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COMMUNITY
Feb 11, 2001

The accidental ambassadors

Less than six months after bathing in the international attention that came with hosting the Olympic Games, Australians are celebrating their nation's 100th birthday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 10, 2001

Who's afraid of the WTO? Not China

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Among U.S. President Bill Clinton's wilder statements on China were those he came up with when recommending that Congress pass the Permanent Normal Trade Relations Bill. The bill, which Congress passed last September, was a necessary precondition for the United States' support of...
EDITORIALS
Feb 8, 2001

Fear is the winner in Israel

Israelis have elected a new prime minister. Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon has trounced Prime Minister Ehud Barak in a historic vote. The results cap a stunning comeback for Mr. Sharon, who was written out of Israeli politics after the 1982 invasion of Lebanon which he masterminded. The results also...
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2001

NKK, Sumitomo Heavy, Hitachi Zosen agree to unite steel businesses

NKK Corp., Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd. and Hitachi Zosen Corp. said Tuesday they have agreed on a broad business tieup with an eye toward integrating steel plant and engineering operations by the end of March 2003.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2001

Few lessons for Wahid in Estrada's fate

There are a growing number of students on the streets of Jakarta who are hoping to do to Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid what was done last month to Philippine President Joseph Estrada: depose him through the deployment of people power.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2001

Tokyo, Pyongyang in secret talks on links

Senior Foreign Ministry officials from Japan and North Korea held secret discussions in Beijing in January on restarting stalled negotiations on normalizing bilateral diplomatic ties, informed sources said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 6, 2001

Trauma in a sepia-tinged Kyushu

It's not easy filming the inner lives of human beings. Novelists can go on at length about their protagonist's stream of consciousness (see "Ulysses") while filmmakers cannot show scene after voiced-over scene of that same stream without inducing audience catatonia. See Joseph Strick's misbegotten 1967...
COMMENTARY
Feb 5, 2001

Complacency fatal for Japan

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori recently traveled to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. He stayed there for only half a day, returning home immediately after delivering a speech.
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2001

Daisy-chain ODA project needs better connections

Japan and Brazil have plowed the field but may have forgotten to sow the seed.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2001

Tokyo, New Delhi eager to put synergy back in relations

Last week's massive earthquake in western India has thrown in doubt Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's planned official visit to Japan this month -- the first by a premier of the world's most populous democracy in nearly 13 years.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 30, 2001

When does a faith become a cult?

FALUN GONG'S CHALLENGE TO CHINA: Spiritual Practice or "Evil Cult," by Danny Schechter. Akashic Books, 2000, 225 pp., $24 (cloth). Last year about this time, I visited Tiananmen Square, mingling with tourists and day-trippers enjoying the warmth of the midday sun. As I reminisced about this historic...
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2001

Mori, Bush agree to hold early summit

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori agreed Wednesday in a telephone conversation with U.S. President George W. Bush to hold a bilateral summit as soon as possible.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 23, 2001

Gender, identity, plain old eros

MALE HOMOSEXUALITY IN MODERN JAPAN: Cultural Myths and Social Realities, by Mark J. McLelland. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2000, 268 pp., b/w plates 17, 15.99 British pounds (paper). Mark McLelland begins this pioneering study by quoting Alfred Kinsey to the effect that nature rarely deals with...
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2001

Osaka homeless find they must help selves

OSAKA -- Visit Yoshisune Nagamine at his office beside Osaka Castle and you're in for a surprise.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2001

Japan, China agree to more flights

Japan and China have agreed to drastically increase the number of passenger and cargo flights between the two countries, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2001

Kobe remembers '95 quake, but focus shifts to moving on

KOBE -- This city marked the sixth anniversary of the earthquake that resulted in the loss of 6,432 lives with prayers and remembrance services Wednesday, but also with a sense that the temblor is fading into history and that the recovery is almost complete.
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2001

ASEM conference stresses teamwork

KOBE -- Finance ministers from the 25-nation Asia-Europe Meeting group wrapped up their two-day conference here Sunday by adopting a chairman's statement emphasizing the importance of enhanced cooperation to avoid financial crises.
COMMUNITY
Jan 15, 2001

New miracles from the 'first miracle drug'

Aspirin for people in Western countries is something more than Seirogan, the most popular household digestive medicine in Japan.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2001

Making gardens accessible proving a slippery path

Legend has it that when the Koishikawa Korakuen Garden in Bunkyo Ward was built in the early Edo Period, it boasted gigantic rocks and majestic, ancient trees reminiscent of the steep mountains and dark valleys of China.
EDITORIALS
Jan 11, 2001

Uranium munition in the cross-hairs

NATO is coming under increasing pressure to investigate possible health risks associated with the use of depleted-uranium ammunition. A number of "Balkans Syndrome" cases have raised fears that the munitions exposed soldiers and civilians to unsuspected danger. Thus far, the threat is more imagined that...
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2001

Kobe Steel, U.S. Steel agree on joint R&D work

Kobe Steel Ltd. on Tuesday said it has reached an agreement with U.S. Steel Group to jointly research and develop high-tensile steel sheets used for automobiles.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 8, 2001

Tomorrow today in Tokyo

TOKYO X. Photographs by Shunji Ohkura. Afterword translated by Ralph McCarthy, captions translated by Shii Ichiba, envoi by Giles Murray. Tokyo: Kodansha Intl., 2000, 216 pp., 251 plates with endpapers, 3,800 yen. In the afterword to this remarkable collection of pictures, the photographer says that...
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2001

Reform fledgling offspring of 'lost decade'

During the bubble economy of the late 1980s, few could have predicted the acute banking crisis and long economic malaise that have typified the past decade.
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2001

Unresolved issues linger for Japan

Japan greets the new century with two major diplomatic issues unresolved since the end of World War II -- concluding a peace treaty with Russia and normalizing diplomatic relations with North Korea.
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2000

Cities set to merge divided over new leader

It looked like a match made in heaven when, on Aug. 10, the two beaming mayors of Hoya and Tanashi shook hands on a deal to merge the two western Tokyo cities.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji