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JAPAN
Jun 8, 2000

Dentsu to pay off dead worker's parents

Dentsu Inc., Japan's largest advertising agency, plans to offer an out-of-court settlement to a deceased employee's parents, who sued the firm claiming their son's suicide was caused by overwork, according to lawyers for the parents.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Jun 8, 2000

A taste of brewers' best

The 88th New-Sake Tasting Competitions were held in Hiroshima May 16.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 7, 2000

Aiding Palestinian refugees aids peace

Fifty years ago this month, the United Nations began a unique humanitarian undertaking that continues today, unknown to most of the world, but still critically important to nearly 4 million Palestine refugees -- and to the cause of peace. There is no larger group of refugees anywhere else in the world;...
COMMENTARY
Jun 5, 2000

The conservative's dilemma

Traditionally American voters have been given a choice between conservatism and liberalism. The Republican Party is labeled "conservative" and the Democratic Party "liberal." In Japan before 1993, when the Liberal Democratic Party lost its monopoly on power, the choice was between conservatism and socialism....
LIFE / Travel
Jun 4, 2000

Unlikely hero fights for Mindanao

MANILA -- The potential locked up in the island of Mindanao -- in its resources, its environment and, perhaps most importantly, its people -- is just waiting to be tapped.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2000
Jun 3, 2000

Ruling coalition awaits voters' judgment at polls

The coming Lower House election will give voters their first chance to express their support, or lack thereof, for the tripartite coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2000
Jun 3, 2000

Public spending unproductive, economist says

Masaru Kaneko, an economics professor at Hosei University, is harshly critical of the way the Liberal Democratic Party has been spending taxpayers' money on public works projects and to bail out big banks.
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2000

Construction firms' total staff declines

The combined workforce of Japan's top 100 construction companies as of the end of March shrank 5.5 percent from a year earlier to 202,378, marking its sixth straight year of decline, a private research institute said Thursday. The downward trend reflects difficulties facing general contractors, who have...
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2000

Child-care burden may ease

The Labor Ministry has compiled a draft plan that may help child-rearing parents balance their work obligations with child care, ministry officials said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2000

Democracy vs. ethnicity in Fiji

LONDON -- There are rare occasions when a military takeover may be the least bad solution to a country's problems. Monday's military coup in Fiji may be one of them.
JAPAN
May 28, 2000

Woman parlays her passion for tango into pro floor show

OSAKA -- Yoshiko Nishibayashi first got interested in Argentine tango after watching the movie "Evita" in 1997. Three years later, she returned from Buenos Aires as a professional tango dancer -- the first in the Kansai region with an Argentine partner.
JAPAN
May 24, 2000

Home care givers face dwindling wages

When the new state-run nursing-care insurance system was launched in April, many of its planners predicted it would lead to better working conditions and salaries for home helpers.
BUSINESS
May 23, 2000

Consumer mood up a tick; worries remain

Consumer sentiment in Japan has improved, but only slightly, with concerns lingering about employment and income prospects, according to a survey released Monday by a governmental research institute.
BUSINESS
May 22, 2000

Ishihara tax reflects paralysis caused by national tax scheme

The new size-based tax on big banks that has been introduced by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara is causing major repercussions and prompting Osaka Prefecture to consider a similar tax.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 22, 2000

Exotic pet importer confirms Japan is haven for illegal animal imports

The situation is worse than I imagined. In my last column (May 8), I wrote about smugglers carrying live primates into Japan in their luggage. Days after that column appeared, I was put in touch with an exotic pet importer who confirmed that government oversight of trade in animals is abysmal.
BUSINESS
May 22, 2000

As with risk, ranks of analysts rising

Once again the time has come for the mass-release of Japan Inc.'s annual earnings reports. While the stock market is showing signs of rumbling back to life after nearly a decade of dormancy, significant changes to Japan's financial landscape are forcing players to make rapid transitions just to keep...
JAPAN
May 20, 2000

Usu community relocation eyed

The government is considering relocating the entire community of the Lake Toya hot spring resort area, which lies at the foot of the erupting Mount Usu in southwestern Hokkaido, Construction Minister Masaaki Nakayama said Friday.
COMMENTARY
May 20, 2000

Bigger isn't always better

The failure of the proposed merger between Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank ought to have signaled the end of the merger mania among the world's major banks and to have cautioned banks and other enterprises that big does not mean best. But the message does not seem to have seeped through to some people...
JAPAN
May 18, 2000

Crime victims need your help, police ranks told

National Police Agency chief Setsuo Tanaka told a gathering of officers Wednesday to better support the victims of crime.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 18, 2000

'Sports executive' a misnomer in Japan

I don't know if it's just my imagination but in recent weeks the incompetence of Japan's alleged "sports executives" seems to have reached an all-time low.
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2000

Pakistan peace initiative just a first step

ISLAMABAD -- The empty trailers along the road from the Afghan capital of Kabul to the border with neighboring Pakistan serve as powerful reminders of what Afghanistan's Islamic rulers -- the Taliban -- have achieved in the four years since they took control of most of their Central Asian country's territory....
MORE SPORTS
May 14, 2000

Where have all the leaders gone?

May has not been a good month for leadership in Japan. And surely I'm not the only one disappointed.
JAPAN
May 11, 2000

School has an ear for Korean language

Every eye in the classroom is fixed on Shinji Kurosawa's lips. " 'Pul gogi,' repeat after me," instructs the Korean language teacher.
COMMUNITY
May 11, 2000

Young women study up for the future

A high attendance in classes ranging from aromatherapy, beadwork and flower arrangement to exotic languages and cooking, offered at department stores and community centers all over Japan, is a sign of a new trend among women in their late 20s and early 30s.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
May 11, 2000

Recalling the toil of winter in the rites of spring

It's May, and for almost all of the nation's 1,700 or so sake brewers, this means brewing activities are over for the season. There are a handful of larger breweries that have climate-controlled factories, and do brew year-round (known as shiki-jozo). But everyone else is limited to the coldest months...
COMMENTARY / World
May 7, 2000

European sports play by their own rules

It is said that the military is always prepared to fight the last war and never the next. In the economic domain the same is true of politicians, who are generally at least a generation or two out of date. In Britain in 1913, there were 1.3 million miners, meaning that almost one in 10 men were working...
JAPAN
May 3, 2000

Record number on the dole in 1999

A record high 1.068 million people per month on average received unemployment allowances in fiscal 1999, breaking the previous record set in fiscal 1998, the Labor Ministry said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Books
May 2, 2000

'The gooks from Gardena' go to war

FROM PEARL HARBOR TO SAIGON: Japanese-American Soldiers and the Vietnam War, by Toshio Whelchel. London & New York: Verso, 1999, 203 pp., three maps, 12 photos, 16.20 British pounds (cloth). At last, a simple but moving book about the violent soul of America that almost any educated Japanese can...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 30, 2000

Colin McCulloch

"Those of us in New Zealand interested in live theater used to rely on shows put on by companies coming on tour from London. Over the last 30 years, all that has changed. Provincial professional theater groups grew up overnight. New Zealand now has its own flourishing theater," said Colin McCulloch....

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan