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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2000

U.S. presidential elections should go global

LOS ANGELES -- Americans watching events play out in Florida since Nov. 7 may feel a surreal sense of powerlessness; their president is being chosen by a handful of Palm Beach residents, it seems. In short, Americans have now gotten a taste of the way the rest of the world feels with each presidential...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2000

Korean democracy suffers growing pains

SEOUL -- You don't have to consult opinion polls to understand that in general terms South Koreans are not happy with their government. It is enough to occasionally read editorials or to engage in political discussions with Korean friends, colleagues and neighbors. Then you detect a very basic disenchantment...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 30, 2000

With election at a stalemate, coverage shifts into overkill

As is usually the case when I'm in California, the talk turned to real estate. A 75-year-old retiree told me exactly how much it cost him to buy all the cacti surrounding his pool. A stockbroker from Seattle said the house she recently bought was originally owned by Col. Tom Parker and had a TV room...
JAPAN / OBITUARY
Nov 27, 2000

Ex-Foreign Minister Zentaro Kosaka dies

Zentaro Kosaka, a conservative politician who worked for normalization of diplomatic relations with China and promoted rapprochement with the Soviet Union during the Cold War era, died of renal failure at his home in Tokyo's Ota Ward on Sunday afternoon, his family said. He was 88.
COMMENTARY
Nov 25, 2000

Can the system be salvaged?

LONDON -- Reading the accounts in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun and the Financial Times of the shenanigans inside and outside the Japanese House of Representatives over the no-confidence motion against the Mori government, I could not help laughing, but I also felt despair about the future of parliamentary...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2000

Ethnic Chinese see school plan as ploy to erode their identity

SINGAPORE -- Chinese education authorities in multiracial Malaysia have rejected a government pilot project to merge the country's three different kinds of vernacular schools -- Malay, Chinese and Tamil -- into a single national institution, dubbed "Vision Schools," that would embody Malaysian identity....
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2000

Kato made the wrong choice

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori survived a no-confidence motion against his Cabinet early Tuesday when the governing coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party voted down the motion in the Lower House. Mori's rivals -- former LDP Secretary General Koichi Kato and...
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2000

Kato's momentous rebellion leaves Mori in charge -- for the moment

The failure of Koichi Kato's revolt against Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori leaves the unpopular leader at the nation's helm -- at least for the moment.
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2000

Mori may resign before no-confidence motion, Kan says

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori may resign before the opposition camp submits its no-confidence motion against his Cabinet this evening, a senior member of the Democratic Party of Japan said Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2000

Awards lift expectations of Kim Dae Jung

SEOUL -- South Korean President Kim Dae Jung is more popular abroad than he is within his own country. This is the impression I have gathered after discussing South Korean politics with many people both in South Korea and beyond the shores of the peninsula.
COMMENTARY
Nov 16, 2000

In all but economics, Kato makes sense

Koichi Kato, head of a large faction in the Liberal Democratic Party, now aims openly to be Japan's next prime minister. He has credentials. A former diplomat with good English skills and wide international contacts, he would do much to improve Japan's bland global image. He is also one of the few LDP...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 15, 2000

Timeless tales reflect the times

SANSHO DAYU, by Dudley Andrew & Carole Cavanaugh. BFI Film Classic Series. London: British Film Institute, 2000, 80 pp., with b/w illustrations, $20. Kenji Mizoguchi's 1954 film, "Sansho Dayu" (Sansho the Bailiff), is based upon the well-known 1915 Ogai Mori narrative, which was in turn taken from...
EDITORIALS
Nov 11, 2000

Taiwan's democratic growing pains

The impeachment controversy thickens. Politics has descended into name-calling and threats of lawsuits. The currency is slumping, share prices are plummeting and investors are fleeing in droves. The established political order is lining up against the president and threatening to impeach him. But this...
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

