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JAPAN
May 31, 2000

Murayama gives eulogy for Obuchi in Diet

Former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama offered a eulogy Tuesday in the Diet for the late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, expressing his sorrow and regret over Obuchi's death earlier this month.
JAPAN
May 31, 2000

No payoff to U.S. for Okinawa, Kono says

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono on Tuesday denied a report that Japan secretly paid $200 million to the United States over the 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japanese rule, saying he has checked it directly with the official allegedly involved.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2000

Japan beats antidumping drum at APEC

Japan will join forces with other members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in its upcoming trade ministers' meeting to pressure the United States to help strengthen global regulations to prevent the abuse of antidumping measures, trade chief Takashi Fukaya said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2000

DoCoMo mulling stake in U.S. mobile carrier

NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's largest mobile phone group, is negotiating to take a 10 percent to 20 percent equity stake in VoiceStream Wireless Corp., a U.S. mobile phone carrier, for several hundred billion yen, sources familiar with the deal said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2000

Risking death with every step, every day

"We are full of love for you, but cannot take care of all." -- from a notice to Karen villagers that mines would be set on their land
COMMENTARY
May 31, 2000

Japan-Taiwan ties are not China's affair

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara attended the May 20 inaugural ceremony for Taiwan's new president, Chen Shui-bian. While in Taipei, Ishihara talked with Chen and his predecessor, Lee Teng-hui, about various issues between Japan and Taiwan. This was good for Japan-Taiwan relations.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 31, 2000

The Net impact of giving

Last week I looked at the power of bulk buying that is being unleashed on Web sites such as Mercata and Mobshop. I genuinely like the concept, particularly because I like new models of e-commerce that push the Web's potential. If the aggregated consumer trend takes off like eBay, the wired consumer might...
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2000

When political expression leads to jail

Bo Kyi speaks English in a soft voice. He learned it the hard way, unable to see his teacher. They were political prisoners in adjoining cells in Myanmar's Thayawaddy Prison . His teacher whispered to him while the guards were away. Then Bo Kyi used a piece of brick to write out new words on his cell...
JAPAN
May 30, 2000

Spoiled kids reared on expectations, not values

Young people today are taught to expect things but are not taught their value or how to secure them, and adults are at fault for overprotecting and spoiling their offspring, according to psychiatrist Shizuo Machizawa.
EDITORIALS
May 30, 2000

Trouble in paradise

Fiji is tiny cluster of islands about 3,600 km east of Australia. With a population of fewer than a million people scattered across some 300 islands, it is sometimes considered the South Pacific ideal, offering secluded beaches, crystal-clear waters and a relaxed lifestyle that beckons to visitors from...
JAPAN
May 30, 2000

State denies Okinawa deals with U.S. ever took place

The government on Monday denied a report by a major Japanese daily that Japan paid about $200 million to the United States in clandestine deals over the May 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japanese rule.
JAPAN
May 30, 2000

Foot cult founder, seven senior members indicted

Prosecutors on Monday indicted Hogen Fukunaga, founder and former leader of the Honohana Sanpogyo cult, and seven of its senior members on charges of fraud.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 30, 2000

Kyoto, Basho, a mouse and you

KYOTO GARDENS: A Virtual Stroll through Zen Landscapes. CD-ROM (Apple Macintosh). Yorba Linda, Calif.: Lunaflora. Distributed by Mercury Software Japan. 4,000 yen. You stride your mouse and gallop off on a tour of two dozen of Kyoto's most famous gardens. If, that is, you have slipped this CD-ROM into...
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2000

Whose Constitution is it?

At a recent meeting of the Diet's Constitutional Review Council, Americans who participated in the drafting of the Japanese Constitution 54 years ago during the Occupation gave testimony. Their statements provided valuable clues to an understanding of the circum- stances that led up to the establishment...
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2000

A brief reprieve for the nuclear club

NEW DELHI -- The five original nuclear powers have won a much-needed reprieve at the first review of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty since its indefinite extension five years ago. That reprieve, however, could serve as the lull before the storm.
COMMENTARY
May 29, 2000

Mori does Japan no favors

LONDON -- When I read the brief report in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun about Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's remarks at the meeting of the Shinto Association of Diet Members, I was surprised not to see any reports of reactions to his reported statement. I wondered whether he had been correctly quoted and whether...
JAPAN
May 28, 2000

Miyazawa prayed at Yasukuni

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa broke the taboo of worshipping at Yasukuni Shrine, which is dedicated to Japan's war dead, in 1992 or 1993 when he was prime minister, sources close to family members of the war dead told Kyodo News on Saturday.
JAPAN
May 28, 2000

North Korea on agenda for Mori's talks in Seoul

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's scheduled meeting Monday in Seoul with South Korean President Kim Dae Jung comes at a crucial point in Japan's efforts to advance normalization negotiations with North Korea.
CULTURE / Art
May 28, 2000

Reinventing the art of exhibition making

Harald Szeemann's recent visit to Japan, at the invitation of the Benesse House on Naoshima Island and Kanazawa City's museum construction office, was a rare chance to hear the freelance curator's views on exhibition creation.
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2000

The U.N.'s impossible task

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone has drawn criticism from many commentators. While much of this may be justified, there is a danger of missing the forest for the trees. The specifics of what went wrong and what could have been done better and how are important. However, the more critical...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
May 28, 2000

Gaj Singh

JODHPUR, India -- Mehrangarh Fort dominates the skyline of this walled, gated, desert city in Rajasthan, India. Five hundred years ago a hermit chose this imposing site for the fort, which commands the wide stretch of land below. Huge spikes were erected on massive barrier gates to counter the charges...
COMMENTARY
May 28, 2000

U.S. bogged down in Kosovo quagmire

The Clinton administration has ensnared the United States in the irrelevant turmoil of the Balkans. After NATO's nearly yearlong occupation of Kosovo, the General Accounting Office in Washington warns that "many difficult political, social and other issues remain unresolved" in the "volatile" territory....
EDITORIALS
May 28, 2000

Say it with buses

Some Tokyo residents have been grumbling or sneering (or both) in the past few weeks about the latest head-turning novelty on the capital's streets: those giant moving billboards that used to be just plain old green-and-cream buses.
JAPAN
May 27, 2000

Visitors to Japan reach record 4.4 million

The number of visitors to Japan hit a record high of 4.44 million in 1999, up 8 percent from the pervious year, mainly due to the economic recovery in Asia following the 1997 financial crisis, according to a government tourism report released Friday.
JAPAN
May 27, 2000

Mori sorry but stands by quote

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori apologized once more Friday for having caused a misunderstanding with his remark that Japan is "a divine nation centering on the Emperor," but he refused to withdraw it. "I deeply reflect upon and apologize that my comment has caused misunderstanding among many people," Mori...

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight