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 Eric Johnston

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Eric Johnston
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2000
HIPC debt deal unlikely at summit
Jubilee 2000 seeks action before 2001 but doubts Japan's sincerity Staff writer After two years of vain efforts to get the Group of Seven countries to cancel all debt owed by Third World countries, the organizers of Jubilee 2000 plan one last push at the upcoming Okinawa summit.
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 30, 2000
Real characters, made in Japan
KYOTO -- Humor may be, along with art and music, universal, but it often doesn't travel across borders very well. What has them rolling in the aisles in London may leave them rolling their eyes in Laos. A comedian who brings down the house in Athens, Greece, may receive only polite applause in Athens,...
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2000
Osaka seen as new way station for illegal aliens
OSAKA — In the back streets beside Osaka's Kyobashi Station, pachinko parlors, massage parlors, or "soap lands" (brothels), restaurants and karaoke rooms are packed together in an area not more than two square blocks.
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2000
Korean residents wary of reunifying homeland
OSAKA — Local Korean residents welcomed Tuesday's historic summit between the leaders of North and South Korea but cautioned that numerous hurdles remained to reunification.
JAPAN
May 28, 2000
Osaka homeless have nowhere else to go, World Cup eviction or no
OSAKA -- In the back streets of Osaka's Nishinari district, thousands of elderly men loiter, stopping only to eat at a 100 yen ramen stand or join in a yakuza-run floating craps game.
JAPAN
May 19, 2000
Summit elates Osaka's Okinawans
OSAKA -- Osaka lost the bid for the 2000 Group of Eight summit to Okinawa, shocking and disappointing many local business and political leaders who had believed their city was the clear favorite.
JAPAN
May 17, 2000
Nagoya community to hold walk-a-thon
Each year for the past nine years, Nagoya's foreign community has gathered in the city's Meijo Park district for an annual charity walk-a-thon. Thousands of people, from members of the local expatriate business community to players from the Chunichi Dragons to ordinary citizens, participate in a day...
JAPAN
May 4, 2000
Location of leader's summit hinges on the whim of nature
OSAKA — It's billed as the Kyushu-Okinawa Summit, but if Mother Nature turns capricious, then this year's Group of Eight gathering may be forced to a different venue.
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2000
Monju ruling infuriates plaintiffs
OSAKA -- Antinuclear activists expressed shock and outrage Wednesday over the Fukui District Court's ruling against local residents' efforts to permanently close the Monju fast-breeder reactor, and both plaintiffs and their lawyers vowed their nearly 15-year battle was not over.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2000
Breaking down the doors of Japan's discriminatory press clubs
In May 1993, David Butts, then Tokyo bureau chief of Bloomberg Business News, was fed up. After years of unsuccessful efforts to penetrate Japan's press clubs through polite negotiation, the tall Texan chose a more direct approach. On the day annual company reports were released, Butts, with other foreign...
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2000
Telephone club firebombing sparks fear intergang warfare is flaring up
KOBE -- The fatal firebombing of one of Kobe's largest telephone dating clubs has led to fears of a renewed intergang war among rival affiliates of the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi.
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2000
Thousands turn out for Flora 2000
AWAJI ISLAND, Hyogo Pref. -- Under a bright sunny sky and with a cool breeze blowing off the bay, the Japan Flora 2000 international flower, gardening and landscape exhibition opened Saturday morning on Awaji Island.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2000
MOX OK with Kepco, scandal or no
OSAKA -- After five months of denial and public assurances that nothing was wrong, Kansai Electric Power Co. has admitted it failed to properly investigate charges of data falsification at a British manufacturer of uranium-plutonium mixed oxide fuel intended for use in Fukui Prefecture nuclear reactors....
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2000
IOC wining-dining ban puts Games bid in bind
OSAKA -- Enthusiasm for Osaka's 2008 Olympic bid continues to fade after the International Olympic Committee announced strict conditions on candidate cities.
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2000
Dutch war display given no place to go
Staff writer OSAKA -- One month after an Osaka International Peace Center symposium denying the Nanjing Massacre took place, another controversy over Japan's wartime past is brewing after the center and a Tokyo nursing home rejected an exhibition on the occupation of the Dutch East Indies. The Osaka...
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2000
Berlin panel looks at Japan economy, management
This was the general consensus of panelists at a symposium held Feb. 17 at the Japanese-German Center Berlin. The symposium was called The Japanese Economy and the Renewal of Japanese Management, and it was sponsored by the center and the Keizai Koho Center (Japan Institute for Social and Economic Affairs)....
COMMUNITY
Feb 19, 2000
Fukuoka heats up with Iberoamerican festival
OSAKA -- Fukuoka is the place to be this weekend for those who love all things Latin, as Ianimate 2000, a celebration of Latin American dance, music and art, takes place on Saturday.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2000
Business minds look for bright spots at Kansai seminar
Staff writer KYOTO -- The fear of losing out to the U.S. in economic globalization will be among the topics raised at the 38th annual Kansai Economic Seminar, which opens today in Kyoto. Sponsored by the Kansai Association of Corporate Executives, the seminar brings together the region's top business...
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2000
British visit aims to restore public trust in MOX fuel
Staff writer OSAKA -- In an effort to restore trust in Britain's mixed oxide uranium plutonium fuel program, high ranking British officials will visit Japan next week to meet with Ministry of International Trade and Industry officials, executives of Kansai Electric Power Co. and an antinuclear group....
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2000
Britain steps up scrutiny of BNFL-Kepco links
Staff writer OSAKA -- The British Parliament is stepping up calls for an investigation into the relationship between a British utilities company and Kansai Electric Power Co. following the company's admission that it falsified nuclear fuel data for Kepco's nuclear power plants in Fukui Prefecture. On...

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