pronounced bent toward unilateralism in foreign policy. Japan felt this most keenly with respect to the rejection of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, but others also experienced it with regard to arms control treaties and...

Longform

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