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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 21, 2000

Kim, de Gaulle: visionary but vulnerable

SEOUL -- South Korean President Kim Dae Jung returns from Norway and Sweden this week with his Nobel Prize in hand, having secured his place on the world stage. But at home, he faces a nation deeply divided over his "sunshine policy," deeply troubled over its economic prospects and enveloped in a social...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 21, 2000

Success of discount barns should come as no surprise

" 'Tis the season," and while many a crabby gaijin points out that Japan's decidedly commercial spin on Christmas excludes its religious meaning, shopping makes a lot of people happy, so why knock it?
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2000

Jazz singer's choir beats holiday blues

Like strangers, they eye each other cautiously at first -- perhaps even with a trace of suspicion. But the music begins, and instantly the room is transformed into a hall housing a choir of angels. A thunderous applause ensues, some tears fall -- and finally the smiles materialize.
EDITORIALS
Dec 20, 2000

English for the 21st century

One thing that is almost certain not to change in the new century is Japan's long love-hate relationship with the English language. What might change is the degree of interest in learning English among younger Japanese, eager to tap the wealth of information available on the Internet. In fact, much about...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 19, 2000

Wowed by the Lao and Siam

A DIPLOMAT IN SIAM, by Ernest Satow. Introduced and edited by Nigel Brailey. Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2000, 206 pp., with maps and line drawings, $23. In the spring of 1886, Ernest Satow wrote to his friend W.G. Aston in Japan that his recent journey to the Lao states had been "on the whole a pleasant...
BUSINESS
Dec 18, 2000

Popularity polls belie Mori's 'reform plans'

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori launched his new Cabinet on Dec. 5, reshuffling his team to prepare for the reorganization of government ministries and agencies in January.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 18, 2000

Sharif deal puts pressure on Musharraf

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistanis were taken aback last week when they unexpectedly heard that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in military custody since the country's bloodless coup last year, suddenly left the country for exile in Saudi Arabia.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2000

Violent movie opens despite protest

A controversial Japanese movie that features a series of fights to the death between junior high school students opened Saturday at cinemas nationwide.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2000

Tokyo to open parks and zoos for New Year's holiday season

The New Year's holiday season is one of the rare occasions when the hustle and bustle of Tokyo comes to a temporary halt as dwellers of the metropolis leave in droves.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2000

Municipalities search for new money wells

The failure of a Tokyo ward to introduce a new tax plan appears to indicate that recent moves by municipalities to seek their own sources of revenue with unique tax measures are not without obstacles.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2000

New U.N. relief chief hopes to up funds, aid worker safety

Securing adequate financial resources and improving the safety of U.N. aid workers are two of the most important tasks to ensure the United Nations can carry out its humanitarian activities, according to the newly appointed chief overseeing such activities.
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2000

Bush expected to focus on Japan rather than China

Experts on Japanese-U.S. relations broadly see George W. Bush's victory in the U.S. presidential election as a good sign for Tokyo, as the Republican Party places relatively strong importance on Japan in its Asia policy, and the new administration is expected to take a less-confrontational approach to...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 13, 2000

Television as a pillar of the state

BROADCASTING POLITICS IN JAPAN: NHK and Television News, by Ellis Krauss. Cornell University Press, 2000, 278 pp., $35 (cloth). Many of us know NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai) for its film documentaries, its cultural programs -- stunning or plodding, depending on your perspective -- or its Sunday morning singalongs....
COMMUNITY
Dec 13, 2000

Unlocking secrets of the original Marseille Tarot

Tarot cards can be found in the game sections of toy shops, and there are hundreds of different decks. But Tarot is an ancient tradition, says tarot master Philippe Camoin, and the philosophy behind the cards is a powerful tool for awakening intelligence.
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2000

Hashimoto meets Foley, raises base time limit issue

New Okinawa Development Agency chief Ryutaro Hashimoto said Monday that he raised Okinawa's demand in a meeting with U.S. Ambassador Thomas Foley that a 15-year limit be imposed on the U.S. military's use of a new airport to be built in the prefecture.
COMMENTARY
Dec 10, 2000

American democracy teeters on the brink

NEW YORK -- There's plenty of room for reasonable disagreement in this post-election netherworld. The Bushies are right that we need a president-elect and we needed one weeks ago; despite lackadaisical opinion polls and surprising public apathy, the legal maneuvering over recounts can't go on forever....
CULTURE / Art
Dec 9, 2000

Bringing Russia and Japan together

Permit me a brief personal anecdote if you will: Some 20 years ago, a cold December night in Toronto found me inspired to chip, using my house keys, a few raisin-sized shards of concrete from the base of that city's newly-constructed CN Tower. Friends I mailed the little gray jewels to would later remark...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 9, 2000

Refuges are running out for Pinochet

LONDON -- The freedom to murder your fellow citizens with impunity used to be what made up for the long hours and all the paperwork. Some people simply wouldn't have taken the job of president without it, and Augusto Pinochet was one of them. If somebody had told the former Chilean dictator that he would...
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2000

Opposition says new Cabinet is evidence of same old politics

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's newly formed Cabinet was the immediate target of a shower of criticism Tuesday from opposition parties.
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2000

Record number of travelers heading overseas

The number of Japanese traveling overseas during the New Year's holidays will hit a record high of 688,000, marking the first increase in four years, according to an estimate released Tuesday by Japan Travel Bureau Inc.
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2000

Readers' Fund offers poor Filipino kids opportunity to keep learning

The annual Japan Time Readers' Fund has helped a variety of nonprofit organizations work to improve education and living conditions in developing countries. This article and a subsequent one will attempt to explain how the donations have been used.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 5, 2000

Handful of history

COLUMBIA CHRONOLOGIES OF ASIAN HISTORY AND CULTURE, edited by John S. Bowman. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000, 752 pp., $85. Oh, "if men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us! But passion and party blind our eyes, and the light which experience gives is a lantern on the...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 5, 2000

What is the weight of a fractured atom?

ATOMIC FRAGMENTS: A Daughter's Questions, by Mary Palevsky. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000, 272 pp., $24.95 (cloth). With the benefit of hindsight and a distant or nonexistent memory of World War II, we pass moral judgment on those who were directly involved with the invention and construction...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Dec 3, 2000

Chid Waller

Although Chid Waller says she waxes lyrical over the career she was following in England, she willingly gave it up to come to Tokyo. That was three years ago. During this time she has put her expertise at the disposal of several local organizations, giving them voluntarily the benefit of her effective...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2000

2002 World Cup: Soccer without fear?

BRUSSELS -- The first world cup of the new millennium is to be staged in Japan and South Korea in the summer of 2002. Both countries want to use this billion-dollar sporting showpiece as a global shop window allowing those watching, both in the stadiums and on TV, to see the real Japan and the real South...
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2000

Easier entry to Japan urged for participants in big events

An advisory panel to the Transport Ministry on Friday urged the government to introduce a "preclearance" system for customs, immigration and quarantine procedures for foreign participants in major international events, such as the planned soccer World Cup in 2002.

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