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September 17, 2025
 

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JAPAN / FREEDOM OF PRESS IN THE BALANCE
Nov 28, 2000

Media 'self-discipline' lacking: politicians

It was like a kangaroo court when the House of Representatives Communications Committee in March 1999 grilled the president and chief news editor of Asahi National Broadcasting Network about the contents of a popular news show, said Taizo Fukudomea, who was on the committee.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2000

Shaky finances threaten to sink KEDO

Sinp'o is a quiet coastal town on the edge of the Japan Sea in North Korea, almost two hours by helicopter from the capital Pyongyang. There is a beautiful swath of unspoiled beach, edged with bushes and shrubs typical of marine margins, and clusters of shabby houses and farms littered across the landscape....
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2000

Asia debates the merit of political debates

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- I don't want to add to the endless debate over the chances of the two U.S. presidential contenders. Rather, I want to focus on the debates and some possible corollaries for Asia.
COMMENTARY
Nov 26, 2000

EU treaty anything but nice

LONDON -- A new treaty is being born in Europe, and it looks as though the birth will be a difficult one.
COMMENTARY
Nov 25, 2000

Can the system be salvaged?

LONDON -- Reading the accounts in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun and the Financial Times of the shenanigans inside and outside the Japanese House of Representatives over the no-confidence motion against the Mori government, I could not help laughing, but I also felt despair about the future of parliamentary...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2000

Kato made the wrong choice

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori survived a no-confidence motion against his Cabinet early Tuesday when the governing coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party voted down the motion in the Lower House. Mori's rivals -- former LDP Secretary General Koichi Kato and...
EDITORIALS
Nov 22, 2000

Mori survives, for the moment

The administration of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori managed to survive its greatest crisis Monday night when the governing parties barely voted down a no-confidence motion sponsored by the opposition parties. Tension was mounting toward a final showdown over the motion late Monday night because two LDP...
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2000

Kato's momentous rebellion leaves Mori in charge -- for the moment

The failure of Koichi Kato's revolt against Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori leaves the unpopular leader at the nation's helm -- at least for the moment.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 22, 2000

Japan needs to abandon the 'image game'

Domestic politics is not my specialty, but I am so disturbed by recent developments that I am prompted to write down some of my thoughts. First, newspaper comments and articles suggest that the opposition parties and the media have succeeded in establishing a public image of Yoshiro Mori as an incompetent...
EDITORIALS
Nov 20, 2000

Mr. Kato throws down the gauntlet

Infighting in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is intensifying. Former Secretary General Koichi Kato is demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, citing his low approval ratings. Tension is also building outside the LDP now that major opposition parties are set to present a no-confidence...
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...
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
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.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 12, 2000

Japan's not-so-silent media conspiracy

Some months ago I went up to Tohoku to give a public lecture sponsored by a television station. After the talk there was a delightful, informal dinner, during which I chatted with an old friend, a producer at the station.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 12, 2000

On taking the eightfold path to environmental awareness

Environmentalists are a hard breed to pin down, much less to classify. They come in all shapes and sizes, and some even reject the name.
CULTURE / Art
Nov 11, 2000

Love, oil and Bangkok traffic jams

If you've ever been caught in a Bangkok traffic jam, it's a fair bet that "beautiful" would not be a word you'd use to describe the scene. But asurvey of Takanobu Kobayashi's new paintings gives the impression that the 40-year-old painter loves the buses and big trucks and little tuk tuks that choke...
COMMENTARY
Nov 10, 2000

Mori's nine lives are almost used up

The coalition government of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is clearly in a delicate situation. Should he make another serious mistake, Mori will be forced to resign. I had some hopes for Mori as prime minister, since the late Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe, a friend of mine, had praised his political acumen....
JAPAN
Nov 9, 2000

Ministry calls for expanded health food labeling system

A subcommittee of an advisory panel to the Health and Welfare Ministry proposed Wednesday the creation of a new system for labeling health foods in a bid to provide correct information on such products amid a plethora of advertisements.
COMMUNITY
Nov 9, 2000

Smoke gets in your eyes

A scar on her arm reminds Kyoko Saito (not her real name) of an unpleasant experience she had a month ago. The Tokyo office worker was hurrying home one night after working three hours overtime, when she overtook three men chatting as they sauntered along the crowded sidewalk to the nearby station.
EDITORIALS
Nov 8, 2000

Reform is key to winning IT race

The world is gripped with IT fever. Despite linguistic differences, IT, shorthand for information technology, is a buzzword even here. It is believed to hold the key to the future development of the Japanese economy. That is why Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is leading the drive for an IT revolution. ...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 8, 2000

The outlook after 100 days

The June summit in Pyongyang kicked off a summer of symbolic and historic "firsts" on the Korean Peninsula, marked by the dramatic symbolism of inter-Korean reconciliation after more than five decades of stalemate. Sufficient time has now passed to evaluate what might be called the "honeymoon period"...
COMMUNITY
Nov 5, 2000

Missing piece of puzzle in story of 'Ms.'

