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JAPAN
Dec 8, 2000

Securing LDP power is greatest task: Koga

The LDP's new secretary general said Thursday his greatest task will be ensuring that the tripartite coalition remains in power by securing a majority in next summer's House of Councilors election.
LIFE / ALTERNATIVE LUXURIES
Dec 7, 2000

Traditions found anew

"It's only recently that the great mass of Indians have begun to feel that rising in the world and becoming rich was a good thing, a valuable thing," says Asha Amemiya.
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2000

Opposition says new Cabinet is evidence of same old politics

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's newly formed Cabinet was the immediate target of a shower of criticism Tuesday from opposition parties.
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2000

Hashimoto faction wins big in shakeup

Policy continuity, factional power plays and surprise appointments characterized the new Cabinet launched Tuesday by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who hopes his new team will help him and his Liberal Democratic Party survive the months leading to next summer's Upper House election.
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2000

New administration told to reflect views of ordinary people

Some heads of nonprofit organizations and operators of small businesses demanded Tuesday that the new Cabinet make an effort to reflect the opinions of ordinary citizens.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 5, 2000

Handful of history

COLUMBIA CHRONOLOGIES OF ASIAN HISTORY AND CULTURE, edited by John S. Bowman. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000, 752 pp., $85. Oh, "if men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us! But passion and party blind our eyes, and the light which experience gives is a lantern on the...
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2000

Global economic factors paint gloomy picture for new year

Since the mid-1990s, the world economy has expanded remarkably, propelled mainly by the introduction of advanced information and communication technologies. In fact, according to the IMF's recent World Economic Outlook, global output grew 3.4 percent in 1999 and is expected to accelerate to 4.7 percent...
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2000

Fujimori agrees to testify in Japan, not Peru

Deposed Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori said Saturday he is prepared to testify in Japan to answer allegations that he amassed secret funds during his tenure as Peru's leader.
COMMUNITY
Dec 3, 2000

WHO pushes 'Massive Effort' on disease

Gro Harlem Brundtland has a mission. She said as much in her BBC Reith Lecture on population and health early this year. She will be saying it again this week in Okinawa at the followup meeting to July's G-8 summit.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2000

2002 World Cup: Soccer without fear?

BRUSSELS -- The first world cup of the new millennium is to be staged in Japan and South Korea in the summer of 2002. Both countries want to use this billion-dollar sporting showpiece as a global shop window allowing those watching, both in the stadiums and on TV, to see the real Japan and the real South...
BUSINESS
Dec 1, 2000

Panel to study insurance yield cuts

Members of the Liberal Democratic Party will set up an informal study group to examine whether life insurers should be allowed to cut the interest rates they guaranteed their policyholders, LDP lawmakers said Thursday.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2000

Suffrage bill may be unconstitutional

Debate on a controversial bill that would grant permanent foreign residents the right to vote in local elections will probably be carried over to the ordinary session that is to convene in January.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 28, 2000

When writing Asia-Pacific history, the rhetoric is the reality

JAPAN AND PACIFIC INTEGRATION: Pacific Romances 1968-1996, by Pekka Korhonen. London/New York: Routledge, 1998, 246 pp., $50 (cloth). The title of this book suggests that it is about the integration of the Asia-Pacific area, about regionalism, and about the role Japan plays in this process.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2000

Asia debates the merit of political debates

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- I don't want to add to the endless debate over the chances of the two U.S. presidential contenders. Rather, I want to focus on the debates and some possible corollaries for Asia.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2000

To flourish, Sonia needs Indira's cunning

NEW DELHI -- Sonia Gandhi once hated politics, certainly the intrigues of Indian affairs.
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2000

With confidence vote over, the debate changes to trust

Hiromu Nonaka, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, on Wednesday appeared to be distancing the LDP from the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, which the ruling party fought hard to defeat.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2000

Public angered by Kato's flip-flop on no-confidence motion

People around the country expressed disappointment and anger Tuesday over the anticlimactic end to Koichi Kato's closely watched revolt against his Liberal Democratic Party colleague, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2000

Panel releases judicial reform report

A government council on judicial reforms unveiled an interim report Monday that proposes drastic legal changes -- such as boosting the number of judicial personnel and allowing regular citizens to play a more pivotal role in trials.
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2000

Japan to propose culture exchange with South Korea, China

Japan will propose to China and South Korea this week that the three neighbors designate 2002 a special year of cultural and personnel exchanges in an effort to promote mutual understanding and friendship, government sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2000

Fujimori confirms resignation intent

Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori Monday confirmed he intends to resign within 48 hours, just hours after all 14 members of his Cabinet tendered their resignations in protest of his surprise decision.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2000

Kato defies LDP expulsion threat

The tug-of-war between supporters of Koichi Kato's revolt against Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Liberal Democratic Party elders continued Saturday as both camps prepared for a showdown Lower House vote Monday on a no-confidence motion against Mori.
COMMENTARY
Nov 19, 2000

U.S. credibility put to test

NEW DELHI -- Political scientist Samuel Huntington has aptly described the United States as the "sole state with pre-eminence in every domain of power -- economic, military, diplomatic, ideological, technological and cultural -- with the reach capabilities to promote its interests in virtually every...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 18, 2000

A history lesson for the litigants in Florida

HONG KONG -- It was with a sense of sickening dread that one heard, not the result of the U.S. presidential election, but the news that at least 50 high-powered (and highly priced) lawyers were hastening to the state of Florida on behalf of the Democratic Party, quickly followed by a similar squad representing...
COMMENTARY
Nov 17, 2000

Kato challenge divides LDP

A political drama is unfolding over the fate of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's administration, and it is anybody's guess how it will end.
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2000

Kato eyes power via the party

Koichi Kato, who has stirred up a power struggle within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said he will do "everything possible" short of quitting the party to bring about the downfall of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2000

Halls of power resound with ouster speculation

The corridors of power in Tokyo's Nagato-cho district on Wednesday resounded with speculation on the possible replacement of embattled Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, currently in Brunei for a two-day summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 15, 2000

Textbooks in the service of the state

CENSORING HISTORY: Citizenship and Memory in Japan, Germany and the United States, edited by Laura Hein and Mark Selden. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2000, 301 pp., $24.95. History loomed over the recent visit of Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji like a threatening storm cloud. But other than some scattered...
LIFE / Travel
Nov 15, 2000

Russia's Baltic outpost

Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin was not one of Russian history's shining stars. An unpleasant figure, he found favor with dictator Josef Stalin and rose to become Soviet president before dying in 1946. Nonetheless, in the fashion of those times, his surname was given to two major Russian cities and their accompanying...

Longform

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Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years