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COMMENTARY
Dec 12, 2000

Economic outlook is gloomy

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori faces an uncertain future after surviving a no-confidence motion against his Cabinet in the Diet last month. Koichi Kato, a leading dissident in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and fellow rebels had vowed to vote for the opposition-sponsored motion, but they changed their...
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2000

Coalition group urges ODA paring

A study group set up by the ruling coalition agreed Friday on the need to reduce the amount of Japan's official development assistance to developing countries in the fiscal 2001 budget, members of the group said.
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2000

Mori again outlines his IT dreams

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori once again pledged Thursday to carry out drastic reforms of the nation's economy by supporting the development of information technology.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2000

DPJ panel urges end to peacekeeping ban

A Democratic Party of Japan panel on Thursday called for the ban on Japanese participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations to be scrapped and for the five guidelines for Japan becoming involved in operations to be reviewed.
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.
BUSINESS
Dec 7, 2000

Imported vehicles post 3.3% monthly sales jump

Sales of imported motor vehicles in Japan rose 3.3 percent in November from a year earlier to 21,773 units, up for the fourth consecutive month, the Japan Automobile Importers Association said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2000

Yohei Kono considers trip to Middle East to tighten links with oil-rich nations

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono may visit several Middle East nations, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, in early January if he keeps his Cabinet post after today's planned reshuffle, Foreign Ministry sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2000

Readers' Fund offers poor Filipino kids opportunity to keep learning

The annual Japan Time Readers' Fund has helped a variety of nonprofit organizations work to improve education and living conditions in developing countries. This article and a subsequent one will attempt to explain how the donations have been used.
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2000

Columnist feels 'stronger' despite living with HIV

Patrick Bommarito is a 35-year-old openly gay American who lives in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Dec 5, 2000

Old guard may still deliver

As suggested in an earlier column (Nov. 16), the Liberal Democratic Party faction leader, Koichi Kato, probably deserved to fail in his recent attempt to overthrow his party's leadership. His timing and approach were flawed. His call for immediate structural reform and fiscal restraint was bad economics....
EDITORIALS
Dec 5, 2000

A ticket to ride -- at what price?

As of this week, long-suffering passengers on Japan's crowded local train lines are still awaiting a satisfactory explanation, rather than an excuse, for why they were overcharged if they followed the posted fare tables. In some cases, the overcharging has continued for more than three years. The reasons...
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2000

World's tallest building planned in South Korea

South Korea's Lotte Group is to construct the tallest building in the world -- nearly one-third as tall again as the highest building in Japan, the Landmark Tower in Yokohama -- at a cost of some 1.2 trillion won, over $1 billion.
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.
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2000

UA accident laid to crew miscommunication

Poor communication between crew members triggered panic aboard a United Airlines jumbo jet involved in an accident in 1998 at Narita airport that injured 24 people, according to a Transport Ministry report released Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2000

Keep government out of the stock market

A few months ago, members of Japan's ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party encouraged the government to take steps to prop up the stock market. They also urged the government to accelerate spending from the public-works reserve fund of 500 billion...
BUSINESS
Dec 1, 2000

LDP wants minimum import levels of rice cut

Panels of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party agreed Thursday to call on the government to demand that minimum access levels on rice imports be reduced in its proposals for the next round of trade liberalization talks under the World Trade Organization.
BUSINESS
Dec 1, 2000

U.S. wants to extend auto agreement

Compiled from wire reports SEATTLE -- The United States on Wednesday proposed extending a bilateral automotive trade pact due to expire at the end of the year after a joint review showed that some progress has been made in improving access and competition in the Japanese market.
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2000

Typhoon season ends with no direct hits

For the first time in 14 years, the typhoon season is drawing to a close without a single typhoon making a direct hit on Japan. Meteorologists say this is a fluke, however, and not a sign of abnormal weather conditions.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2000

DPJ head proposes boosting SDF role

The leader of the Democratic Party of Japan proposed Wednesday to discuss a revision of the Constitution to enable the Self-Defense Forces to take part in overseas peacemaking missions that may involve the use of force.
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

Thunderstruck by the Asian ascent

THUNDER FROM THE EAST: Portrait of a Rising Asia, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000, 377 pp., $27.50. This is a mediocre potboiler of scant significance. One suspects that these Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters for The New York Times know a great deal more about...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Nov 28, 2000

Cuban musical wave keeps on coming

At the beginning of next year, not much will have changed from this year, when it comes to the pick of world and roots music concerts. More Cubans!
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2000

Fujimori denies transfer of funds

Deposed Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori on Sunday denied allegations that he has had $18 million in secret funds remitted to Japanese bank accounts.
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2000

Detente mission to Russia to follow Cabinet reshuffle

Japan will send its foreign minister to Russia to seek a breakthrough in a decades-old territorial dispute after a Cabinet reshuffle expected in early December, government sources said Sunday.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 26, 2000

Get ready for the Ichiro onslaught

Hold onto your hats. The contract agreement between the Seattle Mariners and Ichiro (Suzuki) promises to offer an exciting, fun time with a frenzied media circus, possible extra events, increased tourism and brisk souvenir sales, as the former Orix BlueWave outfielder and seven-time Pacific League batting...
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2000

Climate meeting ends in deadlock

THE HAGUE -- U.N. climate talks collapsed at the 11th hour Saturday after the European Union and the United States failed to settle a bitter row over ways to stop global warming.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb