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JAPAN
Dec 4, 2000

Miyake islanders may have long wait

Miyake Island, which was fully evacuated in September due to the volcanic activity of Mount Oyama, may not be safe enough to return to for another three months to a year, a leading expert said Sunday.
BUSINESS
Dec 2, 2000

ODA gives way to domestic political pressure

The government may be succumbing to strong domestic political pressure to make Draconian cuts in Japanese official development assistance. If you want evidence, keep a close watch on an upcoming gathering of Vietnam's aid donors.
BUSINESS
Dec 2, 2000

Jobless rate unchanged at 4.7%

Japan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 4.7 percent in October, unchanged from September, although the number of jobholders increased for the first time in 33 months from a year earlier, the Management and Coordination Agency said Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2000

Infected people unaware they are killers, AIDS activist says

1988, World AIDS Day on Dec. 1 has been observed as a time to display compassion, hope, solidarity and understanding about the deadly disease. This year's theme is "AIDS: Men Make a Difference." More than 70 percent of HIV infections worldwide occur through sex between men and women, with a further 10...
EDITORIALS
Nov 30, 2000

Help society's youngest victims

It is a sad commentary on today's adults that the physical and psychological abuse of children is a growing and increasingly troubling phenomenon in Japan more than half a year after the Diet enacted a law prohibiting chronically abusive parents from meeting or corresponding with offspring they have...
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2000

In vitro initiative to rid sperm of HIV

Doctors at Niigata University's medical department are planning in December an in vitro fertilization initiative using the sperm of an HIV-positive man after removing the AIDS-causing virus, university officials said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2000

State plans two big homeless shelters

The Health and Welfare Ministry plans to set up next year two centers to accommodate around 1,000 homeless people each, according to ministry sources.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2000

Ministry to back fluorination of water supply

In a major policy change, the Health and Welfare Ministry plans to support water fluorination to help prevent tooth decay nationwide, ministry officials said.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 28, 2000

Miserable every step of the way

REDISCOVERING NATSUME SOSEKI, with the first English translation of "Travels in Manchuria and Korea." Introduction and translation by Inger Sigrun Brodey and Sammy I. Tsunematsu. Folkestone, Kent: Global Books, 2000, 155 pp., 24 b/w plates, 2,950 yen. In the autumn of 1909, Natsume Soseki, already...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 27, 2000

Hague climate change talks getting lost in niggling details

They say "the devil is in the details," and so it was at The Hague recently during negotiations of the sixth Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. Two weeks of stonewalling and hairsplitting, and we are really no closer to dealing with the global warming problem...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2000

Western peacekeepers' flight from Africa

The prospect of disasters in Africa concentrates the world's mind wonderfully on the problems and failures of international peacekeeping. We should focus also on the parallel danger of creeping apartheid. Sensitivity to body bags has made Western powers increasingly averse to the perils of peacekeeping....
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2000

Public facilities to be free of PCB-filled lights by 2001

The government will remove fluorescent lights and mercury lamps containing polychlorinated biphenyls from all public facilities in fiscal 2001, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Thursday.
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2000

Ministry confirms StarLink finding

The Health and Welfare Ministry on Wednesday said tests have confirmed the presence of banned StarLink corn in food products sold at retailers in Japan.
COMMUNITY / BODY AND SOUL
Nov 23, 2000

You gotta know when to fold 'em

One evening 20 years ago, Kiyomi Takahashi (not her real name) happened to stop at a coffee shop on her way home from work. She found a computer poker game machine in the corner of the shop, and started playing it just for fun. Little did she know this would be the beginning of a decade-long nightmare....
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 23, 2000

Awakening the spirit of voluntarism in Japanese youth

Seventeen students gathered in their clubhouse at Kansai University of International Studies finish reviewing enlarged photos for an exhibition at their autumn campus festival. Then they move on to the next important task -- who should draft the text to accompany the photos and how it should be worded....
LIFE / Travel
Nov 22, 2000

An evening out in Hua Hin, the classiest beach town in Thailand

HUA HIN, Thailand -- Like any town in Thailand, Hua Hin has its share of stray dogs, especially near the temple grounds. In this proud provincial town of sandy beaches, sea breezes and clean streets, however, even the stray mutts look healthier.
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2000

War-displaced orphans return with one success

Four war-displaced Japanese from China left Tokyo for Beijing on Sunday after completing a partially successful six-day search for their long-lost relatives.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 2000

Transparency crucial to corporate survival

Most companies will face a crisis at one point, but it's not necessarily the crisis itself that will dictate that company's future, but rather how it is handled.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2000

Students put at risk due to PCB-laden lights

Despite years of warnings and growing criticism, potentially hazardous fluorescent lighting units in the classroom are likely to hang above students' heads for a while to come.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2000

War orphan reunited with brother 55 years after retreat from China

One of four war-displaced Japanese visiting from China found his brother on Saturday, the first of the four to identify a relative during their visit to Japan, the Health and Welfare Ministry said.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 19, 2000

Chris Ishikawa

A new cookbook has recently been published by the Yokohama International Women's Club. Titled "Food for Furoshiki," it has been compiled from an unusual and interesting angle.
COMMUNITY
Nov 19, 2000

Abuse rife in culture with no rights for kids

Newly arrived and living on a "danchi" estate in 1986, I would often hear the heart-rending cries of small children standing outside in the cold and darkness pleading to be let back into their homes. In the West, the worst form of punishment is to be grounded. In Japan, it is the opposite, with children...
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2000

Blood tests set to determine relations of 'war orphans'

A war-displaced Japanese visiting from China will undergo blood tests to confirm whether a man from Hiroshima Prefecture is his uncle, Health and Welfare Ministry officials said.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 18, 2000

Rich and poor have stake in cleaner planet

Supermarket shelves offer a choice of two light bulbs: the standard incandescent type and the compact fluorescent type. In Bangladesh, the price difference is 20 taka compared to 450 taka. The fluorescent type will last at least 10 times as long and consume one-fifth of the energy. Overall, savings from...
COMMENTARY
Nov 17, 2000

Kato challenge divides LDP

A political drama is unfolding over the fate of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's administration, and it is anybody's guess how it will end.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2000

Generosity toward China faces tough test

The first sweeping review of Japan's generous official development assistance for China is under way within the government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, amid growing domestic criticism of such aid.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2000

Panel to outline ideas on education change

An advisory panel to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori agreed at a meeting Tuesday to clearly state in its final report to be submitted Dec. 22 whether it supports revising the 1947 Fundamental Law of Education, panel members said.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear