Search - people

 
 
COMMENTARY
Oct 25, 2000

When leaders fail to lead

LONDON -- Countries and peoples that make peace after years or even generations of enmity require very strong leaders. Just as it needed a Charles de Gaulle to tell the French to stop fighting the Algerians, a Konrad Adenauer to tell the Germans to love the French, a Harry Truman or a Douglas MacArthur...
LIFE / Travel
Oct 25, 2000

Deep in the ancient forests of the U.S. northwest

A soft light glows from the emerald-green moss covering every tree trunk, rock and piece of ground. The glow feels brighter than the light filtering down through the massive Douglas fir and Sitka spruce trees towering overhead, whose crowns prick the silver clouds that obscure the sun.
LIFE / Digital
Oct 25, 2000

Xpect the unxpected

SEATTLE -- What does Microsoft know about fun? The engineers who designed Xbox, the new 128-bit video game console that Microsoft plans to release sometime next year, know too much for their own good.
EDITORIALS
Oct 24, 2000

The reality gap still looms

The latest economic stimulus package, unveiled last Thursday, reinforces the impression that deficit spending in the name of economic recovery has become an annual routine. In fact, almost every year since the economic bubble burst a decade ago, the government has pumped trillions of yen into the system,...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 24, 2000

Portrait of Laos, Asia's 'forgotten country'

LAOS: Culture and Society, edited by Grant Evans. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books, 2000, 313 pp., $24.95 The colorful volumes of anthropology produced in the past by gifted amateurs, lady travelers of independent means, colonial officers and the like, have been replaced by the works of highly trained...
COMMENTARY
Oct 24, 2000

Executives must obey the law

In a recent major shareholder suit, the Osaka District Court ordered 11 former Daiwa Bank executives to pay a total of $775 million (about 83 billion yen) in compensation for the $1.1-billion loss the bank suffered from illegal bond trading by a former employee of its New York branch. The ruling has...
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2000

An 'extreme' sport that's truly off the wall

As we search for bigger thrills and harder adrenaline rushes, more and more people are pursuing a break from the norm with "extreme" sports.
COMMUNITY
Oct 22, 2000

Country gold in them thar Kyushu hills

MOUNT ASO, Kyushu -- When he had just turned 20, "Good Time" Charlie Nagatani made a decision that must have seemed even more foolish than it was whimsical.
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2000

Troubled insurer Kyoei seeks court protection

Kyoei Life Insurance Co., a troubled midsize insurer with liabilities of about 4.5 trillion yen, filed for protection from creditors with the Tokyo District Court on Friday, making it the largest life insurer to collapse since World War II, company officials said.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2000

Electoral bill takes another step

Upper House members of the ruling coalition ignored fierce opposition protests and voted for a contentious bill to revise the chamber's electoral system during a plenary session Thursday afternoon.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2000

Crime victims demand rights

A group of people whose children died at the hands of juveniles submitted a written request Thursday to Justice Minister Okiharu Yasuoka, urging the state to improve the rights of crime victims and their relatives under the Juvenile Law.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2000

Kawaguchi justifies CO 2 effort

Environment Agency chief Yoriko Kawaguchi has praised Japan's global warming measures and hinted at the need for more action by the United States going into international climate change negotiations next month in the Netherlands.
COMMUNITY
Oct 19, 2000

Kyushu reaches out to Asia through education

FUKUOKA -- For years it's been said that Kyushu's economic nerve center, Fukuoka, is one of Japan's most promising areas when it comes to forging new business and cultural links overseas. The city's proximity to the East Asian continent, as well as government and business activity, have all contributed...
LIFE / Travel
Oct 18, 2000

Yonezawa's tourist industry rises from the ashes

YONEZAWA, Yamagata Pref. -- When he received a phone call saying that a fire was blazing through the hotel where his grandfather was once a carpenter, local shop owner Masahiro Ohta rushed to help.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2000

Sri Lanka and the Bandaranaike legacy

Almost drowned out by the blare of daily horrors in the Middle East, the world's first elected woman prime minister, Sirima Bandaranaike, died last week in Sri Lanka aged 84. Fittingly, she died on the way home from casting her vote in an election called by her daughter, the country's current president....
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Oct 18, 2000

One homestead, two squatters

www.arab.net/palestine/history/pe_zionism.html To understand the beginnings of the decades-old Jewish-Muslim conflict in the Middle East, Spudberg decided to first look up the definition of a word for which he only understood the connotations. Arabnet quickly and clearly defines "Zionism" in a historical...
LIFE / Travel
Oct 18, 2000

Toronto gets a taste of Japanese culture

TORONTO -- The Japanese and Canadian communities here in Ontario recently kicked off a six-week celebration showcasing Japanese culture and lifestyle.
COMMENTARY
Oct 18, 2000

Charting a course for Europe

LONDON -- Three major speeches have been made recently by European leaders about the future of the European Union. The first was by Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister, the second by French President Jacques Chirac and the third by Tony Blair, the British prime minister.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 17, 2000

An unambiguous democrat

At the moment of his greatest personal triumph, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung once again demonstrated his magnanimity. "I return all my honor to the people and the citizens of the world, who love democracy and human rights," the president was quoted as saying after he was awarded the Nobel Peace...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 17, 2000

Japan's pop culture conquers the world

JAPAN POP Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture, edited by Timothy J. Craig. M. E. Sharpe, 235 pp., $58.95 (cloth). Japan is undergoing a quiet revolution. Long known for its talents in miniaturization and for the mass production of electronic consumer products, Japan is gaining a new image:...
COMMUNITY
Oct 16, 2000

Tasty seeds have hidden health benefits

Sprinkled on hamburger buns, bagels and cooked vegetables, sesame seeds add extra zest with their nutty flavor. Recent research has found, however, that there is much more to the humble sesame seed than just its good taste.
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2000

BOJ tour aims to educate the public

KOBE -- Some words of advice for those who dream of laying their hands on 100 million yen -- don't spend money on lottery tickets, just join a tour organized by the Bank of Japan's Kobe branch.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 15, 2000

India shooting itself in the foot

During a recent trip to India, the heretical thought took hold that ardent nationalists can be de facto anti-nationals.
COMMUNITY
Oct 15, 2000

Here she is . . . Miss Stereotype

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Miss America Pageant may aim to represent the ideal of U.S. womanhood, but it's got its problems; it's about as internally conflicted as Al Gore trying to act like respects George W. Bush's intelligence.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 14, 2000

Fostering creative collaboration

Australian Aborigines used the boomerang as an effective hunting tool. Flying in a huge sweeping arc, it would mercilessly kill or maim anything that crossed its path. The Boomerang Art Project, a collaborative effort between 24 young Kyoto and Bremen artists, seeks to emulate the power of that flight...
JAPAN
Oct 13, 2000

Accounting practices blamed for slump in Japanese films

The chief executive of a Tokyo financial management company launched in late September hopes her new business saves Japanese films from a long slump.

Longform

A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped