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COMMENTARY
Dec 10, 2000

Conservation and clean energy

LONDON -- The global-warming conference in the Netherlands last month ended without agreement. Some scientists are still debating how real global warming is and how serious its effects are likely to be. Others are still inclined to argue that climates evolve naturally with warm and cold periods alternating....
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2000

U.S. presidential elections should go global

LOS ANGELES -- Americans watching events play out in Florida since Nov. 7 may feel a surreal sense of powerlessness; their president is being chosen by a handful of Palm Beach residents, it seems. In short, Americans have now gotten a taste of the way the rest of the world feels with each presidential...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 10, 2000

Japanese players strike: believe it when you see it

A number of articles appeared in the press this past week, leading us to think there may be a players strike on the horizon in Japan pro baseball. To my thinking, however, a work stoppage by the players here is about as unlikely as a no-hitter being pitched on opening day or Yomiuri selling the Giants....
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2000

Osaka's Olympic slogan in English won't be winning any gold medals

OSAKA -- The English-language slogan that the city of Osaka will use to promote its 2008 Olympic bid is silly, meaningless and unnatural.
EDITORIALS
Dec 10, 2000

Blood in the music

What's in a tune? When it comes to national anthems, a very great deal, it seems. In the first place, people like one they can actually sing, and in the second place, they like one that stirs and rouses the emotions, making them feel briefly part of something larger than themselves.
COMMUNITY
Dec 10, 2000

Iron chef champ's book hailed best in the world

One of Katsuyo Kobayashi's strengths is that she is 100 percent reliable. With 140 books published to date, even the most inept cook can take home her latest compilation of recipes and come up trumps every time. Not only are they easy to make, good to eat and affordable, but joy of joys, some are now...
COMMENTARY
Dec 10, 2000

American democracy teeters on the brink

NEW YORK -- There's plenty of room for reasonable disagreement in this post-election netherworld. The Bushies are right that we need a president-elect and we needed one weeks ago; despite lackadaisical opinion polls and surprising public apathy, the legal maneuvering over recounts can't go on forever....
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2000

The Japanese language goes international

This is the ninth of a 10-part series on contemporary Japan.
EDITORIALS
Dec 9, 2000

Mr. Fox gets down to business

Mexico's new president, Mr. Vicente Fox, has wasted no time in getting down to business. During the campaign, he promised sweeping change. The Mexican people believed him, voting him into office in a historic election. In his inaugural address last week, Mr. Fox stuck to his theme of renewal. But the...
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2000

Yohei Kono or Ryutaro Hashimoto likely to succeed PM Yoshiro Mori

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono and former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto will emerge as the favorites to succeed Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori when the likelihood of his resignation increases come spring or summer, according to a veteran political analyst.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2000

Nonbinding tribunal can only sentence the nation to shame

Since three Korean women came out in 1991 and demanded government compensation for being forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers, many former "comfort women" have died in despair, receiving no compensation, never seeing their rapists brought to justice and having suffered the further humiliation...
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2000

Coalition group urges ODA paring

A study group set up by the ruling coalition agreed Friday on the need to reduce the amount of Japan's official development assistance to developing countries in the fiscal 2001 budget, members of the group said.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2000

Sogo executives ordered to pay 6 billion yen

The Tokyo District Court on Friday ordered ex-Sogo Co. Chairman Hiroo Mizushima and 16 other former executives to pay about 6 billion yen to the department store chain for mismanagement in a series of shady and allegedly illegal business deals.
CULTURE / Art
Dec 9, 2000

Bringing Russia and Japan together

Permit me a brief personal anecdote if you will: Some 20 years ago, a cold December night in Toronto found me inspired to chip, using my house keys, a few raisin-sized shards of concrete from the base of that city's newly-constructed CN Tower. Friends I mailed the little gray jewels to would later remark...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 9, 2000

Nishiki-e outshine Chinese prints

"The Birth of Nishiki-e," the current exhibition at the Ota Memorial Museum of Art, claims to be an attempt to explore Chinese influence on ukiyo-e, Japanese print art.
BUSINESS
Dec 9, 2000

Japan to demand slower rise in mandated imports of rice

Japan decided Friday to demand a slower pace of growth of mandated rice imports in order to protect Japanese rice farmers from cheap imports, government officials said.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Dec 9, 2000

The tiny treasures of Hikaru Shimamura

The great 20th-century Japanese potter Kanjiro Kawai (1890-1966) marveled at items that were small and most people overlooked: a stone, a leaf, a box of matches. He would toss them over and over again in his hands.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 9, 2000

Refuges are running out for Pinochet

LONDON -- The freedom to murder your fellow citizens with impunity used to be what made up for the long hours and all the paperwork. Some people simply wouldn't have taken the job of president without it, and Augusto Pinochet was one of them. If somebody had told the former Chilean dictator that he would...
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2000

Yen may no longer be king of the mountain

The yen's days as the world's strongest currency may be drawing to a close.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2000

Monju touts safety campaign in restart bid

TSURUGA, Fukui Pref. -- Five years after a sodium leak and fire shut down the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor here, the battle over whether it should be put back into operation still rages.
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2000

Bill to sell off JR railways on its way to the Diet

In a further step toward the full privatization of Japan's railways, the Transport Ministry will submit a bill to privatize East Japan Railway Co., West Japan Railway Co. and Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) during the next ordinary Diet session, which starts next month, ministry officials said Thursday....
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Dec 8, 2000

Widen scope of bilateral trade talks: Hiranuma

Japan and the United States should hold regular government/private-sector meetings as part of new comprehensive discussions on economic and trade issues, International Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma said.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 8, 2000

Furuta brings agent to table

All-star catcher Atsuya Furuta brought an agent to contract negotiations with the Yakult Swallows on Thursday, and even though he held off signing a new pact with the club, he said the talks went "smoothly."
EDITORIALS
Dec 8, 2000

Europe's growing pains

European Union leaders are finding that success comes with a price. They meet today in Nice, France, for a critical summit that will modernize the EU and prepare it for new members and new responsibilities. Despite complete agreement that decision-making procedures must be changed, there is no consensus...
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Dec 8, 2000

Hanayo's gift wrapped in seductive complexity

With her mix of artifice, artistic discipline and sexual promise, no traditional figure is more ambiguous than the geisha.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2000

International flights at Haneda OK'd for Narita's off-hours

The Chiba Prefectural Government has approved the use of Tokyo's Haneda airport for international chartered flights, telling transport authorities that it would allow such flights on condition they are operated during the hours Narita airport is closed, it was learned Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2000

Flood of goods from China an eye-opener for Indians

NEW DELHI -- China's invasion of India in 1962 was perhaps less of a humiliation for India than Beijing's latest attempt at capturing its market.

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