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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...
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2000

Net becoming venue for political participation

In the United States, the Internet has become a key communication source in the political equation, as evidenced by President Bill Clinton's televised e-mail "net conference" in August.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2000

Mori fights criticism during Diet debate

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori was forced to fight back Wednesday as opposition leaders urged him to resign during a terse Diet debate that centered on the latest in a growing string of gaffes.
COMMENTARY
Oct 25, 2000

When leaders fail to lead

LONDON -- Countries and peoples that make peace after years or even generations of enmity require very strong leaders. Just as it needed a Charles de Gaulle to tell the French to stop fighting the Algerians, a Konrad Adenauer to tell the Germans to love the French, a Harry Truman or a Douglas MacArthur...
COMMENTARY
Oct 23, 2000

LDP is up to its old tricks

The current 150th Diet session is in unprecedented chaos over an electoral reform bill to revise the Upper House voting system. The bill would change the roster system for candidates nominated in the proportional-representation segment of the Upper House polls. Currently, parties predetermine the ranks...
CULTURE / Music
Oct 22, 2000

The unfamiliar from the familiar, and vice versa

Two ensembles appearing in Japan recently served as intriguing examples of a judicious mix of the familiar and the unfamiliar.
EDITORIALS
Oct 21, 2000

Reform starts with big business

Two of Japan's four largest business organizations, Keidanren (Federation of Economic Organizations) and Nikkeiren (Federation of Employers Associations), have decided to merge by May 2002. A task force will be working out details by the end of the year, including the proposed name and articles of association...
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2000

Shirakawa urges firsthand science classes

Nobel laureate Hideki Shirakawa suggested Friday that elementary school children in Japan more firsthand experience in their science education.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2000

Peace far away under fragile coalition

NEW DELHI -- Peace seems to be eluding Sri Lanka. The latest parliamentary elections there has caused disquiet and confusion after the electorate failed to give a clear mandate to either Chandrika Kumaratunga's People's Alliance (PA) or Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP).
EDITORIALS
Oct 18, 2000

The case of Bessie's gaur

Cloning is in the news again, as it has been regularly since the birth of Dolly the cloned sheep in Scotland in 1996. The last four years have seen a flurry of Dollies -- more sheep, cattle, pigs and mice -- and numerous bulletins on their progress, which has mostly proved surprisingly normal. In the...
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2000

Newspapers seek exemption from privacy law

Newspaper publishers told the government on Monday that they should be made exempt from pending privacy legislation because its principles may discourage people from talking to the media.
COMMENTARY
Oct 16, 2000

Reorganization isn't reform

Japan's central bureaucracy will be reorganized, effective Jan. 6, to mark the start of a new administrative system. The reform will have significant influence on local governments and the public, too. It is part of efforts to restructure Japanese society, which has been bound by webs of restrictions...
EDITORIALS
Oct 15, 2000

Turning the clock back

The Middle East continues its descent into violence. The immediate task is ending the bloodshed that has occurred throughout Palestinian territory and restoring order. The question hovering over the carnage is whether the peace process can be resurrected. Nearly 100 people have been killed in a little...
EDITORIALS
Oct 13, 2000

Mr. Mori's misplaced priorities

Six months after an uncertain start, the administration of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is enjoying a period of stability, or so it seems. In contrast, immediately after the Liberal Democratic Party's defeat in June's Lower House election, the governing party was gripped by a feeling that it would not...
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2000

1.39 million petition for court reform

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations submitted petitions to the government Wednesday signed by some 1.39 million people, calling for reform of the country's judicial system to reflect public opinion.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 12, 2000

In Labor's moment of crisis, Blair delivers

The recent Labor Party conference in Brighton saw Prime Minister Tony Blair in an unprecedented position. Set against a backdrop of enormous public discontent, evident in the response to the fuel strike by the major oil companies, the Labor Party staged its centenary conference. The phony peace that...
COMMENTARY
Oct 9, 2000

The crystal balls grow opaque

All kinds of "self-confident" experts make predictions in the mass media about the economy and politics. In Japan, such experts are rarely held accountable if they err in their predictions. In the late 1980s, when the bubble economy peaked, Japanese experts expressed the following opinions that later...
EDITORIALS
Oct 7, 2000

The U.S. gets a real choice

There are complaints aplenty about U.S. politics, but the first debate between this year's presidential candidates was a reminder of what is right with the system. Rarely do voters anywhere have the opportunity to see their candidates square off and discuss issues in an intelligent and direct manner....
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2000

Taiwan shift away from reactors may deal blow to Japanese firms

Taiwan's Economics Ministry has taken a step toward loosening the island's reliance on nuclear power in a move that could be a major blow to Japanese firms in the atomic power industry.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2000

Why the Arabs are rallying to Baghdad

DUBAI -- International civilian flights into Baghdad are turning into a stampede as one Arab country after another announces, or carries out, its intention of joining France and Russia in breaking the 10-year aerial blockade. This may not breach the essence of U.N. sanctions -- the restrictions on trade...
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2000

Mori plans more letters pitching UNSC seat bid

In yet another effort to promote Japan's quest for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will write most of the U.N. member nations as early as next week to reiterate calls for UNSC reforms, government sources said.
COMMENTARY
Oct 2, 2000

Japan's ills threaten the world

Japan's Naoko Takahashi won the gold medal in the women's marathon in the Sydney Olympics Sept. 24. In winning the tough race on a difficult, up-and-down course, she established an Olympic record and became the first Japanese woman to win an Olympic marathon gold medal. She also gave Japan its first...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2000

Time to reassess the nuclear-energy option

Safety and cost competitiveness: These two factors are clearly incompatible when it comes to nuclear energy. Yet these were some of the key words used by the government and the nuclear industry to promote nuclear energy.
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2000

Police promises are not enough

A feature of the National Police Agency's new white paper for 2000 is its recognition of the need to repair the tarnished image of Japan's scandal-tainted police forces. In a preface titled "Aiming to Regain the Nation's Trust," the document for the first time ever in a report of this kind tackles the...
EDITORIALS
Sep 26, 2000

More facts, less politics, on education

At first glance, the interim report from the National Commission on Educational Reform, an advisory panel of the prime minister, appears cautious about revising the 1947 Fundamental Law on Education. In marked contrast to an earlier subcommittee report that explicitly supported a revision, the panel's...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years