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COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2002

Chinese growth miracle may be a myth

NEW DELHI -- Has China really achieved double-digit growth rates in the past two decades? And is India really lagging behind? Close scrutiny reveals that India's growth rate may actually have been higher.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2002

Fast Retailing, Daiei settle store-design row

Fast Retailing Co., a leading casual-clothing retailer known for its Uniqlo brand, and Daiei Inc. have reached an out-of-court settlement over a dispute involving the layout of Daiei's PAS casual clothing stores, company officials said Saturday.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 2, 2002

Looking behind life-or-death situations

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the murder of eight young children at the Ikeda Elementary School in Osaka. Shortly after that, a young man killed a child in a Kyoto schoolyard before killing himself when faced with arrest, thus reinforcing the fear among the general public that Japan's schools...
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Jun 2, 2002

Straight talking from Citizen Nic

Writer and naturalist C.W. Nicol left his home in South Wales in 1958 at the age of 17 to join an Arctic Institute of North America expedition to the Arctic. Four years later, he made his first visit to Japan to study karate and Japanese, before heading back to Canada to take part in a further six Arctic...
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 2, 2002

Germany routs Saudi Arabia 8-0

SAPPORO -- The World Cup finally arrived in Japan on Saturday and Germany ensured that opening day will long be remembered. In one of the most one-sided games in World Cup history, Germany beat Saudi Arabia 8-0 at the Sapporo Dome in their Group E match.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 2, 2002

Tickling Japan's funnybone

THE CHRYSANTHEMUM AND THE FISH: Japanese Humor Since the Age of the Shoguns, by Howard Hibbett. Tokyo/New York: Kodansha International, 2001, 228 pp., with 40 woodcut-print illustrations, 3,000 yen (cloth) Toward the end of this most agreeable essay on the local comic spirit, Howard Hibbett observes:...
COMMUNITY
Jun 2, 2002

See you at Almond

Earlier this year, the Dentsu Research Institute predicted that Japan's co-hosting of the World Cup would benefit the economy to the tune of 3.182 trillion yen. While Tokyo isn't hosting any of the games, its glitzy Roppongi district will likely play host to thousands of soccer fans from around the world...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 2, 2002

New threats to East Asian security

EAST ASIA IMPERILLED: Transnational Challenges to Security, by Alan Dupont. Cambridge University Press, 2001, 336 pp., $25 (paper) The way we think about national security is changing. Traditionally, the idea of protecting a nation focused on military contests over power, wealth or territory. Not surprisingly,...
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2002

Kickoff! Games start in Japan

The soccer World Cup opening matches kicked off in Japan on Saturday. Jubilant soccer fans and supporters from around the world flocked to the stadiums to watch the Ireland-Cameroon game in Niigata and the Germany-Saudi Arabia match later in the day in Sapporo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jun 2, 2002

Still tastes like Shonen spirit

Raspberry rock? Pineapple pop? Just plain old vanilla? Osaka-based all-girl band Shonen Knife -- age 21 this year -- haven't been flavor of the month for many a moon.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 2, 2002

Party notes from the underground

I was somewhere in the middle of the tawdry sea of neon and pesky sidewalk that people know as Roppongi when The Fear set in.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jun 2, 2002

In a pinch, these will do just fine

More than 50 families of crab, numbering thousands of species, thrive in practically all parts of the globe. Most crab species are marine and live in salt water or the brackish waters of bays, lagoons and river deltas. A relatively small number have adapted themselves to completely freshwater life-cycles...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 2, 2002

The slow train to France

To reach AOC Yoyogi entails an undemanding stroll down a narrow shotengai shopping street in one of those quiet, unexceptional parts of Tokyo you would never have recourse to visit in the normal run of affairs. It's only minutes away from the JR station, but far enough that you feel well removed from...
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2002

