Search - politics

 
 
LIFE / ALTERNATIVE LUXURIES
Oct 5, 2000

A dance of color, space and line

"Sometimes just to touch the ground is enough for me," says Wakako Oe with all the warmth of her plenteous years, "even if not a single plant grows in the garden."
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2000

Obituary: Toshisada Oka

Toshisada Oka, a member of the House of Councilors who once served as parliamentary vice minister at the Science and Technology Agency, died Monday of liver failure at Tokyo Teishin Hospital, his family said. He was 66.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2000

JCP reforms in name only

The Japanese Communist Party, at the Sept. 19 general meeting of the Central Committee, proposed scrapping the preamble to the party charter that sets out basic principles for its activities and organization. The preamble contains words symbolic of the Communist Party, such as "socialist revolution,"...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2000

A final act for Milosevic?

LONDON -- "We are talking about political fraud and blatant stealing of votes," said Yugoslav opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica Sept. 26, after it was announced that he had not defeated Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic in the first round of the presidential election on Sunday. "The victory is...
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2000

Foreign residents on slow boat to get vote

The Japanese woman was unhappy.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2000

Mori backs change in voting system

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Tuesday threw his support behind a proposal to change the electoral system for proportional representation seats in the House of Councilors before the next election.
EDITORIALS
Sep 26, 2000

More facts, less politics, on education

At first glance, the interim report from the National Commission on Educational Reform, an advisory panel of the prime minister, appears cautious about revising the 1947 Fundamental Law on Education. In marked contrast to an earlier subcommittee report that explicitly supported a revision, the panel's...
EDITORIALS
Sep 25, 2000

The Whitewater washout

The independent counsel investigating U.S. President Bill Clinton in connection with the Whitewater scandal has determined that neither the president nor his wife "knowingly participated in any criminal conduct . . . or knew of such conduct." The investigation, announced Mr. Robert Ray in a summary released...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2000

Next up in the drug war: 'Plan Colombia'

LONDON -- It is customary, when Washington says "jump," for British governments to ask "how high?" When they don't jump at all, their failure to comply should be treated with the same alarm as when one of those old pit canaries, kept in coal mines to detect the buildup of carbon monoxide, topples quietly...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Sep 24, 2000

From lady killer to whale protector

So Japanese fishermen are banned from U.S waters. Whales rejoice, environmentalists celebrate, Texas Gov. George W. Bush loses a point, U.S., President Bill Clinton drafts a chapter for his memoir called "After Monica: Whales!", I grieve.
COMMENTARY
Sep 23, 2000

Politicians face a busy fall

The 72-day extraordinary Diet session opened Thursday. It will last until Dec. 1, which is unusually long for an extra session. The political schedule will be very tight in December: The government will compile a fiscal 2001 budget and lay the groundwork for the reorganization of the central bureaucracy...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2000

Sabah -- unfinished business between Malaysia and the Philippines

SINGAPORE -- The kidnap-for-ransom hostage crisis triggered by the Abu Sayyaf rebels in a remote corner of the South China Sea has attracted worldwide attention. But of even greater significance, it has further strained ties between the Philippines and Malaysia, as each country blames the other for allowing...
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2000

Whaling issue not black and white

Incensed over Japan's expanded whaling program, Washington has threatened Tokyo with trade sanctions in what the media have largely portrayed as a black and white issue.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 20, 2000

Taiwan is worthy of a place in the U.N.

The United Nations' Millennium Summit in New York, attended by about 150 heads of state and governments earlier this month, pledged to make globalization a positive force for all the people of the world. It published a list of central values for 21st-century international relations. It also admitted...
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2000

World Bank warns lack of reforms may sabotage East Asian recovery

The World Bank said Monday that East Asian economies could slip back into another recession if lingering weaknesses in the banking and corporate sectors continue to be ignored.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 17, 2000

Ted Turner

CNN says that for 20 years it has been bringing you the world. As the world's first 24-hour news network, it signed on the air in June 1980 to 1.7 million cable households in the U.S. Since then it has gone on to notch up an impressive list of more firsts. Its news services around the world now reach...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 15, 2000

Ever-unfashionable Akutagawa

JAPANESE SHORT STORIES, by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, translated by Takashi Kojima, foreword by John McVittie. Singapore: Tuttle Publishing, 1981, 240 pp. with 15 illustrations, $14.95. THE ESSENTIAL AKUTAGAWA, by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, edited by Seiji Lippit, foreword by Jorge Luis Borges. New York: Marsililio...
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2000

DPJ race for Upper House begins

The ultimate goal of the Democratic Party of Japan to wrest power from the current ruling triumvirate is seen to mainly hinge on whether party leader Yukio Hatoyama can steer his party to victory in next summer's House of Councilors election.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2000

Yamamoto resigns from Diet

Disgraced lawmaker Joji Yamamoto, under arrest on suspicion of using public money to help finance his political activities, submitted a letter of resignation Friday through a lawyer to House of Representatives Speaker Tamisuke Watanuki.
COMMENTARY
Sep 9, 2000

Parties plan for the 2001 vote

A new political season begins in Japan when an extraordinary Diet session starts later this month.
EDITORIALS
Sep 9, 2000

Dreaming of a better world

It is tempting to dismiss this week's Millennium Summit at the United Nations as pure hype. After all, it declared its aim was the eradication of poverty and war in the 21st century. Good luck. Yet, if the U.N. and its members do not hold such ambitions, then there is very little hope for our world in...
LIFE / Travel
Sep 7, 2000

Cambodia feeds a hunger to learn

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- "A young man applied for a scholarship to go and study in Australia," says Helen Cherry, director of the Australian Center for Education, Cambodia. "His English was very good, and I asked him where he had studied. He replied 'By windows.'
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Sep 6, 2000

America enters the election homestretch

At long last, it is time for the U.S. presidential campaign of 2000 to begin. The Labor Day weekend (Sept. 2-4) marked the unofficial end of summer, the start of school and the traditional kickoff of the political campaigns.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 5, 2000

Asia takes capitalism on its own terms

ASIAN VALUES, WESTERN DREAMS: Understanding the New Asia, by Greg Sheridan. Allen & Unwin, 1999, 326 pp., 14.99 British pounds (paper). A lot of people thought -- hoped, really -- that the Asian economic crisis would end all that nonsense about "Asian values." The region's stumbles were supposed to...
COMMENTARY
Sep 4, 2000

Japan flounders without goals

The disturbing thing about Japan today is that it lacks a clear sense of national purpose even though the 21st century is close at hand. The economic slump of the 1990s is often described as a "lost decade" or a "second surrender" (after the defeat in World War II). But it is not just the stagnant economy...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 3, 2000

Charles Hampden-Turner

LONDON -- "I believe in understanding people as they see themselves, in a positive light. I try very hard to see in the same way as they. Then everything begins to make sense through an opposite point of view," said Charles Hampden-Turner.
CULTURE / Art
Aug 31, 2000

Art and history intersect in U.S. ambassador's residence

Most of us only dream of being able to pick out our favorite pieces of art from museums to display in our homes.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 29, 2000

End this dysfunctional relationship

LEAVING JAPAN: Observations on the Dysfunctional U.S.-Japan Relationship. By Mike Millard. M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, NY, 2000, 200 pp., $37.95. The $79-billion question is why does the United States continue to tolerate the lopsided economic relationship with Japan that led to a such a massive trade imbalance...

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