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JAPAN
Mar 15, 2000

Tokyo hails progress in North Korea talks

Japanese leaders welcomed on Tuesday the results of a meeting Monday between representatives of the Red Cross societies of Japan and North Korea in which Pyongyang agreed to take appropriate steps if it locates any missing Japanese nationals.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2000

China remains a paradise for pirates

Even by the standards of China's billion-dollar piracy industry, it was a remarkable gaffe. The Guangzhou No. 11 Rubber Factory had opened its doors to London International Group executives, hoping to produce Durex condoms in China. As they moved from the latex dippers to the packaging lines, that something...
BUSINESS
Mar 15, 2000

Wage negotiations wind down

Japan's auto, steel, shipbuilding and electrical appliance industries on Tuesday came closer to wrapping up their annual spring wage talks with a record low wage increase for the third straight year, industry officials said.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 15, 2000

Simply extraordinary poetry

NOT A METAPHOR: Poems of Kazue Shinkawa. Translated by Hiroaki Sato. P.S., A Press, 1999, 116 pp., $12. Once in a while it happens that, when you haven't seen an old friend for a long time, you come upon something that reminds you of them and suddenly realize what it was that made you friends in the...
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2000

Three-bank tieup terms settled

Sanwa Bank, Tokai Bank and Asahi Bank formally announced Tuesday that they have reached a basic agreement to come under a joint holding company in April 2001, creating the world's third-largest banking group.
COMMENTARY
Mar 15, 2000

The task of policing the police

...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 15, 2000

Silent films cry out for attention

MASTERPIECES OF JAPANESE SILENT CINEMA. Bilingual (Japanese/English) DVD-ROM (Windows). Tokyo: Urban Connections, Inc. 18,900 yen. The Japanese silent cinema is almost unknown, so little has been available for viewing. Even in a medium where two-thirds of all silent cinema is lost (and perhaps a quarter...
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Mar 15, 2000

Baseball fantasies

www.padres.com/ballpark/index.html Larry Lucchino has been busy conceiving another baseball stadium, and this time he's convinced the city of San Diego to foot most of the bill and flesh out his dreams. The last time he turned on his charm, the result was Oriole Park at Camden Yards. He says A Ballpark...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Mar 15, 2000

Living the easy, or at least convenient, life

"Life ain't easy for a foreigner in Japan."
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2000

Trains kept running despite flaws

Despite irregularities found last year in subway trains operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, officials kept the trains in service and "saw no need" to report the irregularities to the Transport Ministry, officials admitted Tuesday.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2000

Hospitals overcharging for rooms

OSAKA -- Hiromi Hase, 58, and her husband, Michio, were shocked last August when they found out they might have overpaid about 4 million yen when she was hospitalized for leukemia in 1996 and 1997.
SUMO
Mar 15, 2000

Musashigawa pair remain unbeaten

The Musashigawa stable's pair of sekiwake wrestlers Musoyama and Miyabiyama posted convincing wins Tuesday to remain among the unbeaten leaders in the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament.
BUSINESS
Mar 15, 2000

Consumers spoil speedy recovery scenario

Expectations of a strong pickup in consumer spending toward the close of 1999 have failed to materialize.
SUMO
Mar 14, 2000

Waka, Maru fall on second day

OSAKA -- Grand champions Wakanohana and Musashimaru both fell to sekiwake-ranked wrestlers Monday, leaving Akebono the only unbeaten yokozuna just two days into the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament.
EDITORIALS
Mar 14, 2000

Mozambique's progress washed away

Most people cannot find Mozambique on a map. For many years, those who did know where the country was located did their best to avoid it. A 13-year civil war ravaged Mozambique, but it ended in 1992. Since then, the government has made remarkable progress in undoing the damage wrought by the war. The...
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2000

Nissho Iwai and Nichimen to unite materials units

Nissho Iwai Corp. and Nichimen Corp. announced Monday that they have agreed to merge their building materials subsidiaries on July 1 in response to the sluggish domestic market.
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2000

Global rules for GM foods to be debated

Members of an international commission on food standards are expected to clash on safety standards for genetically modified foods during a four-day meeting beginning today in Chiba Prefecture, government sources said Monday.
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2000

H.I.S., Sony to form Internet travel venture

H.I.S. Co., Japan's largest retailer of discount air tickets, will set up a joint company with Sony Corp.'s Internet arm to offer travel services via the Internet from this summer, company sources said Monday.
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2000

Time for demand-, not export-driven focus

After climbing past the psychologically important 20,000 barrier for the first time in more than 2 1/2 years early last month, the 225-issue Nikkei average now is languishing at around 19,500.
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2000

Predictions cautious on economic recovery

The gross domestic product data for October-December released Monday sent mixed signals, with higher plant and equipment investment coupled with dismal consumer spending.
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2000

Leader's informal dinner meet secures Hori's future

The heads of the three ruling parties agreed Monday to keep National Public Safety Commission Chairman Kosuke Hori in office despite opposition demands that he resign over his responsibility for a Niigata Prefectural Police scandal.
COMMENTARY
Mar 14, 2000

In praise of market heretics

During the 1980s and 1990s, waves of neoconservatism swept the world. The movement was sparked by two politicians: Margaret Thatcher, who became the prime minister of Britain in 1979, and Ronald Reagan, who became president of the United States in 1981. In Japan, a neoconservative administration headed...
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2000

Sanwa, Asahi, Tokai to merge

Sanwa Bank, Tokai Bank and Asahi Bank are expected to create Japan's second largest financial group through a merger, and an announcement could come as early as today.
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2000

Bank industry slams tax plan anew

The chairman of the Japanese Bankers Association on Monday again criticized a Tokyo draft ordinance that aims to tax the gross profits of large banks in the metropolis as "unfair and undemocratic."
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2000

LDP leaders concur on post-G8 election

OSAKA -- Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi should wait at least until after the Group of Eight summit to dissolve the Lower House for a general election, senior Liberal Democratic Party leaders appeared to have agreed over the weekend.
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2000

Tokyo budget sidesteps asbestos

After having recently provoked outrage in the trucking industry over a controversial plan to regulate diesel cars, "environmentally friendly" Gov. Shintaro Ishihara has just submitted a budget proposal to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly that has one less allocation for green initiatives: that for asbestos...
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2000

Proposed law would make plebiscites binding

Public-drafted legislation was unveiled Monday that would require local governments to hold a plebiscite if at least 10 percent of local voters petition for one, and make the results binding if they reflect the will of over a third of the registered voters.

Longform

Dul Saroth (left) and Soeum Samrach, deminers with the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority, practice using the Advanced Landmine Imaging System in Cambodia’s Siem Reap province in August.
The Japanese tech that could one day make Southeast Asia landmine-free