Kawaguchi Cup-luck attire throws off beat reporters

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi was decked out in a red "power suit" Friday, which usually means she plans to make an important, usually bad, announcement, such as sacking staff involved in scandals.
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 1, 2002

French stunned by Senegal in opener

SEOUL -- With the first boot-on-ball touch of the biggest, most complicated and most expensive World Cup ever, Senegal's El Hadji Diouf instantly banished four years of waiting for the greatest soccer show on Earth to get underway. From that point on, however, it didn't quite go according to the anticipated...
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2002

Upper House OKs laws in support of Kyoto pact

The House of Councilors on Friday approved statutes designed to put Japan on the path to meet its legally binding international obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, also given the legislative stamp of approval the same day.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2002

Kansai firms hope the Cup runneth over

OSAKA -- While economists debate the macroeconomic impact of the FIFA World Cup, which kicked off Friday, Hisako Tanigawa just hopes it will mean extra pocket money for her family.
JAPAN / CLOSE NEIGHBORS
Jun 1, 2002

Chinese, South Korean students warm to Japan

To Lee Hee Jung, a 20-year-old South Korean student at Yokohama National University, Japan is closer to her mother country than the United States not only geographically, but psychologically.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2002

Japan scrapes the barrel after latest downgrade

Moody's Investors Service Inc. on Friday dealt a long-expected blow to Japan's credit rating, lowering it two notches to A2. The world's second largest economy and largest creditor nation is now in the same league as Cyprus, Greece and Israel.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jun 1, 2002

Moore gets job done for Tigers

Southpaw Trey Moore allowed only four hits over eight innings and hit a bases-loaded triple in the fifth Friday to lead the Hanshin Tigers 3-1 over the Yakult Swallows in a key Central League contest.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2002

List-keeping officer faces punishment under SDF law

A Maritime Self-Defense Force lieutenant commander who allegedly compiled personal data on people requesting disclosure of agency information may be punished for violating the SDF law, Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2002

Saitama offers free big-screen viewings of World Cup games

The Saitama Prefectural Government and the City of Saitama are holding public events to broadcast seven FIFA World Cup matches live on big screens.
COMMENTARY
Jun 1, 2002

Beijing must walk a fine line on asylum

HONG KONG -- China's decision to allow five North Koreans who sought asylum in the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang to go to Seoul via Manila reflects the delicate balancing act Beijing must perform in managing its relationship with North Korea, its longtime communist ally, and South Korea, its...
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2002

Japan, China need cooling-off period before launching cooling-off forum

When they met during an international business conference on the southern Chinese island of Hainan in March, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his Chinese counterpart, Zhu Rongji, agreed to inaugurate a high-level comprehensive forum for dialogue on economic topics.
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2002

Goldman Sachs closes night market

Ltd. was set to temporarily shut down its nighttime stock market after its session Friday because of recent sluggish trading. Company officials said it is unclear when trading, launched in January 2001, will resume, but the company will pay attention to market trends and the wishes of individual investors...
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2002

Soccer's greatest show kicks off

SEOUL -- The waiting is finally over. Four years after France lifted the World Cup in Paris, soccer's biggest event has kicked off again in South Korea and will end 64 games later in Yokohama with the best team in the world lifting the famous gold trophy.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2002

LDP hints at calling Tanaka for sworn Diet testimony

Former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka, who remains mired in a bitter feud with leaders of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, could be called to appear before the Diet to give testimony over allegations that she misappropriated her secretaries' salaries, a senior LDP member suggested Friday.
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 1, 2002

Inamoto ready to show off

MORIMACHI, Shizuoka Pref. -- Ten months after joining Arsenal, Japan midfielder Junichi Inamoto is ready for the World Cup and he plans to show off all that he's learned playing in England.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
Jun 1, 2002

Venue lets budding, talented artists bring their works out of the closet

"Yomenanohana," or kalimeris "yomena," is a weed that flowers unnoticed in the fields, and for Kyoko Mita, it is the perfect name for a museum for unknown artists.

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’