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COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Oct 6, 1999

International outlook

There are a lot of people who would like to get out and see Japan, but often it seems the cost outweigh the experience. Now U.S. citizens can avoid this dilemma, thanks to a wide-ranging exchange program based on one of the first Japan-American cultural exchange projects. It dates back to 1841 when Nakahama...
JAPAN
Sep 29, 1999

Teacher acquitted third time in 21-year murder trial

OSAKA -- For the third time in an unprecedented trial that has lasted more than 21 years, and a quarter-century after the alleged crime, a former nursery school teacher was acquitted Wednesday of murdering a 12-year-old boy in 1974.
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 1999

No mandate for Mr. Obuchi

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi has been re-elected president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party by warding off the challenge from former LDP Secretary General Koichi Kato and former LDP policy chief Taku Yamasaki. Many LDP Diet members have been quick to see his impressive victory as a vote of confidence...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Sep 15, 1999

Opportunities

Today is Respect for the Aged Day. Once Japan was criticized for not having enough holidays. Now, with New Year's for winter celebrants, O-bon in the summer, Golden Week in the spring and an assortment of traditional and recently created special days in between (with Mondays off if they fall on Sunday),...
JAPAN
Sep 9, 1999

Obuchi, Kato and Yamasaki kick off LDP campaigns

The presidential race for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party officially began Thursday as Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, former LDP Secretary General Koichi Kato and former LDP policy affairs chief Taku Yamasaki filed their candidacies with the party's election management commission.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 9, 1999

Taverna Rondino: Kamakura's most excellent cucina

Now that summer is finally past its punishing prime, it's time for the beach. September is the finest season down on the Shonan waterfront: The sun and water are still plenty warm enough; the teenybopper crowds have dissipated; and the rip-off beach houses have packed up and gone, taking their dubious...
JAPAN
Sep 8, 1999

LDP race not just about winning

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Sep 7, 1999

Tokyo declares war on diesels

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara is proving to be a man of his word -- up to a point. It remains to be seen whether or not he can keep some of his promises. Not long after announcing plans to seriously tackle the capital region's notorious traffic congestion, Mr. Ishihara and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government...
LIFE / Travel
Sep 1, 1999

Eyes wide shut in North Korea

It's late afternoon in Beijing. Beside a gloomy, concrete platform an antiquated train lumbers into place. In the dim light, people scurry about looking for the right car. This is, in fact, important. The first four carriages are bound for Dandong, a small Chinese border town, but the last two will continue...
EDITORIALS
Aug 20, 1999

Ethics drive is losing steam

The Diet earlier this month approved an ethics-in-government bill, more than a year after it was introduced under the initiative of former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto. The way in which is was handled, however, indicates that the political drive to stamp out corruption has lost steam.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Aug 11, 1999

Like it is

Language is enriched by people who don't speak it very well, using phrases made up of words that contain the meaning of what they want to say but not the usual form. The result is sometimes quite effective. How about this one reporting a break in the summer heat: The weather is going down a bit, or this:...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 7, 1999

Nationalism to the rescue

LONDON -- A French philosopher remarked some years ago that national politics had become "a secondary activity." What he meant was that, with the globalization of finance and economic forces, and with the citizens of the world linking up across borders (700 million people will be linked to the Internet...
JAPAN
Aug 5, 1999

Identity of 'Kimigayo' composer remains mystery

Staff writer
COMMENTARY
Jul 30, 1999

Selling out in Nagata-cho

"Japanese politics today lacks principles," former Health and Welfare Minister Junichiro Koizumi said when I met him recently as a member of a journalists' group. Koizumi also criticized government budget outlays of 80 trillion yen, against national and local tax revenues of only 50 trillion yen. He...
CULTURE / Music
Jul 20, 1999

Lotus Sutra gets rhythm on Ono's 'Gyo'

As much as it is tempting to believe the adage "like father, like daughter," sometimes a person like Toshiro Ono comes along to turn the saying on its head.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 1999

Apparently, all roads lead to Vladivostok

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- No, Peter and Eileen Crichton were not to be mistaken for the U.S. couple making a millennial tour of five continents in a lemon yellow Mercedes-Benz "off-roadster." Nor did they have anything to do with the two Germans who had just crossed Russia in a 1963 Citroen 2 CV.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 1999

Emergency contraception is here, but where?

A day after spending the night with her steady boyfriend, Mika roamed the area around her office in Tokyo, desperately looking for an obstetrician or gynecologist who could prescribe the medication she sought — an emergency contraceptive pill.
COMMUNITY
Jun 3, 1999

Getting to the point of good health

Consider these facts:
JAPAN
Jun 2, 1999

Cost, doubts mean rousing reception unlikely for pill

and MAYUMI NEGISHI Staff writers
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 2, 1999

Island life a short cut to evolution

Japan is not just an island; it is an archipelago.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 1999

Sega announces new global strategies

Can Sega make a comeback? Which company will come up with the key digital home electronic appliance of the future?
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

Some wary as pension plight casts 401(k) in rosy light

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
May 24, 1999

The world's second oldest profession

W ith a U.S. congressional committee poised to release a report on alleged Chinese spying at U.S. nuclear facilities, the political furor in Washington over the theft of U.S. military secrets is certain to escalate, and could cause serious political repercussions in the United States and in its foreign...
EDITORIALS
May 23, 1999

Break the corporate extortion habit

The report that as many as 59 leading Japanese companies were victims of extortion by "sokaiya" corporate racketeers, so-called rightist groups, organized gang members and other criminals in 1998 was treated as a major revelation by the mass media. The news came as the result of a survey conducted early...
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 1999

Kosovo refugees need the world's help

Less than four months after the world celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a major human tragedy continues to unfold near the heart of Europe.
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

FRC panel declares failed NCB stocks worthless

A committee of the Financial Reconstruction Commission said Monday it has evaluated the stocks of the failed Nippon Credit Bank as worthless.
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

New Komeito plays up role as fickle ally

Staff writer
CULTURE / Music
May 18, 1999

Alec Empire's mission: disturb and offend

At first glance Alec Empire, in black leather from head to foot, appears the archetypal rocker, but his short clean hair and his drug-free, no-drinking, no-smoking stance hardly screams "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll."
CULTURE / Books
May 18, 1999

Tracing a profile of the new Japan

REGIME SHIFT: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy, by T.J. Pempel. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1998, 263 pp. I'm confused. On the one hand, we're told Japan has undergone tumultuous change since the beginning of the '90s. The Liberal Democratic Party lost its 38-year-long...
EDITORIALS
May 11, 1999

First breach in the government wall

After two decades of on-and-off arguments, the Diet finally passed a freedom of information bill into law last Friday. For the first time in Japan's history, a law stipulates that the government "has the duty to explain to the nation" the way government ministries and agencies run their affairs. To be...

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan