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JAPAN
Jul 27, 1999

Food aid to North comes at a price

North Korea should first try to resolve pending issues with Japan before requesting food aid, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 1999

Cabinet panel begins judicial system review

An advisory panel to the Cabinet launched discussions Tuesday aimed at giving Japan's judicial system its first overhaul of the postwar era.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 1999

Scheme hatched for Jordan debt relief

Japan will provide Jordan with several billion yen in official development assistance to help the country alleviate its external debt-repayment burden and enhance domestic political stability amid a critical period for the regional peace process, government sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 1999

Keidanren urges Japan to get online

The Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) called on the government Tuesday to spend 5.44 trillion yen over five years on information technology and to increase the number of Internet users in Japan to 70 million by 2003.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 1999

Airlines to review hijack manuals

The Transport Ministry will instruct domestic airlines to thoroughly review their manuals on hijacking, Transport Minister Jiro Kawasaki said Tuesday, noting that All Nippon Airways "failed to prevent a knife-carrying passenger from boarding a plane and hijacking it."
EDITORIALS
Jul 26, 1999

Drawing a line in Colombia

The abrupt suspension of the latest round of peace talks between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia has dealt a serious blow to efforts to reach a peaceful settlement to Latin America's long-running civil war and casts doubt on the viability of Colombian President...
JAPAN
Jul 26, 1999

Obuchi doesn't think Liberals will exit bloc

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi does not believe the Liberal Party will withdraw from the coalition government, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Monday.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 1999

Labor lawyers hit resuscitation bill

A major group of labor lawyers expressed opposition Monday to an industrial resuscitation bill submitted to the Diet by the government last week, calling the legislation "layoff promotion measures."
JAPAN
Jul 26, 1999

Sakura, Fujitsu to set up electronic bank

Sakura Bank and Fujitsu Ltd. announced Monday they have agreed to jointly form the nation's first bank specializing in online operations.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 1999

Ministry declares emergency to fight tuberculosis

Alarmed by the recent resurgence of tuberculosis, the Health and Welfare Ministry on Monday declared a state of emergency to combat the disease and raise public awareness about the nation's former No. 1 killer.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 1999

Transport admits not heeding hijacker's warning letter

Vice Transport Minister Hisashi Umezaki admitted Monday that his ministry did not secure an airport security "blind spot" pointed out by the man arrested Friday for hijacking an All Nippon Airways jumbo jet and killing its pilot.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 1999

New Komeito on track to join ruling alliance

New Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki on Monday formally told Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi of his party's willingness to join the coalition government.
COMMENTARY
Jul 26, 1999

Bureaucrats block education

The first of two parts. The second part will appear on Wednesday's Opinion Page.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 1999

Robot jester proves adept at drawing donations

OSAKA -- He can be funny and eloquent. But if someone dares to offer him only 1 yen he becomes abusive and calls them "stingy."
EDITORIALS
Jul 25, 1999

The growing threat of suicide

Over the last three years Japan has witnessed a steady, seemingly inexorable, rise in the national suicide rate. Many of these deaths are attributable to financial worries caused by the prolonged economic slowdown. It is well known that Japanese culture has never condemned the taking of one's own life,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 1999

Fear and loathing for Russian journalists

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- Yury Stepanov, an editor at an independent program called Radio Lemma, was walking home at about 10:30 p.m. June 29 when he noticed a Toyota minivan blocking an alley near his home.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jul 25, 1999

Lasting tastes

A friend has sent me a clipping from her home-town paper. It is about a new telephone service staffed exclusively by women, a point they wanted to emphasize in the name they selected. It is called Miss Information. That is not what you get from Tokyo's information service, which is also provided by women....
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 1999

Cohabitation still confounds

PARIS -- The French attach so much importance to their government institutions that they change them more often than any other people. They've had five republics and 16 constitutions in the past 200 or so years!
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 1999

Soong's presidential bid is good for Taiwan

No one blinked when longtime Kuomintang politician James Soong (Sung Chu-yu) announced last week that he would defy party elders and run independently for president of the Republic of China on Taiwan in the March 2000 elections.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 25, 1999

Gesture your way to Japanese fluency

Yesterday I went into a convenience store to buy some aspirin. I asked the clerk using the English loanword "asupirin." The clerk pointed to the freezer section and said, "it's over there." "No, not 'aisu kurimu,' asupirin," I said. "Pudding?" he asked. At that point, he did what all befuddled clerks...
EDITORIALS
Jul 24, 1999

And now to work at the WTO

After a bruising, eight-month battle, the World Trade Organization has a new director general. Actually, the WTO now has two director generals, although they will not be occupying the office at the same time. In a solution that optimists will call Solomonic, but is at best "diplomatic" -- with all the...
COMMENTARY
Jul 24, 1999

The 'Third Way' once again

LONDON -- "The Third Way" has become the height of intellectual fashion. But what on earth is it?
COMMENTARY
Jul 24, 1999

The pendulum swings again

As Japan pulls out of a deep economic slump, it is time to ask who created the mess. But as with the war guilt question, don't expect an easy answer. Japan does not like to pin blame when its elite is involved. The guilty remain in place; the chances of another disaster remain intact.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Jul 24, 1999

New and old blended in earthy harmony

One of the greatest challenges facing any Japanese artist is to mix tradition with meaningful innovation. Many artisans merely imitate the past with little originality -- a rehashing of past masters that leaves many of Japan's great artistic traditions in stagnation.
CULTURE / Art / ARTS AND ARTISANS
Jul 24, 1999

The food that never lets you down

Eventually, a bowl of steaming noodles will go soggy, the lettuce in a salad will go limp and turn brown and a piece of sushi will dry up.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 1999

Africa, a blind spot for Europe's left

The European left has been so stung by the rise of nationalism and religious sentiment in Eastern Europe since the fall of the Iron Curtain that it no longer knows if it has a reason to exist.
EDITORIALS
Jul 23, 1999

True leadership in the 21st century

The most important political development of the closing millennium is the extended application of the rule of law. This century has witnessed two world wars, but it has also seen the rule of law applied more widely than ever through the League of Nations and later through the United Nations. A host of...
JAPAN
Jul 23, 1999

Norota urges new heliport site by yearend

Defense Agency chief Hosei Norota expressed hope Friday that the site to relocate U.S. Marine Corps helicopter operations at Futenma Air Station in Okinawa will be selected by the end of the year.
JAPAN
Jul 23, 1999

High court upholds ruling on Atusgi night flights

The Tokyo High Court on Friday upheld a lower court decision rejecting demands by 156 residents living near the Atsugi Naval Air Facility in Kanagawa Prefecture to halt flights from the base between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.
JAPAN
Jul 23, 1999

End to entrance exams proposed

Some advice for the Education Ministry: ban entrance exams, provide low-interest loans to all students and require that school principals be licensed.

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals