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JAPAN
May 4, 2000

Should Constitution lead or follow?

Wednesday marked the first time Constitution Day -- commemorating the day the document was put into effect in 1947 -- coincided with lawmakers locking horns over whether to change the sacred charter.
JAPAN
May 4, 2000

Location of leader's summit hinges on the whim of nature

OSAKA — It's billed as the Kyushu-Okinawa Summit, but if Mother Nature turns capricious, then this year's Group of Eight gathering may be forced to a different venue.
COMMENTARY / World
May 4, 2000

Global economy faces a structural crisis

The Nasdaq has fallen 34 percent since March, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is following suit. The decline might be only a technical correction, but the world economy may be hit because the inflow of capital into the United States may decline and restrict that country's ability to import goods...
BUSINESS
May 4, 2000

More enroll for Harley training than expected

Japan's first training course on maintaining Harley-Davidson motorcycles is proving a hit, with more people enrolling than expected, officials at a car mechanic school in Sendai said Wednesday.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 4, 2000

Enough to drive a person to distraction

Is he staying or is he going? This is the question being asked ad nauseam about Japan's national soccer coach Philippe Troussier.
EDITORIALS
May 3, 2000

Doing battle over Article 9

More than two months have passed since the Diet began debating the Constitution for the first time. It is too early to predict how the debate at the Constitutional Review Council will develop, but conservative hardliners both in and outside the ruling coalition are already talking up the need to rewrite...
JAPAN
May 3, 2000

Hold Jakarta to Timor vows, Tokyo told

Japan should pressure Indonesia to disarm militia groups still operating in West Timor and closely monitor Jakarta's investigation into human rights violations committed in East Timor, an East Timorese nongovernmental organization worker said in a recent public meeting in Tokyo.
JAPAN
May 3, 2000

Constitution writer backs limited role for SDF

A former officer of the GHQ of the Allied Forces who helped draft Japan's postwar Constitution suggested Tuesday that the nation's possession of armed forces and their roles be clearly written down in the supreme law.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 3, 2000

Eyes front

It's that time again. Time to talk about time. I'll try to be brief, since there is so little time for a chat. Or for much anything else.
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
May 2, 2000

Stop this madness!

I'm currently reading Ichiro Ozawa's "Blueprint for a New Japan," his manifesto for giving the government and politicians of this country the kick up the backside they badly need.
JAPAN
May 2, 2000

Labor chief a no-show at May Day fete

An estimated 1.7 million people took part in May Day rallies at some 1,070 locations nationwide Monday, calling on the government to alleviate the worsening employment situation and protect workers' rights, but the labor minister was conspicuously absent from the festivities.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 2, 2000

Everything about Tanizaki

TANIZAKI IN WESTERN LANGUAGES: A Bibliography of Translations and Studies, by Adriana Boscaro, with a list of films based on Tanizaki's works compiled by Maria Roberta Novielli. Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 2000, 82 pp., $19.95. This fine bibliography is one...
BUSINESS
May 2, 2000

Norinchukin plotting 401(k) course

If farmers want to join Japan's equivalent of U.S. 401(k) pension plans, there is no reason why agricultural cooperatives should not provide related services.
BUSINESS
May 2, 2000

New products on the market

Toyota Motor Corp. has unveiled a fuel-efficient, full-size luxury sedan that features a spacious interior and luggage area.
JAPAN
May 1, 2000

Subway crash puzzles experts

Experts trying to find the cause of a fatal train crash near Tokyo's Nakameguro Station have succeeded in making a train wheel lift off the tracks at the spot where the accident happened, but they have yet to pin down the actual reason for the derailment that caused the crash, Transport Ministry officials...
EDITORIALS
Apr 30, 2000

'Forces of history' march on

Twenty-five years ago, Communist troops overran Saigon to end the Vietnam War. Photos of U.S. helicopters ferrying citizens and dependents from the roof of the U.S. Embassy in that city provided a last searing image of the conflict. In the quarter of a century that has passed, the two countries have...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 30, 2000

Subverting reality with waste

Sporting longish brown curly hair and a skittish glance, American Tom Sachs bounded into Tokyo for his first Tokyo exhibition at Tomio Koyama Gallery, bringing with him a refreshing whiff of New York art culture.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2000

A literary love affair: Graham Greene's brief encounter with Shusaku Endo

LONDON -- For oddly different reasons the names of two not so long dead Catholic novelists from East and West are prominently, simultaneously, in the news. Because of two books dealing with his sexuality and the release of a quirky film based on "The End of the Affair," the ambivalent nature of Graham...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 30, 2000

Colin McCulloch

"Those of us in New Zealand interested in live theater used to rely on shows put on by companies coming on tour from London. Over the last 30 years, all that has changed. Provincial professional theater groups grew up overnight. New Zealand now has its own flourishing theater," said Colin McCulloch....
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2000

The kiwi and the kangaroo

The difference between power and influence has been a topic of debate for decades. Last year, Australia led an international peace-enforcement mission to East Timor and demonstrated a considerable military clout in the region. By any objective criterion, it is far more formidable a power than New Zealand....
EDITORIALS
Apr 29, 2000

Standing up to Russia

Russia would like the world to look away while it flattens what is left of the Republic of Chechnya and does what it will to the Chechen people. In an unexpected display, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights has shown itself unwilling to oblige. Earlier this week, member nations voted 25 to...
COMMENTARY
Apr 29, 2000

Ever misunderstanding China

The parade of retrospectives marking the 25th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War tells us a lot about how that war was waged and lost. But missing, as ever, is the why of it all -- the psychology of the people who created the war.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Apr 27, 2000

The Curse of Colonel Sanders

Back in 1985, Hanshin fans were giddy with joy when their Tigers secured the Central League pennant and then went on to capture the Japan Series. The standard canal-jumping scene took a new twist when a plastic Colonel Sanders mannequin was tossed into the Dotonbori Canal in downtown Osaka.

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