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JAPAN
Jul 5, 1999

Ambassador gives India's side of Kashmir story

India is ready to talk only after Pakistan withdraws its troops from Kashmir, Indian Ambassador to Japan Siddharth Singh said Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 1999

A paler shade of Green hurts Germany

The German Green party is in the midst of a major identity crisis -- struggling between the ideals that have been the motor of its very existence and the pragmatism required of a junior coalition partner of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's (barely) left of center government. A new generation of Greens,...
JAPAN
Jun 28, 1999

Scientists move closer to proving neutrino mass

An international group of scientists announced Monday that they were on the way to determining that neutrinos have mass, a finding that could overturn the current understanding of the universe.
EDITORIALS
Jun 25, 1999

A vote delayed in East Timor

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has decided to delay the referendum on East Timor's future status that had been scheduled for Aug. 8. The U.N.-administered ballot has been moved back two weeks because of fears that violence will make it impossible to prepare for the historic vote. Indonesian...
EDITORIALS
Jun 22, 1999

No strong message from Cologne

The leaders of the world's eight major powers, in their annual three-day summit that ended Sunday in Cologne, Germany, pledged to strengthen and broaden their close partnership in settling the exigent issues that are unsettling the international community. Because it came in the wake of the Kosovo conflict...
JAPAN
Jun 21, 1999

U.S. NPO interns see future in collaboration

The key to prosperity for both U.S. and Japanese nonprofit organizations may be collaboration with appreciation for cultural differences, according to 12 American interns who have completed one-month internships at Japanese NPOs.
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 1999

Symbols of unity or division?

As national symbols go, few can define the identity of a state as succinctly and evocatively as the national flag and anthem. Whether in time of war or peace, the national flag and the anthem unify the country and dignify national pursuits. These are icons that are fundamental to a nation's standing...
CULTURE / Music
Jun 10, 1999

Rockers get down for Tibet Freedom weekend

What do an 11th-century Tibetan saint and a member of one of the world's more popular hip-hop groups have in common?
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jun 9, 1999

High praise

A woman writes that last year she saw several subway advertisements for Hunter-Douglas window blinds and asks if I can find the company's phone number. She complains that local services are extremely expensive and leave a lot to be desired. Recently, for example, she contracted for similar work but as...
LIFE / Travel
Jun 9, 1999

The business of international adoption

At home in rural Connecticut, with his 3-year-old son Vlad playing beside him, Jim Altman is checking to see how many hits he's gotten on his Web site. Two years after adopting Vlad from a Russian orphanage, Altman is using the Internet to wage a propaganda war against the agency he claims used his money...
COMMENTARY
Jun 4, 1999

Obuchi set for one more term

Following the Diet's enactment last week of a legislative package covering the updated guidelines for Japan-U.S. defense cooperation, the Lower House on Tuesday passed bills that will allow wiretapping in investigations into organized crime. The administration of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi has thus...
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

Immigrants: Foreign laborers attempt to organize

First of two parts
LIFE / Travel
Jun 2, 1999

Learning through landscapes

ARBORFIELD CROSS, England -- When Susan Humphries was appointed head of the Coombes Infant School in Arborfield Cross, Surrey, an hour's drive from London, it was doubtless a satisfying moment in career terms. A school of her own at last. What she did not realize, and is likely to dismiss modestly today,...
EDITORIALS
Jun 1, 1999

Ratify the stand against torture

It was in 1984 that the United Nations adopted the "Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment." More than 110 countries have since joined the treaty, but surprisingly Japan is not yet one of them. Finally, however, the government has decided to ratify the...
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 1999

Tiananmen martyrs: rebels without a cause

History holds many surprises for true believers, especially for revolutionaries who find out that the causes they fought for years ago were baseless. That, at least, is the lesson to be drawn from the collapse of the Soviet Union by people who fought and even died for the communist ideology that supported...
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 1999

Trade must extend to poorer countries

Prosperous countries in the North, such as the United States, can no longer rely on trade between developed countries led by Fortune 500 corporations alone. Trade must increase in developing countries and transitional economies if all are to benefit from a growing world economy. Policymakers and businesses...
COMMUNITY
May 20, 1999

Free university opens doors on a place to open your mind

There's a new and unusual place in Tokyo to learn, grow and have fun -- and it's free. Tokyo Jiyu Daigaku, or Tokyo Free University, has opened its doors for its inaugural year onto subjects ranging from Eastern and Western religion, philosophy and literature, third-world development, creative and spiritual...
CULTURE / Books
May 18, 1999

Tracing a profile of the new Japan

REGIME SHIFT: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy, by T.J. Pempel. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1998, 263 pp. I'm confused. On the one hand, we're told Japan has undergone tumultuous change since the beginning of the '90s. The Liberal Democratic Party lost its 38-year-long...
COMMENTARY / World
May 15, 1999

The problem of India's 'untouchables'

It is a great paradox that India, one of the world's oldest democracies, is still unable to eliminate a deep-rooted social problem: the widespread violence and discrimination against the Dalits, a name that means literally "broken" peo ple. The Dalits, or "untouchables," are a segment of Indian society,...
JAPAN
May 13, 1999

Kobe volunteers launch activity fund

KOBE -- A fund to support volunteer activities in and around this port city was set up Thursday by a group of volunteers helping to reconstruct the lives of survivors of the Great Hanshin Earthquake.
LIFE / Travel
May 13, 1999

The 'red, green and white lines': rubies, jade and heroin

Like most things connected to money and profit in Myanmar, there is a sinister side to the north's resurgent economy, a subtext that generally eludes visitors' attention. Still, at least one travel book, Nicholas Greenwood's original and often very funny "Bradt Guide to Burma," has picked up on it. Not...
CULTURE / Books
May 11, 1999

Dazzling portrait of the Occupation

EMBRACING DEFEAT: Japan in the Wake of World War II, By John W. Dower. New York: WW Norton, 1999. 676 pp. $29.95 History does not get any better than this. The award-winning author of "War Without Mercy," (1986) an exploration of racism and the Pacific War, is in peak form in this sparkling evocation...
JAPAN
May 10, 1999

Hyogo opens support center for foreign firms

KOBE -- The Hyogo Investment Support Center held its opening ceremony Monday afternoon at the Kobe International House in central Kobe.
JAPAN
May 10, 1999

Landowners delay second Narita runway

The Transport Ministry officially dropped plans Monday to build a second runway at Narita airport by March 2001 after failing to break an impasse with landowners opposed to the expansion.
JAPAN
May 3, 1999

Constitution's anniversary sparks debate on revision

With last month's Lower House passage of bills covering the updated Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines as a backdrop, the nation on Monday celebrated the 52nd anniversary of the postwar Constitution with heated debate over the document itself.
JAPAN
Apr 29, 1999

Osaka feels blindsided, cheated out of summit

OSAKA -- Thursday's announcement by Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi that next year's Group of Eight summit will be held in Okinawa, Fukuoka, and Miyazaki came as a bitter disappointment to Osaka officials, who until recently believed their city was the front-runner.
LIFE / Travel
Apr 29, 1999

Humanities offer power to the people

SEATTLE -- Journalist and author Earl Shorris believes the real difference between the haves and have-nots is political power.
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 24, 1999

Royal Ballet showcases core repertory

The Royal Ballet is currently touring Japan with the productions "Swan Lake," "Manon" and "La Fille Mal Gardee," showcasing the lyrical Royal Ballet style.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 1999

Doyukai chief calls group consolidation nonsense

As the ongoing economic slump continues to plague many firms, some company leaders argue that Japan's four major business organizations, which have separately published a number of reports on similar issues, should somehow be consolidated.

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