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JAPAN
May 31, 2001

Time ripe for collective defense: panelists

Panelists at a symposium on Japan-U.S. relations held in Tokyo this week agreed that Japan should lift its ban on engaging in collective defense as both nations seek to strengthen security ties.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2001

U.N. forum cautions against globalization's impact on poor

The advance of economic globalization should improve the life of people in developing countries and bring about sustainable development, according to Carlos A. Magarinos, director general of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2001

Smokers' deadly paradise

For Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Hal Boyle, it wasn't too difficult to tell a man from a woman. "If it always offers you a cigar, it's a man," he quipped. "If it always is asking for a cigarette, then waits for a light, it's a woman."
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

ODA to be reviewed for '02 budget

The government will review its official development assistance when compiling the fiscal 2002 budget, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 31, 2001

Drop your drawers and give me 20 (ml, that is)

Mark Heppelle is a 37-year-old Canadian currently living in Japan with his wife and two kids where he runs a small English school. But that's not his only source of income. Heppelle also has a rather unique sports-related job, the results of which can be seen almost daily on sports pages across the globe....
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 31, 2001

White lines, blowin' through my brain

Until 1903, a bottle of Coca-Cola contained around 60 mg of cocaine -- enough, it has now been shown, to trigger long-lasting changes in brain activity. According to a report in today's issue of Nature, giving a single dose of cocaine to mice changes the way that nerve connections transmit signals in...
EDITORIALS
May 31, 2001

Courage in South Asia

This week marks the third anniversary of Pakistan's nuclear tests. Those blasts followed India's own tests by a few days. Although both governments denied that the explosions posed a threat to regional peace and stability, the tit-for-tat exchanges marked a dangerous escalation in the situation in South...
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

New curriculum sees parents push English for infants

Second of two parts Staff writer Yukiko Wada left her Tochigi home at 8 a.m. one Saturday with her 2-year-old daughter, Hinami. While their journey to Tokyo's Eifuku-cho in Suginami Ward seemed a bit long, it became worthwhile when they encountered an American acquaintance near their destination.
EDITORIALS
May 30, 2001

Toward a basic law on human rights

The Council for Human Rights, an advisory panel to the justice minister, has submitted a report calling for the creation of an independent organization to provide relief for victims of discrimination, child abuse and other human-rights violations. The proposed body, tentatively called the "human-rights...
BUSINESS
May 30, 2001

Fate of Nikkei tied to Koizumi's policies

Although the stock market has reacted positively to the inauguration of the reformist Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, doubts linger.
JAPAN
May 30, 2001

Elementary school teachers to run English gantlet

Offering English language education in an entertaining, communicative way sounds just fine. In theory.
CULTURE / Film
May 30, 2001

Memories as microcosms

Directors, it's often said, keep making the same movie over and over, though the sameness is more evident with some than others. Akira Kurosawa was among the most eclectic directors of his generation, filming everything from Shakespearean drama ("Throne of Blood") to popcorn entertainment ("The Hidden...
BUSINESS
May 29, 2001

China's quarantine steps not retaliatory: ministry

Japan believes that China's tightening of quarantine measures in April was not made in retaliation for import curbs Japan imposed on some of its farm products, Japanese Trade Ministry officials said Monday.
JAPAN
May 28, 2001

Two die as loaded van flips during U-turn

OSAKA -- Two high school students were killed and seven other people injured early Sunday after a van they were riding crashed into a lane divider in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, police said.
COMMENTARY
May 28, 2001

Junichiro Koizumi: Can stardom become success?

LOS ANGELES -- Quality political leadership is so frequently conspicuous by its absence that even the slightest whiff of its sudden presence can electrify a political region. Is Japan finally experiencing the dynamic quality leadership it deserves? That's the question intriguing Asia.
JAPAN
May 26, 2001

State seeks sales delay of controversial textbook

The government has asked a publisher to postpone selling a controversial history textbook until local education boards have selected which books they will have schools use, Education Minister Atsuko Toyama said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2001

Charting a course as wide as the region

To understand the logic that is driving the Bush administration's redesign of U.S. military strategy, overlay two maps. The first focuses on wealth and population. It highlights Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, some of the world's richest and most important trading nations. China, India and...
JAPAN
May 26, 2001

Metro poll may find LDP riding on leader's coattails

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's popularity is expected to change the nature of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election slated for next month.
EDITORIALS
May 25, 2001

Provoking the dragon

U.S. President George W. Bush is performing a high-wire act with China. Even though tensions with Beijing were already running high, the president has approved two visits that will only further irritate the Chinese government. The United States is free to host whomever it wants, and no U.S. government...
MORE SPORTS
May 25, 2001

Kentucky Derby winner also a success in Japan

California-based American jockey Kent Desormeaux made Japanese racing history this past Sunday as he took home first prize in the prestigious filly classic, the Oaks at Tokyo Racecourse.
JAPAN
May 25, 2001

Tanaka puts reforms ahead of diplomacy

Staff writer Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi took the nation by surprise in late April by appointing the key foreign ministry post to Makiko Tanaka, who despite her enormous popularity with voters obviously lacked experience in foreign policy.
COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2001

Rampant piracy posing political problems for Southeast Asia's policymakers

Piracy is alive and well in Southeast Asia, and it is posing political problems for policymakers. Piracy incidents in and around the Straits of Malacca and Singapore have recently increased at an alarming rate -- in both number and severity. But these modern pirates are a far cry from the swashbuckling...
CULTURE / Film
May 23, 2001

Women under the confluence

Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Rodrigo Garcia Running time: 110 minutes Language: EnglishNow playing as the late show at Bunkamura Le Cinema in Shibuya "Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her" is a sleek omnibus film, with five separate but loosely interwoven...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
May 23, 2001

Rookie president seizes the political initiative by zeroing in on a few core issues

Our first MBA president is managing the agenda of action in Washington in textbook fashion. Unlike his predecessor or his father, George W. Bush is limiting his exposure to the myriad issues waiting to be tackled and fights available to be fought. By this time in his first year, President Bill Clinton...
COMMENTARY
May 22, 2001

Politics slides as style prevails

LONDON -- The British general-election campaign has started. The "spin doctors" are working overtime to show the party leaders and party policies in the best possible light and to provide good photo opportunities to illustrate their leaders' popular appeal. At the same time, the party leaders themselves...
JAPAN
May 22, 2001

Minister to seek ban on surrogate childbirth

Chikara Sakaguchi, minister of health, labor and welfare, said Monday he will try to have legislation banning surrogate child-bearing enacted quickly, after the first such birth in Japan was announced Saturday.
BUSINESS
May 21, 2001

Blazing policy paths in Kasumigaseki

It's a little before 9 a.m., and Masahiko Aoki is discussing complex adaptive systems and path dependency. It's an odd conversation even though the topics are familiar ones for Aoki, a professor of economics at Stanford University and an author of several standard texts on the Japanese economy.
COMMUNITY
May 20, 2001

The Tiger's meow

Anti-mainstream, anti-centralism, a love of losers. Such is the stuff of a Hanshin Tigers fan.
CULTURE / Music
May 20, 2001

Is you is or is you ain't . . . ?

Stephen Malkmus, formally known as SM, formally known as that tall, skinny guy who knows more neat metal guitar riffs than anyone in Stockton, Calif., was the leader by default of Amerindie's greatest band, Pavement, which called it quits last fall after a year of waffling.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji