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EDITORIALS

Nov 23, 1999

Terror for the 21st century

A few weeks ago, New York was hit by an outbreak of the West Nile virus. Five people died and another 50 were sickened before authorities were able to respond. West Nile fever is a rare, encephalitic virus that is common in Africa and Asia, but had never before been diagnosed in the Western Hemisphere....

EDITORIALS

Nov 20, 1999

Only disconnect

Way back in the Orwellian year of 1984, James Cameron's movie "The Terminator" gave us a glimpse of a future swarming with cyborgs -- machines that have taken on a life of their own and turned against human beings.

EDITORIALS

Nov 19, 1999

The challenge of jobs for graduates

Students graduating from the nation's universities, two-year junior colleges and high schools next March are not likely to agree with the optimistic pronouncements being made about signs of a long-delayed recovery for Japan's battered economy. Better days may indeed be ahead for the corporate world,...

EDITORIALS

Nov 18, 1999

Integrity too precious to squander

The Kanagawa Prefectural Police has apparently run amok. One day after nine senior current and former officers were referred to public prosecutors on suspicion of involvement in the coverup of a fellow officer's drug use, the prefectural police headquarters meekly announced that a current and a former...

EDITORIALS

Nov 17, 1999

Bringing China into the fold

The breakthrough trade agreement signed in Beijing on Monday between China and the United States heralds the imminent global debut of the world's last-remaining large market that is basically free and operates on the basis of common global rules. This is a real boon, not only for the two nations concerned,...

EDITORIALS

Nov 16, 1999

A 'final push' for recovery

The government has unveiled a new economic pack age designed to pep up the frail economy and give further impetus to structural economic reforms going into the 21st century. Titled "Economic Rebirth Measures," the package, which was announced last Thursday, focuses on building social infrastructure,...

EDITORIALS

Nov 13, 1999

Ending the politics of money

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi has done the right thing in overriding objections from his own party to the ban on donations to individual politicians from firms and other interest groups. His decision, first unveiled in a meeting with opposition party heads Wednesday, paves the way for the enactment of...

EDITORIALS

Nov 12, 1999

Mr. Bush's quiz show

There is no doubt about it. U.S. presidential hopeful George W. Bush handed his rivals some welcome ammunition last week when he flubbed that pop quiz. Asked to identify the leaders of Chechnya, Taiwan, Pakistan and India, a stunned Mr. Bush could only come up with "Lee" for Taiwan and (an admittedly...

EDITORIALS

Nov 11, 1999

Banishing the nuclear specter

The specter of a nuclear holocaust lingers as the world approaches the 21st century. True, the end of the Cold War halted the U.S.-Soviet nuclear-arms race and prompted efforts to reduce strategic nuclear weapons. But the theory of nuclear deterrence -- which created a "balance of terror" during the...

EDITORIALS

Nov 10, 1999

Cracking down on loan sharks

Japan's continuing credit squeeze is turning the spotlight onto small-business loans from commercial moneylenders -- so-called "shoko" (commerce and industry) loans that carry extremely high interest rates because they require no collateral, only a third-party guarantee. To collect loans, the lenders...

EDITORIALS

Nov 9, 1999

Rejoicing in uncertainty

Ten years ago today, the Cold War ended. On Nov. 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall, perhaps the ultimate symbol of the world's division into two blocs and the oppression on the communist side of the Iron Curtain, was breached. Thousands of people mounted the graffiti-scarred concrete to dance, drink or just peer...

EDITORIALS

Nov 8, 1999

A welcome step toward Pyongyang

The government's decision last week to lift the ban on chartered flights between Japan and North Korea comes amid an easing of tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The ban was part of the economic sanctions that Tokyo imposed in August last year to protest the test-firing of a Taepodong ballistic missile....

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.

From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past

By Alex K.T. Martin

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