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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

G-7 expected to hold low-stress meeting

Staff writer Policy coordination over the yen's rise against the dollar will be the biggest issue for Japan at Saturday's financial meeting of the Group of Seven industrial countries in Tokyo. Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa hopes the G-7 will share Japan's concern about the yen's appreciation; the...
COMMUNITY
Jan 19, 2000

Lafcadio Hearn: interpreter of two disparate worlds

He created an illusion and lived his days and nights within its confines. That illusion was his Japan. He found in Japan the ideal coupling of the cerebral and the sensual, mingled and indistinguishable, the one constantly recharging the other and affording him the inspiration to write.
LIFE / Travel
Jan 19, 2000

Nagano's 'time-slip' onsen

Many hot spring resorts these days look so similar that it's sometimes hard to remember where you are. Not Bessho Onsen.
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...
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2000

Fukushima exits chamber on bright note

To the eyes of the former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, the Japanese business environment has changed over the last several years, thanks in part to an influx of foreign companies and capital.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2000

Will the Japanese trade surplus continue its downward ways?

Japan's trade surplus on a balance of payments basis was estimated at 14.8 trillion yen in 1999, significantly lower than the 16 trillion yen posted in 1998 after two consecutive years of sharp increase.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2000

Five years after quake, Hanshin looks to future

Staff writers KOBE -- While reconstruction is largely complete, victims of the Great Hanshin Earthquake remain concerned about the future, officials announced Monday at a ceremony to mark the fifth anniversary of the disaster. The earthquake, which struck on January 17, 1995, killed more than 6,400...
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2000

Viva Odaiba! Ishihara dreams of casinos in the bay

Cigarette smoke wafts out of noisy pachinko parlors, crowds armed with racing forms jostle one another on trains on horse racing days, and lines form in front of lottery ticket booths. You may or may not call it gambling, but playing to test your luck has grown into a huge industry in Japan.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 14, 2000

Valentine wants 'authentic' W. Series

New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine longs for the day when the World Series will truly be a global event.
BUSINESS
Jan 14, 2000

New Year yen fall forecast proved accurate

My predictions have come true. The yen has stumbled into 2000, giving up much of its recent gains as anticipated.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2000

Planned new visa procedures to open doors to tourist groups from China

Japan is ready to open the door to groups of Chinese tourists beginning this spring by improving visa-issuing procedures, Transport Minister Toshihiro Nikai said Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2000

Kobe's recovery at 80%, but new industries still scarce

While Kobe has managed to rebuild its social infrastructure and housing facilities after the devastation of the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995, it must now develop new industries for its complete reconstruction, Mayor Kazutoshi Sasayama said in Tokyo Thursday. Speaking at the Japan National Press...
EDITORIALS
Jan 12, 2000

Sliding toward recovery

Japan's economic prospects are improving. After a decade of stagnation, the consensus forecast is that a fragile recovery will, with careful tending, continue. The emphasis belongs on "fragile," however, not "recovery." While the future holds many unknowns, the government can do its part to minimize...
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2000

Ring funneling cash to China busted

OSAKA -- Police here recently announced that after a yearlong investigation, they have broken up an underground banking operation that funneled an estimated 20 billion yen a year to China through an elaborate network of falsified accounts in Tokyo and Osaka.
COMMENTARY
Jan 10, 2000

Samurai values to the rescue

The biggest challenge for Japan as it greets the new millennium is implementing drastic political, economic and educational reforms, comparable to those carried out in the Meiji Restoration and after the end of World War II. Plans must include major fiscal reform, restructuring of the banking system,...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 10, 2000

How to level the business playing field

CRISIS AND OPPORTUNITY IN A CHANGING JAPAN, by William R. Farrell, with a foreward by Walter F. Mondale. Westport/London: Quorum Books, 1999, 275 pp., $60 (cloth). It's the Black Ships, round II. JETRO reports that foreign direct investment into Japan leaped 89.4 percent last year, topping $10 billion...
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2000

Vietnamese set up residents' network

Some 60 exchange students and former refugees from Vietnam met in Kawasaki on Monday to launch the first nationwide network of Vietnamese residents of Japan. Members of 10 different support groups for people who fled to Japan after the Vietnam War ended in 1975 marked the start of the Network of Vietnamese...
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2000

Police bust Chinese money-laundering ring

Staff writer OSAKA -- Police here recently announced that after a yearlong investigation, they have broken up an underground banking operation that funneled an estimated 20 billion yen a year to China through an elaborate network of falsified accounts in Tokyo and Osaka. Since early 1999, 10 Chinese...
SOCCER / World cup
Jan 9, 2000

Troussier has high expectations for 2000

Following his achievements at the World Youth Championship (runnerup) and in the Olympic qualifiers (qualified with 12 out of 12 wins) in 1999, Japan manager Philippe Troussier is aiming to make 2000 even more successful.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jan 9, 2000

M.S. Swaminathan

In August, a special double issue of Time magazine selected professor M.S. Swaminathan of India as one of the most influential Asians of the 20th century. The magazine called him a "green revolutionary . . . who helped half a world get enough to eat."
COMMUNITY
Jan 9, 2000

Good I-house innkeeper still making world news

Meet my first man of the 2000s after last Sunday's press holiday. Hiroshi Matsumoto may be 70, and a "banto," but a more civilized and forward-thinking innkeeper you are unlikely to meet in the next 99 years (or 999 years, for that matter).
JAPAN
Jan 9, 2000

'Super Osaka' bureaucracy floated

OSAKA -- Should the municipal boundaries of Osaka Prefecture be redrawn so that the city of Osaka is a ward of the prefecture? Or should the prefecture be scrapped entirely, leaving a "Super City Osaka"?
CULTURE / Music
Jan 8, 2000

Oh, the glamour of poetic injustice

Violence aspires to poetry and vice versa in "Death in Granada," an American/Spanish production that sheds a fleeting but eerie light on one of Spain's greatest poets: Federico Garcia Lorca.
CULTURE / Art
Jan 8, 2000

Ceramic greats spotlighted

New Year's Greetings to all Ceramic Scene readers! In Japan there are innumerable artistic groups that allow their members to exchange ideas or research, sponsor lectures or workshops and to acknowledge outstanding work in their respective fields. The Japan Ceramic Society (Nihon Toji Kyokai) is one...
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2000

Suspect often listed suicide drugs on Net

NAGOYA -- A woman arrested Thursday for selling sleeping pills to a woman for use in a suicide attempt has frequently posted messages about suicide drugs on a Web site, police alleged Friday.
BUSINESS
Jan 6, 2000

World markets entering corrective phase

New York share prices tumbled Tuesday, sending equity markets reeling around the world. After charging ahead in record territory for months, the steep corrections of U.S. indexes have come as no surprise.
BUSINESS
Jan 4, 2000

ACCJ chief aims to fortify bilateral bridge

While major elections are likely to consume Tokyo and Washington in 2000, trade disputes are simmering beneath the relatively calm surface of Japan-U.S. economic relations.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2000

Planning cleaner, greener cities in Asia

The great cities of East Asia, such as Tokyo, Shanghai and Seoul are mature in terms of development and offer little scope for major environmental planning. But within the smaller cities around them exists room for improvement. The port cities of Layonko, near Shanghai, Kaoshang in Taiwan and Yokohama...
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2000

Lawmakers look to home pages to expand public presence

The number of Diet lawmakers who have Internet home pages has gradually increased, reaching roughly 200 of the 752 legislators in both houses by the end of 1999. According to the lawmakers, the main reason home pages are gaining popularity is that they are less costly than printing posters and leaflets...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji