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JAPAN
Feb 1, 2000

Panel recommends making new constitution by 2008

A new Constitution should be introduced in 2008, the head of the Upper House's constitutional research panel reiterated Tuesday. Masakuni Murakami, a senior member of the Liberal Democratic Party, told the Upper House plenary session that he aims to wrap up discussions by the panel by 2005 have the...
COMMUNITY
Feb 1, 2000

Dance craze swinging into action

The 1996 hit movie "Shall We Dance?" has helped the Japanese appreciate the charm of ballroom dancing. Yet despite the surging popularity of dance schools across the country, social dance continues to play a minor role in the local nightlife. Now, some devotees are promoting swing, a more casual version...
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2000

Aum put under surveillance

The Public Security Examination Commission on Monday announced that it will allow authorities to put Aum Shinrikyo under surveillance for three years, the maximum period the Aum-directed law allows. The commission's decision will take effect today, and the Public Security Investigation Agency, with...
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2000

Analysis: Aum's survival in doubt as watch begins

Staff writer Monday's decision by the Public Security Examination Commission to invoke a law to monitor Aum Shinrikyo will inevitably deal a major blow to the cult -- possibly even leading to its breakup. According to the law, enacted in December, Aum must submit a list of its current members as well...
COMMENTARY
Jan 30, 2000

Why Taro can't speak English

It's exam season in Japan, and once again the problem of English language education is being churned over. This time the debate threatens to turn serious, for three reasons.
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 29, 2000

Maintaining Shiiba's proud history

A good chance to enjoy a glimpse of visual and performing arts of rural old Japan will come to Tokyo Feb. 19-20. The Kioi Small Hall will present a special program titled "Traditional Performing Arts of Shiiba, Miyazaki" to introduce rarely seen dances and chants performed in front of a profusely decorated...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2000

The Asahara Trial: Inoue details VX gas attack

Aum Shinrikyo attacked Hiroyuki Nagaoka, head of an anti-Aum group, with VX gas in January 1995 because he was "interfering" with Aum's "practice of truth," a key cult figure testified Friday. At the time, members of the Aum Shinrikyo Victims' Association, including Nagaoka and his son, were talking...
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2000

Seat-cut bill rammed through Lower House

The ruling parties on Thursday night ignored an opposition boycott of a Lower House plenary session and passed a controversial bill that would cut 20 seats from the chamber. Passage came around 8:30 -- 7 1/2 hours after the session was to open. It was the second time in as many nights that the ruling...
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2000

Team attempts Khmer software to computerize Cambodia

Staff writer When you send e-mail, either in English or Japanese, you assume it can be read on the recipient's computer screen without any problems. But if the message is in Khmer, chances are that it will be turned into a series of symbols that make no sense. "What is common in Japan (and other industrialized...
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2000

Fukaya plans U.S. trip sometime before G8 meeting

Takashi Fukaya, the international trade and industry minister, is considering a trip to Washington in February or March for talks with top U.S. officials on the new round of global trade liberalization negotiations, sources at his ministry said Thursday.
COMMUNITY
Jan 27, 2000

Overcoming blind discrimination

In the past 10 years, 71-year-old Atsuko Yasumoto has fulfilled many lifelong dreams. She has swum with dolphins in Hawaii, climbed mountaintops in Japan, traveled to the United States, and won first prize in a ballroom dance contest in Tokyo.
LIFE / Travel
Jan 26, 2000

The wild daffodils of Awaji Island

Awaji Island (area 590 sq. km), administratively part of Hyogo Prefecture, is located in the Inland Sea between Kobe and Tokushima in Shikoku. It is the largest island in the Inland Sea, and was once a separate province.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2000

EU ambassador sees ties with Japan growing

Relations between Japan and the 15-member European Union are "moving along positively," with trade ties in particular becoming "very substantial," said EU Ambassador to Japan Ove Juul Joergensen during a visit to The Japan Times on Tuesday. Juul Joergensen, who took up the top post of the EU delegation...
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2000

Visit from Zhu sought before G8 summit

Japan has asked China to arrange a visit by Prime Minister Zhu Rongji to Japan before the Group of Eight summit in Okinawa in July, Japanese Ambassador to China Sakutaro Tanino said in a recent interview.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2000

Panel snubs opposition, begins seat-cut talks

Amid fierce protest from the opposition camp, a Lower House committee began deliberating a controversial bill Tuesday that would reduce the number of Diet seats. The move is apparently an effort by the ruling camp to maintain the framework of the coalition by fulfilling a promise made earlier between...
EDITORIALS
Jan 23, 2000

Aum by any other name...

