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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.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

Graduates face difficulty in finding jobs

A government survey released Friday shows that 63.7 percent of university students graduating in spring and seeking employment have found jobs, while 42.5 percent of prospective high school graduates seeking jobs have secured employment.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

Kato turns up heat on embattled Mori

The fate of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's administration looked questionable Friday as his party rival Koichi Kato implied he might not support the Cabinet against a no-confidence motion being threatened by opposition parties.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Nov 11, 2000

Bringing a new shine to old Kutani

When I first looked at the work of Yasokichi Tokuda III (b. 1933) I had to put on a pair of sunglasses -- I was almost blinded by the intensity of his kaleidoscopic Kutani porcelain.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

Yamamoto admits to bilking state

Former House of Representatives member Joji Yamamoto pleaded guilty Friday to defrauding the state of more than 25 million yen when he pocketed the state-paid salary of a woman fictitiously registered as his policy secretary.
EDITORIALS
Nov 10, 2000

Down to the wire and beyond

We knew that the U.S. election was going to be close, but no one could have dreamed up the drama that has unfolded in the last 36 hours. The American public is as neatly divided as is possible: With over 96 million people going to the polls, the two candidates are separated by less than 1 percent of...

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