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JAPAN
Oct 22, 2000

European, Asian leaders end summit with vow of solidarity

SEOUL -- European and Asian leaders wrapped up a summit here Saturday with a pledge to launch a new round of world trade talks as soon as possible and a promise to work together more closely on political issues and fighting crime.
COMMUNITY
Oct 22, 2000

Country gold in them thar Kyushu hills

MOUNT ASO, Kyushu -- When he had just turned 20, "Good Time" Charlie Nagatani made a decision that must have seemed even more foolish than it was whimsical.
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2000

KSD donated huge sums to LDP as 'member fees'

A scandal-tainted mutual aid organization for small enterprises made annual payments of up to 200 million yen -- disguised as party membership fees -- to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party from 1991 to 1999, sources familiar with the case said Saturday.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 22, 2000

The unfamiliar from the familiar, and vice versa

Two ensembles appearing in Japan recently served as intriguing examples of a judicious mix of the familiar and the unfamiliar.
EDITORIALS
Oct 21, 2000

Reform starts with big business

Two of Japan's four largest business organizations, Keidanren (Federation of Economic Organizations) and Nikkeiren (Federation of Employers Associations), have decided to merge by May 2002. A task force will be working out details by the end of the year, including the proposed name and articles of association...
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2000

Japan still No. 1 ODA donor

Japan's official development assistance of $15.32 billion in 1999 made it the world's top donor to developing countries for the ninth consecutive year, according to an annual report on ODA endorsed Friday by Cabinet.
EDITORIALS
Oct 20, 2000

Keep the victims in mind

Criminal activity in Japan is at a postwar peak -- the police reported 2.9 million violations of the Penal Code in 1999, 7.9 percent more than in the previous year. In the same period, the arrest rate fell to a postwar low. The Justice Ministry has just confirmed this bleak picture in a white paper submitted...
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2000

Electoral bill takes another step

Upper House members of the ruling coalition ignored fierce opposition protests and voted for a contentious bill to revise the chamber's electoral system during a plenary session Thursday afternoon.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2000

Peace far away under fragile coalition

NEW DELHI -- Peace seems to be eluding Sri Lanka. The latest parliamentary elections there has caused disquiet and confusion after the electorate failed to give a clear mandate to either Chandrika Kumaratunga's People's Alliance (PA) or Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP).
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 19, 2000

Ichiro outshines Oh, Nagashima

Orix BlueWave outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, apparently on his way to the major leagues next season, was the fans' favorite selection for the All-Century Team in Japanese baseball, as poll organizers announced their final results Wednesday.
JAPAN
Oct 19, 2000

Mori leaves for ASEM summit

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will seek cooperation from Japan's partners at the upcoming Asia-Europe Meeting in Seoul on some of the key issues discussed at July's Group of Eight summit, according to Foreign Ministry officials.
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2000

Rail firms to beef up mobile-phone ban

A Tokyo subway operator and six major private railway firms plan to launch a joint campaign today to stress their ban on mobile-phone use in trains during rush hour, due to the danger of interference with pacemakers, the companies announced Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 16, 2000

Globalization proves a taxing issue

Listening to the bureaucrats at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and in other transnational organizations like the European Union, it appears that the most pressing issues about globalization is the impact upon governments' ability to collect taxes. Of course, these international...
JAPAN
Oct 14, 2000

Foot-cult followers file damages lawsuit

A group of 46 people filed a lawsuit Friday against the Honohana Sanpogyo foot-reading cult, demanding the sect pay around 400 million yen in compensation for allegedly swindling money from them.
EDITORIALS
Oct 13, 2000

Mr. Mori's misplaced priorities

Six months after an uncertain start, the administration of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is enjoying a period of stability, or so it seems. In contrast, immediately after the Liberal Democratic Party's defeat in June's Lower House election, the governing party was gripped by a feeling that it would not...
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2000

New law means marching orders for bad tenants

Motokazu Miyama's big fear is one probably shared by hundreds of thousands of other property-owners in Japan: What if unwelcome tenants refuse to leave after the apartment lease expires?
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Oct 12, 2000

Bunny thrives in Predators' den

Yujiro Nakajimaya, captain of the Kokudo Bunnies and a member of Japan's national team, is not your average Japanese professional hockey player. In four teenage years spent at Notre Dame College, a high school in Wilcox, Saskatchewan, the Hokkaido native gained more than just a fluent command of English....
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2000

Electronic dictionaries suit older eyes

Portable and handy electronic dictionaries have met with strong sales in recent years, particularly among those over 50.
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2000

HIV activist's mom files for by-election

Etsuko Kawada, mother of an HIV-infected crusader for justice, and three others filed candidacies Tuesday for an Oct. 22 by-election in Tokyo's No. 21 single-seat constituency to fill a House of Representatives seat left vacant by a disgraced lawmaker.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 9, 2000

Murofushi clinches sixth straight win at athletics championships

Japanese record holder Koji Murofushi won the men's hammer throw event for his sixth straight national championship crown Sunday as the all-Japan athletics meet at Miyagi Stadium came to a close.
COMMENTARY
Oct 9, 2000

The crystal balls grow opaque

All kinds of "self-confident" experts make predictions in the mass media about the economy and politics. In Japan, such experts are rarely held accountable if they err in their predictions. In the late 1980s, when the bubble economy peaked, Japanese experts expressed the following opinions that later...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 2000

Tokyo poised to lift ban on exterior train ads

How can Tokyo buses and streetcars make more money without attracting more passengers? One answer: advertising.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 7, 2000

Catching up on Japanese baseball

With the Sydney Olympics now history, let's take a look at what happened in Japanese pro baseball while most of the sports world focused its attention on Australia and the Summer Games.
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2000

Lawyers defend axing charges against Asahara

Prosecutors on Thursday defended their decision to drop four drug-related charges against Shoko Asahara, saying the move is necessary to speed the Aum Shinrikyo founder's trial.
SOCCER / J. League
Oct 6, 2000

Troussier vows victory for Japan

"We'll get the Asian Cup back home," said Japan soccer manager Philippe Troussier on Thursday at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo, only a few hours before his senior team's departure for the upcoming Asian Cup.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 6, 2000

Penguins, Predators ready to drop puck

The National Hockey League makes its third regular-season appearance in Japan this weekend as the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators square off for a two-game series Saturday and Sunday at the new Saitama Super Arena in Omiya.
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2000

Stymied by electoral reform

Confusion reigns in the current extraordinary Diet session, with the opposition forces boycotting debate to protest the ruling bloc's forcible move to revise the Upper House election system.

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