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JAPAN
Jun 9, 2000

Brief campaign period keeps voters out of reach: ACCJ

Japan's election campaign period is too short for candidates to develop policies and make them known to voters, according to Robert F. Grondine, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan and a longtime Japan watcher.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2000

Cultist 'glad' to help Asahara by releasing sarin

A former Aum Shinrikyo member who was 17 when she was involved in the 1994 sarin gas attack on an anti-Aum lawyer testified in court Thursday that at the time she was "glad" she could help cult leader Shoko Asahara.
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2000

Poll to pit Young Turks against old nepotism

Minoru Fujimoto, 31, has wavy, dyed brown hair. He is one of the new breed of "smiling" Japanese Communist Party members, whose appearance may surprise longtime party supporters who are used to more traditional-looking candidates.
BUSINESS
Jun 8, 2000

Foreign exchange reserves at record high $341 billion

Japan's foreign exchange reserves grew to a record $341.14 billion at the end of May from the previous month, topping the old record of $338.58 billion set in April, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2000

LDP's Kajiyama dies at 74

Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiroku Kajiyama died Tuesday afternoon at a Tokyo hospital, ruling Liberal Democratic Party officials said. He was 74.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jun 7, 2000

A beginning

A recent column question dealt with a problem that faces many parents today: Their children have completely lost interest in school. These are often bright, motivated students who are dissatisfied with the system. Foreigners tend to feel that Japanese kids are too occupied, that something is planned...
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2000

Mori denies that 'kokutai' carries Imperial connotations

Gaffe-prone Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Monday defended his use of the term "kokutai," which referred to a national polity centering on the Emperor before and during World War II, and said he has no plans to retract it.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2000

NPOs key to revitalizing nation, union chief says

Political leaders can mitigate the country's record-high jobless rate and help solve other important national problems by generating citizens' power in the field of grassroots businesses, according to the president of the Japanese Workers' Cooperative Union.
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2000

Parties split over plan to lower tax threshold

Both the ruling and opposition blocs were divided Sunday over an earlier proposal by the Democratic Party of Japan to lower the minimum income-tax threshold to increase tax revenue.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 4, 2000

Dang! There goes Dingo

Too bad about Dave "Dingo" Nilsson leaving the Chunichi Dragons. He's gone back to his native Australia for treatment of a painful lower back condition, and it appears his Japan career, at least at the varsity level, may have come to an end. What was supposed to have been an exciting season in Japan...
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2000

Education groups rail against December exams

Two organizations representing university presidents and high school principals have submitted opinion papers to the Education Ministry expressing their opposition to a plan to hold college entrance examinations in December, in addition to the current tests held in January, group sources said Saturday....
CULTURE / Music
Jun 4, 2000

Vibrating quite a lot of wind

When we hear a musical ensemble playing with a lush sonority, exemplary balance and a pleasing tonal blend, a common comment is that it "sounds just like an organ."
BUSINESS
Jun 3, 2000

Alternatives to nuclear energy limited: OECD head

Japan must pursue a realistic approach toward nuclear power for the sake of energy security while simultaneously enhancing regulatory mechanisms to prevent accidents, according to a senior official of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2000
Jun 3, 2000

Ruling coalition awaits voters' judgment at polls

The coming Lower House election will give voters their first chance to express their support, or lack thereof, for the tripartite coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2000
Jun 3, 2000

Opposition plans to shake up ruling bloc

Following Friday's dissolution of the Lower House, opposition leaders began talking up their plans for a takeover of the Cabinet in the June 25 general election.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Jun 3, 2000

Drumming to a Japanese beat

The drum is easily Japan's most popular instrument.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2000

State has 'power and duty' to carry out death sentence

The government on Friday defended the December execution of a death-row inmate who had been requesting a retrial, saying the justice minister has "the power and duty" to carry out the death sentence.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2000

India has no stake in Sri Lanka's war

NEW DELHI -- With Sri Lanka torn by renewed internal war, India has withstood the impulse to intervene once again in the ethnic conflict of its tiny neighbor to the south. Despite calls for Indian assistance by Sri Lanka's beleaguered president, Chandrika Kumaratunga, New Delhi has balked at sending...
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2000

Child-care burden may ease

The Labor Ministry has compiled a draft plan that may help child-rearing parents balance their work obligations with child care, ministry officials said Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 31, 2000

Murayama gives eulogy for Obuchi in Diet

Former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama offered a eulogy Tuesday in the Diet for the late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, expressing his sorrow and regret over Obuchi's death earlier this month.
JAPAN
May 31, 2000

Censure motion seen as blow to Mori's Cabinet

Three opposition parties on Tuesday jointly submitted a nonbinding resolution of censure to the House of Councilors against Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, claiming that his remark that Japan is "a divine nation centering on the Emperor" violates the Constitution.
JAPAN
May 31, 2000

Passerby hurt as man leaps to his death from store roof

A man who jumped to his death Tuesday from the roof of a department store in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward seriously injured a passerby in the fall, police said.

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