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COMMENTARY / World
Jan 8, 2001

APEC paving the way for cooperation

We believe history will judge the eighth APEC Economic Leaders Meeting held in Brunei Darussalam Nov. 15-16 an important milestone in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum's mission to create a peaceful, prosperous and open Pacific community. The Brunei meeting saw three "firsts" for APEC.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 8, 2001

Revisionists open a front in China

NORTH CHINA AND JAPANESE EXPANSION, 1933-1937: Regional Power and the National Interest, by Marjorie Dryburgh. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2000, 249 pp., 50 pounds (cloth). China is not only the world's most populous nation, but it is also one of the largest. In territorial reach, Russia and Canada alone...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 8, 2001

When two worlds collide

JAPAN AND THE DUTCH 1600-1853, by Grant K. Goodman. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2000, 304 pp., 40 pounds. Thanks to the Tokugawa shogunate's decision at the beginning of the 17th century to expel the Portuguese and other Christian missionaries who had started to meddle in Japanese affairs, the...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 8, 2001

Zero emissions: route to sustainability for a clean revolution in the 21st century

The age of zero emissions is dawning, and Japan could one day lead a global clean revolution. The next decade should tell whether this nation will lead, or will consign itself to industrial mediocrity by adhering to the status quo.
BUSINESS
Jan 6, 2001

Business chiefs gauge economy

The leaders of Japan's four most powerful business groups on Friday voiced cautious optimism over the nation's economy, predicting an annual growth rate of between 1.5 percent and 2 percent for 2001.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Jan 6, 2001

Japanese music gets support from New Year's tradition

New Year's in Japan is a period when Japanese suddenly seem to "rediscover" their traditional music. Radio and television stations, which, except for NHK, practically ignore traditional music for most of the year, get into the seasonal spirit and air programs of the classical performing and theatrical...
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2001

Mori to embark on African trip

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori leaves Sunday for a nine-day trip to South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Greece with the aim of boosting diplomatic ties with sub-Saharan Africa. He will be the first Japanese prime minister to visit the region.
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2001

Changing diet brings rising food concerns

The traditional Japanese diet of rice, grilled fish and vegetables has long been heralded as among the healthiest a culture has produced -- just witness Japan's long life spans.
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2001

Tap dance zealot leads revival of making 'music' with feet

Tap dance instructor Kaoru Tomita has a simple yet effective approach to teaching the percussive dance in a country where rote learning and imitation are pedagogic mainstays: Do what you want and don't copy anyone.
SOCCER / J. League
Jan 4, 2001

2002 cohosts draw 1-1 with world stars

YOKOHAMA -- Soccer players from the South Korean K. League and the Japanese J. League on Wednesday night played alongside each other for the first time ever in an official game when they drew a World XI 1-1 in an exhibition match at International Stadium Yokohama.
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2001

Five-year, muscle-pumping defense plan passed easily

The Cabinet approval last month of the 25-trillion yen medium-term defense buildup program came without heated debate among lawmakers or the public, to the apparent surprise of some Defense Agency officials.
EDITORIALS
Jan 1, 2001

The rebuilding starts now

At the dawn of a new century, the Japanese seem to be looking to the future with more worry than hope. The realities of contemporary Japan are grim. The nation seems to have lost its way. The social and economic systems that raised it to unprecedented levels of prosperity are falling apart at the seams....
JAPAN / STAGING A COMEBACK
Jan 1, 2001

Carrying out reform is only the beginning for politicians

The final 10 years of the 20th century have been called a "lost decade" for Japan, which continues to suffer woes from the burst of the late-1980s bubble-economy. Japan's comeback as a globally competitive economic powerhouse will require fundamental reforms not only in the industrial and financial sectors...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jan 1, 2001

America gets a bang out of Melt-Banana

It's rare that a Japanese band is more successful in America than in Japan, but Melt-Banana are an exception to many rules.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2001

An Asia-Pacific checklist for Bush administration

George W. Bush's greatest foreign policy challenges over the next four years may well originate in the Asia-Pacific, where two-thirds of the world's population reside, and where probably two-thirds of the world's major geopolitical crises fester.
COMMUNITY
Dec 31, 2000

Michinoku Ginko chief banks on Japanese-Russian relations

Talk about a profitable end to the year. Invited to meet a Taisho man -- that is, someone born in the last year of what many consider to be Japan's most liberal period of the 20th century -- I was met in one location to be maneuvered into a taxi and delivered outside another: a nondescript utility block...
BUSINESS
Dec 30, 2000

Fresh from ODA victory over Kamei, Mori turns to IT aid initiative

Fresh from surviving a hard-fought battle against political pressure for Draconian cuts in its foreign-aid budget, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's government is stepping up efforts to implement his $15 billion aid initiative in the area of information technology.
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2000

Non-EU nations circle wagons on climate

Top environmental negotiators from Japan, the United States and eight other non-European Union industrialized countries will hold secret talks in New Zealand in the middle of February, informed sources said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Dec 28, 2000

Online brokerage sure of success despite late entry

Tokyo-Mitsubishi TD Waterhouse Securities Co. was late to establish its online discount brokerage operations in Japan. When the joint venture between Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and discount brokerage TD Waterhouse Group of the United States began accepting accounts in July, several major players had already...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2000

Real reform is just beginning

The central government will be reorganized Jan. 6, 2001 with the number of ministries and agencies to be cut almost in half to 13 from the present 22. The shakeup is based on a program worked out with great difficulty by the Adminis trative Reform Council, an ad hoc panel created under the Hashimoto...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Dec 26, 2000

The best of this year's world music crop

Strangely, I had thought this year was not a particularly vintage one for world and roots music. That was until I had to whittle down a list to come up with a top 10, as part of a panel for the British magazine fRoots.
BUSINESS
Dec 25, 2000

Taking a step toward transparent markets

Foreign investors and financial institutions have often criticized the Japanese financial market for being too ambiguous in its regulatory procedures and, in general, for still being a "closed" market.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2000

A-bomb aid eyed for Pyongyang

The government will send a mission to North Korea as early as February to examine the condition of the surviving atomic bomb victims living there, government sources said Saturday.
COMMENTARY
Dec 24, 2000

English-education reform gets watered down

Imagine the fuss if Japan's car industry was producing a million defective cars a year. But for some reason no one bothers much if Japan's English-education industry produces roughly that number of defective English speakers each year.

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