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EDITORIALS
May 8, 2000

The return of 'Red Ken'

Red is the color of the British Labor Party. Last week, British voters were a little too red for Prime Minister Tony Blair. The election of Mr. Ken Livingstone, known as "Red Ken" for his feisty leftwing politics, as London's first directly elected mayor, left Mr. Blair with a nasty black eye, but that...
COMMENTARY / World
May 7, 2000

Controversial look at Constitutional change

Resurgent nationalism by Japan's youth, a feeling that military dependence on the United States cannot last forever and a sense that Tokyo should be more ready to participate unambiguously in peacekeeping are reasons for a renewed interest in constitutional change, analysts say.
CULTURE / Art
May 7, 2000

Jewels of the printmaker's art

"I call these my jewels," said Joanna H. Schoff, as we bent to catch a gleam of silver in the softly lit museum. Treasures indeed, but instead of the brilliance of diamonds we were looking at far gentler beauties: rare gems of Japanese printmaking from the 1800s.
COMMENTARY
May 4, 2000

Will Clinton crumble again?

If Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's overseas foreign-policy tour this week has a theme, it is "coverup" and "damage control." Mori, known as a colorless political fixer, has been tasked with assuring foreign leaders that the July G8 summit will go forward successfully no matter what happens on the Japanese...
JAPAN
May 3, 2000

Constitution writer backs limited role for SDF

A former officer of the GHQ of the Allied Forces who helped draft Japan's postwar Constitution suggested Tuesday that the nation's possession of armed forces and their roles be clearly written down in the supreme law.
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 2000

Regaining the spirit of prewar Japan

The budget committees of both Houses of the Diet met April 24 and 25 to hear Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's views on various matters facing his new Cabinet. Throughout both days, he answered questions from the opposition parties. As a result, he seems to have cleared his first hurdle as the head of government....
JAPAN
May 2, 2000

Bedridden Takeshita to quit politics

Ailing former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, the behind-the-scenes kingmaker of the Liberal Democratic Party, announced through a recorded message Monday that he will retire from politics for health reasons.
COMMENTARY
Apr 28, 2000

Ichiro Ozawa now isolated

The recent change of government in Japan, resulting from Yoshiro Mori's replacement of the ailing Keizo Obuchi as prime minister, was accompanied by another important development: the end of a conflict between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's Secretary General Hiromu Nonaka and Liberal Party leader...
EDITORIALS
Apr 18, 2000

Help for the neediest

In a change of position, the Japanese government last week announced that it would forgive 100 percent of the debt owed to it by the world's poorest countries. The news is welcome: The countries involved are in desperate straits. But reports that accepting the offer would mean forfeiting future assistance...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 2, 2000

Benchapa Krairiksh

This year's Asian Festival charity bazaar, organized by the Asian Ladies Friendship Society, will be held April 27. Benchapa Krairiksh, wife of the ambassador of Thailand to Japan, says she is "honored and delighted to serve as chairperson of the festival in the year 2000."
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Apr 2, 2000

Time traveling

There have been many observations about nostalgia. Nostalgia's not what it used to be, There's no "stalgia" like nostalgia -- but nostalgia is where I am today. I have just returned from three weeks in California, and it is a nostalgia mix, what I have left behind, what I have gained, from living so...
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2000

Factional fighting set to split Liberal Party

The Liberal Party, the smallest member of the ruling coalition, appears to be splitting up.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2000

Obuchi aims to maintain coalition

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on Tuesday morning expressed his intention to maintain the current framework of the tripartite coalition and realize policy goals set by the three ruling parties.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2000

Prefectures to examine incinerator waste water

The Environment Agency on Tuesday sent off a letter asking prefectures to check waste water from incinerators similar to the one in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, that has been found to be spewing record levels of dioxin into a local river.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2000

Obuchi hails Putin's win in Russia

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on Monday congratulated acting Russian President Vladimir Putin via telephone on his victory in Sunday's presidential elections, a Foreign Ministry official said.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2000

Police arrest ministry official

Police on Monday arrested a bureaucrat at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries who was allegedly wined and dined to the tune of about 1.9 million yen by an agricultural cooperative in Kagawa Prefecture in return for favors involving farm subsidies.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2000

State slow in Tokai fiasco, report notes

The government reacted slowly last year to the nuclear disaster in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, which resulted in the first fatality from radiation exposure in postwar Japanese history, according to a government report obtained by Kyodo News.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2000

Obuchi puts G8 before election

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi indicated Saturday that he will not dissolve the Lower House for elections before the Okinawa summit of the Group of Eight major nations in July.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 26, 2000

Vast private collection housed in London's 'unofficial attic'

LONDON -- Museums in Britain are nervously awaiting the results of the Internet publication of an official inventory of 350 works of art in British national collections whose provenance in the period between 1933 and 1945 is unclear. More than half belong to the National Gallery and the Tate, 109 and...
BUSINESS
Mar 25, 2000

Bill to protect investors approved

The Cabinet approved a bill Friday designed to tighten controls on the sale of financial products and better protect investors against the risks involved in their investments, government officials said.
BUSINESS
Mar 24, 2000

Recovery difficult to judge from figures

Official figures released earlier this month gave a conflicting picture of the prospects for economic recovery.
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2000

Diet holdout Tomobe gets 10-year sentence for fraud

Independent Upper House member Tatsuo Tomobe was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday for swindling 35 people out of about 665 million yen between 1994 and 1996 in a scam involving his Orange Kyosai bogus mutual aid scheme.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2000

Beijing all bark and no bite? Think again

Tensions over the Taiwan Strait are palpable after China did its best to intimidate Taiwanese voters in the runup to last weekend's election. First, the Cabinet released a white paper that drew an unmistakable line -- thickened with a new condition -- regarding the limits of acceptable Taiwanese behavior...
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2000

Talks on NTT fees extended

Japan and the United States decided Wednesday to extend by one day their high-level deregulation talks in an effort to bridge gaps over the degree by which the interconnection fees Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. charges its competitors should be reduced, Japanese officials said.

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?