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CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Dec 28, 1999

Flying first class around the globe

Since this is my last column of the year, I'll look back instead of forward.
JAPAN
Dec 28, 1999

Joyu might disband Aum in order duck new law: expert

Staff writer After he is freed today from a Hiroshima prison, senior Aum Shinrikyo member Fumihiro Joyu will probably announce the voluntary dissolution of the cult, according to a freelance journalist who has extensively covered the sect. It would be a move to avoid a new law designed to curb the cult's...
JAPAN
Dec 27, 1999

Agency requests Aum be put under its watch

The Public Security Investigation Agency requested Monday that the Public Security Examination Commission consider whether religious cult Aum Shinrikyo can be placed under the agency's surveillance. The request came on the same day that new legislation enabling the agency to regularly supervise or restrict...
JAPAN
Dec 24, 1999

Drop nuclear safety myth, institute precautions: NSC report

Japan should drop the long-held myth that nuclear power operations are "absolutely safe" and take steps to prevent the recurrence of serious accidents like the Tokai disaster that rocked the nation in September, the government's Nuclear Safety Commission said in a report Friday. The report was compiled...
JAPAN
Dec 24, 1999

State to bring back hazardous waste in Manila

The government will ship 122 containers of hazardous medical and household waste to Japan from the Philippines early next month by securing ships in cooperation with the Transport Ministry, trade chief Takashi Fukaya said Friday. The move will be the first time the government has accepted the return...
JAPAN
Dec 24, 1999

Ramifications of the 2000 budget

Staff writer The 85 trillion yen fiscal 2000 state budget, approved by the Cabinet Friday, will put the nation deeper into debt. How serious is the debt and what can be done about it? Here are some questions and answers about the new budget and government debt: Why did the government prepare an aggressive...
EDITORIALS
Dec 23, 1999

Nuclear program under fire

Japan's nuclear power program is at a critical moment. Earlier this week, Mr. Hisashi Ouchi died as a result of exposure to massive doses of radiation during an accident three months ago at the Tokaimura uranium processing facility. He is the first Japanese to die in a nuclear accident. That tragedy...
JAPAN
Dec 23, 1999

Carmakers jockey for inroads in slow-growing China market

Staff writer GUANGZHOU, China -- Browsing through glossy catalogs, a couple of men chat with dealers over the counter of a spacious car showroom. Beside them sit three brand-new cars. What appears to be an ordinary scene at any roadside dealership, however, is not run-of-the-mill; one of the cars --...
JAPAN
Dec 23, 1999

Police identify kidnapping suspect

OSAKA -- Police looking into the abduction earlier this week of an 8-year-old girl in Settsu, Osaka Prefecture, have singled out a 47-year-old man residing in northern Osaka Prefecture as an important witness, sources close to the investigation said Thursday. According to the sources, fingerprints found...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

Tokyo, Riyadh to sign deal on seat for Saudi Arabia at WTO

Staff writer Japan and Saudi Arabia are very likely to conclude a deal by next month on the oil-rich country's admission to the World Trade Organization, government sources said Tuesday. The agreement would be the first of its kind between Saudi Arabia and a major industrialized nation, the sources...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

Jury system for criminal trials urged

Second of three partsStaff writer Lawyers and other experts are calling for introduction of a jury system for criminal trials, arguing that it would change not only the makeup of the bench, which is exclusively run by legal professionals, but also the Japanese mind-set. "If the system is successfully...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 1999

In the aftermath of the WTO debacle

WASHINGTON -- In the aftermath of the failed WTO meeting in Seattle last month, the big question is, "What now?"
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

Japan to host people-smuggling symposium

Japan will host the first international symposium exclusively focusing on ways to combat the increasingly serious problem of human smuggling in the Asia-Pacific region in mid-January, Foreign Ministry officials said Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

Syllabus for English classes under fire

MITO, Ibaraki Pref. -- The future of English education in Japan was the subject of a heated debate earlier this month as four panelists gathered at Mito College to trade their views. Panel coordinator Yukiko Amakawa, associate professor of Mito College, was joined by Gregory Clark, president of Tama...
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1999

Majority doesn't mean easy street for coalition

Staff writer The 48-day extraordinary Diet session, scheduled to end today, appears to have exposed the weaknesses rather than strengths of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's new tripartite coalition, which controls 70 percent of the seats in the Lower House. Obuchi had hoped the combined majority of 356...
EDITORIALS
Dec 10, 1999

