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JAPAN
May 14, 2000

Banned gray whale meat sold in Japan: N.Z. researchers

Kyodo News In the report, researchers at the University of Auckland determined that the meat, sold in August and October as minke whale at shops in Taiji and Nachikatsuura, both in Wakayama Prefecture, was in reality gray whale.
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2000

Fight against pirates slowed by China

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- After dark on April 21, two boats carrying 20 pirates armed with cudgels and metal rods slipped up alongside a Russian freighter called Forest-1 in the port of Chittagong, Bangladesh.
JAPAN
May 14, 2000

30% fear Japan may be involved in war: poll

About 30 percent of Japanese who answered a government survey said Japan may be involved in a war in the near future, according to the poll results, released Saturday.
MORE SPORTS
May 14, 2000

Where have all the leaders gone?

May has not been a good month for leadership in Japan. And surely I'm not the only one disappointed.
JAPAN
May 14, 2000

Planned Middle East environment conference in danger of cancellation

An international conference on the Middle East's environment, scheduled for the end of this month in Tunisia, will almost certainly be canceled due to a slower pace of progress in the revived regional peace process than initially expected.
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2000

Awaiting Putin's policy plans

With great fanfare, Vladimir Putin was inaugurated as president of Russia May 7 in the gilded splendor of the Kremlin, the former residence of the Russian czars.
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2000

Myanmar's Karens fight for freedom

MAE SOT, Thailand -- Theirs is the longest-running insurgency in Asia, against a regime widely recognized as one of the world's most repressive. And yet the Karen National Union, which launched a guerrilla war in 1949 to secure a homeland for the Karen ethnic minority in eastern Myanmar, is anything...
CULTURE / Art
May 14, 2000

Triumph or disaster in Trafalgar Square

LONDON -- The jury for Trafalgar Square was still out when Prue Leith got stuck in her traffic jam. The debate had shifted elsewhere, to other public art projects that had similarly raised hackles or won praise, like Anthony Gormley's "Angel of the North." This 20-meter-high statue erected in 1997 above...
CULTURE / Music
May 14, 2000

Japan's greatest battle in song and story

Oct. 21 this year marks the 400th anniversary of the most decisive battle in Japan's history, fought at Sekigahara near the border between Shiga and Gifu prefectures, where Tokugawa Ieyasu overcame all opposition to set the course of events for the next three centuries.
CULTURE / Music
May 14, 2000

Yomiuri Nippon Symphony

Yomiuri Nippon Kokyo Gakudan
JAPAN
May 14, 2000

Mori gives strongest hint yet at holding elections June 25

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori virtually acknowledged in a remark made Saturday during the taping of an NHK television program that the next Lower House elections will be held June 25.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 14, 2000

Buffaloes trample Fighters

Norihiro Nakamura and Tuffy Rhodes both connected for solo homers Saturday as the Kintetsu Buffaloes pounded out 18 hits en route to a 12-7 victory over the Nippon Ham Fighters at Tokyo Dome.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
May 14, 2000

Etienne Taenaka

When he was growing up in California, Etienne Taenaka wanted to be an architect. As he watched his mother, a hairdresser, at work, he made an imaginative leap between architecture and "hair-chitecture." "Creating styles, form following function, building shapes and achieving balance," he said. "My mother...
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2000

Winds of change on Korean Peninsula

Following the June 12-14 North-South Korea summit in Pyongyang, there will be one sure way to tell if the proceedings have been even moderately successful.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 14, 2000

Adjusting traditions

Before we get too far from the holidays, I wonder how many of you were aware of yet another dilemma for Japanese trying to follow traditions in a world where they no longer fit. Among the most spectacular sights of Golden Week that we are suppose to see are the carp streamers hoisted on long poles and...
COMMUNITY
May 14, 2000

Ex-garbage man bags career as pro caddie

If Jeff Mulberry has any aspirations beyond the odd hole in one, it is to lead as uncomplicated a life as possible. His needs are modest and his interests narrowing down as he focuses on pro golf. Not that he has his eye set on being a winning player, but rather on being the best caddie that friendship,...
EDITORIALS
May 13, 2000

A first step in electoral reform

With the passage of a bill amending the flawed Public Offices Election Law, the next Lower House election -- which most likely will be held late in June -- promises to be a fairer one. The current system, which was used for the first time in the 1996 Lower House election, is a combination of single-member...
JAPAN
May 13, 2000

Showa Day joins lineup

The Golden Week holidays have been consolidated by legislation passed Friday that moves Greenery Day to May 4 from May 29 and renames April 29 "Showa Day," in memory of the late Emperor Showa.
JAPAN
May 13, 2000

North Korea seen emerging

Japan, South Korea and the United States in a joint statement Friday praised North Korea for opening bilateral dialogue with all three nations following the Stalinist state's agreement to hold the first-ever inter-Korean summit in June.
JAPAN
May 13, 2000

EPA slightly upgrades economic assessment

The Economic Planning Agency on Friday slightly upgraded its assessment of the domestic economy, saying it is continuing to improve moderately due largely to increased corporate activity.
COMMENTARY / World
May 13, 2000

Democracy hangs in the balance in Iran

BEIRUT -- "For God's sake, tell me, is Islam a religion of violence or not?" begged a reader recently in the question-and-answer column of Musharekat, mouthpiece of the reformist forces headed by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's brother Mohammad-Reza.
JAPAN
May 13, 2000

Yearlong campaign to showcase Italy

Hoping to increase awareness that Italy is more than just a tourist destination, a yearlong promotion comprising various exhibitions across Japan will be launched next March, the promoters announced Friday.
JAPAN
May 13, 2000

Mori reports assets totaling 130 million yen

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori owned some 130 million yen in personal and family assets as of April 5, the day his Cabinet was launched, according to government data released Friday.
JAPAN
May 13, 2000

Plan sets 15-minute limit to report atomic incident

The government plans to oblige nuclear plant workers to report accidents above certain levels within 15 minutes to bodies including the Prime Minister's Office and the Science and Technology Agency, it was announced Friday.
JAPAN
May 13, 2000

Vast Hawaii telescope out of service

The Subaru telescope, one of the world's biggest, has been out of service for the past two months due to damage to its mirror supports, officials of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan said Friday.
JAPAN
May 13, 2000

Man held to facilitate state appeal

A Nepalese man detained by order of the Tokyo High Court -- despite being acquitted last month of a 1997 murder -- is being held in order to facilitate appeal hearings, the court said Friday.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years