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JAPAN
May 25, 1999

Lower House starts tackling administrative reform

The Lower House entered substantive debate Tuesday on two sets of bills designed to reorganize the central government and decentralize state powers, underlining the need to create a new government to meet the changing needs of society.
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

New Defense Role: Next step is to free up SDF

Staff writer
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

Some wary as pension plight casts 401(k) in rosy light

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
May 24, 1999

The world's second oldest profession

W ith a U.S. congressional committee poised to release a report on alleged Chinese spying at U.S. nuclear facilities, the political furor in Washington over the theft of U.S. military secrets is certain to escalate, and could cause serious political repercussions in the United States and in its foreign...
JAPAN
May 24, 1999

Sixteen top banks report 20 trillion yen in bad loans

Sixteen of the nation's top 17 banks had a total of 20.03 trillion yen in bad loans at the end of fiscal 1998, according to earnings reports released by Monday.
JAPAN
May 24, 1999

April trade surplus shrinks 12.6% but rises against U.S.

The nation's trade surplus in April fell 12.6 percent from the year before to 1.07 trillion yen, as the fall in exports exceeded that of imports, the Finance Ministry said Monday.
JAPAN
May 24, 1999

Obuchi calls defense bills 'truly significant'

Following Diet approval of bills to implement Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi took time to appease international unease.
JAPAN
May 21, 1999

New runway to come up short; soccer deadline eyed

Staff writer
COMMENTARY
May 20, 1999

Ever optimistic Mr. Blair

LONDON -- There seem to be two unstoppable trends on the current British scene -- the unending rise in the London stock market and the still rising popularity of Tony Blair, the prime minister.
JAPAN
May 20, 1999

Dollar hits 7 1/2-month high against yen

The dollar continued its upward climb against the yen Thursday with widening interest rate differentials between Japan and the United States working in its favor.
JAPAN
May 20, 1999

Cost-cutting leads Mazda to net profit

Thanks to cost-reduction efforts and improved performances in North America and Europe, Mazda Motor Corp. reported Thursday that it posted its first consolidated net profits in six years for the fiscal year to March 31.
LIFE / Style & Design / SIMPLY DIVINE
May 20, 1999

Hendrixesque

Forget playing air guitar, Konami has done it again. The company that had Travolta wannabees queuing up in video arcade centers to stomp on the Dance Dance Revolution platform has launched a new game for guitar freaks everywhere.
EDITORIALS
May 19, 1999

Now, a different Israel

Israel is a divided country. There are long-standing differences between Arabs and Jews, Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews, and Labor and Likud supporters -- the last a split that has roughly mirrored the divide between hawks and doves. In recent years, those divisions seem to have intensified. Worse, new...
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

FRC panel declares failed NCB stocks worthless

A committee of the Financial Reconstruction Commission said Monday it has evaluated the stocks of the failed Nippon Credit Bank as worthless.
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

Volunteers struck by refugees' fortitude

Staff writer
CULTURE / Books
May 18, 1999

Progress is fleeting in the fight for sexual equality

THE MOUNTAIN IS MOVING: Japanese Women's Lives, by Patricia Morley. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1999, 240 pp., $39.95 (cloth). The mountain is moving, according to Patricia Morley, but mountains are, by nature, difficult to budge, and this particular one is demonstrating a firm...
EDITORIALS
May 16, 1999

'Star Wars' in their eyes

The lines started forming outside theaters in Hollywood in early April. By last week they had sprouted all over America, despite the fact that with just a few days to go fans can now get advance tickets online or by phone. Tickets for what? What event could possibly be worth waiting in line for six weeks...
ENVIRONMENT
May 16, 1999

Korakuen: a cultivated present from Edo

Koishikawa Korakuen Garden is a well-seasoned piece of greenery. This nearly 370-year-old heirloom of vegetation is at the top of Tokyo's historical hierarchy of parks and gardens. Were it wine it would be vintage; were it a soldier, it would be battle-scarred and covered with war decorations.
CULTURE / Art
May 16, 1999

Doors of modest home open to lessons of the past

Slide open the door to a two-story wooden house in Tokyo's Ota Ward and enter into the life of an ordinary family in the mid-Showa Era, when people lived in homes with mostly tatami rooms, wooden furniture, traditional cooking tools and fetched their water from a well.
COMMENTARY
May 16, 1999

Does NATO really have justice on its side?

Tokyo is urging Beijing to accept U.S. explanations that the bombing of its Belgrade embassy was a genuine mistake. Maybe it was. But why automatically rule out the possibility it was a devious scheme by rogue hawks in the powerful U.S. military/intelligence machine to encourage China to veto any U.N.-backed...
EDITORIALS
May 15, 1999

More legal help for Japanese citizens

Critics have charged for years that government policies deliberately aimed at discouraging the public from resorting to the courts to resolve disputes have also worked to artificially limit the number of lawyers and judges in this country. Now, in a welcome if belated step aimed at increasing the number...
CULTURE / Art
May 15, 1999

Perfect fit of craft and design

Sashimono is a traditional Japanese joining technique for wooden cabinetmaking. It also refers to the furniture made with the technique, such as desks, wardrobes, dressers and chests.
JAPAN
May 14, 1999

Miyazawa wants economic bills in June

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa on Friday called for drawing up a comprehensive package of measures by mid-June to strengthen industrial competitiveness and tackle growing unemployment.
JAPAN
May 14, 1999

Honda posts record sales, profits for fiscal '98

Thanks to growing sales in the North American market, Honda Motor Co. set new record highs both in consolidated sales and profits in fiscal 1998, despite dwindling sales at home, Honda officials said Friday.
JAPAN
May 13, 1999

Bill could enlarge temp workforce, magnify woes

Staff writer
JAPAN
May 13, 1999

U.S. to urge elimination of farm tariffs at WTO

In the new round of global trade negotiations starting in 2000 under the auspices of the World Trade Organization, the United States will call for total elimination of agricultural tariffs and subsidies on farm products and exports, U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said Thursday.
JAPAN
May 13, 1999

Diet members pick June for Pyongyang mission

A suprapartisan Diet group headed by former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama will visit North Korea in the second week of June to seek a breakthrough in stalled normalization talks between the two nations, sources close to the group said Thursday.
EDITORIALS
May 12, 1999

A sudden reversal in Kosovo

Last week, it looked as if the West had the upper hand in the ongoing military and diplomatic campaigns against Yugoslavia. Meetings with Russian officials had yielded agreement on terms for an international peacekeeping force in Kosovo. Mr. Ibrahim Rugova, the moderate Albanian Kosovar leader, had been...
JAPAN
May 12, 1999

Is Japan ready for World Cup fans?

Staff writer
JAPAN
May 12, 1999

Quad ministers back China's WTO bid

Trade ministers from the European Union, Canada, Japan and the United States endorsed a statement Wednesday calling for China's accession to the World Trade Organization by November.

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’