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COMMENTARY / World
Jul 20, 2000

Okinawans behind Japan-U.S. alliance

Following the tragic rape of a 12-year old Okinawa school girl by three U.S. servicemen in 1995, Secretary of Defense William Perry, perhaps the most respected member of President Bill Clinton's Cabinet, invited former Ambassadors Mike Mansfield and Richard L. Armitage to have lunch with him and the...
LIFE / Travel
Jul 19, 2000

New Thai museum puts opium in perspective

BANGKOK -- How can drugs be explained in a way that informs but does not preach? Is it possible for educators to get beyond the knee-jerk response that stigmatizes drugs and drug consumers and presents the bare facts? What are the facts?
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2000

Okinawa summit ready to expand upon meeting of foreign ministers

The Group of Eight leaders meeting in Okinawa beginning Friday will explore ways to prevent regional conflicts and address other challenges in the sphere of international politics.
COMMENTARY
Jul 17, 2000

One last chance for Japan

A quarter of a century has passed since the world's seven industrialized democracies held their first summit meeting in 1975 under the initiative of French President Giscard d'Estaing. In its earlier years the G7 forum moved the world somewhat, providing a sense of unity and direction that was not available...
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2000

Swing vote confounded polls

The June 25 Lower House election saw a rise in the number of voters who made up their mind about which candidate and party to back just before the day of the vote, according to surveys conducted by Kyodo News before and after the poll.
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2000

Bailout decisions case by case, says Mori's 'younger brother'

Although the controversial bailout plan for the Sogo Co. department store chain and its group firms was eventually scrapped when the group filed for court-mandated rehabilitation this week, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa is not sure how the government will handle similar cases in the future....
COMMENTARY
Jul 14, 2000

Rough start for Mori Cabinet

On July 4, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori launched his new coalition Cabinet consisting of the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party. The event, following the June 25 general election, would have been an occasion for celebration and hope under ordinary circumstances but was...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jul 13, 2000

S. Africa done in by shady vote for 2006

South Africa has been shunned again.
COMMENTARY
Jul 13, 2000

Japan's new Cabinet avoids hard choices

Foreign reaction to the election results and the formation of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's new government can be summed up in one word: "disappointing." Once again it seemed that Japan was missing an opportunity to move forward on the reforms so urgently needed in government and the economy.
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2000

Mexico's stance precludes an agreement on investment pact with Japan

Japan and Mexico have run aground in their negotiations toward a pact aimed at shoring up the flow of investment across the Pacific.
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2000

Morita mulls new airport, defends works outlays

The Transport Ministry will review Narita airport in Chiba Prefecture and Tokyo's Haneda Airport with an eye to possible construction of a third airport in the metropolis, newly appointed Transport Minister Hajime Morita said.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 9, 2000

Opposition gives flawed economic message

According to some Western pundits, the recent Lower House election was going to be a big yawn, with little debate over real issues. In fact, from the start there was a very real debate between the coalition, which argued that the economy still needed pump priming, and the opposition, which claimed that...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 9, 2000

The decade that was, and always will be

SAINT-REMY-DE-PROVENCE, France — The full-page ad gracing the back of last week's Village Voice hit me like a heavy pointy object. "HOT SUMMER TOURS," the headline blared. As a U.S. citizen residing in the city of New York, I enjoy the golden opportunity to see '70s band Steely Dan perform at the romantically...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 9, 2000

Money talks loudly in American politics

After Utah Republicans booted Rep. Merrill Cook in their June primary, Republican Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, declared: "The bad news is a Republican incumbent lost." It's certainly bad news for the American people, who will be stuck paying...
COMMUNITY
Jul 9, 2000

Funding films by finding housing for foreigners

Walking with Akio Sakurai to his real estate office in Tokyo's Chuo Ward, he told the story of an Indian couple -- the husband working for a major European bank -- for whom he had found an apartment. The day before they were due to sign the contract, the landlord rang and withdrew the offer. A Japanese...
BUSINESS
Jul 8, 2000

Tokyo to push new WTO talks

Japan will push initiatives in the international community to realize the early launch of a round of trade liberalization talks under the World Trade Organization, Minister of International Trade and Industry Takeo Hiranuma said.
BUSINESS
Jul 7, 2000

Telecom novice ready to alter NTT structure if panel says so

The Posts and Telecommunications Ministry in autumn will commission an advisory council to study the best possible structure for Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., as well as the possibility of revising the NTT law, said the newly appointed posts and telecommunications minister.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2000

Cabinet proves widely unpopular

The disapproval rate for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is at 62 percent, a record high for a newly launched Cabinet, with support at 27 percent, a Kyodo News poll showed Thursday.
COMMENTARY
Jul 4, 2000

Japan is financially and morally bankrupt

Japan faces the danger of moral bankruptcy. It is difficult to rebuild a morally bankrupt nation, although it is possible to save a financially bankrupt nation with a package of drastic policy measures that could impose economic hardship on the public.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 3, 2000

Australia warily watches arc of insecurity

SYDNEY -- Once the world romanticized about the South Pacific paradise. Today, Australia is guardedly debating the Balkanization of the South Pacific.
COMMENTARY
Jul 3, 2000

Japan's money-loving youth

With industrialized economies entering the postindustrial age, key issues in domestic politics are shifting their focus from materialism to postmaterialism. The "materialistic" issues include economic growth, income redistribution, welfare, employment, industrial development and international trade....
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2000

Ex-lawmaker Utsunomiya dies at 93

Tokuma Utsunomiya, a former Diet member and advocate of disarmament, died of pneumonia Saturday morning at a hospital in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, his family said. He was 93.
EDITORIALS
Jul 1, 2000

The Elian saga is over

Elian Gonzalez is home. After a seven-month legal battle, the shipwrecked 6-year-old boy has returned to Cuba with his father. His tale held the world captive -- and made plain the degree to which U.S. politics is held captive by a vocal minority of Cuban Americans in Miami. Now that the boy has been...
CULTURE / Music
Jul 1, 2000

Inciting the huddled masses to Rage Against the Machine

Bruce Springsteen's controversial new song, "American Skin (41 Shots)," about the shooting death of Amadou Diallo by New York City policemen, has split his fan base of blue-collar male boomers down political lines. Bob Lucente, the president of the New York State chapter of the Benevolent Order of Police,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2000

War and peace in the coming century

Looking back to the anniversary of the start of the Korean War, on June 25, 1950, and looking ahead to potential crises in Asia, there is much to ponder on the question of military intervention.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2000

LDP result is 'stinging setback': U.S. newspaper

Following the Liberal Democratic Party's poor showing in Sunday's election, the world's media seemed unanimous in its description of the results as a major setback to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and his party.
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2000

Business chiefs upbeat after poll

Business circles expressed hope Monday that the new government to be formed after Sunday's Lower House election will take prompt action to lead the economy to a recovery.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 27, 2000

For domestic help, it's the same old world order

HOME AND HEGEMONY: Domestic Service and Identity Politics in South and Southeast Asia, edited by Kathleen M. Adams and Sara Dickey. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 2000, 307 pp., $49.50 (cloth). Dirty? Maybe. Degrading and dangerous? Certainly not what you'd expect to be part of a servant's...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 25, 2000

Is elitism such a bad thing?

LONDON -- Gordon Brown, the British chancellor of the Exchequer, has been stirring up media attention by attacking the way in which Oxford and other British universities recruit students. He launched his diatribe against the universities by condemning Magdalen College Oxford (where Prince Chichibu and...

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