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JAPAN
Jun 13, 2001

Suspect may suffer from personality disorder

OSAKA — Mamoru Takuma, the suspect in the primary school rampage that claimed the lives of eight pupils in Osaka Prefecture, is suspected by psychiatrists of having paranoid personality disorder, it was revealed Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2001

Proposal targeting mentally ill criticized

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's proposal to seek legal revisions in a bid to prevent crimes by the mentally ill faced government opposition Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 10, 2001

Labour wins a mandate to carry on

The crushing victory of Britain's Labour Party in Thursday's general elections presents Prime Minister Tony Blair with his greatest challenge. His progress since becoming party leader almost a decade ago has been remarkably smooth, and his remodeled party now enjoys a dominance in British politics equivalent...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 10, 2001

There's a fine line between parody and larceny

There is an unspoken belief among music critics that had George Harrison not been a Beatle, he wouldn't have lasted more than a minute in the pop business. This belief has nothing to do with Harrison's talent and everything to do with his professional judgment. First, he released all his good songs on...
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jun 10, 2001

Teaching Tokyo how to be cool

Bar Kitsune is a phenomenon. It is the brainchild of Production Company, an Osaka-based outfit that decided to sneak up the Tokaido and infiltrate Tokyo's nightlife. The company's success with home-turf projects like Under Lounge, one of Osaka's most happening clubs, gave it the confidence to tackle...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 10, 2001

Zetton: A buzz that can't be resisted

Call it what you like -- drawing power, charisma, sex appeal or the Koizumi quality -- new restaurants need that extra something to succeed, no less than populist politicians with big, Beethoven-look hair. Zetton, the hot new place just up from Shibuya-bashi in Ebisu, has just the right sort of buzz....
EDITORIALS
Jun 9, 2001

Secret fund is still under wraps

The Foreign Ministry, responding to a recent embezzlement scandal involving a senior ministry bureaucrat, has put together a package of measures designed to "reform" its secrecy-shrouded diplomatic war chest. The package falls far short of public expectations, largely because the ministry has not disclosed...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jun 9, 2001

Putin picks a new gas czar

Behold, Russia has got a new czar. No, the Romanovs did not rise from their graves. No, the Russian people did not invite a Romanov cousin, Prince Charles, to claim the throne of his Russian ancestors. No, the authoritarian Russian president, Vladimir Putin, did not crown himself Vladimir I. He just...
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2001

Japan tipped to pledge millions to AIDS fund

Japan is considering contributing around $100 million to a United Nations-proposed fund to fight AIDS, which is spreading particularly rapidly in impoverished sub-Saharan Africa, government sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2001

LDP's Kyuma photographed with senior gangland figure

Fumio Kyuma, the acting policy research council chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, was photographed with a senior member of a crime syndicate while serving as Defense Agency chief in 1997, sources close to the case said Thursday.
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
Jun 7, 2001

Dokudami (lizard's tail)

"Only the very richest people could afford to call the doctor out to visit them if they were sick. Country people used to pick plants like green gentian, cranesbill and lizard's tail when they went up into the mountains to avoid, as much as possible, having to rely on the services of a doctor."...
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2001

Ethnic Koreans get home spin on history

OSAKA — "Imperial Japan pillaged our country and instituted a cruel, repressive colonial regime. This went beyond acquiring food, resources and labor, and developed into a policy of obliterating the Korean people from the face of the Earth."
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2001

Minister backs program to triple bar exam passers

Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama said Sunday she will back a plan to triple by 2010 the number of people who pass the National Bar Examination, becoming candidates for positions as judges, prosecutors and lawyers.
EDITORIALS
Jun 3, 2001

A candle that won't go out

Forty years ago, a British lawyer named Peter Benenson read in his morning paper about two Portuguese students who had been arrested in a Lisbon cafe and sentenced to seven years in prison for having drunk a toast "to freedom," a code phrase for opposition to the government of then dictator Antonio de...
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 3, 2001

What star shines yonder east?

There is always a danger that productions of "The Tempest," the play Shakespeare set on an enchanted island, will indulge in too many theatrical effects and, thus, destroy its magic. Yet in the latest production to arrive in Tokyo, no spirits fly through the air nor is anyone soaked or tossed about in...
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2001

Bar associations address dearth of legal resources

While Monbetsu in Hokkaido and Ishigaki in Okinawa are separated by thousands of kilometers, the efforts of bar associations in the two cities have garnered one common attribute — a supply of lawyers available to residents needing legal advice.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2001

End World Bank charity for bureaucrats

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Freedom of speech died a little death last week. The World Bank Group announced (on a Saturday, so that it did not get much attention) that it was canceling its annual European conference on development economics. The meeting was canceled because the global protest movement that...
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2001

Greece hopes renewal of air links will spur bilateral ties with Japan

An agreement reached between Japan and Greece earlier this week to improve air links by code sharing will hopefully spur bilateral ties, Grigoris Niotis, Greek deputy foreign minister, said in Tokyo on Friday.
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jun 1, 2001

Japanese rat snake

* Japanese name: Aodaisho
BUSINESS
May 31, 2001

U.N. forum cautions against globalization's impact on poor

The advance of economic globalization should improve the life of people in developing countries and bring about sustainable development, according to Carlos A. Magarinos, director general of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
COMMENTARY / World / GUEST FORUM
May 31, 2001

Globalization leaves too many casualties in its wake

The forces and processes of globalization -- increased trade liberalization, improved environmental standards and "universal" human rights -- have disillusioned a majority of the world's population. Thanks to the Seattle fiasco and street demonstrations in Prague, it is clear that no matter how hard...
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

Tobacco industry 'Insider' takes his campaign to Japan

Educational and grassroots activities will be crucial if Japan is to successfully reduce the nation's relatively high number of smokers and incidence of lung cancer -- one of the leading causes of death in this country, said scientist and tobacco educator Jeffrey Wigand.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 31, 2001

White lines, blowin' through my brain

Until 1903, a bottle of Coca-Cola contained around 60 mg of cocaine -- enough, it has now been shown, to trigger long-lasting changes in brain activity. According to a report in today's issue of Nature, giving a single dose of cocaine to mice changes the way that nerve connections transmit signals in...
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2001

Spy-plane incident continues to shake Sino-American ties

HONG KONG -- As he left Beijing after 18 months as United States ambassador to China, Adm. Joseph Prueher, while hoping Sino-American relations were on an upswing, still warned that the continued detention of the U.S. Navy's EP-3E reconnaissance plane was having a "corrosive effect" on relations. "It's...
EDITORIALS
May 30, 2001

Toward a basic law on human rights

The Council for Human Rights, an advisory panel to the justice minister, has submitted a report calling for the creation of an independent organization to provide relief for victims of discrimination, child abuse and other human-rights violations. The proposed body, tentatively called the "human-rights...

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo