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LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Apr 21, 1999

Under your skin

Take a second, forget about trash-can icons and QWERTY keyboards and ponder the real interface -- our future interaction with technology. How will we navigate the infosphere in 10 years? Will we use mouses or cursors controlled by biofeedback? Will our browser windows be square and scrolled or dynamically...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 20, 1999

East Timor reveals West's hypocrisy

Two places on opposite sides of the world share similar circumstances: innocent people killed and displaced by government forces and paramilitaries. The violence on one side of the world begets harsh condemnation and a series of threats from Western powers, followed by a massive bombing campaign. The...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 1999

Life lessons in pottery and prints

KOBE -- Traditional Japanese art aficionados in Kansai will have a rare chance to learn the finer points of both Bizen pottery and ukiyo-e woodblock prints through a double exhibit of John Wells' Bizen works and Peter Ujlaki's ukiyo-e collection at the Community House and Information Center (CHIC) on...
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Osaka shootings bring cops out in force

OSAKA -- More than 250 riot officers and 10 patrol cars are keeping a 24-hour vigil over Osaka's Konohana Ward, where three residents have been shot and wounded since the end of last month.
COMMUNITY
Apr 15, 1999

Choosing to release world's bonds

His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, gives one sermon annually in the main temple's court, right in front of the entrance to his residence in the Tibetan exile community Dharmsala, in northern India.
JAPAN
Apr 8, 1999

Arafat hints he may delay independence declaration

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Thursday hinted at delaying a planned unilateral declaration of independence for Palestine, a Foreign Ministry official said.
JAPAN
Apr 7, 1999

Airlift Kosovo refugees to Japan?

Japan is considering taking in Kosovo refugees, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka indicated Wednesday.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 1999

Miyazawa plan takes effect in Hanoi

The government on Monday formalized an Official Development Assistance package for Vietnam, including up to 88 billion yen in yen-denominated loans, to support Hanoi's market-oriented reforms under the "Doi Moi" (renovation) policy.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 1999

MITI panel asks U.S. to fix 'peculiar patent system'

A government panel on industrial property urged the United States on Friday to rectify its "peculiar patent system" to cooperate with the global community in setting highly transparent rules on patent protection, and make acquisition of cross-border patents more efficient.
EDITORIALS
Mar 25, 1999

Banking on the euro

The euro was designed to create economies of scale. A single European currency zone was expected to maximize the reach of companies looking to exploit the new supermarket by rationalizing planning and production costs. Proof of the idea's appeal -- and its inevitability -- is the wave of mergers and...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 24, 1999

Degrees of separation

You could say they have an affliction. You've probably bumped into them on the street. That is, they bump into you, because they often walk with their eyes fixated on their task, oblivious to any obstacles in their path. You've definitely overheard them chatting on trains, in coffee shops, perhaps even...
COMMENTARY
Mar 24, 1999

A testing summit for the EU

PARIS -- In many respects, the main body of the European Union is the European Commission, the mass resignation of which was announced last week. The commission's president and its 19 other members are appointed for five years by the European Council, which consists of the heads of state or of government...
EDITORIALS
Mar 18, 1999

More melodrama in Moscow

Russian President Boris Yeltsin has roused himself from his sickbed, where he is being treated for a bleeding ulcer, to launch what could be the next round of a political shakeup in the Kremlin. There are good reasons to change key personnel in Moscow -- the economy continues to totter and the government...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Mar 17, 1999

But . . .

Recently I wrote about my visit to Myanmar (also known as Burma), of how the once-wealthy country is now slipping ever downward, its infrastructure in disrepair. Of Suu Kyi, whose house we were not allowed to see. Of how avidly the people watched her on TV. But mostly, of the beauty of the country and...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 1999

Exxon Valdez damage lingers, 10 years on

Ten years ago, March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef south of Valdez, Alaska, precipitating the largest oil spill in North American history and forever altering the image of Prince William Sound as a largely untouched ecosystem.
EDITORIALS
Mar 16, 1999

A good day for NATO

After the Cold War came to an end in 1989, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization expanded much faster than many people expected it to. Barely a decade on, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic last week formally joined the 16-member alliance. Adding significance to the event is the fact that all three...
JAPAN
Mar 15, 1999

Doctors recommended halting transplants

OSAKA -- The nation's first organ transplants from a legally established brain-dead donor about two weeks ago were conducted strictly on the wishes of the donor and the donor's family, doctors who treated the donor said Monday.
COMMENTARY
Mar 13, 1999

LDP strategy hits and misses

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka, the government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party are pursuing a political strategy for 1999 with these objectives:
JAPAN
Mar 12, 1999

Osaka resolution would let minorities vote, run for office

OSAKA -- The Osaka Prefectural Assembly adopted a resolution early Friday urging the central government to grant long-term foreign residents in the country the right to run and vote in local elections.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 1999

Organ donation more than a signature

Staff writer
JAPAN
Mar 5, 1999

Airport, deficit likely top issues for Kobe voters

Staff writer
JAPAN
Mar 5, 1999

Shevardnadze asks for infrastructure help

Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze asked trade chief Kaoru Yosano on Friday to help the former Soviet Union state develop a port and other infrastructure by utilizing trade insurance and yen loans, an official of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry said.
EDITORIALS
Mar 4, 1999

Japan passes a medical milestone

The nation breathed an almost audible collective sigh of relief this week, thankful that a successful precedent has now been set for organ transplants. Apart from the media hullabaloo and a short-lived controversy over the diagnosis a couple of days before the verdict of legal brain-death was pronounced,...
EDITORIALS
Feb 25, 1999

Lahore offers hope for the future

The rhetoric surrounding last weekend's summit meeting between Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, could hardly have been grander. The vehicle for the consultations -- the inauguration of the first bus service between the two countries...
COMMUNITY / CROSSING CULTURES
Feb 25, 1999

Parents and kids reflect upon road somewhat less traveled

Now that our four children can no longer be counted among the very young, we have the time and energy for reflection.
JAPAN
Feb 24, 1999

Osaka high court rejects voting rights for minorities

The Osaka High Court on Wednesday upheld a lower court decision rejecting demands by 43 Koreans with permanent resident status that long-term foreign residents be granted the right to vote and run in local elections.
COMMENTARY
Feb 23, 1999

Small weapons, big problems

The major challenge for post-Cold War disarmament negotiations on conventional weapons is to devise ways of controlling machine guns, automatic rifles and other small arms. Those are main weapons used in civil wars in Asia, Africa and Central America. To tackle the challenge, the U.N. Group of Governmental...
COMMUNITY
Feb 21, 1999

Steady Yoyogi belies its myriad past

Aristocrats, farmers, soldiers, pilots, Olympians, crows and bums -- Yoyogi Park has seen them all. From posh feudal abode to farm field, runway to international welcome mat, this park has had a variety of visitors and inhabitants.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 20, 1999

Kodo beats remixed for a dance groove

In ancient Japan, boundaries between rural villages were not drawn by geography, but by the deep, resonating rhythms of the taiko drum. Kodo, Sado Island's acclaimed taiko troupe, through the preservation, dissemination and study of one of Japan's most internationally celebrated performing arts, has...
EDITORIALS
Feb 17, 1999

The true meaning of the dioxin scare

Nose, a small town on the northern outskirts of Osaka, first put the fear of dioxin into nation's consciousness last year. Now, just 10 months later, another dioxin scare has hit the headlines. This time, the site is Tokorozawa, the Saitama bedroom community on the northwestern outskirts of Tokyo. The...

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