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JAPAN
Dec 25, 2000

Cabinet approves plan to cut 5,988 state jobs

The central government on Sunday decided to reduce its workforce to 817,202 by the end of March 2002 by shedding 23,701 jobs from March next year in a bid to streamline the administration, government officials said.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Dec 25, 2000

Emotion trumps logic in whaling debate

Over a sushi lunch with Scott Latham, I mention "whaling," and Scott, my trade-consultant friend, doesn't miss a beat: "The Whaling Wall."
MORE SPORTS
Dec 25, 2000

T.M. Opera caps record year with Arima victory

FUNABASHI, Chiba Pref. -- It was a fitting end to a century. A fitting end to a year. This year's best horse took the honors from start to finish.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 25, 2000

World fisheries collapsing as technology and demand soar

As this is the season of giving, here is a gift, a riddle:
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2000

Flexibility the key to success of alliance

Foreign policy focuses on change. New leaders, new technologies, new conditions -- all create the need for new policies. Experts are always planning for contingencies -- the crisis to come -- and when they hit it's usually because governments failed to recognize the new realities that created them. ...
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2000

Traffic accidents near record

The number of traffic accidents in Japan is likely to hit a record high this year in tandem with the increase in vehicles and older drivers, National Police Agency officials said Sunday.
COMMENTARY
Dec 25, 2000

China's U.S. envoy is no stranger to Bush

WASHINGTON -- How many nations can send to America an ambassador who has been a personal friend of the Bush family for nearly a quarter-century?
COMMENTARY
Dec 25, 2000

Judicial reform falls short

A government panel on judiciary reform produced an interim report in November that called for specific measures, such as creating law schools and tripling the annual crop of legal experts-to-be (those who pass the state law exam) to 3,000.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2000

Sanctions target the innocent

The use of sanctions as a tool of foreign and international policy increased dramatically in the 20th century. Yet as the crumbling sanctions on Iraq show, their track record in ensuring compliance is pitiful. They inflict pain on ordinary citizens while imposing questionable costs on leaders who are...
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 25, 2000

Nagai to manage Yokohama FC

Yokohama FC, formed by former Yokohama Flugels supporters and recently promoted to Division Two of the J. League, named Yoshikazu Nagai manager for next season in a one-year deal, the club announced Sunday.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2000

Nation records greater interest in athletes

Interest in the nation's athletes competing in international sporting events reached a record 87.2 percent this year due partly to their performance at the Sydney Olympic Games, according to a survey by the Prime Minister's Office released Saturday.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2000

Shrines to be busy over New Year's

Around 89.34 million people are likely to visit major shrines and temples throughout Japan from Jan. 1-3 to wish for a prosperous new year, up 1.2 million from this year, according to a National Police Agency estimate.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2000

Woman battles unfair rental practices

SHINGU, Hyogo Pref. -- When Suzuko Miura learned in March she would be returned only 34,181 yen of the 98,000 yen deposit she had paid on her son's Kyoto apartment, she refused to go down without a fight.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2000

A-bomb aid eyed for Pyongyang

The government will send a mission to North Korea as early as February to examine the condition of the surviving atomic bomb victims living there, government sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2000

Universal leads Kinki tourism boom

OSAKA -- With construction work on Universal Studio Japan nearing completion, expectations are running high that the Hollywood theme park will attract hordes of visitors and revitalize a hitherto drab industrial site.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2000

Survey results shed light on problems facing students

Nearly 30 percent of elementary and junior high school students find it too noisy to concentrate on study during class, according to a government survey released Saturday.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2000

Emperor celebrates 67th birthday with family

The Emperor marked his 67th birthday Saturday by greeting public well-wishers at the Imperial Palace together with members of the Imperial family.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 24, 2000

Shinjo: Can he live up to media hype in New York?

played up the coverage of the signing of free agent Tsuyoshi Shinjo by the New York Mets last week. "He'll be the opening day starting center fielder," said one paper about the former Hanshin Tigers star. "He'll bat sixth in the lineup," read another. While it's nice to know they have high hopes for...
EDITORIALS
Dec 24, 2000

The lessons of Chernobyl

On April 26, 1986, the world had its first full-scale nuclear disaster. On that day, the No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear-power plant in Ukraine exploded, sending a huge cloud of radioactive dust across Europe. Earlier this month, Ukraine's government shut down the last working reactor at the Chernobyl...
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 24, 2000

Antlers stop F. Marinos, close in on historic treble

Kashima Antlers edged a step closer to an unprecedented domestic treble Saturday as the J. League and Nabisco Cup champions overcame Yokohama F. Marinos 4-1 on penalties in the Emperor's Cup quarterfinals.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 24, 2000

Palestinian families at a scholarly remove

POLITICAL VIOLENCE AND THE PALESTINIAN FAMILY: Implications for Mental Health and Well-Being, by Vivian Khamis, Haworth Press, 144 pp., $20. The appearance of a book on the impact of political violence on Palestinian families could hardly be timelier. Deaths caused by the present unrest in Israel and...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2000

How fast is China's economy growing?

CAMBRIDGE, England -- It is that time of year again when statisticians in Beijing have to decide how fast the Chinese economy grew in the last year. Or rather, not so much how much it grew but how much they are going to claim it grew. More so than anywhere else the figures for growth in gross domestic...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / RENDEZVOUS
Dec 24, 2000

Rendezvous

MERRY CHRISTMAS . . . MERRY CHRISTMAS . . . MERRY CHRISTMAS . . . Have a great day. And the best is yet to come for Japan, with the unique welcoming of the new year -- a festival that can take as long as two weeks or a shorter period of about five days, beginning with what westerners call New Year's...
COMMENTARY
Dec 24, 2000

English-education reform gets watered down

Imagine the fuss if Japan's car industry was producing a million defective cars a year. But for some reason no one bothers much if Japan's English-education industry produces roughly that number of defective English speakers each year.
COMMUNITY
Dec 24, 2000

The miraculous manifestation of a man of the cloth at Xmas

T'was 10 days before Christmas, and all through the house . . . complete and utter panic! Who to interview for Christmas Eve? Jim Carey (promoting his seasonal movie "The Grinch") has come and gone -- along with most of the foreign community (for the holiday break). As for the Japanese, they are all...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 24, 2000

Roll up your sleeve when Lance comes calling

Hospitals come and go -- especially on our island. You can always tell when the hospital comes because it's a large mobile contraption that rolls off the ferry. When it's time to go, it rolls back onto the ferry and you can wave goodbye to the hospital as it goes back out to sea. It's basically a big...

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb