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JAPAN
Nov 2, 2000

Medical professor held for taking recruiting bribes

OSAKA -- A 65-year-old professor emeritus of Nara Medical University was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of receiving bribes from a private hospital director in exchange for helping the hospital recruit young doctors, investigative sources said.
EDITORIALS
Nov 2, 2000

When the people rise up

It has been an extraordinary year for people power. Mass protests have overturned governments round the world, checked blatant abuses of power and offered hope that the 21st century may prove to be an era of genuine democracy. In each case, however, the government that was turned out had already ridden...
LIFE / Style & Design / BEAUTY EAST AND WEST
Nov 2, 2000

Essential oils for happiness

In addition to St. John's wort and Bach Flower Remedies, there are other natural means of lifting the spirits.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2000

Fighting system is folly: Tanaka

OSAKA -- Nagano Gov. Yasuo Tanaka said he has learned from the mistakes of other populist governors who took on the bureaucracy and lost, emphasizing that the age of traditional confrontational politics between small citizens' groups and bureaucrats is over.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 2, 2000

English teaching comes home to roost as foreign corporations invade Japan

When I was teaching English to Japanese business people in the late '80s, the main purpose was to prepare them for overseas assignments. In many cases, the students were not management people, but technicians and blue-collar workers. They were being sent to the U.S. or Europe to train employees in factories...
COMMENTARY
Nov 2, 2000

The changing face of nuclear deterrence

MOSCOW -- The role of nuclear weapons is undergoing subtle but important changes in deterrence strategy. Although this transformation is a consequence of the collapse of bipolarity in international relations and the shift in military threats from the global to the regional context, the trend is becoming...
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.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Nov 2, 2000

The closest U.S. presidential election in 40 years

WASHINGTON --The latest polls show that the U.S. presidential candidates are very close, with a slight edge for Texas Gov. George W. Bush. The Electoral College is also evenly divided, although Vice President Al Gore had maintained a small advantage for weeks. Now it is also within the statistical margins...
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2000

Cabinet will not investigate Nakagawa, Fukuda says

The Cabinet has no plans to investigate allegations that former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa leaked police information about a planned drug raid to his alleged mistress, his successor told the Diet Tuesday.
JAPAN / LIFE OFF MIYAKE
Nov 1, 2000

Evacuation hard on children living apart from their parents

It was the parents who could not stand it anymore. Akira Mitani and his wife, Eriko, told their 8-year-old son, Shohei, last month that he could start living with them again at any time.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2000

Ruling bloc to keep majority: projection

The three-party ruling coalition will keep its majority in the House of Councilors -- albeit by a narrow margin -- in next summer's election, which is to be held under a new electoral system, according to a Kyodo News projection.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2000

Seven injured in Tokai quake

A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 jolted the Tokai region early Tuesday, injuring seven people in Mie, Aichi, Gifu and Nara prefectures.
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 1, 2000

International performers take to Shizuoka's streets

Shizuoka City has a problem. Mount Fuji is an hour east, a decent beach is an hour west. Outside of green tea and clean air, Shizuoka City itself doesn't have much going for it.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Nov 1, 2000

Be sure to do the Galapagos in style

You can "do" the Galapagos right. Or you can "do" the Galapagos wrong.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 1, 2000

Russia's back window onto North Korea

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- In the Davydova neighborhood in the northern part of town, one apartment block after another has been under construction for years. Thus, there are always North Korean laborers around.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 1, 2000

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who has changed most of all?

When I look in the mirror each morning, I pretty much see what I expect . . .
LIFE / Travel
Nov 1, 2000

A stroll through ceramic country

FUKUOKA -- Driving from Fukuoka to the fertile northeast of Saga, the landscape suddenly changes. Gently stepped rice terraces and fields give way to short hills that rise abruptly like sugar lumps and end in craggy, chalky rocks. Towns with square brick chimneys loom, and signs begin pointing to artsy...
JAPAN
Oct 31, 2000

Coughing Empress to get checkup

The Empress, who has been coughing since earlier this month, will at her own request undergo a special X-ray checkup later this week, the vice grand steward of the Imperial Household Agency said Monday.
JAPAN
Oct 31, 2000

Former KSD chief faces accusers

The former head of KSD, a government-linked insurance group under criminal investigation for alleged lending irregularities, has voluntarily visited prosecutors to deny the allegations against him, sources close to the case said Monday.
JAPAN / LIFE OFF MIYAKE
Oct 31, 2000

Evacuees long for home, gird for worst

Namiko Morishita did not expect it to last this long. She and her family fled their home on Miyake Island in late August as volcanic activity on Mount Oyama intensified.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 31, 2000

Hard lessons Japan failed to learn

JAPAN'S FINANCIAL CRISIS AND ITS PARALLELS TO U.S. EXPERIENCE, edited by Ryoichi Mikitani and Adam S. Posen. Washington: Institute for International Economics, Special Report 13, Sept. 2000, 228 pp., $20. There's an old joke about a politician's plea for a one-handed economist, one who can't say, "but...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 31, 2000

Speechless, but never silent

JAPANESE BEYOND WORDS: How to Walk and Talk like a Native Speaker, by Andrew Horvat. Foreword by Jan Walls. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2000, 176 pp., $14.95. As Jan Walls says in his foreword to this instructive and entertaining book, Andrew Horvat provides "a new way of looking at language . ....
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...

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