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COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 1999

Save whales with science, not sentiment

The death of Lennie's pet mouse in John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" conveys the tragedy and guilt that overpowers us all when good intentions produce the exact opposite of what we hoped to accomplish.
CULTURE / Books
May 18, 1999

Progress is fleeting in the fight for sexual equality

THE MOUNTAIN IS MOVING: Japanese Women's Lives, by Patricia Morley. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1999, 240 pp., $39.95 (cloth). The mountain is moving, according to Patricia Morley, but mountains are, by nature, difficult to budge, and this particular one is demonstrating a firm...
EDITORIALS
May 14, 1999

Playing the Jerusalem card

As Israel heads toward national elections next week, Prime Minis ter Benjamin Netanyahu trails Labor party leader Ehud Barak in the opinion polls. Mr. Netanyahu's campaign has grown increasingly disorganized. He has pleaded with former Likud Party loyalists to come back, shifted themes in mid-course...
JAPAN
May 13, 1999

Okuda takes Nikkeiren post, pledges better employment

Toyota Motor Corp. President Hiroshi Okuda assumed the post of chairman of the Japan Federation of Employers' Associations (Nikkeiren) on Thursday amid expectations he will reinvigorate the nationwide employers' group.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 12, 1999

What's in store

Everyone in my family is in retail, except me -- unless you consider this journalism gig equivalent to selling snake oil. My mother and sisters have run wearable-art galleries and design-centered shops for a couple of decades, and they seem to be pretty good at it. They travel around the United States...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 11, 1999

Cartoon eroticism, for real

EROTIC ANIME MOVIE GUIDE, by Helen McCarthy and Jonathan Clements. London: Titan Books, 1998, 192 pp., b/w photos, 12.99 British pounds. Japanese animated films, familiarly called "anime," have become well-known worldwide. With the success of the 1988 "Akira," the genre became a sound commercial export...
JAPAN
May 10, 1999

Quad talks begin today in Tokyo

Trade ministers from the United States, the European Union, Canada and Japan will begin two days of talks in Tokyo today centered on preparations for the next global trade liberalization negotiations to be held under the auspices of the World Trade Organization.
COMMENTARY
May 8, 1999

Japan remains a military laughingstock

After much political wrangling, the House of Representatives has passed the bills relating to the new defense guidelines between Japan and the United States. Deliberations in the House of Councilors got under way April 28. With the full cooperation of the Liberal Party and Komeito, and with the partial...
JAPAN
May 3, 1999

Kan's policy quest undeterred despite party's slump

Staff writer
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 1999

Balkans destroy old certainties

BY SARAH BENTON LONDON -- The consequences of the war in Kosovo are almost unimaginable. But whatever they turn out to be, one is already clear: the rough fashioning of the 19 members of NATO into a cohesive fighting force.
COMMENTARY
May 1, 1999

Obuchi confounds the skeptics

The Lower House on Tuesday approved a legislative package for implementing the updated Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines and sent it immediately to the Upper House. The action came after agreement among the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the Liberal Party (the LDP's junior coalition partner)...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 20, 1999

Soseki's deep well of sadness

CHAOS AND ORDER IN THE WORKS OF NATSUME SOSEKI, by Angela Yiu. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1998, 251 pp., $42 (cloth). This, the first full-length study of Soseki in English, is based upon the proposition that "beneath the emphasis on order, responsibility and a clear sense of morality, [there]...
JAPAN
Apr 15, 1999

Ready for 2000?: Gartner Group sees no big Y2K failures

This is the first in an occasional series on Japan's Y2K preparedness.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 13, 1999

Writer forever true to himself

THE LEGEND OF GOLD and Other Stories, by Ishikawa Jun. Translated by William J. Tyler. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1998, 300 pp., $46 (cloth), $27.95 (paper). Jun Ishikawa (1899-1987) remains less known in the West than other Japanese writers of equal stature. With the publication of this...
COMMENTARY
Apr 9, 1999

Zhu's U.S. visit kicks off strategic dialogue

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji came to Washington at the worst possible time, what with the current anti-China feeding frenzy in the press and on Capitol Hill. China's recent spate of human-rights violations and alleged espionage activities have made it open season on China -- "innocent until proven guilty"...
EDITORIALS
Apr 8, 1999