New Komeito, Soka Gakkai to be tougher on Mori

New Komeito and its main base of support, Soka Gakkai, Japan's largest lay Buddhist organization, said the party will more aggressively push its agenda in the ruling coalition in response to supporters' growing dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's administration.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2000

Jiang's troubling ambitions

CAMBRIDGE, England -- So the U.S. presidential-election campaign is over and we will soon know who is the next "leader of the free world." This time no one has alleged that any Chinese organization or individual has tried to affect the outcome. But why shouldn't they? Analysts say that Texas Gov. George...
EDITORIALS
Oct 28, 2000

Shortsighted electoral reform

The heavy-handed tactics the ruling parties employed to railroad a controversial Upper House electoral reform bill have left an ugly blot on the nation's parliamentary history. No substantial debate was conducted in the Diet. In the Upper House, the opposition parties boycotted discussion because of...
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2000

Ruling bloc turns deaf ear to other options

Passage of a controversial electoral reform bill Thursday has provided another example of the ruling coalition's increasing use of force that opposition lawmakers describe as as tyrannous.
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2000

Libraries without limits

We human beings, especially those of us who are getting on in years, are always complaining that "anything goes these days." It's a habit that defines the species. Elderly Neanderthals probably tottered about fretting that the cave was going to the dogs and it was time for tighter standards and firmer...
COMMUNITY
Oct 15, 2000

Honesty is JAL president's policy

Entranced by the view from the windows of an executive meeting room on the 24th floor of the headquarters of Japan Airlines in Tokyo's Tennozu Isle, I almost missed the entrance of JAL's president, Isao Kaneko. Luckily he is not the kind of man to take offense. Slightly built, in a pale gray suit, he...
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2000

Stymied by electoral reform

Confusion reigns in the current extraordinary Diet session, with the opposition forces boycotting debate to protest the ruling bloc's forcible move to revise the Upper House election system.
EDITORIALS
Sep 30, 2000

Denmark says 'No, thank you'

The Danish people voted this week against adopting the euro. With nearly 90 percent of eligible voters going to the polls, Denmark rejected the European Union's single currency by a narrow 53-47 margin. The result is a bitter disappointment for the country's political and business establishment, which...
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2000

Nakajima's sentence cut by six months

The Tokyo High Court on Thursday cut six months off former Lower House member Yojiro Nakajima's 21/2-year prison sentence but upheld the 10 million yen fine imposed by the lower court following his conviction for bribe-taking, vote-buying and other charges.
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2000

New Komeito failing to make mark

New Komeito, a junior member of the ruling coalition, continues to struggle as it strives to score points and impress the public before Upper House elections next summer.
COMMENTARY
Sep 26, 2000

Hazards of electoral reform

The tripartite ruling coalition is moving to submit to the Diet a bill for a new Upper House proportional-representation voting system that would allow voters to choose either individual candidates or political parties when casting ballots. The Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative...
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2000

Kawada's mother to run for Lower House seat

Human rights activist Etsuko Kawada, the mother of an outspoken HIV-infected man who contracted the virus through tainted blood coagulants, announced Tuesday her decision to run for the House of Representatives seat of Joji Yamamoto in the Oct. 22 by-election in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Sep 15, 2000

Looking for Mori's successor

A couple of weeks ago, Koichi Kato, former secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, appeared at a news conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo. Kato is receiving growing public attention as a potential contender for the post of prime minister to replace unpopular Yoshiro...
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2000

Lake reclamation scheme canceled

MATSUE, Shimane Pref. -- Following the ruling coalition's termination of a 37-year-old controversial project to reclaim part of Lake Nakaumi and create 1,470 hectares of farmland, local municipalities are scrambling for new central government spending to make up for the aborted project.
COMMENTARY
Aug 25, 2000

Turbulent times await Mori

Japan's new political season will open in late September, when an extraordinary Diet session starts after the summer recess. Politics in the upcoming year will be marked by three potential turning points.

Longform

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