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JAPAN
Dec 23, 2001

Engineer in hospital exposed to massive dose of radiation

A 34-year-old man has been exposed to roughly 1,000 times the annual amount of radiation permissible while installing radiotherapy equipment at a government-run hospital in Tokyo, officials at the science and technology ministry said.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2001

Foreigners may join panel on protection of human rights

A Justice Ministry panel has proposed that the ministry consider including foreigners on the country's human rights protection commission. Members of the body voluntarily provide consultations and raise awareness.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 23, 2001

Rugby Steelers top World to win battle of Kobe

Kobe Steel ensured the 54th Company Rugby Championship final would be a Kanto-Kansai affair after demolishing local rival World 80-12 at Chichibunomiya Stadium in Tokyo on Saturday. The result means the Steelers will take on Kansai-rival Toyota, 27-19 winner over NEC, in one semifinal on Jan. 6, while...
COMMUNITY
Dec 23, 2001

Everlasting allure of gems shines on

Gems are among the most gorgeous examples of nature at work, even though the jewels we admire get a helping hand not afforded to phenomena like sunsets and snow-capped peaks.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2001

Fertility panel rejects use of eggs, sperm from third parties

A health ministry panel deliberating over a fertility treatment has agreed to prohibit use of an egg fertilized with sperm provided separately by a third person when both members of a couple are sterile.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2001

Teikyo University chief to quit post in admissions scandal

Shoichi Okinaga, chairman of the trustee board and president of Teikyo University, plans to resign the chairmanship over a scandal involving backdoor admissions, university sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2001

Center's pigs to provide transplant organs

Japan's first research center breeding miniature pigs to provide transplant organs for humans is to be established at a university in the city of Kagoshima, government officials said Saturday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Dec 23, 2001

Putin leaves Russia wondering

MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be really excited about his new strategic partnership with Washington. For the sake of this still amorphous yet highly promising alliance, he has even decided to downplay his irritation about President George W. Bush's decision to withdraw from the...
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2001

Government admits rejecting report that warned of BSE

Japan rejected a report by the European Union that warned of a high risk of mad cow disease in Japan, before the discovery of the country's first case, officials of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry has acknowledged.
COMMUNITY
Dec 23, 2001

'God of diamonds' a cut above the rest

Few guests at first notice the seven small stones, shimmering icily in the corner of this Ginza reception hall. The little shards catch a beam of light for the briefest instant, before flicking it gaily away.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2001

Theater accident leaves one dead, four hurt

One man died and four others were injured at a theater in Tokyo's Kita Ward on Friday afternoon when they were crushed between the stage and a hydraulic platform they were inspecting, according to police.
JAPAN / Media / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 23, 2001

Remembering the year that was

It's the penultimate week of the year, which means regular variety shows get to save a bit of money by looking back at the year's highlights. "Sanma's Karakuri TV" (tonight at 7, TBS), a mix-and-match assembly of out-of-studio comedy skits hosted in-studio by Osaka funnyman Sanma Akashiya, presents an...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Dec 23, 2001

Kazu no ko — an eggcellent winter delicacy

Salted herring roe, kazu no ko, has been a staple of northern climate native fishing populations for as long as man has been casting a net into the ocean. Tribal groups in Alaska, aboriginal Scandinavians and the indigenous groups of Northern Japan have long considered this preserved food a delicacy,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 23, 2001

Japan well-served by 'soft power' strategy

Japan's International Relations: Politics, Economics and Security, by Glenn D. Hook, Julie Gilson, Christopher W. Hughes and Hugo Dobson. London & New York, Routledge, 2001, 532 pp. $32.95 (paper). Problem child, kingmaker and political gadfly, Ichiro Ozawa has long been one of the most ambitious men...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2001

Argentina has no choice but to default

NEW YORK -- Argentina is now experiencing one of its most severe economic and social crises in recent history. Riots are spreading through the country and the government seems increasingly unable to control the situation. The declaration of a state of siege for 30 days, although a necessary measure to...
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Dec 23, 2001

