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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 19, 2000

Wowed by the Lao and Siam

A DIPLOMAT IN SIAM, by Ernest Satow. Introduced and edited by Nigel Brailey. Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2000, 206 pp., with maps and line drawings, $23. In the spring of 1886, Ernest Satow wrote to his friend W.G. Aston in Japan that his recent journey to the Lao states had been "on the whole a pleasant...
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2000

Ministers agree to cut runway budget

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and Transport Minister Chikage Ogi agreed Monday to reduce the budget in fiscal 2001 for the construction of a controversial second runway at Kansai International Airport.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2000

Aum suit against Mainichi rejected

The Tokyo District Court on Monday rejected a 10 million yen damages suit filed by the Aum Shinrikyo cult against the Mainichi Shimbun over a report on the cult's alleged ongoing research on the nerve gas sarin.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 19, 2000

Ordinary life made transcendent

EVENING CLOUDS: A Novel, by Junzo Shono, translated by Wayne P. Lammers. Stone Bridge Press, 2000, 222 pp., $12.95. I remember being startled when I read Wayne Lammers' translation for the first time. That was when, back in 1985, I was reading for review the two-volume "Showa Anthology," a collection...
EDITORIALS
Dec 18, 2000

Myanmar in the middle

Relations between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Europe are moving forward. The fact that foreign ministers from the two blocs held their two-day meeting in Vientiane, Laos, last week is a sign of progress. The relationship had been frozen for two years amid mounting acrimony. Divisions...
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2000

Police set to examine report on yakuza activities in U.S.

Japanese police authorities want to carefully examine a U.S. government report released Friday on the activities of Japanese crime syndicates, known as yakuza, in the United States, police officials said.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2000

Societal barriers facing disabled may prove the most formidable

As deputy chief of the Japanese delegation at the Sydney Paralympic Games this summer, Tsunenobu Wakana was impressed with the handicapped-friendly facilities and transportation system.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2000

Businessman found with gun, bullets

OSAKA -- Police found a businessman in possession of a handgun and five rounds of ammunition at his home Saturday night while investigating a suspicion that he had handcuffed and confined an employee.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2000

Local civil servants grow fewer

The number of local public servants across Japan as of April 1 was 3,204,297, down 27,861 from a year earlier, the largest decline since the Home Affairs Ministry began surveying their numbers in 1975, the ministry said in a report released Sunday.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2000

Kato could be prime minister in 5 to 6 years, says Kamei

Koichi Kato, who unsuccessfully led a charge to oust Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori late last month, could become prime minister in five or six years, a top policymaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said Sunday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 18, 2000

Free-agent Kawasaki opts to join Dragons

Yakult Swallows right-hander Kenjiro Kawasaki, who declared free agency last month, announced Sunday his decision to join Central League rivals the Chunichi Dragons.
BUSINESS
Dec 18, 2000

Popularity polls belie Mori's 'reform plans'

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori launched his new Cabinet on Dec. 5, reshuffling his team to prepare for the reorganization of government ministries and agencies in January.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2000

Japan to subsidize green rooftops

The Construction Ministry plans to offer subsidies from fiscal 2001 to encourage owners of major buildings to plant trees and vegetation on rooftops and other parts of their premises to combat rising temperatures in city centers, ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2000

FRC declares two Korean credit unions insolvent

The Financial Reconstruction Commission on Saturday declared Kansai Kogin and Tokyo Shogin insolvent, believing the credit unions are severely undercapitalized, and will appoint administrators to oversee them, FRC officials said.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2000

Lighthouses to be powered by wind and sun

The Japan Coast Guard has decided to combine solar energy and wind power to generate electricity for four lighthouses across Japan, Coast Guard officials said.
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 18, 2000

Antlers march on

The Kashima Antlers continued their march toward an unprecedented domestic treble on Sunday, defeating Verdy Kawasaki 2-0 in Tosu to reach the last eight of the Emperor's Cup.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 18, 2000

Sharif deal puts pressure on Musharraf

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistanis were taken aback last week when they unexpectedly heard that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in military custody since the country's bloodless coup last year, suddenly left the country for exile in Saudi Arabia.
COMMENTARY
Dec 18, 2000

Bush's role on the Korean Peninsula

HONOLULU -- South Koreans are openly nervous about what the election of George W. Bush portends for the Korean peace process. Many also seem privately hopeful that the incoming president might, as one security analyst put it, "save us from ourselves."
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 18, 2000

Sea cucumbers: radially different

Sea cucumbers.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 18, 2000

Steelers close Three Rivers with victory over Redskins

PITTSBURGH -- Conjuring up images such as the "Steel Curtain" or "Blitzburgh," Three Rivers Stadium has been always a symbol of the Pittsburgh Steelers' strong defense throughout their 30-year history. And so it was on the last day.
COMMENTARY
Dec 18, 2000

At long last, signs of progress

During his Tokyo visit in October 1998, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and then Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi signed a joint declaration on the bilateral partnership for the 21st century. In the document, Obuchi expressed "keen remorse" and apologized for the historical fact that Japan, through...
COMMUNITY
Dec 18, 2000

Japan Prize winners picked for science

Two scientists from the United States and Canada have been named winners of this year's Japan Prize for their contributions to the development of environmentally sound materials and to marine biology.

Longform

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