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JAPAN
Jul 6, 1999

Ailing prefecture wants city to share teacher pay

OSAKA -- Faced with critical financial difficulties, Osaka Prefecture will request the central government to have the city of Osaka share the burden for salaries of public elementary and junior high school teachers, it was learned Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 29, 1999

Getting tough on dioxin pollution

After years of neglect, politicians and bureaucrats are finally getting their acts together and addressing the issue of dioxin contamination. In March, the government announced plans to cut nationwide dioxin emissions by 90 percent of its 1997 level by 2002, and the ruling parties are poised to submit...
JAPAN
Jun 28, 1999

Base not Ishihara's only target

Staff writers
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 25, 1999

Time to hold English essay contest

Time magazine is sponsoring an English essay contest and accepting applications from students in Asia.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 1999

Ministry boasts fulfillment of ODA pledge

Japan has already fulfilled an international pledge to provide $3 billion in official development assistance over a seven-year period ending in fiscal 2000 to help developing countries address AIDS and population issues, Foreign Ministry sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 11, 1999

Expanded SDF peacekeeping role urged

Staff writer
JAPAN
Jun 10, 1999

Analysis: Lofty administrative goals not attained by bills

It has been said that the two sets of administrative reform bills moving on to the Upper House will bring about Japan's most sweeping reforms in 100 years and end the bureaucracy's dominance over the administration.
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

Lower House starts tackling administrative reform

The Lower House entered substantive debate Tuesday on two sets of bills designed to reorganize the central government and decentralize state powers, underlining the need to create a new government to meet the changing needs of society.
JAPAN
May 12, 1999

Is Japan ready for World Cup fans?

Staff writer
JAPAN
May 10, 1999

Reform of Diet debate questioned

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
May 7, 1999

A brush with history

Mallory, Hillary.... The airwaves have been buzzing this week with two of the best-known names in mountain-climbing history. Some people even reportedly got confused, thinking the body found near the summit of Mount Everest May 1 was that of Sir Edmund Hillary (who is very much alive in New Zealand)...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 15, 1999

Japanese women say single life fine — if they're financially independent

Some say that '70s feminism began its fall from grace in 1986 when a study claimed that a woman's chances of marrying sometime in her life drops to 5 percent after she passes her 35th birthday. The notion that so many nominally liberated women found this conclusion distressing gave rise to the cynical...
COMMENTARY
Apr 14, 1999

A clear victory for NATO

LONDON -- This time the critics and skeptics are turning out to be wrong. Conventional wisdom holds that one cannot halt an enemy from the air, let alone force a capitulation. Only troops on the ground can do that. This is supposed to be the overriding lesson from the disaster that was the Vietnam War....
EDITORIALS
Apr 10, 1999

Key defense questions need answers

The House of Representatives Special Committee on Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation is winding down its deliberations on the guidelines legislation. Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi is eager to secure passage of the bills in the Lower House before he leaves for the United States later this month...
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Apr 10, 1999

A keen ear for the voice of the clay

Japanese ceramists often talk of the materials they use as having spirits and souls. A kiln, for instance, has its own kami, and the clay has a voice that if listened to carefully will reveal a shape that has lain dormant for centuries.
JAPAN
Apr 1, 1999

Early passage hoped for defense bill amendments

Staff writer
JAPAN
Mar 18, 1999

Diet begins full debate on defense cooperation bills

Full debate kicked off Thursday on bills covering updated Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines with Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi stressing that the legislation will contribute to Japan's peace and security.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 1999

Diet members back U.S. lawmaker's MOX probe

Six Diet members have sent a letter of support to a U.S. congressman who has raised concern over a planned shipment of mixed uranium-plutonium (MOX) fuel to Japan without an armed escort.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 1999

Debate on defense bills nears Diet agenda

The Diet finally appears set to deliberate bills to cover the updated Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines, now that the Liberal Democratic Party has officially proposed setting up a special committee on the issue.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 1999

JR Tokai coughs up 20.5 billion yen for JNR burden

Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) officially announced Tuesday that it will accept the additional financial burden imposed by the government in a scheme to repay about 28 trillion yen in debts left behind by the former Japanese National Railways.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 22, 1999

Jordan wasn't NBA's 'greatest'

This column originally ran in the print edition of The Japan Times on Jan. 22, 1999, approximately nine months before Wilt Chamberlain died.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 1998

Tokyo dodges bankruptcy bullet

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has narrowly escaped effective bankruptcy in fiscal 1998, and the financial future looks dismal, Governor Yukio Aoshima said Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 2, 1998

Nara sites added to World Heritage List

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 1, 1998

Obuchi at odds with Keidanren over APEC stance

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi instructed his Cabinet members Tuesday to maintain Japan's opposition to early market-opening of forestry and fishery products during upcoming meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Malaysia.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 1998

Compromise sounds heard from LDP

The Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition camp continued negotiations Thursday over financial system stabilization bills, with the LDP showing signs it may compromise further.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 1998

Opposition slams handling of LTCB, demands disclosure

Opposition parties on Thursday harshly criticized the government's handling of the troubled Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan during a Lower House committee meeting that resumed after a one-day opposition-camp boycott.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 1998

Opposition snubs Diet panel, delays financial deliberations

The Lower House's special committee on financial stabilization failed to meet Wednesday due to a boycott by the opposition camp over a procedural disagreement, but both camps agreed they would meet today.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 1998

New law fails to preserve Ainu people's rights: U.N.

Staff writer
JAPAN
Aug 10, 1998

Asian Women's Fund remains official sex slave redress policy

The government maintained its stance Monday of promoting the Asian Women's Fund to extend money to women who were forced to provide sex to Japanese soldiers before and during the war.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.