Victims of money politics

Mr. Helmut Kohl may no longer be Germany's chancellor, a position he held for 16 years, but he continues to be one of the country's most revered statesmen. He presided over the reunification of Germany and in the process helped the country become "a normal nation." While each of his predecessors pushed...
JAPAN
Dec 10, 1999

Shinagawa gives parents, pupils choice in education

Staff writer In an innovative attempt to make public schools more competitive, Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward has introduced a program through which parents can choose their children's elementary school from several in their area. The new program, which begins in April, will allow children who are ready to...
COMMUNITY
Dec 9, 1999

How to learn more in less time

One of the great things about living in Tokyo is the opportunity to participate in the vast array of workshops that are offered every season. With Glenn Fraser's Accelerated Study Techniques Workshop, students and adult learners of all stripes will really be hitting the jackpot.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Dec 8, 1999

May we help you?

They say this might be the year that online Christmas sales in the U.S. actually live up to past promises of e-commerce's ascendancy. Hurrahs could be heard when it was reported that online transactions over Thanksgiving were up 10-fold (and groans could be heard as servers started overloading with the...
JAPAN
Dec 8, 1999

Intimidation charge spurs more Nichiei raids

OSAKA -- Osaka Prefectural Police raided the Kyoto head office and Osaka branch of moneylender Nichiei Co. as well as four other sites Wednesday in connection with the scandal-tainted firm's alleged involvement in heavy-handed loan-collection tactics by its employees. Investigators were acting on a...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 1999

Losing the battle in Seattle

Last Tuesday, a crowd in downtown Seattle assembled in front of a McDonald's restaurant. First, a French dairy farmer, defending European agricultural export subsidies, denounced the World Trade Organization. Next, a Brazilian farmer, harmed by those same European export subsidies, excoriated the WTO....
EDITORIALS
Dec 7, 1999

On track to normalization

Moves toward a thaw in relations between Japan and North Korea have been gaining momentum since a Japanese parliamentary group headed by former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama and the ruling Workers Party of Korea last week agreed on the need to resume the long-stalled normalization talks at an early...
JAPAN
Dec 7, 1999

Complaint targets Obuchi fundraising machine

An Osaka-based citizens' group filed a complaint with the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office, maintaining that Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's fund management body unlawfully received contributions ranging from 2 million yen to 5 million yen from seven individuals through three nearly dormant private...
JAPAN
Dec 6, 1999

Pearl Harbor: Memo sheds light on Japan's failure to make a 'declaration' of war

It is popularly believed in Japan that the country would have been spared the disgrace of carrying out a "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor if Tokyo's final memorandum to U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull in Washington had been delivered prior to its launch as planned. But a former diplomat says he has...
EDITORIALS
Nov 30, 1999

The other Clinton runs

There is nothing unusual about political dynasties. Every country has them. Japan has a growing list of second- and third-generation politicians. In the United States, the most prominent dynasty is the Kennedy clan, although the Bushes are providing tough competition; India has the Gandhi family. Usually,...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Nov 27, 1999

Unwelcome companions

Thanks to e-mail, a vast assortment of unsolicited information comes my way. Some of it is even interesting and occasionally I share it with you. My amazement is not so much with the information I am sending your way today as it is with the person who noticed it and then did the necessary projection....
JAPAN
Nov 26, 1999

Police arrest ex-Nichiei employee

Tokyo police Friday arrested a former employee of Nichiei Co., the leading nonbank lender of commercial loans, on suspicion of extortion and violating the Moneylending Business Law.
COMMENTARY
Nov 24, 1999

Japan's Middle East role

In January 1996, I was dispatched by the Japanese government to observe the election of the Palestine Council and the president of the Palestinian Authority. Because Palestine was still under Israeli occupation, it was not a sovereign state: Sending international observers to such a region was unprecedented....
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Nov 24, 1999

Web's blog, stardate 1999

The Internet could be blamed for empowering armies of blowhards, chatterboxes and gas bags. While you probably have no shortage of these around you in the real world, you are just as likely to bump into them online, boasting, preaching, whining, ranting, blathering on about whatever has crossed their...
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 1999

Terror for the 21st century

A few weeks ago, New York was hit by an outbreak of the West Nile virus. Five people died and another 50 were sickened before authorities were able to respond. West Nile fever is a rare, encephalitic virus that is common in Africa and Asia, but had never before been diagnosed in the Western Hemisphere....

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