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JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

Bureaucrat loses appeal of conviction for bribery

The Tokyo High Court on Friday upheld a lower court ruling sentencing former Vice Health and Welfare Minister Nobuharu Okamitsu to two years in prison for accepting about 60 million yen in bribes from a nursing home operator.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Nov 11, 2000

And the confusion begins

I said that this was going to be a historically close election, that it was quite possible that one presidential candidate would carry the popular vote while the other won the presidency by capturing the Electoral College vote, and that the counting would not be conclusive on election night.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2000

Where information is only for the rich

PHNOM PENH -- In an information-technology world, the vast majority of Cambodians remain deprived. While the amount of information in the country has been growing significantly, compared with the dark past, as with everything else here information is being hoarded by the rich and powerful.
CULTURE / Art
Nov 11, 2000

Love, oil and Bangkok traffic jams

If you've ever been caught in a Bangkok traffic jam, it's a fair bet that "beautiful" would not be a word you'd use to describe the scene. But asurvey of Takanobu Kobayashi's new paintings gives the impression that the 40-year-old painter loves the buses and big trucks and little tuk tuks that choke...
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

Yamamoto admits to bilking state

Former House of Representatives member Joji Yamamoto pleaded guilty Friday to defrauding the state of more than 25 million yen when he pocketed the state-paid salary of a woman fictitiously registered as his policy secretary.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2000

The special mandate of peace research

This is the eleventh month of the year, on the eleventh day of which, at the eleventh hour, the world pays homage to those who died in the first great war in the century of wars.
EDITORIALS
Nov 10, 2000

Down to the wire and beyond

We knew that the U.S. election was going to be close, but no one could have dreamed up the drama that has unfolded in the last 36 hours. The American public is as neatly divided as is possible: With over 96 million people going to the polls, the two candidates are separated by less than 1 percent of...
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

State pushes life science in draft of five-year plan

The government on Thursday compiled a draft of Japan's next five-year science and technology plans through fiscal 2005, emphasizing four fields, including life science and data communications, government officials said.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

IT strategy bill clears first hurdle in the Diet

The House of Representatives approved a government-proposed bill Thursday to set forth a national strategy to cope with quick and radical socioeconomic structural changes driven by the global information technology revolution.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

Political aides held for loan deals

Tokyo prosecutors Thursday arrested an aide to House of Representatives lawmaker Taichiro Nishikawa and an aide to Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly member Tai Yamazaki for allegedly playing key roles in the illegal brokering of loan guarantees to small businesses.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

New Komeito, Soka Gakkai to be tougher on Mori

New Komeito and its main base of support, Soka Gakkai, Japan's largest lay Buddhist organization, said the party will more aggressively push its agenda in the ruling coalition in response to supporters' growing dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's administration.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

White House change won't alter policies

Regardless of the outcome of the U.S. presidential race, Japan will continue talks with the new administration regarding Okinawa Prefecture's demand for a 15-year limit on the U.S. military's use of a planned new airfield there, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Thursday.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

Two suspected of harboring Shigenobu

The two men who were with Japanese Red Army founder Fusako Shigenobu when she was arrested Wednesday morning in Osaka Prefecture are believed to be key supporters of the group in the Kansai region, police sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

Politician arrested in teen-sex probe

The Metropolitan Police Department has arrested a 48-year-old Tokyo ward assembly member on suspicion of paying to have sex with teenage girls, in violation of the law banning child prostitution.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

Laser pointer accidents and dangers cited

Laser pointers pose a danger to the eyes and have been responsible for several accidents in Japan, the Japan Consumer Information Center said.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

Tokyo ward wants Aum's Joyu evicted

The mayor of Tokyo's Katsushika Ward on Thursday demanded that senior Aum Shinrikyo member Fumihiro Joyu, who moved into an apartment in the ward on Tuesday, leave due to residents' concerns.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

Annan expected to visit Japan, East Asia neighbors in January

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan plans to tour Japan, China, South Korea and North Korea in late January, informed sources said Thursday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 10, 2000

MLB team bids $13 mil. to talk with Orix star

The Orix BlueWave of the Pacific League announced Thursday that the club has received and accepted a bid of $13,125,000 from a major league team for the right to negotiate with seven-time league batting champion Ichiro Suzuki.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Nov 10, 2000

Alomar keeping eye on the future

Picture this: It's the year 2010 and the Yomiuri Giants are gunning for their first title in 10 years. It's late in the season and they desperately need a win. With two out in the bottom of the ninth, an aging batsman strolls to the plate. You've seen him a million times before on both sides of the Pacific....
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Nov 10, 2000

Kobe's FBI investigates improvisation

Improvisation is a tricky business. In mediocre hands, it is interminable at best, masturbatory at worst. But with skilled practitioners, improvisation becomes the haute couture of the music world, each piece tailored on the spot to a particular confluence of musicians, audience, time and place.
COMMENTARY
Nov 10, 2000

Mori's nine lives are almost used up

The coalition government of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is clearly in a delicate situation. Should he make another serious mistake, Mori will be forced to resign. I had some hopes for Mori as prime minister, since the late Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe, a friend of mine, had praised his political acumen....
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

Japan, U.S. hold base-disaster drill

Japanese and U.S. military forces held a joint disaster-relief drill Thursday at the U.S. Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo, the first exercise of its kind between the two nations.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

Another medical figure nabbed in bribery case

OSAKA -- The director of a medical corporation was arrested Thursday on suspicion of bribing a then professor at the prefectural Nara Medical University in an ongoing recruiting scandal, the Osaka District Public Prosecutor's Office said.
EDITORIALS
Nov 9, 2000

Death from overwork still threatens

If employers in the private and public sectors are not prepared to take adequate steps to reduce the threat to life from excessive workloads, Japanese judges seem increasingly ready to remind them of their responsibility. The nation's courts are ruling with greater frequency in favor of the families...
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 9, 2000

MLB stars back on track

OSAKA -- Omar Vizquel's RBI single broke a scoreless deadlock in the seventh inning and Mike Sweeney doubled home two runs in the next frame Wednesday as the visiting major leaguers beat the Japanese All-Stars 5-1 in Game 5 of their eight-game exhibition series.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?