It was the American futurologist Larry Taub who rang to ask whether I was interested in writing about Sheila Michaels. So began a three-way conversation by e-mail between Japan, New York and wherever Larry was landing to promote his latest book.
COMMENTARY
Nov 5, 2000

Mori administration reeling

The administration of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is in crisis, visibly weakened by the resignation of Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa over a drug-related extramarital affair.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Nov 2, 2000

Red Sox interested in bringing Ichiro to Fenway

With seven straight Pacific League batting titles and a lifetime average of .353 topping his resume, Orix BlueWave superstar Ichiro Suzuki is now preparing for life in the major leagues.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Nov 2, 2000

Kim's diplomatic slam dunk

Good news from North Korea. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright presented North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il with a basketball autographed by Michael Jordan; the dictator treated the diplomat to a spectacular theatrical performance. Rejoice: Peace in East Asia is at hand.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2000

The rising price of knowledge

BEIJING -- It should have been party time on the bright summer day 18-year-old Li Junliang was accepted by prestigious Beijing University. Fewer than one in 10 of China's students secure places at any of the country's crowded colleges and universities, let alone the Oxford University of China. But the...
EDITORIALS
Oct 31, 2000

A medical advance fails in its promise

Some desperately ill children in Japan are dying because the smaller organs they require for transplant surgery are unavailable here. When their families can afford it, children needing such operations must travel to the United States or other countries where the use of organs from brain-dead donors...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 31, 2000

Just the facts, ma'am

FACTS AND FIGURES OF JAPAN, 2000 edition. Tokyo: Foreign Press Center, 116 pp., 1,300 yen. SOCIAL SECURITY IN JAPAN, by Go Miyatake. Tokyo: Foreign Press Center, 80 pp., 1,800 yen (paper). CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE RELIGION, by Nobutaka Inoue. Tokyo: Foreign Press Center, 73 pp., 1,000 yen (paper). For people...
COMMENTARY
Oct 30, 2000

Zhu puts relations to rights

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji's visit to Tokyo this month marked a turning point in Sino-Japanese relations, which have been strained for the past two years as a result of disagreements over wartime history. In a Tokyo news conference Oct. 16, Zhu said the Japanese people, as well as the Chinese, were "victims...
Haneda Airport security staff arrested over theft
Tokyo police have arrested a 21-year-old security inspector at Haneda Airport after he allegedly stole cash from a passenger during a baggage inspection.
Japan's elderly population down at around 36.2 million
The estimated number of people age 65 or older in Japan stands at 36.19 million as of Monday, accounting for record 29.4% of the country's total population, according to the internal affairs ministry.
SDF spots China’s biggest aircraft carrier for first time
The Fujian aircraft carrier is seen in Shanghai in May 2024 as it leaves for its first sea trial.
White House threatens broad crackdown on liberal groups
FBI Director Kash Patel (right) listens to senior White House adviser Stephen Miller speak in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday.
Why more hotels in Japan are offering room-only service
Nipponia Hotel Ise Kawasaki Merchant Town in Ise, Mie Prefecture
Japanese athletes inspired by raucous home fans at World Athletics Championships
Fans cheer on the home favorites during the women's marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Sunday.
Pole vault rivals in awe after Duplantis has another historic night in Tokyo
Sweden's Armand Duplantis competes in the men's pole fault final during the World Athletics Championships at National Stadium in Tokyo on Monday.
Japan's major art events converge this fall
Shinji Ohmaki’s “Tokinokage” exhibited at Fuji Textile Week 2021 shows the use of fabric as art.
Tara Davis-Woodhall leaps to gold and finds redemption at world championships
Tara Davis-Woodhall celebrates after winning the women's long jump final at the World Athletics Championships at Tokyo's National Stadium on Sunday night.
An aesthetic escape to Hakone’s art-drenched hills
Between traditional examples of fine art and sleek, modern exhibitions that blend with nature, Hakone offers a unique escape from Tokyo's urban sprawl.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’
By Alex K.T. Martin

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