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JAPAN
May 12, 2000

Usui backs lowering age limit for adult trials

Justice Minister Hideo Usui indicated Thursday that he supports lowering the minimum age at which people can be penalized for crimes as adults, which currently stands at 16.
COMMENTARY / World
May 11, 2000

The ADB finds itself in the maelstrom

"Globalization is killing poor people!"
JAPAN
May 11, 2000

Tokyo to host scientific meet

An international conference on overpopulation, food and other leading global issues will take place in Tokyo from May 15 to 18, according to the government.
JAPAN
May 8, 2000

Carbon tax is needed to cut CO2 levels: panel

A carbon tax is vital for curbing emissions of carbon dioxide, a major contributor to global warming, according to the draft of a report being compiled by an Environment Agency panel.
COMMENTARY
Apr 25, 2000

Mori's real test comes in July

Like many Japanese, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will travel overseas in the Golden Week holiday period, which starts April 29. He will have little time to relax, however. Mori, who will chair the Group of Eight summit in southern Japan in July, will visit the participating nations to prepare for the...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 12, 2000

Residue of America's dirty fingerprints

PARALLAX VISIONS: Making Sense of American-East Asian Relations at the End of the Century, by Bruce Cumings. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1999, 280 pp., $27.95 (cloth). The field of Asian studies has attracted some brilliant scholars, many of whom have controversial views. Chalmers Johnson...
EDITORIALS
Apr 6, 2000

A Cabinet for political continuity

Mr. Yoshiro Mori, former secretary general of the governing Liberal Democratic Party, on Wednesday succeeded Mr. Keizo Obuchi, the former prime minister, who has been incapacitated by a stroke since Sunday. The new prime minister has retained all members of the second coalition-Cabinet, which Mr. Obuchi...
COMMUNITY
Apr 2, 2000

Europe cheese fan driving wedge into parochial taste buds

OSAKA -- It was love at first bite when Hisaji Taketomo discovered the joy of European cheese more than 20 years ago.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2000

Japan to unveil new exchange-student goal to G8

The government plans to unveil a plan to double the number of foreign students in Japan from the current 56,000 by 2010 during the upcoming meeting of Group of Eight education ministers in Tokyo and Okinawa, the Education Ministry said.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2000

Breaking down the doors of Japan's discriminatory press clubs

In May 1993, David Butts, then Tokyo bureau chief of Bloomberg Business News, was fed up. After years of unsuccessful efforts to penetrate Japan's press clubs through polite negotiation, the tall Texan chose a more direct approach. On the day annual company reports were released, Butts, with other foreign...
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Mar 12, 2000

Day of reckoning

The question of sexual harassment -- "seku hara" -- has, after years of neglect, become one of the hottest media topics. Not that suddenly men are beginning to harass women. It is that women are making accusations while before many tended to view it as inevitable, something that went along with employment...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 12, 2000

Muriel Jolivet

A year ago, Muriel Jolivet said, "Briefly, the subjects I studied up to now were, first, the social integration of Japanese male students through work. Then I focused more on women, and their social integration through work. I got interested in women and maternity in Japan, and wrote the book 'Japan:...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2000

Tough new laws stir outrage in Australia

SYDNEY -- Johnno, a 15-year-old Aboriginal boy, steals a few pencils and some paint. The magistrate has no option but to send him to prison for four weeks. After three weeks behind bars, Johnno hangs himself.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 24, 2000

The go-mi system of sake tasting

Describing and conveying the flavor of sake has always been problematic. How does one explain a gustatory experience in words alone? It certainly isn't easy. And, as sake flavor profiles become more complex and subtle, it is bound to become even more difficult.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2000

More Japanese urged to join international student forum

The International Students' Committee, organizers of the annual International Management Symposium in St. Gallen, Switzerland, is urging more Japanese business leaders and students to take part in the gathering. Organizers say the symposium has become one of the prime occasions for leaders and top students...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 10, 2000

Back streets in not-so-far towns

One of the great joys of sake tippling, especially after having searched the town for a while, is finding a new gem of a place. Just when you think you've seen just about any manifestation a sake pub could take, you stumble on something charming and warm, wondering how it could have escaped your attention...
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2000

International student forum needs more Japanese

The International Students' Committee, organizers of the annual International Management Symposium in St. Gallen, Switzerland, is urging more Japanese business leaders and students to take part in the gathering. Organizers say the symposium has become one of the prime occasions for leaders and top students...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 8, 2000

Life during wartime through a child's clear eyes

A BOY CALLED H: A Childhood in Wartime Japan, by Kappa Senoh, translated by John Bester. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1999, 528 pp., 3,200 yen (cloth). In Roddy Doyle's "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha," and again in Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes," we are told of life in poverty-ridden back streets of Ireland's cities...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2000

Exotic wildlife on a short leash in Asia

PUSAN, South Korea — Every night at 8 p.m., Roma Khachaturyan, a Russian-Armenian from Moscow who now lives in Korea, feeds a Siberian tiger named Cesar.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2000

Tokyo barely balances budget despite spiking haloed items

The Tokyo governor has lost 7,000 supporters for his next election, promises marathon aficionado Taeko Hara.
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2000

Obuchi asks envoys to solicit Asian opinions on G8 meetings

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi instructed Japan's ambassadors to 24 Asia-Pacific nations Friday to gather opinions from the leaders of their assigned countries regarding the Group of Eight summit to be hosted by Japan in July, a Foreign Ministry official said.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2000

G-7 expected to hold low-stress meeting

Staff writer Policy coordination over the yen's rise against the dollar will be the biggest issue for Japan at Saturday's financial meeting of the Group of Seven industrial countries in Tokyo. Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa hopes the G-7 will share Japan's concern about the yen's appreciation; the...
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2000

Tokyo invests more to protect nuclear jobs in Russia

Japan will contribute an additional $20 million to a science and technology center established in Moscow six years ago to help curb the proliferation of nuclear weapons by creating jobs for Russian scientists and engineers, Foreign Ministry sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2000

Nations must cooperate to stop illegal drugs, Azuma says

Drug abuse is not a problem that can be solved by just one nation, Shozo Azuma, parliamentary vice minister for foreign affairs, said at the opening ceremony of "Anti-Drug Conference, Tokyo 2000" on Monday. Law enforcement and financial officials as well as researchers from about 20 Asia- Pacific nations...
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2000

Planned new visa procedures to open doors to tourist groups from China

Japan is ready to open the door to groups of Chinese tourists beginning this spring by improving visa-issuing procedures, Transport Minister Toshihiro Nikai said Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

Obuchi to hear Pacific island voices before G8

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi announced Tuesday that Japan will hold a meeting of leaders of Pacific island nations April 22 in Miyazaki as part of efforts to reflect viewpoints in the region on the upcoming Group of Eight summit in Okinawa this July.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

Tokyo, Pyongyang to meet in China for normalization talks

Japan and North Korea will hold a series of meetings from Sunday to Tuesday in Beijing in an effort to resolve long-standing humanitarian concerns and resume talks for normalizing diplomatic relations, the government announced Thursday. A meeting between the two countries' Red Cross societies is scheduled...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Dec 14, 1999

The Worldwide Music Expo embraces roots and Internet

For anyone involved in any aspect of world music, WOMEX (Worldwide Music Expo) has become an essential date on the calendar. After a few years of internal wrangling, at the end of October, WOMEX returned to its original home at the House of World Cultures in Berlin, Germany, where from now on it will...

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.