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COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 1999

Australia's republic: If not now, when?

Australian Prime Minister John Howard recently had an "audience" -- as some Australian media described it -- with Queen Elizabeth II at the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting in Durban, South Africa. During the meeting, the prime minister of Australia personally informed the queen of the United...
JAPAN
Nov 18, 1999

Man faces life term for Sakai stabbings

OSAKA -- Prosecutors demanded life in prison Thursday for a 21-year-old man accused of fatally stabbing a girl and wounding two others on the street in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, in 1998.
JAPAN
Nov 16, 1999

Aceh referendum to come in seven months: Wahid

Visiting Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid said Tuesday that a referendum in the country's troubled Aceh Province may be held in seven months.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 1999

Photos urge students to study selves

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 11, 1999

Government unveils 18 trillion yen stimulus

The government unveiled an 18 trillion yen economic stimulus package Thursday that it hopes will put the economy on a full recovery track in the second half of fiscal 2000.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 1999

Tokyo to host secret emissions talks

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 9, 1999

Patients pushed to take control of their own health

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 8, 1999

Coalition's nursing care rift on the mend

Staff writer
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 1999

Prospects of a military coup in India

This is Part 2 of a two-part article. Part 1 appeared in yesterday's Opinion page.
EDITORIALS
Nov 5, 1999

Getting children out of the sex trade

Belatedly, but at long last, Japan has taken a tough stand against child prostitution and pornography. A new law banning the sexual abuse of minors came into effect on Monday. The "law for prohibition of child prostitution" makes it a criminal offense for anyone in Japan, and any Japanese traveling overseas,...
COMMENTARY
Nov 3, 1999

The CTBT is not dead yet

"All bets are off! You'll see a lot of testing . . . . You'll have Russia testing, you'll have China testing, you'll have India testing, you'll have Pakistan testing . . . and we will be in a much, much more dangerous world."
EDITORIALS
Nov 2, 1999

An unconvincing debut

The extraordinary Diet session that convened last Friday is the first parliamentary sitting since the tripartite coalition administration of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi was launched about a month ago. The public's main concern is with what Mr. Obuchi is trying to accomplish under the expanded coalition...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 2, 1999

And a drum shall lead them

THE ROUSING DRUM: Ritual Practice in a Japanese Community, by Scott Schnell. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, pp.364 with b/w photos xxvi and maps. $59.00 (cloth); $33.95 (paper). Interpretations of that folk festival, the "matsuri," vary. Kunio Yanagida, the founder of folklore studies in Japan,...
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

Hatoyama calls Obuchi government a 'moral hazard'

Calling the new coalition government of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi a "moral hazard" formed solely to reinforce political power, DPJ head Yukio Hatoyama on Tuesday demanded the early dissolution of the Lower House.
JAPAN
Oct 28, 1999

Extra Diet session to test new triumvirate

Staff writer
JAPAN
Oct 22, 1999

Tax Commission questions need for 401(k) breaks

The Tax Commission, an advisory panel to the prime minister, expressed caution on Friday about granting tax advantages under the planned new pension system.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 1999

Nishimura resigns over nuclear remarks

Shingo Nishimura resigned Wednesday as parliamentary vice minister of the Defense Agency amid an outcry over remarks calling on Japan to consider arming itself with nuclear weapons.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 19, 1999

Japan searches for status, finds only frustration

JAPAN'S QUEST FOR A PERMANENT SECURITY COUNCIL SEAT: A Matter of Pride or Justice?, by Reinhard Drifte. MacMillan Press, St. Antony's Series, 1999, 269 pp., 47.50 British pounds. From the day Japan surrendered to end World War II, its leaders have sought to rehabilitate the country and restore its prewar...
JAPAN
Oct 15, 1999

Aoki sees coalition gaining public support

Staff writer
JAPAN
Oct 15, 1999

Convenience stores in race for Y2K compliance

Staff writer
COMMENTARY
Oct 10, 1999

Munich and Pat Buchanan

For decades now, the mere mention of the word Munich has invoked an image of craven appeasement. In the name of preventing more "Munichs," the postwar Western world has seen fit to intervene in a variety of conflicts, from Indochina to Kosovo.
EDITORIALS
Oct 7, 1999

From a cakewalk to a campaign

It might be a race after all. The signs from the hustings are that the 2000 U.S. presidential nominations, once thought to have been sewn up by Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush (as Democrat and Republican, respectively), might not be guaranteed. Mr. Gore's position looks more precarious...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 1999

U.S. alliances under strain

The U.N.-authorized humanitarian intervention in East Timor might provide the model for ad hoc coalitions among democracies in East Asia -- based on the U.S. alliance structure, supported by Washington, but not requiring U.S. combat forces. Australia is leading the International Force for East Timor....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 7, 1999

Punk of a nation in mosh pit of controversy and 'silliness'

In the middle of August, Polydor Records announced it would not release a recently finished album by veteran rock singer Kiyoshiro Imawano because it contained a punk version of "Kimigayo," Japan's newly certified national anthem. Imawano called the decision "silly," an opinion that took on extra layers...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 1999

The world as policeman

LONDON -- U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has rightly drawn attention to the "need for timely intervention by the international community when death and suffering are being inflicted on large numbers of people, and when the state nominally in charge is unable or unwilling to stop it." He has pointed...
JAPAN
Sep 29, 1999

Teacher acquitted third time in 21-year murder trial

OSAKA -- For the third time in an unprecedented trial that has lasted more than 21 years, and a quarter-century after the alleged crime, a former nursery school teacher was acquitted Wednesday of murdering a 12-year-old boy in 1974.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 1999

Yugoslavian ambassador slams NATO

Yugoslav Ambassador Radoslav Bulajic said Friday that the 79-day NATO bombing campaign against his country was a serious crime against the civilian population, international law, peace and humanity.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 1999

More bumps ahead on road to new coalition

Following Tuesday's re-election of Keizo Obuchi as Liberal Democratic Party president, the secretaries general of three would-be political allies met for the first time Friday to launch full-scale talks toward forming a tripartite coalition.
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 1999

No mandate for Mr. Obuchi

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi has been re-elected president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party by warding off the challenge from former LDP Secretary General Koichi Kato and former LDP policy chief Taku Yamasaki. Many LDP Diet members have been quick to see his impressive victory as a vote of confidence...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 1999

Australia's belated epiphany

SYDNEY -- As an Australian-led multinational rescue mission landed at burned-out Dili on Monday, a shocked nation is asking: How could Indonesia have permitted such horror? And could we have done more to prevent this Asian holocaust?

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan