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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.
EDITORIALS
Mar 14, 1999

Safety regulations must be enforced

Pedestrians on Tokyo's sidewalks could only welcome the report last week that the Metropolitan Police Department intends to crack down on bicycle riders who violate traffic regulations. Thirteen accidents in which cyclists were killed were registered in the capital as of the end of February, an increase...
JAPAN
Mar 12, 1999

Diet finally takes up defense guidelines

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on Friday renewed calls for "quick and smooth" passage of bills covering defense cooperation with the United States, as the Diet finally began deliberating the long-simmering issue.
EDITORIALS
Mar 11, 1999

Kochi tests nation's nuclear principles

The long-standing controversy over whether U.S. warships calling at Japanese ports carry nuclear weapons is taking a new twist. The Kochi prefectural government is seeking to obtain "certificates" from the central government showing that U.S. naval vessels visiting ports in the prefecture are not nuclear-armed....
JAPAN
Mar 10, 1999

Japan, U.S. to consult on antidumping law

Staff writer
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Mar 10, 1999

Winners and losers

People in the food industry look to Foodex to find out how best to cater to their Japanese and foreign customers. What they see at Makuhari Messe are often more fantasy than fact, things that might be exported to Japan if the proper arrangements can be made. And that's what the foreigners are there for,...
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ARCHIPELA-GO
Mar 10, 1999

The seductive stench of Yurakucho

"Shall We Meet in Yurakucho (Yurakucho de Aimasho)" was the title of a 1958 megahit number, sung by the king of Japanese blues, Frank Nagai. As Frank described it, Yurakucho was always misty with fog and the collective sighs of hundreds of lovers, the streets were damp with just-fallen rain and lined...
EDITORIALS
Mar 6, 1999

Old men and bad dreams

Two unrelated news stories that have been gathering momentum in the United States in the past few weeks have focused attention all over again on the touchy issue of old crimes and delayed punishments. The conflicts involved are not novel -- they surfaced as recently as last year, when Spain attempted...
JAPAN
Mar 5, 1999

J.League 1999 Preview: Big pack takes aim at Antlers

Special to The Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Mar 3, 1999

Belize offers cay to a good vacation

Belize City (population 60,000) sucks. Crack addicts, muggers, deranged loafers, unprovoked verbal abuse of the anti-whitey variety. A spoonful of water from its rancid canals, if strategically distributed, would wipe out the People's Republic of China. Belize City's got the lot.
JAPAN
Mar 2, 1999

State moves to validate Hinomaru, 'Kimigayo' after suicide

The government will start working to legally recognize "Kimigayo" as the national anthem and the Hinomaru as Japan's flag, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Mar 2, 1999

A world bereft of leaders?

LONDON -- Hardly a day goes by without someone deploring the lack of political and economic leadership in our world. Commentators bemoan that with the departure of politicians like former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl the world is bereft of political leadership....
JAPAN
Mar 1, 1999

Recruit sells building to U.S. firms

Recruit Co., a major information service company, has sold its office building in front of JR Kawasaki Station to two U.S real estate firms as part of efforts to reduce its huge debts, informed sources said Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 1999

Avoiding a N. Korean crisis

Will 1999 bring the second North Korean nuclear crisis in five years, perhaps leading to a military confrontation similar to the recent U.S. attack on Iraq, or can such a confrontation be avoided? Although heightened tensions may be inevitable in the coming months, the ability of policymakers in Washington,...
JAPAN
Feb 26, 1999

Opertti to tackle UNSC reform with principles, not seats

Reform of the United Nations Security Council should be based on the principles of equitable regional representation and contribution to U.N. activities, a senior U.N. official visiting Japan argues.
JAPAN
Feb 25, 1999

NCB bad loan numbers blamed on ministry

Nippon Credit Bank reported its "third-category" loans at 70 billion yen in its March 1997 request for public funds based on figures given by Finance Ministry inspectors, former NCB President Shigeoki Togo said in unsworn Diet testimony Thursday.
JAPAN
Feb 24, 1999

Pyongyang faces united U.S., Seoul policy: Roth

There is no policy difference between the United States and South Korea in dealing with North Korean underground activities, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Stanley Roth reiterated Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 1999

Haunting the high street

As the Internet insinuates itself deeper into daily life, one key facet of its future role -- electronic commerce -- continues its explosive growth. Estimates of the amount of business conducted in cyberspace vary from $30 billion annually to nearly twice that. But one thing is certain: It is increasing...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 1999

Globalization, the world's whipping boy

For one brief moment less than a decade ago, the idea of "globalization" was viewed with more promise than peril. At the time, it represented an emerging economic reality: the merging of national markets into a single entity that traders and merchants anywhere could access at anytime. This "24-hour,...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Feb 17, 1999

Designing for dollars

Say what you will about Jeff Bezos, president of Amazon.com, but he is a savvy guy. He and his company may not be worth the gazillions of dollars that the market is throwing at them, but he deserves credit for making the market believe in him.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 1999

Impact of new bond issues must be studied: Miyazawa

The government must consider the impact of newly issued government bonds on the financial market and is currently studying ways to tackle the problem, Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa reiterated Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 1999

Japan seeks WTO ruling on U.S. antidumping law

Japan has requested the World Trade Organization to rule on a U.S. antidumping law, charging that the law is not in compliance with WTO rules, government officials said Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 10, 1999

Encouraging signs in South Asia

The world was shaken last May when India and then Pakistan conducted underground nuclear tests. Citizens of the two countries danced in the streets as the two governments declared themselves members of the nuclear club. Reaction elsewhere was just as heartfelt, but for entirely different reasons. The...
EDITORIALS
Feb 6, 1999

Ethical standards for bankers

In a landmark suit involving a bank's responsibility for bad loans, Sumitomo Bank earlier this week agreed to pay 3 billion yen to the Housing Loan Administration Corp., the public debt-clearing body for bankrupt home-loan companies. The HLAC had initially demanded 5 billion yen in damages, saying the...
JAPAN
Feb 5, 1999

AmEx exec sees silver lining to recession

While the nation's economy is reeling from years of recession, eroding the confidence of many players in the financial industry, Ian Marsh, president of American Express International Inc., Japan, says now is the time to invest in the Japanese market.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 1999

Will government bonds help? It's a trick question

Debate on how Japan can pull itself out of its worst postwar economic slump has entered a new stage.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 1999

FTC alleges pipe industry collusion

The Fair Trade Commission filed a complaint with the prosecutor general Thursday against Kubota Corp. and two other water- and gas-pipe makers for allegedly arranging a cartel to fix their market shares, officials said.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 1999

OECD drafts corporate governance guides

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has completed a draft of international guidelines for good corporate governance that emphasizes, among other things, promotion and protection of shareholders' rights.

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