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COMMUNITY
Jul 19, 2000

Teachers share solutions to school concerns

People arriving in Japan in their professional capacities frequently see little more of the country than the interiors of taxis, hotel rooms and sterile offices, with the occasional tourist sight in central Tokyo thrown in.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2000

Raising taxes invites economic catastrophe

Newspaper reports indicate that Japan's Tax Commission has used its role as an advisory panel to the prime minister to propose lowering the minimum taxable individual-income level. Raising taxes on the poor is justified by attempting to share the income-tax burden more widely. A wide range of allowable...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 17, 2000

Dioxin found deadly for sure -- and they're pumping it out

First, the good news.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 16, 2000

Carp's Lopez back where he belongs

One of the happiest foreign players in Japan pro baseball these days is Hiroshima Carp first baseman Luis Lopez. The 1996 and 1997 Central League RBI leader is obviously back where he belongs; hitting .300 and driving in those runs like he did three-four years ago for the Red Helmets.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 16, 2000

A guide to the music festivals of summer

The recession has reportedly made concert promoters' lives miserable, and yet it doesn't seem to have affected the flood of foreign acts rushing to these shores.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2000

Whalers come out on top in IWC meeting

SYDNEY -- Once again Japanese whale-meat eaters have outwitted the world's whale lovers. Though those diners need not raise too many self-congratulatory cups of sake. Within a year or two the Tokyo whale restaurant tables could be overturned.
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2000

Okinawans having trouble looking beyond the 'three K's'

NAHA, Okinawa Pref. -- Business is slack along Heiwa Dori (Peace Street), one in a maze of narrow streets that make up Machigwa, Naha's central market.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2000

Security role a two-edged sword but U.S. keeping lower profile

CHATAN, Okinawa Pref. -- It's an early Tuesday evening at Morgan's, a popular bar along Gate Two Road, and the mood is festive.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jul 12, 2000

With love, Jean

When I first arrived in Japan more than 40 years ago, one of the first words I learned was sayonara and that it meant "goodbye." As I stayed on, I began to learn that sayonara did not mean goodbye in the sense of "till we meet again" or "God watch over you" as such phrases are used in the West. The literal...
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2000

MOX fuel to be returned to Britain upon route OK

Japan and Britain agreed Tuesday on having tainted plutonium fuel manufactured by British Nuclear Fuels Corp. returned to Britain, Japanese officials said.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jul 9, 2000

Taking better care of business

The 37th annual Japan-United States Business Conference is being held this week at the Hotel Okura. Top business executives from the two nations who comprise separate, compatible organizations are spending three days discussing important issues that concern commerce between the two most important economies...
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...
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2000

Kono talks on North Korea, the G8 summit and Russia

The government "will not simply stay idle" in its relations with North Korea, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono said Thursday, noting that Tokyo is ready to reopen stalled normalization talks with Pyongyang following its recent moves to open up to the outside world.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2000

Defense chief does about-face on time limit for Marine base

Newly appointed Defense Agency chief Kazuo Torashima has had to retract a remark that it would be difficult to put a 15-year time limit on the use of a new airport for the U.S. Marines to be built in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture.
LIFE / Travel
Jul 5, 2000

Get back to the garden, the perfect summer oasis

There's a reggae-loving bar owner in Fukuoka who loathes the stereotype that reggae is "summer music." Truth is, though, his business does extremely well during summer. It seems that atmosphere-building is still an essential part of the seasons in Japan.
SOCCER / World cup
Jul 4, 2000

Japanese, Koreans study cohosting at Euro 2000

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- Senior officials from both the Japanese and Korean World Cup organizing committees said Saturday they expected to learn many things from the cohosted Euro 2000 Soccer Championship, but emphasized that the 2002 World Cup was a different kettle of fish with its own attendant problems....
COMMUNITY
Jul 2, 2000

Noh master calling U.K. college alumni

There was some initial confusion when Naohiko Umewaka requested help in finding graduates of Royal Holloway. What was he talking about? The only Holloway known to this Londoner is the district north of the River Thames best known for the prison of the same name. Now here was a story! Japan's best known...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jul 2, 2000

Remembrance

"Sensei." Along with "sayonara," that is one of the first words most of us learn when we come to Japan. Though the image has been somewhat tarnished in these recent years of school disorders and juvenile delinquency, traditionally the word sensei, or teacher, has been one of the most honorific terms...
EDITORIALS
Jun 30, 2000

Germany says 'no nukes'

The agreement reached earlier this month between the German government and major electric-power companies to phase out that country's commercial nuclear program in about 30 years came as a fresh reminder of the global shift away from nuclear energy production. The "irreversible" landmark agreement is...
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2000

Red Army fugitive returned for trial

Red Army Faction fugitive Yoshimi Tanaka arrived Wednesday in Japan to face trial for his role in a Japan Airlines jetliner hijacking 30 years ago, following his arrest in Thailand by Japanese police the previous night.
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 28, 2000

Nature's playground welcomes kids of all ages

Located on low hills (67 meters above sea level) in Yokohama's Minami Ward, the Yokohama Children's Botanic Garden opened to the public in 1979 (the Year of the Child) with an area of 4 hectares. Since then, many of the trees have matured, creating a woodland atmosphere.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 27, 2000

Your most valuable briefing paper

DOING BUSINESS WITH THE NEW JAPAN, by James Day Hodgson, Yoshihiro Sano and John L. Graham. Rowman & Littlefield, 2000, 230 pp., $27.95 (cloth). Do we really need another book about doing business in Japan? Probably not -- and not even if this is a "new Japan" or a new era in international capitalism....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 27, 2000

Art, enlightenment and empire

THE IDEALS OF THE EAST, by Okakura Kakuzo. Tokyo: ICG Muse Inc., 2000, 250 pp., 1,300 yen.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2000

Rain-aided coalition cruises toward victory

Amid lower-than-expected voter turnout, the Liberal Democratic Party-led ruling triumvirate appeared to have secured at least a simple majority in the Lower House in the general election held Sunday, exit polls show.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2000

Coalition wins a stable majority

The Liberal Democratic Party-led ruling triumvirate suffered a major setback but managed to secure a comfortable majority in the Lower House in Sunday's general election.
COMMENTARY
Jun 26, 2000

English is not the answer

Earlier this year, the Forum on 21st Century Japan, a private panel to the late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, proposed a national debate on whether English should be used in Japan as a second official language. That proposal has added fuel to the long-standing discussions on English education in this...
JAPAN / ELECTION 2000: VOX POPULI
Jun 24, 2000

Voters to blame for deadbeats, nepotism in Diet, says Totten

If citizens want a better Japan, they need to turn out for Sunday's election and vote against the old-school lawmakers and those who aim to inherit a parent's seat as if it were a birthright, according to American businessman Bill Totten.

Longform

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