Buffalo Daughter: A new addition to the family

Being in a band is like being married to more than one person simultaneously. And like any married couple, bands have their own special neuroses. The dysfunctions of any given group are compounded by long hours in the hothouse confines of a studio and even longer hours on the road.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Dec 23, 2001

An o-tososan a year keeps the doc away

It's a rare occasion or ceremony that does not include some sake in Japan, and that harbinger of renewal, New Year's Day, is no exception. Although sake figures prominently in o-shogatsu celebrations from morning to night, opening the year with a prayer for health in the form of drinking o-toso is perhaps...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 23, 2001

Robbing the little guy of life's pleasures

Following the government's eleventh-hour decision to forgo a planned increase in the tax on happoshu foamy liquor the Asahi Shimbun ran an editorial cartoon showing a happy man sitting at the kotatsu and hoisting a can of the beerlike stuff in tribute to his TV, which showed Koizumi father and son toasting...
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2001

Coast guard sinks suspect ship in East China Sea

An unidentified ship spotted within Japan's exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea sank Saturday night after being shot at by Japan Coast Guard vessels that had been pursuing it, coast guard officials said.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 23, 2001

On a slow boat to Bangkok

SLITHERING SOUTH: by Steve Van Beek. Hong Kong: Wind & Water, Inc., 2001. 430 pp. with map and glossary, $11.95. Sliding (or bumping) down the shallow Ping River, the long tributary that joins the Chao Phya and flows through Bangkok, Steve Van Beek pondered his odyssey. Having begun in the river's headwaters...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 23, 2001

A gift from the South of France

At this time of year, the frigid streets of Tokyo feel a very long way from the sun-baked hills and turquoise seas of the South of France. But they have cold weather down there too. And for that we should be thankful -- because if they didn't have winter, the local fisher-folk might never have developed...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 23, 2001

Rethinking the threat that never was

NO MORE BASHING: Building a New Japan-United States Economic Relationship, by C. Fred Bergsten, Takatoshi Ito and Marcus Noland. Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics, October, 2001, 328 pp., $23.95 (paper). What a difference a decade makes. Ten years ago, the United States was widely...
EDITORIALS
Dec 23, 2001

Milking maids for all they're worth

Here's a well-timed debate. In the runup to Christmas, the traditional season of generosity and good will to all, the citizens of Hong Kong have been arguing the rights and wrongs of their government's pending proposal to cut the minimum wage of foreign (mostly Filipino) domestic workers for the second...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 23, 2001

Beating the game -- at last

"Dad, could you show me how to make a jump shot?" So my younger son once requested as we stood beneath a hoop in his junior-high playground.
COMMUNITY
Dec 23, 2001

Pearls reign as queen of gems

Pearls, the "Queen of Gems," have perhaps the longest history of any of the precious stones. References to them first appeared in 5,000-year-old Hindu legends in which the god Krishna was said to have discovered them and given one to his daughter Pandaa on her wedding day. China's "Shu King," a history...
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Dec 23, 2001

Classmates opened interpreter's eyes to East Europe states

For 14-year-old Mari Yonehara, each of her classmates was a window on the world. Far from their homelands, the students at her school in Prague, in what was then Czechoslovakia, had multinational backgrounds and were patriotic. But despite her five-year stay in the city and her near-perfect grasp of...
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Dec 23, 2001

Finding the Christmas spirit (and ale)

Christmas was once a lonely business for an expat in Japan. With no holiday, no family and everyone who could manage it having already left town, it was downright dismal -- even for a seasoned Japan-hand.
COMMENTARY
Dec 22, 2001

China remains a vital friend for Pakistan

ISLAMABAD -- Even before Gen. Pervez Musharraf embarked Thursday on his trip to China, which will last through Monday, analysts were quick to predict a new phase in the time-tested relationship between the two neighbors.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2001

Shanghai mayor's fate may signal storm

HONG KONG -- A political mystery arose in Shanghai as the year drew to an end. Few foreigners took much notice. Yet the unexplained incident could indicate that a bumpy year lies ahead for politics in China.

Longform

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