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JAPAN
Oct 4, 2004

Lawyers to seek law protecting human rights of foreigners

A group of lawyers plans to call for legislation aimed at protecting the human rights of non-Japanese and reducing discrimination against them, group members said Sunday.
COMMENTARY
Oct 4, 2004

Can Chirac remain on top?

PARIS -- Has French President Jacques Chirac sufficiently weighed the possible effects of his decision to hold a referendum next year on the draft EU constitution, which was approved last June by the European Council?
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2004

Travel agents plan to cash in on Ichiro

Major tour operators are hoping there will be more demand next year for tours to the United States to watch baseball following Ichiro Suzuki's record-breaking performance this season.
COMMENTARY
Oct 4, 2004

Staying on path of resistance

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi defines the aim of his new Cabinet as "privatizing the postal services." The new executive lineup of the Liberal Democratic Party, of which he is president, attests to the importance he attaches to postal privatization as the mainstay of his "structural reform" agenda....
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2004

China aid to focus on ecology: Machimura

Japanese economic assistance for China will focus on environment conservation and human resources development, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Sunday in response to calls to stop aiding the rapidly growing neighbor.
BUSINESS
Oct 4, 2004

Buoyant Koizumi makes mad dash for the pole -- but which one?

He was supposed to go to the north pole, but changed directions on the way and ended up discovering the south pole. A connoisseur of polar-expedition literature would immediately say this is a description of Roald Amundsen, the great Norwegian explorer of the early 20th century.
COMMENTARY
Oct 4, 2004

CCP eyes reforms while sustaining Hu

HONG KONG -- A key policy document endorsed by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party at the same time that it approved Hu Jintao as Jiang Zemin's successor as the country's top leader calls for urgent steps to enhance the party's ability to govern while outlining a cautious strategy of...
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2004

Airlines lose big during typhoons

Flight cancellations due to a series of typhoons this year have cost the nation's major airlines more than 5 billion yen as of the end of September.
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2004

Saiki to be transferred to U.S. post

The Foreign Ministry has decided to appoint Akitaka Saiki, Japan's chief delegate to the talks with North Korea on the abduction and nuclear issues, as a minister at the Japanese Embassy in Washington later this year, according to ministry sources.
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2004

Nuclear arsenal deemed infeasible in '81

The main policy research arm of the Defense Agency in 1981 studied the possibility of Japan going nuclear but concluded the idea wasn't feasible in light of the nation's industrial and technological infrastructure, according to a research report obtained by Kyodo News.
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2004

Machimura to visit U.S. this week

Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura is likely to visit the United States around the middle of this week to hold talks with Secretary of State Colin Powell on U.S. military realignment and pending U.S. beef exports to Japan, government sources said Saturday.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Oct 3, 2004

Emerson nets pair as Reds extend lead

Brazilian striker Emerson scored in each half Saturday as second-stage leader Urawa Reds hammered JEF United Ichihara 4-0 to open up a five-point lead in the J. League.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 3, 2004

Sons & Daughters sing in the name of forefathers

It's high time for another British invasion of the former colonies, and right now everybody thinks Franz Ferdinand is the band that will lead the attack. They're in the midst of their second coast-to-coast U.S. tour since last June, selling out big venues wherever they go.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 3, 2004

Discrimination keeps Chinese tourists at bay

Japan's neglect of its tourism potential could be called a sidelight of its overall self-image. On the international stage, Japan sees itself as culturally impenetrable and overpriced. Moreover, the xenophobia that many people accuse it of fostering has become accepted by the citizens as a national trait,...
SUMO
Oct 3, 2004

Ceremony held for Musashimaru

Former grand champion Musashimaru was honored in a retirement ceremony Saturday at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan. Musashimaru had his top knot cut off by fellow wrestlers and friends in a traditional ceremony at the famed sumo arena. Tears rolled down Musashimaru's face as the final cut was made by his stablemaster...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 3, 2004

The writings of Mori Ogai, a multifaceted Meiji intellect

NOT A SONG LIKE ANY OTHER: An Anthology of Writings by Mori Ogai, edited by J. Thomas Rime. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004, $42 (cloth). Editor J. Thomas Rimer includes in this anthology an excellent introduction that clearly and succinctly outlines Mori Ogai's achievements and expands readers'...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Oct 3, 2004

Ricoh moves atop Top League table, upsets Kobe 27-21

The heaviest back in Japanese rugby, Masato Morishima (107 kg), and one of the most frightening sights on the paddock (a rampaging Ipolito Fenukitau) helped the Ricoh Black Rams go top of the Top League following their 27-21 win over the Kobe Kobelco Steelers at Tokyo's Chichibunomiya on Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 3, 2004

Bookbite

JAPANESE: Phrasebook. Lonely Planet, 255 pp., 2004 (Fourth edition), $7.99 (cloth). For the complete beginner of Japanese, this tiny phrase book covers pronunciation, simple phrases, numbers (including some of the different ways to count in Japanese), times, dates, the usual tourist necessities and even...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 3, 2004

TBS's "Around the World! Dream and Romance and Money" and more

Popular boy band Tokio is on an economic kick this week. On the Oct. 3 installment of their weekly Nihon TV show "Tetsuwan Dash," three members are dropped off in Zurich, Switzerland. Each armed with only 10,000 yen in cash, they have to see how far that money can take them.
Japan Times
Features
Oct 3, 2004

Teddy bares all

Long before baseball's Ichiro Suzuki or soccer's Hidetoshi Nakata became stars overseas, in 1987 a 15-year-old boy from Asahikawa in Hokkaido flew to London on his way to taking the ballet world by storm just a few years later.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2004

Repair schemes can't please all nations

HONOLULU -- The proposal that Japan, India, Germany and Brazil become permanent members of the U.N. Security Council is almost certain to fail, but it may trigger sweeping reforms in a 1945 institution incapable of coping with the issues of 2005.
COMMENTARY
Oct 3, 2004

Bleak hopes for democracy

LONDON -- The U.N. secretary general recently reaffirmed that the war in Iraq was illegal in the absence of a second U.N. resolution. Last week, Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted at the Labour Party Conference that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction and that the intelligence alleging the...
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Oct 3, 2004

Koike vows to sway business sector on carbon tax

Yuriko Koike, reappointed as the environment minister, says Japan needs a carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
EDITORIALS
Oct 3, 2004

A Starbucks-saturated planet

A re we tired of Starbucks yet? Apparently not in Japan, where, after a dip into the red last year, the company reported a higher-than-expected surge in profits this past summer, fueled by cost-cutting strategies and a boom in sales of Strawberry Cream Frappuccinos. While a few unprofitable stores have...
CULTURE / Music
Oct 3, 2004

Yokohama Jazz Promenade

Yokohama is Japan's hometown of jazz, and though Kobe and Tokyo can claim bragging rights, those cities never put on as impressive a festival as the annual Yokohama Jazz Promenade, which takes place Oct. 9 and 10 this year.
EDITORIALS
Oct 2, 2004

Recommitting to nuclear safety

A government panel investigating the Aug. 9 nuclear reactor accident, which killed five workers and injured six others, has published an interim report that reveals a pattern of loose safety management. The central message is that the tragedy -- the worst in the history of Japan's nuclear power industry...

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo