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CULTURE / Books
Aug 29, 2000

Captivating fragments of Southeast Asia

THE TRUTH ABOUT ANNA . . . and Other Stories, by William Warren. Archipelago Press, Singapore, 2000, 224 pp., unpriced. Most of these essays by William Warren, who has lived in Bangkok for 40 years, concern aspects of life in Thailand, about which the author has written copiously. There are also glimpses...
BUSINESS
Aug 29, 2000

Japan called on to help redevelop Panama Canal

Nearly a century after Japanese engineer Akira Aoyama contributed to the construction of the Panama Canal, Panama is now seeking fresh investment and expert advice from Japan to redevelop the world's crucial waterway to serve 21st-century needs.
COMMENTARY
Aug 28, 2000

U.N. central to future peace

Hisashi Owada, former ambassador to the United Nations and now president of the Japan Institute of International Affairs, emphasized in a recent interview with this writer that Japan should play a larger role in the 188-member world body, saying: "Japan should contribute to the resolution of global issues,...
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2000

Pyongyang offered economic help instead of redress

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono confirmed Friday that Japan has offered to extend economic cooperation to North Korea instead of monetary compensation for its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
EDITORIALS
Aug 23, 2000

Pride before a fall

After a nine-day rescue operation that transfixed the world, the Russian government announced Monday that all 118 crew members of the downed submarine Kursk were dead. An international rescue team discovered that all the compartments in the vessel were flooded; it is likely that almost all of the crew...
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2000

Policymakers visit Yoshino dam site

LDP policy chief Shizuka Kamei leads a ruling coalition mission on an inspection of the planned site of a dam along the Yoshino River. TOKUSHIMA (Kyodo) Policymakers from the Liberal Democratic Party, New Conservative Party and New Komeito on Monday inspected the planned site for a controversial project...
COMMENTARY
Aug 21, 2000

China rethinks Taiwan policy

As China's leaders discuss future policies and strategies at the summer resort of Beidaihe, future cross-strait strategy is high on their list of priorities. President Jiang Zemin has been roundly and openly criticized for mishandling events leading up to Chen Shui-bian's election as Taiwan's first non-Nationalist...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2000

Socialist International surveys the scene

The Socialist International's Asia Pacific Committee met Aug. 7-8 in Wellington, New Zealand, at the invitation of Helen Clark, the Labor prime minister. The urgent issue on the agenda was Fiji. Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, the Fiji Labor Party leader who had been overthrown, explained the background....
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2000

War surrender anniversary draws 1,500

About 1,500 people attended an annual memorial service to pay tribute to the war dead at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on Tuesday, the 55th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 16, 2000

China stays focused on the big picture

INTERPRETING CHINA'S GRAND STRATEGY: Past, Present, and Future, by Michael D. Swaine and Ashley J. Tellis. RAND 2000, Project Air Force, 2000, 283 pp., $35 (cloth), $20 (paper). Dealing with China is the chief foreign-policy challenge of the 21st century. Governments in Tokyo, Washington and elsewhere...
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2000

Base cuts beyond SACO sought

ITAMI, Osaka Pref. -- In order for the U.S. and Japan to maintain friendly relations, America must reduce its military presence on Okinawa, which is little more than a colonial outpost controlled by the U.S. military, said leading Okinawa politician Tokushin Yamauchi during a recent symposium.
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2000

Japan-U.S. bilateral relations on agenda

The significance of Japan-U.S. relations in the past half century should become the basis of sound bilateral ties in the next 50 years, former Ambassador to the United States Yoshio Okawara said.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Aug 12, 2000

Lieberman gives Gore a boost

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut is Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore's choice for vice president. The choice is a masterful one. Lieberman brings several big pluses to Gore's candidacy:
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2000

LDP panel proposes tax to cut CO2 emissions

A Liberal Democratic Party panel in charge of energy policy recommended in a report released Wednesday the introduction of an environmental tax on gasoline and other fossil fuels to cut carbon dioxide emissions.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2000

It's summertime, and the news is slim

LONDON -- Those of us whose job is to feed the world a steady diet of "news" (99 percent of which is actually recycled "olds") are always grateful when a loon like Rabbi Ovadia Yosef opens his mouth and lets fly. Especially in August.
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2000

Marist headmaster inspired by nation's morals, quake ordeal

KOBE -- What is behind Japanese people's moral behavior remains a mystery to Brother George Fontana, although he has spent 11 years here as headmaster of Marist Brothers International School in Suma Ward.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 6, 2000

Yankees Day at Tokyo Dome on Sept. 3

The Nippon Ham Fighters have announced their annual Yankees Day promotion will be held on Sunday, Sept. 3, when the team will play host to the Chiba Lotte Marines in a Pacific League game to begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Tokyo Dome. AIWA Co., Ltd., will sponsor the event and, as usual, the Nippon Ham club...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 6, 2000

It's Delhi's move in Kashmir

India recently celebrated the first anniversary of victory over Pakistan-backed incursion into the Kargil sector of Kashmir. Some victory: The two had faced off in the most dangerous nuclear confrontation since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. They have gone to full-scale war three times already and...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2000

ASEAN slowly embraces human rights

BANGKOK -- When ASEAN agreed in 1993 to consider creating a regional human-rights monitoring body, some member countries that weren't really enthusiastic about the idea probably thought they were safe. At the time, there seemed no way it could ever happen. For ASEAN, human rights was so sensitive that...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2000

A decade on, Hussein remains a force

Special to The Japan Times UMM QASR, southern Iraq -- The Iraqi-Kuwaiti frontier officially ranks as one of the world's most dangerous flash points. But these days, the only threat to man or beast beneath a ferocious sun is the snakes and scorpions that inhabit these burning sandy wastes. "This is the...
LIFE / Style & Design / SIMPLY DIVINE
Aug 3, 2000

Dancing your way to fitness

Some medical experts claim a glass of wine is good for your heart, others believe chocolate is an excellent alternative to Prozac, but something they all tend to agree on is that adequate exercise is vital to a healthy life. However, if your idea of working out is a spot of intensive window-shopping...
EDITORIALS
Aug 2, 2000

Milosevic vs. Montenegro

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has been the architect of his country's destruction. Over the course of a decade, his twin pursuits of the Serb nationalist cause and his own power have torn the Yugoslav federation apart. It has been a bloody process, triggering foreign military intervention on...
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2000

Financial law to stay despite sale of NCB, Aizawa says

The government will not meddle with the financial system revival law for the sake of renegotiating the sale of Nippon Credit Bank to a consortium led by Softbank Corp., Hideyuki Aizawa, newly appointed chief of the Financial Reconstruction Commission, said Tuesday.
LIFE / Digital
Aug 2, 2000

'Zine zone

www.failuremag.com The immediate image that came to mind upon hearing there's something out there called Failure Magazine was of four California college students getting stoned in a cramped dorm room, trying to figure out how to catch up with all their classmates' e-commerce sites. The light bulb dims...
EDITORIALS
Aug 1, 2000

Educational reform, not regression

It has long been recognized that Japan's educational system is badly in need of reform. Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori repeatedly makes it clear that he agrees. The indications are plentiful: the collapse of classroom discipline in elementary schools; the rising rates of prolonged absenteeism and physical...

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami