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EDITORIALS
Apr 18, 1999

Goodbye to all that

Sometimes -- make that usually -- the range of rational reactions to life on this planet seems dismally narrow, beginning with bafflement, passing through exasperation and rage, and ending in sorrow. We may distract or console ourselves with the doings of babies and small animals, the pleasures of music...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Apr 18, 1999

Travel report

Never before have I returned to Japan after an overseas trip at the end of the cherry blossoms. Don't do it! The season is best when it is being anticipated. When I left, there was just the hint of a pink haze around the trees, the first indication that the blossoms were readying their show. That is...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 1999

Silicone Valley clones lack the right stuff

All over Asia, governments are trying to replicate California's Silicon Valley. Each of the projects, so far, is a failure. The main reason for the failure is that Asian leaders have not yet realized that it takes more than a plot of land, an impressive budget, a graduating class of computer engineers...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 1999

It's the (domestic) economy, stupid

Forget about export-led growth. The global economy has changed everything. Leaders of countries locked in the economic doldrums need to understand that they never experienced "miracles," nor can they count on one to resolve their problems. Quite simply, they must undertake radical restructuring of their...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 18, 1999

In Japan, if it can be done, it can be certified

Be honest, how many certificates do you have? Count them all -- in your desk drawer, on the wall, in the ashes in the incinerator.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 1999

Learning to break the cycle of poverty

Lack of education, particularly among children, continues to be one of the main challenges to the well-being and quality of life of children worldwide, concludes a recent Oxfam International report titled, "Education Now: Break the Cycle of Poverty." According to this report, there are currently 125...
EDITORIALS
Apr 17, 1999

A long shadow over Malaysia

After a 78-day trial, former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was found guilty Wednesday of four counts of corruption and sentenced to six years in prison. The verdict, which has triggered protests by Mr. Anwar's supporters, was condemned by the defendant and questioned by others around...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 1999

A confectioner for all seasons

Japanese tea and wagashi (Japanese-style confections) are inseparable in the tea ceremony. Wagashi, served before the tea itself, are said to draw out the essence of the tea.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 1999

Mortality caught in the blink of a shutter

Death. We don't like it, but sooner or later we all have to face it. British photographer Cesca Sims, however, has been looking it straight in the eye (through the lens of her camera) ever since she began shooting. Her first major exhibition was set in Canterbury Prison, Kent, and narrated by snippets...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 1999

Kobayashi stirs up the still-life genre with brushes, oil and inspiration

In these times of multiplying media choices, it is not uncommon to find those artists whose interests run to realism tripping the shutters of cameras, while their more introspective contemporariesput brush to canvas, with often grand or abstract results. The painter, after all, works from an inner source...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 1999

U.S. trade policy all at sea

When Pat Buchanan launched his third campaign for the presidency of the United States, the protectionist candidate visited the archetypal steel town of Weirton, West Virginia. Buffeted by a surge in imported steel, Weirton offered a natural backdrop for Buchanan's xenophobic fulminations.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 1999

Fourteen planes, six boats and a chopper

SYDNEY -- The boat people are landing. Although still just a trickle, the mostly Chinese illegal immigrants look set to flood through the open door named Australia. Nor is it just human cargo being offloaded on these unprotected shores. Heroin from the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia is also being...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 1999

Life lessons in pottery and prints

KOBE -- Traditional Japanese art aficionados in Kansai will have a rare chance to learn the finer points of both Bizen pottery and ukiyo-e woodblock prints through a double exhibit of John Wells' Bizen works and Peter Ujlaki's ukiyo-e collection at the Community House and Information Center (CHIC) on...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Apr 17, 1999

New version of the old koto makes music for the future

While Japanese traditional instruments boast long histories (up to 1,200 years in some cases, since their importation from the Asian continent) most reached their present forms hundreds of years ago and have not changed since.
EDITORIALS
Apr 16, 1999

Tit for tat in South Asia

Earlier this week, India tested a new intermediate-range missile, the Agni II. The missile, capable of carrying either a conventional or nuclear payload a distance of 2,000 km, has most of China and all of Pakistan within its range. The test has been trumpeted as another display of India's technical...
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Nissan to slash domestic production by 25%

In a desperate effort to accelerate its restructuring, Nissan Motor Co. will cut its annual domestic production capacity by about 25 percent to 1.5 million units over the next few years, President Yoshikazu Hanawa said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Bad-debt body collects 526 billion yen

A bad-debt collection body funded by private financial institutions announced Friday that it collected some 526 billion yen during the latter half of fiscal 1998, up from 309 billion yen from the same six-month period the previous year.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Opposition parties demand Diet nod for SDF-U.S. missions

New Komeito and the Democratic Party of Japan have separately submitted proposals for amending bills covering the updated Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines to a board meeting of the Lower House special committee debating them, party officials said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Fukuoka's megamall to let you shop till you drop

Combining a huge cinema complex, a membership wholesale warehouse and a number of specialty shops and restaurants, an American-style megamall -- the largest in Japan -- will open Friday in a suburb of Fukuoka.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Toys chemicals pose risk to children, experts say

Children who nibble on plastic toys containing polyvinyl chloride and phthalate additives are ingesting a considerable amount of possible endocrine disrupters, European and U.S. scientists said Friday in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

DKB vice president convicted on 'sokaiya' loans

A former vice president of Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank was sentenced Friday to a suspended eight-month prison term for violating the Commercial Code by extending illegal loans to "sokaiya" corporate extortionist Ryuichi Koike.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Osaka shootings bring cops out in force

OSAKA -- More than 250 riot officers and 10 patrol cars are keeping a 24-hour vigil over Osaka's Konohana Ward, where three residents have been shot and wounded since the end of last month.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

LDP clears way for state disclosure bill

A government-sponsored information access bill to ensure wider disclosure of central government documents is likely to clear the Diet by the end of the month after a Liberal Democratic Party compromise was reached Friday, party officials said.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Japan won't back U.S. in anti-China resolution

Staff writer
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Government attacks USTR barrier report

The government issued a paper Friday attacking an annual trade barrier report released earlier this month by the United States Trade Representative that accuses Tokyo of carrying out unfair trade practices.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Transport industry protests defense bills

About 100 union members from the air, sea and ground transportation industries rallied at the Diet Friday to urge the scrapping of the updated Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Apr 16, 1999

Trends are a no-show at U.S. music fest

If there was any next big thing at this year's annual South by Southwest music confab of the musically hip and happening, it was that there is no next big thing. In a festival that featured everything from soca to singer-songwriters, it was individual artists rather than any one all encompassing trend...
COMMENTARY
Apr 16, 1999

Moving from words to action

Running as an independent, Shintaro Ishihara overwhelmingly won the Tokyo gubernatorial election, the most closely watched of local elections held nationwide April 11. Voter interest in the election was strong. Despite the inclement weather earlier that day, voter turnout was 58 percent, up 7 percentage...
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Miyazawa mum on splitting Finance

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said Friday he will wait and see how the Finance Ministry is to share its policy-planning authority with the proposed Financial Agency.
EDITORIALS
Apr 15, 1999

Justice for all, even prosecutors

The Public Prosecutor's Office, in any country, is the arm of the law responsible for investigating crimes, gathering evidence and seeing to it that justice is done. In Japan, where collusion among politicians, bureaucrats and business-people is not uncommon, the Public Prosecutor's Office is often the...

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