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COMMENTARY
Jun 4, 2001

Koizumi fever grips nation

Although more than a month has passed since the birth of the new administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, its approval rating still remains amazingly high at nearly 90 percent.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2001

Tanaka told Downer U.S. missile defense plan is nod to interest groups

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka has suggested that special interest groups supporting U.S. President George W. Bush may be behind U.S. missile defense plans, Japanese government sources said Saturday.
COMMUNITY
Jun 3, 2001

A new lease on life

Prosperous economies produce waste. Throw in rampant consumerism and a laissez-faire attitude toward the environment, and you've got the makings of a serious problem. Welcome to Japan. A host of treasures awaits you . . .
CULTURE / Music
Jun 3, 2001

Jamming outside the lines

The complexity of jazz is both its strength and its weakness, turning off many would-be listeners with the demands of its difficult, challenging forms, while fascinating fans with its open-ended dynamism. For many jazz players, the tension between having to entertain and wanting to push boundaries is...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 3, 2001

Past obscures Korea's nuclear future

SOLVING THE NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR PUZZLE, edited by David Albright and Kevin O'Neill. Washington, D.C.: ISIS Press, 2000, 333 pp., $29.95 (paper). We may never know how close the world came to war in 1994, but most accounts suggest the margin was slim. Suspicions about North Korea's nuclear program...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jun 3, 2001

Ume, back in the pink

Get out the salt and pop open the white liqueur — the season for ume is upon us. The diminutive Prunus mume — referred to erroneously as a plum but technically an apricot — has hit the shelves and is available in its preferred unripe form for the next month and a half. Farmers growing these apricots...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 3, 2001

From simple folk to the royal couple

When the American folk revival landed on the shores of Japan in the early '60s, it gave rise to the "modern folk" movement. Japanese musicians copied The Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary, and it was only a matter of time before students started writing songs that reflected their own situations....
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2001

OECD asks how green is Japan?

The nation's environment policies were placed under the microscope recently by an OECD team that was conducting the information-gathering stage of its second review of Japan's environmental policy.
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2001

Draft reform goals draw cold response

A set of reform proposals adopted by the Economic and Fiscal Policy Council drew a cold response Friday from Cabinet ministers and members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2001

Greece hopes renewal of air links will spur bilateral ties with Japan

An agreement reached between Japan and Greece earlier this week to improve air links by code sharing will hopefully spur bilateral ties, Grigoris Niotis, Greek deputy foreign minister, said in Tokyo on Friday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 1, 2001

Nagging doubts about nuclear energy

In a landmark referendum on Japan's nuclear-fuel recycling program, held last Sunday in Kariwa, Niigata Prefecture, a majority of village residents voted against a Tokyo Electric Power Co. project to use plutonium as reactor fuel at its nuclear-power plant there. The so-called pluthermal program, which...
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2001

Fiscal panel eyes release of public entities

A key government panel on economic and fiscal policy is expected to recommend next month a partial privatization of employee pension programs and sweeping deregulation, government sources said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2001

Industry all for farm goods curbs: ministry

The number of farmers and farm products sellers who support import curbs on three agricultural products overwhelmed those against the action in written comments sent to the government, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2001

Soon-to-merge insurers report increased profits

Sumitomo Marine & Fire Insurance Co. and Mitsui Marine & Fire Insurance Co. -- two major nonlife insurers scheduled to merge in October -- on Wednesday reported higher group profits for fiscal 2000.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2001

U.N. forum cautions against globalization's impact on poor

The advance of economic globalization should improve the life of people in developing countries and bring about sustainable development, according to Carlos A. Magarinos, director general of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2001

Industrial production declines 1.7%

The nation's industrial production fell a seasonally adjusted 1.7 percent in April from the previous month for the second straight monthly dip, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a preliminary report released Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 30, 2001

Elementary school teachers to run English gantlet

Offering English language education in an entertaining, communicative way sounds just fine. In theory.
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
May 30, 2001

The names are insane and I like it like that

What's in a name? Well, when it comes to Japanese bands, a lot, actually. Japanese rock groups, like Western psychedelic bands of 30-some years ago, have been coming up with some extraordinarily creative and just plain nutzo band names of late.
EDITORIALS
May 29, 2001

Dead end in the Middle East

The violence between Israelis and Palestinians continues to escalate. Every day there are new reports of atrocities; the cycle of attack and retaliation is intensifying, the time between them shortening. The only reason for hope in this grim situation is the -- belated -- recognition by the government...
JAPAN
May 29, 2001

Diet asked to dismiss judge over teenage sex

The Supreme Court asked the Diet on Monday to dismiss a Tokyo High Court judge who was arrested May 19 on suspicion of paying a 14-year-old girl to have sex with him in January, court officials said.
BUSINESS
May 29, 2001

Isuzu to cut jobs, close Kawasaki plant

Isuzu Motors Ltd. announced Monday that its group of companies will cut one-quarter of its 38,000 workforce over three years to help ease its debt burden.
LIFE / Travel
May 29, 2001

Thai bases offer a taste of military life

LOP BURI, Thailand -- Where else in the world can a tourist be a soldier for a day or two, shoot off an M-16, jump from a parachute tower, climb rocks, ford streams and hike through the jungle?
JAPAN
May 29, 2001

MSDF divers may help raise Ehime Maru

At the request of the U.S. Navy, the government is considering sending divers from the Maritime Self-Defense Force to help raise the fisheries training ship accidentally sunk off Hawaii on Feb. 9 by a U.S. submarine, government officials said Monday.
EDITORIALS
May 28, 2001

Mr. Wahid's time is running out

Indonesia continues its descent into the political maelstrom. The threats and manipulations of beleaguered President Abdurrahman Wahid seem to have failed and Parliament looks set to launch the impeachment process this week. It is hard to contest the charges. Mr. Wahid, Indonesia's first democratically...
COMMENTARY
May 28, 2001

Junichiro Koizumi: Can stardom become success?

LOS ANGELES -- Quality political leadership is so frequently conspicuous by its absence that even the slightest whiff of its sudden presence can electrify a political region. Is Japan finally experiencing the dynamic quality leadership it deserves? That's the question intriguing Asia.
COMMUNITY
May 27, 2001

Sleep on this

* Insomnia is not a modern-day phenomena: Aristotle penned his "Sleep and Sleeplessness" in 350 B.C.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
May 27, 2001

Late shift at the Factory

Tokyo's art-party scene is alive and well and sometimes converges in Shibuya. One focal point is Uplink Factory, and one of the more interesting banners under which it rallies is an event known as "Ubique." Uplink Factory is an offshoot of Uplink Co., which, since 1987, has produced and distributed the...
BUSINESS
May 26, 2001

Aid ready to be doled out to ensure African boats rise with IT tide

Japan is offering African countries a lifeboat to help keep them from drowning as the IT tsunami sweeps around the globe.
JAPAN
May 26, 2001

Koizumi pitches privatization plan

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has called for the reorganization of government-affiliated corporations and pointed to the need for sweeping privatization, government officials said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2001

Afghans' prospects grow worse by the day

KABUL -- Surrounded by squalor, 9-year-old Naim Gul raises his hand to beg for a cheap pen.

Longform

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