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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 15, 2001

NTT's still calling all the shots

As is apparent to anyone who owns a computer in Japan, the government's stated aim of making the nation an IT powerhouse will come to nothing until telecommunications connection fees become more rational.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Feb 15, 2001

Nature in Tokyo: the long and Short of it

Kevin Short's latest book, "Nature in Tokyo," which came out in December from Kodansha International, is a 335-page guide to animals and plants in Tokyo and the surrounding area. Through this book, readers will become much more aware of the origins of Tokyo and realize that it's not all flat nor totally...
COMMUNITY
Feb 15, 2001

A playground for the imagination

From the outside, Minamisawa Steiner Hoshi-no-ko Kodomo-en kindergarten looks much like any other home-run preschool. The two-story house is approached from a quiet side street, and you enter through a garden gate.
BUSINESS
Feb 15, 2001

Election-wary government may be stalling on farm agenda

Japan appears to be bobbling a baton Canada passed to it after the world's five major economies adjourned a meeting on global agriculture trade in 1999.
EDITORIALS
Feb 14, 2001

Picking priorities in Russia

Russia's economy is looking good. A year of 7 percent growth and high oil prices have provided a much needed windfall for the country. By all appearances, then, it is the wrong time to pick a fight with the West. But the government of President Vladimir Putin seems to be doing just that. It is a pointless...
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2001

Disputed isles set for aerial inspection

Ryutaro Hashimoto, state minister on issues pertaining to the disputed islands north of Hokkaido, said Tuesday he will inspect some areas of the Russian-held islands from the air on Saturday.
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2001

Domestic firms balk at Mori's IT initiative requiring investment abroad

Just seven months after Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori announced with much fanfare a $15 billion aid initiative in the area of information technology, concerns are already growing within the government that the plan may eventually fizzle out.
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2001

Research boat may go to help probe

Science Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Tuesday that he has told a marine science center to prepare for the possible dispatch of its research vessel to Hawaii in order to probe Friday's collision between a Japanese fisheries training ship and a U.S. nuclear submarine that has left nine people missing....
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2001

BOJ cuts discount rate to 0.35%

The Bank of Japan on Tuesday cut its official discount rate by 0.15 percentage point to a record low of 0.35 percent in line with a decision made at its Policy Board meeting Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2001

Girls triumph in English speech event

A Tokyo junior high school girl and an Okayama elementary school girl won a prestigious English-language speech contest Monday for students in Japan, beating some 44,000 fellow competitors from around the country.
COMMENTARY
Feb 14, 2001

The 'freeter' phenomenon

LONDON -- An article in the Jan. 31 issue of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun began with these words (my translation): "It was afternoon when he woke up. There was nothing he had to do. To avoid meeting his parents he got up without making any noise and went out of the house. It was the same thing for him every...
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2001

Seiyu announces new president

Major supermarket chain Seiyu Ltd. announced Tuesday following a board meeting that Vice President Masao Kiuchi had taken over the presidency the same day from Noriyuki Watanabe, who became the chairman.
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2001

Cheap China textile imports a hot potato

Shopping for casual clothes at a nearby Uniqlo store has almost become a routine for Miwako Matsuo. But what the 30-year-old didn't realize was that nearly 80 percent of the winter clothing she bought was made in China.
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2001

Opposition finds grist as Mori golfs amid tragedy

The opposition camp made full use of its latest ammunition against Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori -- his decision to keep playing golf Saturday despite learning about a collision between a Japanese vessel and a U.S. submarine -- during Tuesday's House of Representatives Budget Committee deliberations.
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2001

Opposition finds grist as Mori golfs amid tragedy

The opposition camp made full use of its latest ammunition against Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori -- his decision to keep playing golf Saturday despite learning about a collision between a Japanese vessel and a U.S. submarine -- during Tuesday's House of Representatives Budget Committee deliberations.
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2001

Japan readies fresh ODA for Myanmar

Japan is considering the first large-scale official development assistance in four years for Myanmar to help relieve the impoverished Southeast Asian country's acute power-supply shortages, government sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2001

Japan readies fresh ODA for Myanmar

Japan is considering the first large-scale official development assistance in four years for Myanmar to help relieve the impoverished Southeast Asian country's acute power-supply shortages, government sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2001

China agrees to sea-use framework

Japan and China agreed Tuesday to give two months' notification for marine research activities in each other's economic waters, setting up a framework to guard against incidents similar to one last year in which the entry of Chinese vessels into Japanese waters caused turmoil in bilateral relations....
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2001

China agrees to sea-use framework

Japan and China agreed Tuesday to give two months' notification for marine research activities in each other's economic waters, setting up a framework to guard against incidents similar to one last year in which the entry of Chinese vessels into Japanese waters caused turmoil in bilateral relations....
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2001

Mori, Putin plan March treaty talks

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in the Russian city of Irkutsk on March 25 for peace treaty talks, the two leaders agreed during a phone conversation Tuesday.
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2001

Mori, Putin plan March treaty talks

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in the Russian city of Irkutsk on March 25 for peace treaty talks, the two leaders agreed during a phone conversation Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 14, 2001

Sakhalin oil sparks hopes and fears

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, Russia -- Sakhalin Island is a remote former penal colony where the sea freezes for up to six months a year and villagers have been known to sleep in tents pitched in their bedrooms when the central heating fails.

Longform

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