Desperate people -- and groups -- can be expected to take desperate steps. The carefully orchestrated public relations campaign in which the Aum Shinrikyo cult is now engaged, including changing the cult name to Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, for a "fresh start," seems like little more...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2000

Enhancing global security

The business of the world has changed almost beyond recognition over the course of the last 100 years. At the turn of the last century, Japan was the first country outside Europe to break into the ranks of the great powers. Yet even until World War II, international affairs were largely Eurocentric in...
COMMUNITY
Jan 23, 2000

U.S. lawyer set to solve your immigration woes

Being a quietly spoken, modest-sounding soul, immigration lawyer Mark Ivener, of the California-based law practice Ivener & Holt, may not like the following revelation. But the fact is he gives a good part of his professional time for free by giving immigration lectures and seminars.
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2000

Sofia envoy urges more business ties

Bulgarian Ambassador Petar Andonov, who has been in Tokyo since August 1998, said Friday that he wants to see Japanese Internet-based technology companies cooperating with Bulgarian firms. This is "very important" for the future development of the two countries' economic relations and will make optimal...
CULTURE / Music
Jan 21, 2000

Fashion segueing into sound

A special guest at a Ryuichi Sakamoto concert summons a host of international possibilities -- David Sylvian or Bowie, perhaps? Instead, the audience at Sakamoto's recent Christmas concert got designer Yohji Yamamoto clutching an acoustic guitar. Yamamoto's foray into music (he has recorded with rootsy...
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2000

Cult makes case against new surveillance law

During a hearing before the Public Security Examination Commission, lawyers for Aum Shinrikyo said the cult does not fit the criteria for application of the so-called anti-Aum law, and argued that the new law violates the Constitution, which ensures freedom of religion. The hearing, held at the Justice...
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2000

Politicians brace for battle as Diet opens

The 147th ordinary Diet session was convened Thursday, as the ruling and opposition camps brace to do political battle over a controversial proposal to cut the number of seats in the Lower House and an expansive 84.99 trillion yen budget for the fiscal year. The current Diet session is scheduled to...
JAPAN
Jan 19, 2000

Japan-North Korea talks predicted

Japan and North Korea may hold full-fledged talks on establishing diplomatic ties around early March, following a round of preparatory talks in late January or early February, former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama predicted Wednesday. During a speech at the Japan National Press Club, Murayama, who...
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2000

Police arrest cultist who loses temper at bank

Police arrested a senior member of Aum Shinrikyo on Monday for allegedly violating antiviolence laws by shouting at and threatening bank officials when they refused to let him open an account in the cult's name. According to police, Naruhito Noda, 33, who resides in a cult facility in Koshigaya, Saitama...
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2000

Regional Special: Okinawa

Isle's airport between reef and a hard place> Staff writer ISHIGAKI ISLAND, Okinawa Pref. -- Passengers stare dreamily from the plane. Some crane their necks for a glimpse of the cobalt coastline and Ishigaki's famed coral reefs. But all are jerked back to reality when the plane touches down and suddenly...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2000

Cut U.S. military presence

Japan faces intense pressure to settle uncertainties regarding the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps heliport now at the Futenma Air Station in Okinawa before July, when it hosts a Group of Eight summit. Unless the problems are settled by then, U.S. President Bill Clinton is likely to face a firestorm...
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2000

Japan plans conference to help Middle East peace

Staff writerIn a move that apparently reflects a strong desire to contribute to the revived Middle East peace process, Japan plans to convene an international conference on the region's environmental issues in Tunisia in late February, government sources said Friday. The sources said that Japan has...
EDITORIALS
Jan 13, 2000

The next Internet revolution

The America Online-Time Warner merger is an eye-opener, and not just because it will create a $350 million corporate behemoth. The real significance of the deal, which must be approved by U.S. regulators, is that it promises to transform media in the United States and will trigger change in the rest...
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2000

Protesters step up Kobe airport campaign

Staff writer KOBE -- The continuing saga of Kobe airport enters its next phase later this month as citizens opposed to the project begin a campaign to recall the mayor, and foreign firms step up pressure to be included in construction work. For nearly a year following the December 1998 rejection of...
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2000

Countdown starts to citizens' poll on dam

TOKUSHIMA -- Residents of the city of Tokushima were officially notified Thursday of a Jan. 23 plebiscite on the controversial Yoshino River dam project -- the first such vote to be held on a central government-initiated major public works plan. The plebiscite will ask local voters whether they support...

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?