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JAPAN
Apr 4, 2001

Sub's surprise port call due to U.S. Navy error

The arrival Monday of a U.S. submarine in Sasebo port, Nagasaki Prefecture, without advance notification was due to a misunderstanding by the U.S. Navy in Japan over where the sub was anchored, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Apr 4, 2001

And the Gold Disc goes to... well, what did you expect?

Show-biz awards ceremonies -- who needs 'em? They're formulaic, plastic, inane, banal, maudlin, crass . . . There's no end to the pejoratives one can use to describe them.
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2001

Disputed history text approved

After scores of revisions, the Education Ministry on Tuesday authorized a junior high school history textbook that has been roundly criticized by Asian countries charging that it glossed over Japan's wartime history.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 4, 2001

While my guitar gently weeps, the video rolls

Few pop-culture icons are as enduring as the electric guitar. Maybe that's why artists so love to destroy the things. Foremost in the pantheon of ax-smashers is Jimi Hendrix, who, after performing a screaming feedback version of the "Star Spangled Banner" at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, set his lighter...
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2001

JMA to boost malpractice insurance

The Japan Medical Association will establish a system to insure doctors against medical accidents to help them cope with soaring amounts of compensation being demanded in malpractice suits.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2001

Burying the Dover dead

As Dutch and British courts try suspects for the manslaughter of 58 illegal Chinese immigrants last June, Calum MacLeod meets the families chasing snakehead shadows. FUJIAN, China -- Winter days are quiet for the people of Lianfeng, a small village on a finger of land poking into the East China Sea....
Events
Apr 3, 2001

Locals hope for USJ windfall

OSAKA -- The local community here hopes the Saturday opening of Universal Studios Japan in Konohana Ward will boost the ailing local economy, which has an unemployment rate above the national average. But some local vendors are not very optimistic.
COMMENTARY
Apr 3, 2001

Slaves to enduring myths of the Civil War

America's Civil War is still being fought. Mississippi voters will be going to the polls in April to decide the fate of their state flag. Virginia Gov. James Gilmore recently scrapped his state's annual proclamation honoring Confederate History Month. After an emotional debate, the Georgia legislature...
Events
Apr 3, 2001

Nursery provides multilingual learning

KOBE -- For 20-month-old Andrei Hirata, the nursery school was hell.
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2001

Police bust motorcycle theft ring

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of stealing motorcycles to export them to South Korea, police said Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2001

Homegrown IT plans are best

The government has unveiled the "e-Japan" strategy that it hopes will turn Japan into the most advanced information-technology-based nation in five years. Most mass media and IT experts are critical of the strategy. They say it lacks vision and workable plans, is late and is designed to benefit only...
BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2001

Nissan to ride Suzuki into minicar market

Nissan Motor Co. announced Monday it will enter the minivehicle market by procuring products from minicar maker Suzuki Motor Corp. and marketing the cars under the Nissan brand.
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2001

Former acting prime minister cleared

Prosecutors have decided not to indict former Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki for allegedly illicitly appointing himself acting prime minister after Keizo Obuchi suffered a stroke last year.
EDITORIALS
Apr 3, 2001

Silence isn't golden in the Middle East

Violence in the Mideast is intensifying, and no one seems ready or able to do anything to stop it. As the death toll mounts, both sides in the Israel-Palestinian conflict are hardening their positions. The U.S. now appears less inclined to intervene. It will take considerably more than rhetoric to end...
SOCCER / World cup
Apr 3, 2001

FIFA satisfied with Japan venues

FIFA vice president and inspection committee chief Antonio Matarrese on Monday gave good marks to Japanese venues for the 2002 World Cup after visiting six of the 10 venues in a five-day inspection tour.
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2001

Mori, LDP's No. 2 to discuss presidential election

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will meet the No. 2 man of the Liberal Democratic Party on Wednesday to decide the timing and formula of the party's presidential election.
EDITORIALS
Apr 2, 2001

Allies need to clear the air

It is one thing -- but no less a bad thing -- for U.S. President George W. Bush to turn his back on pledges to protect the environment that he made during last year's campaign. It is quite another for him to do so in a manner that upsets U.S. allies and undermines his credibility. His abrupt decision...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2001

India wages an uphill battle against AIDS

NEW YORK -- India's population of 1 billion, greater than Africa, Australia and Latin America combined, is undergoing the threat of the unrelenting advance of HIV/AIDS. The infection is affecting all ages and social classes, and does not show any signs of abating. As things stand now, it is necessary...
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2001

Cheap long-distance calls launched

Fusion Communications Corp. on Sunday launched its Internet-based domestic long-distance telephone service that charges users a uniform rate of 20 yen per three minutes for calls made to anywhere in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2001

Hope: Afghanistan's scarcest resource

JALLOZAI, Pakistan -- With the release last week of photos confirming the destruction of the giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan, Afghanistan's Taliban leaders lost their last remote hope for a reconciliation with the world over the act.
COMMENTARY
Apr 2, 2001

Close the book on censorship

Since the end of World War II, the censorship of history textbooks in Japan has raised political and diplomatic issues. Recently, a social-studies textbook edited by a nationalist group again stirred controversy, offending the Chinese and South Koreans.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2001

Shattering the myth of a leaderless Japan

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's term in office is just about finished. He has had his summits, the budget has been passed, and he has completed one year in office. Gaffes notwithstanding, Mori can now step down with a clear conscience and some tangible accomplishments. Attention now focuses on picking...
COMMENTARY
Apr 2, 2001

Japan's economic 'kuroko'

For more than a decade, Japan's financial authorities have been trying to treat the growing mountain of bad loans at Japan's banks as a "kuroko" of the Japan economy.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 1, 2001

A month of the early years of Chinese cinema

The National Film Center in Tokyo will this week launch a monthlong series of screenings exploring the early years of Chinese cinema.
COMMENTARY
Apr 1, 2001

Banks offer no miracle cures

LONDON -- This is a tale of two banks, combined with a large dose of blind faith and credulity.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2001

A time of hopeful change in the Philippines

MANILA -- Political life is always exciting in this fascinating country of over 7,000 islands, be it in periods of great upheavals, as with the two famous "EDSA" popular movements or during subsequent periods of transition in search of calm and stability, as at the present moment.

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