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COMMENTARY
Jun 29, 1999

Japan presses Asia's agenda

In a strong warning to North Korea, the Group of Eight leaders who met in Cologne, Germany, earlier this month said in a declaration that they "are deeply concerned about recent missile flight tests and developments in missile proliferation, such as actions by North Korea."
JAPAN
Jun 29, 1999

FRC outlines control criteria for weak banks

The government will consider exerting control over banks that have received public funds if their capital adequacy ratios dip below half of the minimum requirements, the Financial Reconstruction Commission said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 1999

NTT Communications sets 100 billion yen sales target

NTT Communications Corp., a new international and long-distance telecommunications carrier, will try to achieve annual sales of 100 billion yen by fiscal 2001, President Masanobu Suzuki announced Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 1999

Jobs, welfare must be cut, Ishihara says

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara pledged Tuesday to rebuild the capital's finances by breaking taboos and taking drastic steps, including trimming the number of civil servants and streamlining its elaborate social welfare programs, and gave a stern "no" to relocating the capital.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 1999

Bill draws protest from University of Tokyo professors

A group of professors from the University of Tokyo submitted a petition to the government Tuesday opposing a bill to recognize the Hinomaru as the national flag and "Kimigayo" as its anthem, after Diet debate on the bill began the same day.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 1999

Diet begins deliberating flag and anthem bill

Diet debate on a government-proposed bill to recognize the Hinomaru as the national flag and "Kimigayo" as the national anthem began Tuesday with Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi telling a Lower House plenary session that legal recognition would give the Japanese people the correct understanding of the national...
JAPAN
Jun 29, 1999

Jobless rate dips to 4.6% but more people out of work

Japan's jobless rate fell in May to a seasonally adjusted 4.6 percent from the record-high 4.8 percent seen in March and April, but the number of unemployed men in Japan actually hit a record high while the number of jobless women also increased on a year-on-year basis.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jun 29, 1999

The Super Furry Animals engage in 'Guerrilla' warfare

In 1996, I began visiting another planet when an album called "Fuzzy Logic," by an unknown Welsh band called Super Furry Animals, opened up a wormhole in my mind which enabled me to cross into a weird mangalike dimension whenever I switched on my stereo. Oh, and also I got a name for this column.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 1999

Telecom Realignment: Rival carriers prepare to combat Goliath

Second in a five-part series on reorganizing the domestic telecommunications industry
CULTURE / Books
Jun 29, 1999

American haiku now holds its own

THE HAIKU ANTHOLOGY, by Cor van den Heuvel. W. W. Norton, pp. 363, $27.50. Cor van den Heuvel is the most important anthologist of haiku composed in English in North America. He has published three collections, all simply called "The Haiku Anthology" and all through prominent commercial houses: Doubleday,...
CULTURE / Music
Jun 29, 1999

Beating powerful drums of tradition

Honoo Taiko, an all-female Japanese taiko drumming troupe from Ishikawa Prefecture, is ready to set the stage ablaze July 12 as they kick off their seven-city world tour in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 1999

Korean slams government's selective conscription redress

One of 189 South Koreans seeking an official apology and redress from Japan for wartime conscription criticized the government Tuesday for compensating only Japanese and not Koreans who were similarly drafted as soldiers and civilian workers.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 29, 1999

A century after emancipation, buraku issue still haunts Japan

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BURAKU ISSUE: Questions and Answers, by Suehiro Kitaguchi. Translation and introduction by Alastair McLauchlan. Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library, 1999, pp. 211, 35 British pounds (cloth). This is the translation of a number of important articles by Suehiro Kitaguchi in which he...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 29, 1999

'Kaempfer's Japan': Tokugawa Edo as never before

Engelbert Kaempfer, German physician and historian, first arrived in Japan in 1690 to take up the position of physician at the Dutch trading agency on the island of Deshima in Nagasaki Harbor. Although Japan had already secluded itself, the Dutch traders were allowed a certain amount of freedom. This...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 29, 1999

Meet Dr. Doom, Asia's most interesting analyst

RIDING THE MILLENNIAL STORM: Marc Faber's Path to Profit in the New Financial Markets, by Nury Vittachi. John Wiley & Sons, 1998, pp. 241, $29.95 (cloth). Great combination. Hyperkinetic Hong Kong scribe Nury Vittachi, author of 10 books and countless newspaper and magazine columns, and Marc Faber,...
EDITORIALS
Jun 28, 1999

Staring at the abyss in Northern Ireland

Though more than a year has passed since politicians in Northern Ireland signed the historic Good Friday peace accord, the document has remained a dead letter due to a dispute over the disarmament of the Irish Republican Army. Now the agreement is unraveling, posing a real danger that dialogue will once...
JAPAN
Jun 28, 1999

New Komeito role weighed as LDP, Liberals huddle

The Liberal Democratic Party on Monday began moving aggressively to expand its coalition government to include New Komeito — and secure a majority in the Diet's Upper House.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 1999

Toyota mulls expanded U.S. presence

Fujio Cho, the new president of Toyota Motor Corp., said Monday that the possibility is high that Toyota will establish a new auto assembly base in North America to cope with increasing demand in the United States.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 1999

Ishihara now wants all base land back

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara on Monday asked Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi to take steps to achieve one of his most important election pledges: the return of Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo or its joint use by airlines.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 1999

Scientists move closer to proving neutrino mass

An international group of scientists announced Monday that they were on the way to determining that neutrinos have mass, a finding that could overturn the current understanding of the universe.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 1999

Base not Ishihara's only target

Staff writers
JAPAN
Jun 28, 1999

Telecom Realignment: NTT set to enter global fray

First of a five-part series on reorganizing the domestic telecommunications industry
EDITORIALS
Jun 26, 1999

Cracks in the wall of silence

Physicians in this country seem so confident of their group strength that they can afford to ignore public opinion. So, at least, say critics of the powerful medical establishment in the wake of this week's failure by a subcommittee of the government's medical reform council to agree on a proposal to...
EDITORIALS
Jun 25, 1999

A vote delayed in East Timor

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has decided to delay the referendum on East Timor's future status that had been scheduled for Aug. 8. The U.N.-administered ballot has been moved back two weeks because of fears that violence will make it impossible to prepare for the historic vote. Indonesian...
JAPAN
Jun 25, 1999

Farm chief cool to reduced bank deposit protection

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Shoichi Nakagawa voiced caution Friday about the government's plan to abolish full deposit protection at the end of March 2001.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 1999

Osaka all smiles for sports meeting

OSAKA — Overseas visitors to a major international conference here in October will be greeted by young women shoving drinks into their hands and smiling old male bureaucrats distributing promotional literature.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 1999

Study group set for constitutional debates in 2000

The House of Representatives is set to launch a study group in January 2000 to debate issues related to the Constitution, informed sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 1999

Obuchi expected to ask New Komeito to join bloc

In a move heralding the formation of a tripartite coalition, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and New Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki are expected to hold talks before the second opposition party's July 24 convention.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 1999

The Asahara Trial: Aum doc puts blame on guru

Former Aum Shinrikyo doctor Ikuo Hayashi testified in the trial session of cult founder Shoko Asahara on Friday that the basic responsibility of the killing and drugging of Kiyoshi Kariya, a Tokyo notary public, in February 1995, lies with Asahara since he was the one who ordered it.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 1999

Sanwa halves retirement pay for execs' performance

Sanwa Bank plans to cut the retirement allowances of its executives by up to 50 percent in a move to clarify management's responsibility for accepting 700 billion yen in public funds and posting substantial net losses for two consecutive business years, bank sources said Friday.

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