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EDITORIALS
Aug 27, 2000

Shattering the myth of race

When two rival scientific groups jointly announced in June that they had completed a working draft of the entire sequence of the human genome -- the genetic material found in every cell of every human being -- the achievement was rightly greeted as a milestone of modern medical research.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2000

Cancer-causing chemicals found at Yokohama site

YOKOHAMA -- Just above the junction of the Tsurumi and Toriyama rivers lies a fenced-off area that looks like a simple abandoned lot.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2000

Language questions reflect changing times

In times of transition, when the need for reform is felt more keenly than usual, there is heightened openness to bold suggestions. Japan is in the middle of such a period. Public debt exceeds 100 percent of GDP. The social-welfare system needs a drastic overhaul. Unemployment is at an all-time high....
EDITORIALS
Aug 25, 2000

Listen to the market

The market is the judge in the market-driven economy. For instance, the stock market tells -- through prices formed by the collective will of investors -- where the real economy stands. Although this fact is self-evident, it is often forgotten or misunderstood. The current slump in the Tokyo stock market,...
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2000

NCB sale to proceed unchanged, Aizawa tells Son

The government confirmed Wednesday that it will sell the nationalized Nippon Credit Bank to a Softbank Corp.-led consortium Sept. 1 under the original contract terms, government officials said.
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2000

Forum calls for new WTO round

WASHINGTON — Despite the failure of last year's World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, panelists and participants at a recent symposium in Washington remain hopeful that a new round of multilateral trade talks will be launched before the end of next year.
COMMENTARY
Aug 22, 2000

Still coping with the Gulf War

Ten years ago, the world was in turmoil over the Persian Gulf crisis that started with the Iraq invasion of Kuwait. Now a new crisis appears to be brewing between Arabs and Israelis.
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...
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2000

Police to probe Snow plant toxin

SAPPORO -- Hokkaido Prefectural Police have decided to launch an investigation into the discovery of toxin that can cause food poisoning in powdered skim milk produced at a Snow Brand Milk Products Co. factory in southern Hokkaido, police sources said Saturday.
COMMUNITY
Aug 20, 2000

A decade of anecdotes to order

There are books about spending time in Japan, written in the main by Alice-in-Wonderlands who believe a short stretch makes them authoritative on all things Japanese. And there are books about Japan. Bruce McCormack's "Tokyo Notes and Anecdotes: Natsukashi" falls into this second, far more recommendable,...
COMMENTARY
Aug 18, 2000

World War II lessons go unlearned

On Aug. 15, 1945, Japan unconditionally surrendered to the U.S.-led Allied Powers, ending World War II. An estimated 3 million Japanese military personnel and civilians died in the war.
COMMUNITY
Aug 17, 2000

Paper wings that bear dreams aloft

It is a bright, sunshiny day in Musashino Central Park in Tokyo's Musashino City, but the wind is a little strong for the participants in the Japan Paper Airplane Association semifinal flyoffs.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2000

Kepco urged to explain MOX mess

OSAKA -- Fearful that history will repeat itself, antinuclear groups are calling on Kansai Electric Power Co. to provide data on a batch of mixed uranium and plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel now being processed in France.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Aug 16, 2000

Fat a question of feathers for shearwaters

The fact that young animals and birds not only start off small, but remain smaller than their parents for a long time, seems to be a dominant rule of life. Think of fox or badger cubs, think of young sparrows or bulbuls -- from birth, or hatching, and for some time after they remain smaller than their...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2000

Australia splits on single mothers' rights

SYDNEY -- Sex and the single woman: This unlikely topic has suddenly become a political cause celebre in Australia. Even the Olympics are taking a temporary back seat to the debate on unmarried women's right to motherhood.
EDITORIALS
Aug 13, 2000

Not-so-lonely planet

Sometimes we forget how recently we Earthlings thought our planet was the center of the universe, which up until the 17th century ended at Saturn and used the "fixed" stars as a mere decorative backdrop. It was only in 1610 -- barely 400 years ago -- that Galileo looked at the heavens through a telescope,...
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2000

Not our fault: health ministry

The Health and Welfare Ministry on Friday denied responsibility for the widespread use of imported dura mater -- it estimates 200,000 transplants of the human tissue have taken place nationwide -- which has been linked to the contraction of the deadly Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2000

Cases of student violence toward teachers up 11%

Incidents of students being violent toward teachers at public schools increased more than 11 percent to about 5,000 cases nationwide in the 1999 school year, according to an Education Ministry report released Friday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Aug 12, 2000

Bush makes Moscow nervous

The election year is disrupting the normally smooth, quiet summer in the United States. Newspapers replace Harry Potter books as beach reading, Republican and Democratic conventions dominate television, the two parties are finalizing platforms, the two candidates exchange mutual verbal abuse, voters...
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2000

Politicians know ordinary people best: Aizawa

The government will not delay again the sale of the nationalized Nippon Credit Bank to a Softbank Corp.-led consortium on Sept. 1, despite a controversial clause in the contract, the new chairman of the Financial Reconstruction Commission said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2000

Critics slam government 'sinks' proposal

What is a forest?
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2000

U.S. forces remain critical to Northeast Asian security

WASHINGTON -- There has been a sea change in the political landscape in Northeast Asia, particularly on the Korean Peninsula. In South Korea, the success of multiparty democracy is changing how the United States interacts with its ally. President Kim Dae Jung must deal with voters who increasingly question...
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Aug 9, 2000

Fried potatoes

world.std.com/~fwhite/spud/ Yes, there is actually a server out there powered by potatoes that really does work. Kind of. This address only takes you to a link to that server, which doesn't accept a whole lot of hits, and to an article explaining why the contraption was built.
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2000

Tokyo government to seize land for dump site

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has decided to break a 6-year-old impasse with environmentalists by expropriating two plots of land to expand a municipal landfill in the town of Hinode, western Tokyo, officials announced Tuesday.

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