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JAPAN
Jun 15, 2001

Ministry has wine bonanza on public funds

The Foreign Ministry spent around 30 million yen on 4,427 bottles of wine in the three years beginning fiscal 1997, according to documents revealed by the ministry Thursday.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Jun 10, 2001

Sake gold standards shifting

Last week, on May 30, the Zenkoku Shinshu Kanpyo Kai, or National New Sake Tasting Competition, was held in Hiroshima. This year 1,133 sake that made it through the nine regional competitions were tasted blindly by a panel of government-employed, highly trained judges. Out of these, 382 were given a...
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2001

Tanaka reportedly hinted Japan should reconsider U.S. alliance

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka, already under fire for making controversial remarks about the U.S. missile defense plan, has insinuated that Japan needs to depart from its decades-old security alliance with the United States, government sources said Tuesday.
SOCCER / World cup
May 29, 2001

Confederation Cup tickets go on sale

A Limited number of tickets for Japan's Confederations Cup games will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis at designated ticket outlets along with other games to be staged in Japan, the Japan Football Association announced Monday.
JAPAN
May 5, 2001

Pyongyang leader's 'son' expelled to China

The government on Friday morning deported to China a man claiming to be the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, along with his three companions.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2001

Japan, U.S. settle squabble over port calls

Japan and the United States agreed Tuesday that the U.S. Navy will improve measures for giving prior notification to the Japanese government of port calls by U.S. submarines.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2001

USJ attacked over disclosure stance

OSAKA -- Only a month into its grand opening, the management of Universal Studios Japan is under fire from citizens groups and the local media for refusing to divulge information about the park's operations.
EDITORIALS
Apr 4, 2001

A dangerous game of cat and mouse

The timing of the midair collision between a Chinese fighter jet and a U.S. Navy spy plane could not be worse. The handling of the incident seems designed to inflame tensions. The governments in Beijing and Washington must focus on the big picture. Give U.S. diplomatic personnel immediate access to the...
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2001

Guidelines prepared against medical malpractice

A panel of national university hospital chiefs set up to establish measures to prevent medical malpractice has unveiled a final report that calls for public disclosure of incidents of apparent malpractice and the creation of a new management system for medical records.
BUSINESS
Mar 30, 2001

State closes in on NTT monopoly

A state panel on information technology agreed Thursday to a review of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. to allow for fair competition in the telecom sector, while using IT to promote public welfare and regain economic competitiveness.
BUSINESS
Mar 30, 2001

NEC to restructure domestic factories

NEC Corp. said Thursday it will turn five domestic plants into independent electronics manufacturing service companies while selling or integrating others in a wide-ranging restructuring plan.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Mar 17, 2001

The sonic richness of the nightingale's song

One of the simplest yet most profound pleasures of spring in Japan is hearing the nightingale's song. Even in the urban sprawl of Tokyo, these sonorous creatures find patches of greenery and manage to make their melodies heard in spite of the cacophony of traffic, trains and ubiquitous loudspeakers....
COMMENTARY
Mar 13, 2001

Postindustrial economy calls

In the 1980s, most Japanese economists were under the illusion that the American economy would continue to decline and that Japan would surpass America as the world's largest economy. In fact, the Japanese economy was reaching the apex of its prosperity while the U.S. economy, with its different systems...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2001

The spy game: high stakes, low payoffs

LONDON -- It's an impressive list: CIA official Aldrich Ames jailed for life in 1994 for spying for Moscow; CIA agent Harold Nicholson jailed for 23 years in 1997 for the same offense; FBI employee Earl Pitts sentenced to 27 years later the same year for passing information to Moscow; U.S. Army Col....
CULTURE / Books
Feb 27, 2001

The guide to the Chinese economy

CHINA'S NEW POLITICAL ECONOMY, by Susumu Yabuki and Stephen M. Harner. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1999, revised edition, 327 pp., $32. In this thoroughly revised edition of Susumu Yabuki's 1995 book, Stephen Harner (translator of the 1995 book) joins Yabuki to paint a broad picture of China's...
CULTURE / Film
Feb 27, 2001

Unearthly entertainment

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is God's gift to film journalists. He speaks slowly and distinctly, in a rumbling baritone, weighing each word -- and giving even the most fumble-fingered reporter time to get everything down. He is also patient with questions that, after the 20th media interview, he has heard 20 times...
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2001

Osaka leaders' talk fest serves up more than usual platitudes

KYOTO -- When the Kansai region's leaders gather here every year for a two-day seminar to discuss the regional economy, corporate heads, economists and local government officials pontificate on issues ranging from information technology to employment.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Blackman case suspect sought hospital info

A man who police believe may be the suspect in the disappearance of Lucie Blackman apparently telephoned the local fire department in the city of Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture, on the day of her disappearance asking for information about medical institutions nearby that would accept emergency patients,...
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2001

Fukuoka prosecutor gets demoted

The Justice Ministry on Friday effectively demoted Eiju Yamashita, 51, the deputy head of the Fukuoka District Public Prosecutor's Office, for his alleged involvement in leaking police information to a judge about an investigation of the judge's wife.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2001

Fukuoka prosecutor gets demoted

The Justice Ministry on Friday effectively demoted Eiju Yamashita, 51, the deputy head of the Fukuoka District Public Prosecutor's Office, for his alleged involvement in leaking police information to a judge about an investigation of the judge's wife.
COMMENTARY
Feb 7, 2001

In defense of Davos' ideals

DAVOS, Switzerland -- President Vicente Fox of Mexico was received very warmly at this year's World Economic Forum summit in Davos. His message was clear: that globalization creates dangers, such as a deepening divide between rich and poor, and that these must be addressed if the globalization "backlash"...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2001

Quake made worse by greed and ineptness

NEW DELHI -- The earthquake that devastated many parts of India's western state of Gujarat opened a Pandora's Box, out of which tumbled a shocking spectacle of ignorance and mismanagement driven by greed and callousness.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2001

Review of U.S. whaling policy in order

Then U.S. President Bill Clinton's decision rejecting import sanctions against Japan for expanding its whale research programs in the Northwest Pacific was conveyed to the speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the Senate in a letter dated Dec. 29, 2000. It concerned the September...
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2001

NGOs lament Okinawans' plight

Three Japanese nongovernmental organizations have submitted a report to the United Nations detailing human rights abuses by the Japanese government and U.S. military forces against the people of Okinawa.
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2001

Mazda opens online auto shop to market built-to-order cars

Mazda Motor Corp. today will open an Internet site that will allow Japanese customers to custom-build their own cars.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2001

U.S. slammed for unresponsiveness

U.S. health authorities have failed to act on repeated Japanese requests to report on defects in U.S.-made heart tissue patches that have caused problems in at least 68 patients in Japan, Health Ministry officials said Tuesday.

Longform

It's back to the classroom for some residents as municipal governments across the country conduct lessons to learn how to use new technologies.
Can aging Japan go digital without leaving anyone behind?