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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2000

Falling victim to U.S.-Chinese diplomacy

A 46-year-old man named Zhang Hongbao from Harbin, China is facing an uncertain fate in a cramped U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services detention cell in the U.S. territory of Guam. On one hand he is just another illegal immigrant, joining thousands of other Chinese who have attempted to settle...
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2000

Cabinet takes another battering in polls

The latest official poll taken by Kyodo News shows the approval rating for Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's outgoing Cabinet falling to 18.8 percent and the disapproval rating reaching 75 percent.
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2000

Falsely accused seek system to make press clean up its act

After his nightmare summer of 1994, when the media branded him the prime suspect in the fatal sarin gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, Yoshiyuki Kono embarked on a crusade to end press violations of citizens' rights.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2000

Singapore media monopolies break into rival's turf

SINGAPORE -- Competition in Singapore's expanding media industry is growing more intense as the two rival main players prepare to slug it out, having pumped in millions of dollars to upgrade existing projects and invest in new ones.
SOCCER / J. League
Sep 5, 2000

JFA, Troussier closer to contract

The Japan Football Association has reached agreement on the conditions of re-signing its contract with Japan manager Philippe Troussier and is likely to complete the signing later this week before the Frenchman leaves for Sydney with the Japan Olympic team, JFA secretary general Kenji Mori said Monday...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Aug 12, 2000

Lieberman gives Gore a boost

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut is Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore's choice for vice president. The choice is a masterful one. Lieberman brings several big pluses to Gore's candidacy:
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Aug 12, 2000

Bringing out the flavor of the clay

Shuroku Harada is the consummate potter. First off, this highly successful ceramist doesn't put on any proud airs; he maintains a humbleness that is important when working with the earth. He shapes the clay and the clay has shaped him, so to speak, into what he is today; mutual respect at its best.
LIFE / Digital
Aug 2, 2000

'Zine zone

www.failuremag.com The immediate image that came to mind upon hearing there's something out there called Failure Magazine was of four California college students getting stoned in a cramped dorm room, trying to figure out how to catch up with all their classmates' e-commerce sites. The light bulb dims...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jul 12, 2000

I-mode uber Alles

A small cheer could be heard recently when it was announced that NTT DoCoMo would add English-language content to the menus of its i-mode cell phones. It went official July 3, and, well, the selection wasn't that big of a surprise. In fact, some of it had already been available in previous months (and...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 29, 2000

A Chinese teenager's dream of a better life ends in tragedy in the back of a truck

CHANGLE, Fujian -- Smartly dressed in a Calvin Klein T-shirt, jeans and white trainers, the teenager props up a motorbike in Changle, a city in the southern Chinese province of Fujian. His hair flopping over sunglasses, he flashes a shy grin at the camera. Jin Xicai hardly resembles the stereotype refugee,...
JAPAN / History
Jun 28, 2000

China's Korean War POWs find you can't go home again

BEIJING — In a hotel room in the Yangtze River port of Wuhan, a dozen elderly Chinese men fight back tears to sing a song written almost 50 years ago in a U.S. prisoner-of-war camp in South Korea. At the end of the song, their tears flow freely, for friends lost in the conflict and for their own harsh...
BUSINESS
Jun 10, 2000

0.5% '99 growth first rise atop minus line in two years

The economy grew 0.5 percent in fiscal 1999 from the year before, recovering from negative growth logged for the preceding two years but slightly falling short of the government target of 0.6 percent growth for fiscal 1999, the Economic Planning Agency said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2000

Obuchi able to talk in hospital: widow

The widow of late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi said her husband was able to express himself just after he was admitted to a Tokyo hospital in April, according to the latest edition of the monthly magazine Bungei Shunju, due out today.
BUSINESS
May 27, 2000

Government says EPA not pressured

The Japanese government on Friday denied a foreign newspaper report that hinted the Economic Planning Agency manipulated gross domestic product data for the October-December quarter for political reasons.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 25, 2000