A reprieve, not a recovery

There are growing signs that Japan's protracted economic slump may be finally coming to an end. Fiscal and monetary measures for recovery are already in place. The fiscal 1999 government budget, with its large public-works outlays and tax cuts, has cleared the Diet ahead of schedule. The Bank of Japan,...
COMMENTARY
Apr 8, 1999

Europe's new killing fields

LONDON -- A dark shadow lies over Europe this Eastertide. It is no wonder that as the churches and cathedrals fill for the greatest festival of the Christian calendar, people are turning increasingly to prayer to answer a problem that Europe's political leaders seem unable to resolve.
EDITORIALS
Mar 27, 1999

Vote local, think national

Campaigning has started for 12 gubernatorial elections, including the all-important race for Tokyo governor. These are part of a series of local elections to be held in April, the results of which will have a significant impact on national politics. As it enters the 21st century, Japan must implement...
JAPAN
Mar 25, 1999

Local Elections '99: LDP tying up with opposition

and YOKO HANI Staff writers
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Mar 25, 1999

Cornucopia's savory memories

Spring is here, hard on the heels of Foodex '99, the food-and-beverage spectacular I mentioned two weeks ago during its four-day run at Makuhari Messe.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Mar 25, 1999

Shibuya's best-kept secret -- but you didn't read it here

Publicity can be both good and bad. It can help a restaurant or pub stay open and economically healthy. It can also, however, be the bane of an establishment as well. Too much attention has its downfalls.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 24, 1999

One bullheaded Buddhist

LOYALTY DEMANDS DISSENT: Autobiography of an Engaged Buddhist, by Sulak Sivaraksa. Parallax Press, 1998, 450 baht. Sulak Sivaraksa, upon reaching the age of 65, decided to look backward and ponder decades of constant activity in Thai society. The book opens with a foreword by the Dalai Lama, who states...
JAPAN
Mar 24, 1999

Trade chiefs to hold WTO powwow in May

Trade ministers from four major world economies will gather in Tokyo in mid-May to hold annual trade talks aimed at kick-starting preparations for the millennium round of global free trade negotiations, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 1999

U.S. apologists for China disregard reality

"China apologists," mainly representing newspapers and academic haunts in Los Angeles, New York and Boston, claim that the rest of us are beating up on China merely because Beijing is into heavy-duty spying on the United States, stealing high-tech secrets and deploying enough missiles opposite Taiwan...
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Mar 19, 1999

Journey to the center of Cornelius

Some trips involve buses and airplanes, others need chemical assistance. Some trips, however, require only a stereo. Keigo Oyamada, a k a Cornelius, is an expert choreographer of the latter form of travel. His last record, "Fantasma," catapulted listeners through an orange-colored psychedelic wonderland...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 1999

A new bridge over the Pacific revealed

Is friendship between nations possible? Can Japan and the United States be friends as the U.S. is with Canada and Britain, or are they forever destined to have a relationship that turns on a calculation of mutual advantage?
EDITORIALS
Feb 16, 1999

Post-impeachment Clinton

Officially, the impeachment ordeal of U.S. President Bill Clinton is over. Last Friday, the Senate -- in two bipartisan votes -- rejected both charges against the president. By a vote of 55 to 45, they threw out the first article of impeachment that alleged Mr. Clinton committed perjury when testifying...
EDITORIALS
Feb 13, 1999

The victims have rights, too

With all the attention now being focused by the government, police and judicial authorities, educators and the media on Japan's rapidly increasing juvenile crime rate and the escalating level of violence frequently involved, the rights of the victims of crimes in this country have often seemed of secondary...
JAPAN
Feb 1, 1999

Tokyo race thrown open as Aoshima withdraws

In a surprising move, Tokyo Gov. Yukio Aoshima announced Monday that he will not seek a second four-year term in the April 11 gubernatorial election.
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 1999

A new political map in the Middle East

Even by the standards of Middle Eastern politics, it has been a tumultuous week. Former Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai has been engaged in a ferocious war of words after being sacked by his boss, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On the other side of the River Jordan, King Hussein announced...

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Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.