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JAPAN
Apr 13, 2001

Whaling should not overshadow trade talks: Clark

While Wellington and Tokyo must agree to disagree over Japan's whaling program, the issue should not impede trade ties, visiting New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 13, 2001

Spat over whaling unlikely to sour business

Helen Clark is not afraid to snap at the hand that helps feed her nation.
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 13, 2001

Paper wasp

*Japanese name: Futamon ashinagabachi *Scientific name: Polistes chinensis * Description: Paper wasps are social insects, meaning that they live together in a colony. A queen lays eggs, and worker insects feed the larvae. They have yellow and black stripes like regular wasps, but paper wasps are easy...
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2001

Pyongyang welcomes Japan NGO pushing redress

Kyodo News
BUSINESS
Apr 12, 2001

DaimlerChrysler buys Volvo's stake in MMC

DaimlerChrysler AG has agreed to pay $297 million for AB Volvo's 3.3 percent stake in Mitsubishi Motors Corp. to expand its alliance with the Japanese firm into commercial vehicles, MMC announced in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2001

Cabinet approves import curbs on China leeks, shiitake, straw

The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a plan to invoke temporary import curbs on three agricultural products, mainly from China, to protect domestic farmers from a recent surge in imports.
BUSINESS
Apr 11, 2001

Japan supports China over U.S. ahead of APEC summit

Japan is opening cover fire to help China defeat the United States. It's not a real battle, off course. It's a trade skirmish being fought at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
COMMUNITY
Apr 8, 2001

How to escape the urban grind

After a grueling week at the office, we naturally look forward to getting outand about on the weekend. For diversions, Japan's major cities have it all, from art exhibitions and the latest movies to shopping and sporting events. Problem is, who wants to fight thesame workday-commute crowds at museums,...
ENVIRONMENT
Apr 8, 2001

Twitching to get out in the field and bird

Birders, bird-watchers, bird-spotters, ornithologists, listers, twitchers or birding dudes: Whatever you want to call them, they are the people -- a friend, a family member or maybe an eccentric relative -- who creep about at all hours of the day spotting, studying, grilling, scoping, twitching or, in...
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2001

Digital legend aims to fill technology gap with $100 computer

Digital technology is evolving at stunning speed, slashing the prices of all sorts of digital gadgets and linking numerous countries through the ever-growing World Wide Web. But these developments fail to satisfy Kazuhiko Nishi, who wants tools created to tear down the technological and language barriers...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Apr 8, 2001

Moreno comes of age

Escaping paternal shadows can be tricky for a musician, especially if that musician's name happens to be Lennon, Marley or Dylan. Brazil's Moreno Veloso, however, probably shares more in common with Nigeria's Femi Kuti. Both are sons of superstars in their native countries who virtually created their...
BUSINESS
Apr 7, 2001

State to probe towel imports, decide on trade restrictions

The government will begin a formal probe later this month to decide whether to invoke curbs on surging towel imports, primarily from China, Takeo Hiranuma, minister of economy, trade and industry, said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Apr 6, 2001

Asia dusts off some bad habits

Storm clouds are gathering over Asian economies. Although the region has recovered from the worst of the 1997 financial crisis, the slowdown in the United States will give Asia a jolt. The region can overcome those difficulties if Asian economies continue their corporate and financial reforms, but unfortunately,...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2001

A springtime dilemma

It has become an annual event. At about the same time that the cherry blossoms in Tokyo are at their peak, Japan faces a big foreign-policy headache: how to respond to the United States-led efforts to censure China at the United Nations Human Rights Commission.
JAPAN
Apr 5, 2001

Ex-Prime Minister Hashimoto top candidate to replace Mori

The Liberal Democratic Party's factional interests appear to have put former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto into pole position in the race to find a successor to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.
JAPAN
Apr 5, 2001

Direct talks open with U.S. over dropping of Kyoto Protocol

Japan on Wednesday began direct communication with the United States over Washington's decision to abandon the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, a treaty aimed at curbing global warming.
JAPAN
Apr 5, 2001

17 billion yen set for Costa Rica electric plant

Japan has pledged up to 16.68 billion yen in loans to Costa Rica to help the country build a hydroelectric power plant 70 km south of San Jose, a Foreign Ministry official said.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 4, 2001

The genius boy in a bubble

My mother used to say that she could read me like a book. A compliment? At the age of 15, I didn't think so -- I didn't want anyone "reading" me, let alone dear old Mom. Worshipping at the altar of cool, I wanted to be an inscrutable, unflappable James Bond, not a hapless innocent walking down the pitiless...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 4, 2001

The second intifada at a turning point

Over 350 Palestinians dead, Israeli army blockades wherever they turn, growing poverty and nothing to show for it all: Six months into the second intifada, the Palestinian facade of unity is crumbling, and leader Yasser Arafat's authority, never very impressive, is getting weaker by the day.
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2001

Mori, Holkeri agree on U.N. reform

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and U.N. General Assembly President Harri Holkeri agreed Monday on the importance of carrying out reforms in the world body, including the Security Council, a Japanese government official said.

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