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JAPAN
Jul 22, 1999

'Kimigayo' controversy leaves students indifferent, confused

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Jul 21, 1999

A fuzzy blueprint for recovery

The government's latest economic white paper has a strong message to the nation: Let us put the slump behind us as quickly as possible and get the economy back on a firm footing. The annual report, released last Friday by the Economic Planning Agency and subtitled "Challenge for economic revival," represents...
EDITORIALS
Jul 16, 1999

Lessons unlearned at Genden

Earlier this week, more than 50 tons of radioactive cooling water leaked from the No. 2 nuclear reactor operated by Japan Atomic Power Co. (Genden) in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture. Operators had to shut down the system manually, but apparently no radioactivity leaked into the atmosphere. The leaked cooling...
COMMENTARY
Jul 13, 1999

Break deadlock on base issues

U.S. President Bill Clinton expressed hope June 25 that all pending issues concerning U.S. military bases in Okinawa, including the issue of the Marine Corps Futenma Air Station, will be resolved before he attends a Group of Eight summit there in July 2000. "I don't want to go over there and have all...
EDITORIALS
Jun 26, 1999

Cracks in the wall of silence

Physicians in this country seem so confident of their group strength that they can afford to ignore public opinion. So, at least, say critics of the powerful medical establishment in the wake of this week's failure by a subcommittee of the government's medical reform council to agree on a proposal to...
JAPAN
Jun 9, 1999

Upper House begins debate on wiretap bills

The House of Councilors on Wednesday began deliberating controversial bills that would allow law enforcement authorities to wiretap private communications during investigations into organized crime.
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 1999

Trade must extend to poorer countries

Prosperous countries in the North, such as the United States, can no longer rely on trade between developed countries led by Fortune 500 corporations alone. Trade must increase in developing countries and transitional economies if all are to benefit from a growing world economy. Policymakers and businesses...
EDITORIALS
May 29, 1999

Wiretapping is a two-edged tool

The threat to public safety posed by rising rates of organized crime requires new tools and techniques in the hands of the police. On that there is scant disagreement, except possibly among lawbreakers and potential lawbreakers themselves. It is not so clear, however, that the answer to growing public...
JAPAN
May 27, 1999

Impromptu wiretap talks spark opposition boycott

With no opposition party members present, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and two other political groups on Thursday began discussing a package of revised bills to allow law enforcement officials the use of wiretaps during organized crime investigations.
COMMENTARY / World
May 4, 1999

India rightly resists the Chinese model

India has often been advised to follow the path of China in public investment in human capital. China has done well in the last decade, but it would be a disaster if India were to follow her example. China's approach can be called "two quick steps forward, one slow step back." India's approach, in contrast,...
EDITORIALS
Apr 27, 1999

Somber NATO turns 50

Less than a year ago, NATO's 50th-anniversary celebration was going to be a festive occasion. Alliance members were ready to toast each other for their ability to stand together against the Soviet threat and for having survived the end of the Cold War by forging a new relationship with their former rival...
COMMENTARY
Apr 24, 1999

Test Pyongyang's sincerity

Senior officials from North and South Korea, China and the United States reassemble in Geneva April 24 for the fifth round of four-party talks aimed at replacing the existing 1953 Korean War armistice with a permanent peace treaty. The odds of a breakthrough appear slim, however, given North Korean Deputy...
JAPAN
Apr 14, 1999

OECD says Japan has bottomed out

The economy has bottomed out and will likely achieve positive, albeit minimal, growth in the current fiscal year, said Herwig Schloegl, deputy secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
Apr 9, 1999

Zhu's U.S. visit kicks off strategic dialogue

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji came to Washington at the worst possible time, what with the current anti-China feeding frenzy in the press and on Capitol Hill. China's recent spate of human-rights violations and alleged espionage activities have made it open season on China -- "innocent until proven guilty"...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CROSSING CULTURES
Apr 8, 1999

But I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now

In my last column I wrote about change, and staying with that theme, I will here answer a question I am asked often:
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 1999

Foreign policy to the fore in Washington

WASHINGTON -- After a year that was unusual, peculiar and unbelievable enough to qualify as one long April Fool's Day, the U.S. government is finally back doing governmental work. It isn't boring, but it is less colorful than the year of Monica et al. We have lost some of our more entertaining characters...
EDITORIALS
Mar 25, 1999

Banking on the euro

The euro was designed to create economies of scale. A single European currency zone was expected to maximize the reach of companies looking to exploit the new supermarket by rationalizing planning and production costs. Proof of the idea's appeal -- and its inevitability -- is the wave of mergers and...
JAPAN
Mar 8, 1999

Groups seek to help victims of violence

Staff writer
JAPAN
Mar 8, 1999

State moves to draft stronger consumer protection law

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 1999

Up in arms in Northern Ireland

One sticking point -- if not the key obstacle -- in the Northern Ireland peace process has been the question of when the Irish Republican Army would give up its arms. A fair amount of fudge has been allowed to obscure this issue. That is understandable. After all, no arms would be surrendered until trust...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 20, 1999

Exposing the illusion of appearance

Photographer Duane Michals was born into an odd sort of duality in 1932. He was raised in McKeesport, Penn., by devoutly Catholic parents of Czech origin (much like Andy Warhol, whom he would later depict in a series of blurred portraits). Michals' mother, worked as a housekeeper for a rich family, and...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jan 27, 1999

Links you can trust

In the past few months, this column has addressed the trend of "portals," those jump-station sites where you're supposed to begin your journey onto the Web. Although Wired.com hasn't officially become a portal, it is where I often begin my Web sessions. I go to read Wired's superior tech features, but...
EDITORIALS
Jan 1, 1999

Testing times ahead for Mr. Obuchi

The administration of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, inaugurated just five months ago, faces in the coming year a real test of its ability to achieve its most urgent goal: lifting the economy out of two years of negative growth. A failure to meet that challenge could further erode public confidence in...
JAPAN
Dec 8, 1998

Oneworld alliance looks to grow

British Airways expects new partners in a global alliance that it and four other international airlines will form in the near future, Robert Ayling, the carrier's chief executive, said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 1998

Mayor of Wakayama arrested for alleged bribery

OSAKA -- Wakayama Mayor Yoshihiro Ozaki was arrested Monday evening on suspicion of receiving 1 million yen in bribes in exchange for favoring an applicant for a municipal job.
JAPAN
Apr 15, 1998

Matsunaga heads to Washington to explain plan

Finance Minister Hikaru Matsunaga left April 15 for Washington -- a day later than planned -- to attend a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and to hold talks with U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 1998

Hashimoto hints of fiscal reform law revision

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto implied to a Diet committee March 27 that after the fiscal 1998 budget bills are passed, he will discuss revising the Fiscal Structural Reform Law, a legal barrier to powerful pump-priming measures such as income tax cuts.
JAPAN
Mar 4, 1998

Information disclosure bill seen as first step

First in a series
JAPAN
Feb 18, 1998

Hashimoto hopes for end to Iraq crisis

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto expressed hope Wednesday that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's visit to Iraq will result in a solution to the Iraqi crisis.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 1997

Entrepreneur says a business can be ecological, profitable

Staff writer

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami