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JAPAN
Dec 22, 2003

Taxpayers face 2 trillion yen bill for bad loans

Taxpayers may have to bear nearly 2 trillion yen to cover soured bank loans to small businesses that were guaranteed by the government under a 1998-2001 program, according to a tally compiled by Kyodo News.
COMMENTARY
Dec 22, 2003

Time to revise unequal SOFA

A group of lawmakers of the governing Liberal Democratic Party is campaigning for the drastic revision of the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement. The group, headed by Lower House member Toshio Kojima, has come up with a proposal for revising SOFA in cooperation with a council of governors of 14 prefectures,...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2003

Defense Agency ready to treat troops suffering PTSD in Iraq

The Defense Agency is planning to take comprehensive mental health measures for Self-Defense Forces troops who are dispatched to Iraq to help them deal with possible psychological problems such as posttraumatic stress disorder, agency sources said Saturday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 21, 2003

Jazz clubs on New Year's Eve

Most evenings, jazz in Tokyo is squashed into a minuscule four hours, politely finishing early enough for customers to catch the last train home. By other countries' standards, the lack of a late-night set starting at 11 or midnight is almost unbelievable. On New Year's Eve, however, all that changes....
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 2003

Devil of amity lurks in free trade details

SINGAPORE -- The decision at the Japan-ASEAN summit on Dec. 11-12 to create a new "special relationship" between the two may be historic, but the economic free-trade areas that will provide its foundation look like long shots. Japanese efforts are likely to be frustrated by the same political forces...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 21, 2003

Gray lining for the silver years

BLESSED WITH OLD AGE: Demographic Change and the Family in Japan's Aging Society, edited by John W. Traphagan and John Knight. New York: State University of New York Press, 2003, 248 pp., $71.50 (cloth), $23.95 (paper). Aging is not what it used to be. Fuwaku, "no longer straying off course" once described...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2003

Minister orders release of asylum-seeker

Justice Minister Daizo Nozawa decided Friday to temporarily release a 46-year-old Myanmarese asylum-seeker, who had been detained for overstaying his visa since Oct. 31, citing humanitarian concerns over his two daughters.
COMMUNITY
Dec 20, 2003

Over 4,000 babies delivered and still counting

Dr. Hideki Sakamoto is late for the very best of reasons. "I had an emergency at the hospital, but am happy to be able to say that mother and baby are both doing well."
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2003

One in three abused kids turn to teachers

Roughly one in three sexually abused children in Japan choose to seek help from their schoolteachers, and more than half of all cases come to light when the victims decide to disclose their ordeals, according to a recent study.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2003

Officials debate details of Futenma move

National and local government officials met Thursday to discuss industrial development and other issues surrounding the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corp's Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2003

Core dispatch set for February

The first main Ground Self-Defense Force contingent will head to Iraq in February to engage in reconstruction assistance after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi gives the final go-ahead, according to Defense Agency documents.
BUSINESS
Dec 18, 2003

Premiums rise, benefits fall under pension plan

The government and the ruling parties on Wednesday approved a public pension-reform plan that will increase premiums paid by workers and cut their benefits over the coming decades.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2003

Japanese Embassy in Baghdad issues alert

The Japanese Embassy in Baghdad has asked Japanese nationals to refrain from visiting it for the time being after receiving threats of attack, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2003

Moves afoot to accelerate Narita arrivals processing

Foreigners arriving at Narita airport waited an average of 13 minutes and a maximum of 44 minutes to get through immigration on a busy weekend earlier this month, the government said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Dec 17, 2003

Ruling coalition agrees to hike pension premium to 18.35%

After a lengthy political tug of war, the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito agreed Tuesday night that public pension premiums paid by the average salaried worker should be raised to 18.35 percent of annual income from the current 13.58 percent.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2003

Samurai drama airs 1,000 times but plot thins

The popular samurai TV drama "Mito Komon," which debuted in 1969, has become the nation's first such program to air 1,000 episodes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 17, 2003

'50s cannibal masterpiece offers plenty to chew on

Down by Tokyo Bay, most people think of the industrial wasteland of Hamamatsucho merely as a convenient stop on the Yamanote Line, a station for changing onto the Haneda-bound monorail en route to faraway places. Theatergoers, though, and especially lovers of big, slick, Western-style productions, know...
BUSINESS
Dec 16, 2003

Resona and Nomura plan revival fund

Struggling Resona Bank plans to join forces with Nomura Securities Co. to set up a corporate revival fund specializing in small and midsize companies, sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Dec 14, 2003

Japan seeks U.S. help at Iraq mission

The Foreign Ministry has unofficially asked the United States to deploy armored vehicles and take other measures to tighten security around the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad following the killing of two Japanese diplomats in Iraq, government sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2003

ASDF advance team to be sent to Qatar, Kuwait

Japan plans to send a 10-member Air Self-Defense Force advance team to Qatar and Kuwait on Dec. 25 under a special law that allows for the dispatch of Japanese troops to aid the reconstruction of Iraq, according to government sources.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2003

Radiation-protection measures for troops undecided: Ishiba

The government has not decided whether to take steps to protect Iraq-bound Self-Defense Forces troops against radiation contamination suspected to have been caused by U.S. and British forces, Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba said Friday.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 12, 2003

Everton's 'Roonaldo' having growing pains

LONDON -- From having the world at his feet Wayne Rooney is now the recipient of boots up the backside as the Everton striker attempts to fulfill the potential he showed last season.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 12, 2003

Diplomats died trying to make a difference

WASHINGTON -- I learned of Katsuhiko Oku's death last week; a caller from Baghdad told me that "Katsu" had been shot on a highway together with his younger colleague, fellow Japanese diplomat Masamori Inoue.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Dec 11, 2003

Writing spider

* Japanese name: Koganegumi * Scientific name:Argiope amoena * Description: Writing spiders, also known as yellow garden spiders, have an egg-shaped abdomen with yellow or orange markings on a black background. The legs have red or yellow sections. While insect bodies are generally comprised of three...
COMMENTARY
Dec 11, 2003

New Zealand seeks bigger splash in Asia

WELLINGTON -- It's clear that New Zealand's size is both a curse and a blessing. The curse is easy to see: New Zealand is so small that it's hard to get the attention of other governments. New Zealand is responsible for 0.22 percent of world trade. There are more Indonesian civil servants than New Zealanders....
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2003

Koizumi's credibility placed on the line

There is arguably no profession that places a greater premium on the credibility of a person's words than politics.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 10, 2003

Imagine art for all people, living peacefully

Yoko Ono loves me. Or at least she said that she does in the e-mail interview we conducted as she crisscrossed the globe.

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