You say Fusaichi, I say Fusaichi

Whenever a Japanese name enters the sporting world's lexicon, all sorts of problems arise. Take the Nagano Olympics for example. Is it pronounced NA-ga-no or Na-GA-no? The foreign media wrestled with this question for two straight weeks during the winter of 1998. The confusion trickled down to the masses...
JAPAN
May 20, 2000

Obuchi hospital photo raises questions for Aoki

The weekly photo magazine Friday published a closeup picture of the late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi taken apparently after he suffered a massive stroke and fell into a coma on April 2.
BUSINESS
May 20, 2000

FRC approves WL Ross to take over Kofuku Bank

OSAKA -- The Financial Reconstruction Commission has approved the sale of the nationalized Kofuku Bank to U.S.-based WL Ross & Co. LLC, which signed a basic agreement with the government-backed Deposit Insurance Corp.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2000

U.S. group takes over Kofuku Bank

OSAKA -- The Financial Reconstruction Commission on Thursday approved the sale of the nationalized Kofuku Bank to U.S.-based WL Ross & Co. LLC, which signed a basic agreement with the government-backed Deposit Insurance Corp.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 3, 2000

Eyes front

It's that time again. Time to talk about time. I'll try to be brief, since there is so little time for a chat. Or for much anything else.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 13, 2000

Tiny Qatar brings freedom of the press to the Arab world

QATAR -- On a recent visit to Qatar, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak wanted to satisfy his curiosity about something bothering him and most other Arab rulers. It was past midnight when he descended unannounced on the Jazeera TV station. His surprise was hardly less than that of staff still around at...
EDITORIALS
Mar 22, 2000

When bankrupt is better

Rarely does good news come so poorly packaged. Thailand's biggest corporate debtor, Thai Petrochemical Industry, was declared insolvent last week by a Thai bankruptcy court. Oddly enough, that is a welcome development. The decision allows creditors to take over the company, restructure it and get back...
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.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 12, 2000

Worries balanced with hope in 'State of the World 2000'

Attempting to evaluate the state of our world is an absurdly complex task. Nevertheless, that is what the Worldwatch Institute has done every year since 1984, and has done once again this year with "The State of the World 2000."
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2000

Tide turning against coalition

Only three weeks ago, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's tripartite coalition was in a celebratory mood after the opposition forces ended their boycott of the Diet and all proceedings returned to normal.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 24, 2000

Italian home cooking from a solo artist

It's always depressing when news comes in that another good restaurant has bitten the dust. In the past month we've found out that two of the best (in their own ways) have given up the ghost. So it was with not a little trepidation that we hiked off into nether Ebisu to see if our long-time favorite...
JAPAN / Media
Feb 17, 2000

Tarnished shields reflect on justice

Because the public has been conditioned not to believe anything it doesn't see on TV or read in the paper, a problem is not considered a problem until the media says it is. This realization brings up the question: What was it before?
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2000

Banks quick to slam Ishihara tax proposal

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara's surprise proposal to impose a 3 percent tax on gross profits of large banks in the metropolis drew a flurry of protest from the nation's financial institutions Tuesday. "The plan is at odds with national policy," Michio Ochi, chairman of the Financial Reconstruction Commission,...
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2000

Minister claims flexibility on unpopular dam project

Construction Minister Masaaki Nakayama reiterated his readiness Tuesday to be flexible in reviewing a contentious dam planned for the Yoshino River in Tokushima Prefecture following the overwhelming rejection of the project by voters in a Sunday plebiscite in the city of Tokushima. "We have been walking...
EDITORIALS
Dec 5, 1999

Aum's surprise expression of 'regret'

Never able to stay out of the news for long, the Aum Shinrikyo cult made headlines last week, but this time with deliberate intent. The unprecedented formal admission by its current acting leader, Ms. Tatsuko Muraoka, that some of the cult's members were indeed involved in the series of crimes of which...

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