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JAPAN
Apr 16, 2001

Lee urges Japan to issue his visa

TAIPEI -- Former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui strongly urged Tokyo on Sunday to issue him a visa for a medical checkup in Japan, saying his heart condition is worsening.
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2001

Japan may help fund effort to save Afghan artifacts

The Japanese government is considering contributing funds to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's plan to preserve remaining valuable cultural assets in Afghanistan.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 15, 2001

Eyeballing a personal language coach

Upon first meeting my wife-to-be, my entire future flashed before me. Already I could foresee this girl as my life partner, the mother of my children and the person I would wrestle with for legroom in the kotatsu.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 15, 2001

Cracks in the great wall of China

CHINESE SOCIETY: Change, Conflict and Resistance, edited by Elizabeth J. Perry and Mark Selden. London, Routledge, 2000, 249 pp., $27.99. A single image dominates Western perceptions of the regime in China since the Tiananmen massacre of 1989: that of a government willing to crack down mercilessly...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Apr 15, 2001

Music of the gods on 20 koto strings

There is a wealth of contemporary compositions for the koto. Since the war, various Japanese composers have expanded the repertoire of this ancient string instrument and provided new contexts for its traditional sonorities while encouraging the development of new and experimental techniques.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 15, 2001

Yamato: Notes from the underground

Call it the B1 syndrome, if you will, or perhaps the bargain-basement phenomenon. But the sad truth is, you don't dine well at the bottom of a building.
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2001

Man charged with aiding Shigenobu

A longtime acquaintance of Japanese Red Army founder Fusako Shigenobu was indicted Friday on charges of harboring the terrorist in Japan in 1998 and later helping her to escape capture.
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2001

Steel giants NKK, Kawasaki to join

NKK Corp., Japan's second-largest steelmaker, and Kawasaki Steel Corp., No. 3 in the field, announced Friday that they have agreed to integrate their operations in October 2002 under a joint holding company.
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2001

Huge discrepancy in Obuchi assets

The late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi left behind some 600 million yen in taxable assets when he died in May at the age of 62, a Gunma Prefecture tax office said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 14, 2001

Korean impasse is U.S.' fault

SEOUL -- "Sooner or later, the North Koreans will return to the negotiating table," said South Korea's former Foreign Minister Lee Joung Binn in an interview on the eve of his resignation. At this moment, political realities on the Korean Peninsula don't seem to justify his optimism. As the government...
EDITORIALS
Apr 13, 2001

Diplomacy does the trick

The United States and China have resolved their crisis. Diplomats crafted a statement that allowed both sides to save face and permitted the 24 members of the U.S. spy plane to go home. The peaceful resolution of the standoff is a victory for diplomacy. Just as important, however, both governments now...
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2001

Whaling should not overshadow trade talks: Clark

While Wellington and Tokyo must agree to disagree over Japan's whaling program, the issue should not impede trade ties, visiting New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Thursday.
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2001

Tokyo families spend more on education in 2000

Despite the prolonged recession, Tokyo households spent more on their children's education during the 2000 academic year -- which ended last month -- than during the previous year, according to an annual survey by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government released Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 13, 2001

Spat over whaling unlikely to sour business

Helen Clark is not afraid to snap at the hand that helps feed her nation.
EDITORIALS
Apr 12, 2001

Forty years of flying and dreaming

Forty years ago today, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly in to space. It was a short trip: one 108-minute circumnavigation of Earth, but it changed human history. When humankind escaped the bounds of the earth's atmosphere, our views of the world and our place in it changed forever....
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2001

Issei's love of America tempered

A loyal American who cherishes Japanese values inherited from his issei parents, Henry Ikemoto's life bridges two cultures.
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2001

Pyongyang welcomes Japan NGO pushing redress

Kyodo News
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2001

Youths' public service mulled

Education Minister Nobutaka Machimura told an advisory panel Wednesday to come up with concrete recommendations on mandatory community service by elementary through high school students.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Apr 12, 2001

Environment takes back seat to U.S. economic recovery

U.S. President George W. Bush continued his personal campaign to change previous U.S. policy two weeks ago by renouncing the nation's commitment to limit industrial emissions of carbon dioxide. He did it shortly after Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christine Todd Whitman had given the...
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2001

Japan in diplomatic pickle over Lee's visa application

Japan claimed Wednesday that it has not received an application for an entry visa from former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 12, 2001

From ridiculous to sublime: the arguments of a fossil fool

Last month, the White House announced that U.S. President George W. Bush would not support the Kyoto Protocol because it "is not in the United States' economic best interests." The protocol is aimed at reducing human emissions of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, that contribute to global...
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2001

Over 70% want to try Web shopping: poll

More than 70 percent of consumers said they want to try online shopping, while 90 percent said they are concerned about the security of online systems, according to a survey by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
COMMENTARY
Apr 11, 2001

The hazards of reform -- British-style

LONDON -- Forget sagging stock markets and omens of world recession. Forget global warming and U.S. President George W. Bush's rejection of the Kyoto treaty on carbon emissions. Forget, even, the foot-and-mouth disease that is currently paralyzing Britain's farming and tourist industries and has caused...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 11, 2001

Retrospective traces life of nihonga master

Nearly 40 years ago, Junsaku Koizumi went into a self-imposed exile from nihonga painting circles as part of his endeavor to create a new world of nihonga. He decided to "learn from objects (of art) rather than from people."
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2001

ID system keeps alcohol vending machines handy

It means an additional search through your wallet before cracking open a cold beer from the liquor vending machines most of us take for granted. But rest assured, it's for a good cause.

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