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EDITORIALS
Dec 23, 1999

Nuclear program under fire

Japan's nuclear power program is at a critical moment. Earlier this week, Mr. Hisashi Ouchi died as a result of exposure to massive doses of radiation during an accident three months ago at the Tokaimura uranium processing facility. He is the first Japanese to die in a nuclear accident. That tragedy...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

0.7% service sector fall

Activity in the nation's service sector slipped 0.7 percent in October from the previous month, due to a temporary slump in mobile telecommunications as well as sluggishness in the transportation and power industries caused by a drop in industrial production, according to a preliminary report issued...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

FRC backs plan to end protection for depositors

The Financial Reconstruction Commission agreed Tuesday that it is better to go ahead with a plan to end government protection for all bank deposits on March 31, 2001, rather than postponing it. FRC Chairman Michio Ochi, who is also a state minister, detailed his position as the ruling coalition struggles...
JAPAN
Dec 17, 1999

Donors pledge total of $522 million to East Timor

Aid donors for East Timor concluded a two-day fundraising gathering Friday in Tokyo, pledging a total of $522 million in a three-year package to help advance the territory's transition to independence. The meeting, the first of its kind since East Timor rejected Indonesian rule in a September referendum,...
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 1999

Terror for the 21st century

A few weeks ago, New York was hit by an outbreak of the West Nile virus. Five people died and another 50 were sickened before authorities were able to respond. West Nile fever is a rare, encephalitic virus that is common in Africa and Asia, but had never before been diagnosed in the Western Hemisphere....
JAPAN
Nov 23, 1999

Foreign carmakers wedge feet in door at Toyohashi

Staff writer
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Nov 11, 1999

Whatever the varietal, the grape has to be great

Had any good wine lately? I'm sure you have, but make a note of Baron de Ley Reserva 1995. It is aged in oak for 24 months and is a typical yet wonderful Rioja red that's characteristic of those made from the elusively flavorful tempranillo grape, an indigenous Spanish varietal noted for its plummy,...
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

Hatoyama calls Obuchi government a 'moral hazard'

Calling the new coalition government of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi a "moral hazard" formed solely to reinforce political power, DPJ head Yukio Hatoyama on Tuesday demanded the early dissolution of the Lower House.
EDITORIALS
Nov 1, 1999

Kid gloves and iron fists

October was a good month for Chinese President Jiang Zemin. First, he presided over the 50th-anniversary celebrations of the Chinese People's Republic. Those festivities helped him shore up his claim to stand alongside Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping as the third great leader of the country. He was spared...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 24, 1999

Australia out for justice in East Timor

SYDNEY -- Still the broken skulls are being unearthed. And still the United Nations talks on. Soon, Australia fears, the evidence of atrocities in East Timor will be scattered and, worse, forgotten.
EDITORIALS
Oct 6, 1999

Familiar features of a new Cabinet

The reshuffled Cabinet of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi will literally have to lead Japan into a new millennium fraught with uncertainties. Its immediate task is to solidify the nascent recovery of the long-foundering Japanese economy and put it on the path of sustained growth. To meet this demand, Mr....
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 1999

Taiwan quake shakes China's mandate

BEIJING -- Chinese news coverage of the killer earthquake in Taiwan has been both muted and sporadic, ranging from solicitous concern for the rogue province to no news at all. When the earthquake did get print or air time in the week following the temblor, coverage tended to focus on what mainland authorities,...
JAPAN
Sep 27, 1999

Japan, Laos to sign aid agreement

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 27, 1999

Private-sector security forum explores Northeast Asia, TMD

Staff writer
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Sep 19, 1999

Encounters

Recently I had a minor automobile accident. How often have you seen drivers discussing their accident with the police and felt great sympathy for the participants, who were obviously going to be there for a very long time. This time one of the participants was me, and I was, even though the damage was...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Sep 15, 1999

The family that surfs together ...

There is something mildly unsettling about the cyberpolice's fixation with child pornography. At the Internet Content Summit, held last week in Munich and hosted by the Bertelsmann Stiftung, kiddie porn was repeatedly denounced by participants. To judge from the general tone of the comments, it embodied...
JAPAN
Sep 9, 1999

Japan pushes U.N. for heavier Asia-Pacific presence

The presence of the Asia-Pacific region in the United Nations must be increased to reflect its weight as an economic powerhouse, said Nobutaka Machimura, state secretary for foreign affairs, in his keynote speech at a United Nations regional hearing in Tokyo Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 1999

Commercial sales fall for 25th month in row

Domestic commercial sales fell 4.7 percent in July to 46.25 trillion yen from the same month a year ago, marking the 25th consecutive month of declining sales, according to a preliminary report issued Monday by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
EDITORIALS
Aug 20, 1999

Ethics drive is losing steam

The Diet earlier this month approved an ethics-in-government bill, more than a year after it was introduced under the initiative of former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto. The way in which is was handled, however, indicates that the political drive to stamp out corruption has lost steam.
EDITORIALS
Aug 10, 1999

Accomplices in our own destruction

A series of storms are wreaking havoc across Asia. Torrential rains have drenched the region, killing thousands, swamping hundreds of thousands more (millions have been affected in China) and creating a string of humanitarian disasters. It is tempting to throw up our hands in helplessness when faced...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 7, 1999

Nationalism to the rescue

LONDON -- A French philosopher remarked some years ago that national politics had become "a secondary activity." What he meant was that, with the globalization of finance and economic forces, and with the citizens of the world linking up across borders (700 million people will be linked to the Internet...
JAPAN
Jul 19, 1999

Foreign policy group aims to head off conflicts

The Center for Preventive Diplomacy, a nongovernmental foreign policy organization, will work to prevent regional and ethnic conflicts from erupting in the wake of the Cold War, said former U.N. undersecretary general Yasushi Akashi, during the group's inaugural meeting Monday.
EDITORIALS
Jul 18, 1999

Food safety has to be assured

It comes as no surprise that consumer groups here are reacting cautiously to the government's draft plan requiring some food products containing genetically modified ingredients to be clearly labeled to indicate that fact. Controversy was only to be expected from the decision by the Ministry of Agriculture,...
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

Author says Nanjing death toll politically inflated

Akira Suzuki, prize-winning author of the controversial book "Nanjing: How the World Was Fed Facts and Fakes," reasserted at a press conference Thursday that the Nanjing Massacre death toll of 300,000 cited by the Chinese government lacks credibility from a historical standpoint.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

Commercial sales fell 6.1% in May

Monthly commercial sales in May dipped 6.1 percent year-on-year to 42.41 trillion yen, marking a record 23 consecutive months of decline, according to a preliminary report issued Thursday by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 1999

Dream school shuns educational norms

ONNA, Okinawa Pref. — A healthy techno beat pounds against the walls of the studio where dancers groove, their motions sharp as they study their moves critically in the mirror.
LIFE / Travel
Jun 2, 1999

Learning through landscapes

ARBORFIELD CROSS, England -- When Susan Humphries was appointed head of the Coombes Infant School in Arborfield Cross, Surrey, an hour's drive from London, it was doubtless a satisfying moment in career terms. A school of her own at last. What she did not realize, and is likely to dismiss modestly today,...
JAPAN
May 31, 1999

ANA announces restructuring plan, job cuts

All Nippon Airways Co. unveiled a mid-term business plan Monday that includes a 10-percent cut in ANA group's 28,000 workforce over a four-year period.
JAPAN
May 28, 1999

JAL profits dive; JAS climbs

Declining air fares and slack demand for seats in the forward cabin caused Japan Airlines' sales to decrease to 1.16 trillion yen in the business year that ended March 31, down 5.1 percent from the previous year.
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

New Defense Role: Next step is to free up SDF

Staff writer

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes