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JAPAN
Nov 19, 2000

Students put at risk due to PCB-laden lights

Despite years of warnings and growing criticism, potentially hazardous fluorescent lighting units in the classroom are likely to hang above students' heads for a while to come.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2000

Station caters to educational elite

Located on the northeastern end of the Ueno plateau, JR Nishi-Nippori Station is the newest among the 29 stations along the JR Yamanote loop.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2000

Red Army terrorist visited Japan freely

Fusako Shigenobu, the arrested leader of the Japanese Red Army, has traveled to and from Japan eight times over the past three years using a false passport, investigative sources said Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Nov 19, 2000

The real danger to democracy

Schadenfreude: a feeling of glee at someone else's misfortune. That sums up a considerable portion of international sentiment as the world watches the tortured proceedings of the U.S. election. Nearly two weeks after the vote to select the president of the United States -- the most powerful man in the...
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2000

JCP won't back Kato as prime minister

The Japanese Communist Party would not support Koichi Kato as the nation's leader even if the heavyweight LDP member, who is trying to topple the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, revolts from the Liberal Democratic Party, according to JCP leader Tetsuzo Fuwa.
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Nov 19, 2000

Poetry readings in Okinawa

In Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture Oct. 15, Shuntaro Tanikawa read such scatological, contemporary poems as "Onara (Fart)" and "Unko (Crap)" from his collection "Hadaka" (the English edition, "Naked," is jointly published by Stone Bridge Press and Saru Press).
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2000

Red Army leader anticipated her capture

Fusako Shigenobu, the founder of the Japanese Red Army guerrilla group who was arrested Nov. 9, told a court Thursday that she expected to be arrested after returning to Japan but had hoped to remain free until spring.
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2000

Lawmaker's ex-aide arrested over loan scam

Prosecutors on Thursday arrested a former secretary of House of Representatives member Koichi Yoshida for allegedly receiving illegal commissions from a loan broker in return for securing debt guarantees from a public corporation, investigative sources said.
EDITORIALS
Nov 16, 2000

The Middle East loses a lioness

The Middle East has lost a passionate advocate of peace. Ms. Leah Rabin, the widow of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, died of cancer this week at the age of 72. For some, Ms. Rabin was a meddlesome, divisive figure. For many more, she was a tireless campaigner for peace and friendship...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 16, 2000

Social guilt: putting the blame on Mom

Though the media agrees with the government that Japan's flagging birthrate is a bad thing, they seem determined to make potential parents dread the prospect of raising kids in a world where every wrong choice, major or minor, could turn their offspring into criminals, deviants, or just plain miserable...
LIFE / Travel
Nov 15, 2000

The yellow (or white or blue) treasure of Kaliningrad

Monopoly is not a word you would naturally associate with Kaliningrad. Yet the tiny Russian enclave possesses a remarkable -- and entirely natural -- one: amber. Ninety percent of the world's commercial amber comes from just one site, the open-pit amber quarry at Yantarny on Kaliningrad's Baltic coast....
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Nov 15, 2000

A democratic farce

www.infoplease.com/spot/closerace1.html Infoplease goes all the way back to the 1876 election to explain what happened the last time the U.S. Constitution overruled U.S. voters. As in last week's presidential race, the voters elected the Democratic candidate only to see their government overturn their...
CULTURE / Art
Nov 15, 2000

Taking inspiration where you find it

TOKUSHIMA -- Californian furniture maker Cynthia Kingsbury works in a 100-year-old timber storage building at the foot of a lushly forested mountain in Tokushima Prefecture. Dried sticks are piled like kindling beneath her worktable. Her dog Tingi, a black Labrador-Doberman mix, is sprawled across a...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 15, 2000

New-look forum heralds peace in paradise

SYDNEY -- Nobody, least of all any of the troubled South Pacific nations, is calling last month's Pacific Islands Forum in the island country of Kiribati a decisive victory. Yet all 16 nations that attended the historic summit see the Biketawa Declaration as the best framework yet for ensuring stability...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Nov 15, 2000

Whassup on the Web

It hasn't made it into Webster's Dictionary yet, but you already know this word. In fact, it's already in your head. It's that jingle, that logo, that look, that idea. It's called a meme, and there's a whole branch of social science devoted to it. Richard Dawkins, the man who coined the word in his book,...
EDITORIALS
Nov 14, 2000

JRA arrest seals the end of an era

Last week's arrest of the top leader of the Japanese Red Army marked the virtual end of decades of terrorism by Japanese leftist extremists. Ms. Fusako Shigenobu, who had been on the international wanted list for a series of terrorist acts, is charged with, among other things, masterminding the occupation...
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2000

10 Japanese may have died on train

Ten Japanese skiers were on the funicular train that caught fire Saturday in an alpine tunnel in central Austria and are believed among the scores who were killed, the Tokyo travel agency that organized the tour said Monday.
JAPAN / COP6 AGENDA
Nov 14, 2000

Negotiators face a tough time at climate talks

Beneath the blanket of obscure terms used to determine what countries will do to curb global warming lurk a few key concepts. How they are interpreted by negotiators at ongoing climate change talks in Holland will drastically alter climate change measures and the future world environment.
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2000

Honohana must foot 100 million yen in damages

OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court on Monday ordered the Honohana Sampogyo foot-reading cult and its founder to pay some 100 million yen in damages to 16 people, mainly in the Kinki region, whom the cult allegedly bilked out of millions of yen.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 14, 2000

Dub mix-meister Sherwood back on a musical roll

Thanks and praise for some of the most challenging and innovative dub music of the '80s and '90s should go to Adrian Sherwood. From his label, On-U Sound, spring the likes of Tackhead, African Head Charge, Bim Sherman and a host of other dub renegades.
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2000

Technical errors lead to new brain death rules

The Health and Welfare Ministry has decided to draw up a new manual for conducting brain wave tests used to determine brain death in potential organ donors, in response to three technical errors in the tests since the Organ Transplant Law came into effect in 1997, ministry sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2000

Kato stands by call for Mori to step down

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party was plunged into further turmoil Saturday, only one day after party heavyweight Koichi Kato intensified the pressure on embattled Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori by saying he has no plans to defend Mori in the event of a no-confidence motion.
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2000

Liberals aiming to promote debate over Constitution

The opposition Liberal Party has decided to specify its basic views on Japan's Constitution by the end of the year as a step toward proposing a new Constitution for the country, party sources said Saturday.

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