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COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2000

JCP reforms in name only

The Japanese Communist Party, at the Sept. 19 general meeting of the Central Committee, proposed scrapping the preamble to the party charter that sets out basic principles for its activities and organization. The preamble contains words symbolic of the Communist Party, such as "socialist revolution,"...
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2000

Groups demand explanation of plan to help North Korea

Citizens' groups seeking the return of Japanese nationals allegedly abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s demanded Monday that Japan explain its reported plan to provide food aid to North Korea at a time when there is no visible improvement in the communist country's efforts to resolve...
EDITORIALS
Oct 2, 2000

Indonesia's justice on trial

Indonesia's wobbly democracy is being sorely tested as the government attempts to bring former President Suharto and his children to justice. At the same time, it must cope with escalating violence both in the capital of Jakarta and in the provinces. Ominously, the two problems appear to overlap: President...
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2000

Japan open to return of two disputed isles

The government is leaning closer to accepting a two-stage accord over four disputed islands off Hokkaido in which Russia would hand over two of them with assurances that the remaining two will also eventually be returned, government sources said Sunday.
EDITORIALS
Oct 1, 2000

Life after the Olympics

What do we do now with our evenings and weekends? For two happy, mindless weeks, we have flopped down in front of the TV any spare minute we had, just to get our daily fix of the big show going on in Sydney. Cynicism, the pre-Games attitude du jour, went out the window the second the teams entered the...
COMMENTARY
Oct 1, 2000

Log on to network politics

Events can act often as an illuminating light. Predictions, warnings and expert forecasts of which no one took much notice suddenly become obvious to everyone.
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2000

Shelter plan for park's homeless hit

OSAKA -- A municipal government plan to build temporary shelters for homeless people living in a park that will host next year's East Asian Games has received heated criticism from area residents, who have gathered over 22,000 signatures in protest.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 1, 2000

Van Gogh, up close and personal

There is a rapid sketch by Vincent van Gogh of a sunny square in the south of France where a man is waiting expectantly by an open door. In the distance, a steam train is arriving, puffing smoke into the sky. It is just a simple drawing of a corner of Arles in 1888. But when we realize that the man is...
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2000

Nation remains at risk to nuclear disaster

A year after Japan's worst nuclear power disaster struck the village of Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, a nuclear safety critic said Friday that sufficient measures have yet to be taken to prevent a similar accident from occurring.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2000

Japan should look toward FTAs: report

Japan should actively explore the possibility of concluding free-trade agreements with some developing countries while forging closer economic relations with the United States and other industrialized countries through other types of new bilateral arrangements, according to a government report.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 30, 2000

Thomas Wolfe: 20th-century America's warped looking glass

"No one has ever written any books about America -- I mean the real America," he wrote to a friend in 1931.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 30, 2000

Koto player has tales to tell

Elizabeth Falconer, a former Japan Times hogaku columnist, lives in Seattle now, but in the many years she spent in Japan she steeped herself in Japanese culture, including winning a koto teacher's certificate from the late Tadao Sawai, one of the greatest koto masters of the 20th century. Since her...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2000

A final act for Milosevic?

LONDON -- "We are talking about political fraud and blatant stealing of votes," said Yugoslav opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica Sept. 26, after it was announced that he had not defeated Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic in the first round of the presidential election on Sunday. "The victory is...
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2000

UNSC must change before Japan, Germany join

OSAKA -- The U.N. Security Council is not adequately dealing with global problems, according to former German President Richard von Weizsaecker, and the entry of Japan and Germany into the body as permanent members should only take place after major U.N. reforms.
BUSINESS
Sep 29, 2000

Swissotel plans to up Asian presence

Swiss-based hotel group Swissotel Hotels & Resorts will reinforce its operations to cultivate the growing Asian market, an executive of the group said Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2000

Abductees' kin slam Pyongyang aid

Staff writer
OLYMPICS
Sep 29, 2000

Jones bags 200 meters

SYDNEY -- It was billed as the showdown between Australia's indigenous darling, Cathy Freeman, and U.S. star Marion Jones.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2000

Foreign residents on slow boat to get vote

The Japanese woman was unhappy.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2000

AOL, DoCoMo form alliance

America Online Inc. and NTT DoCoMo Inc. announced Wednesday in Tokyo that they will form a strategic alliance to integrate their wireless and fixed-line Internet services, with NTT DoCoMo becoming AOL Japan's top shareholder.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Sep 28, 2000

Keeping it plain and simple for the serious sake drinker

Some of the best sake can be tasted these days at modern, shiny, artsy-craftsy sake pubs. These present some of the most lively and interesting environments in which to hang out with nihonshu. But sometimes, what we seek in a sake pub is more of an out-of-the-way feeling. Sometimes its anonymity that...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2000

Japan's nonprofits carve out a space of their own

When the Nature Conservancy's Lori Forman addressed the College Women's Association of Japan at a luncheon earlier this year, the topic was supposed to be nongovernmental organizations in Japan. But instead of providing a nuanced description of Japan's not-for-profit movement, Forman seemed more interested...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 28, 2000

Trendy slurping in Azabu-Juban

All things must pass -- especially, it seems, the good stuff. So a final farewell, then, to the old Azabu-Juban we used to know and love, with its funky, friendly mom 'n' pop stores, cheap nomiya and overpriced wine bars, and its faintly musty smells of onsen and kimchi.
COMMUNITY
Sep 28, 2000

Disabled fight for freedom of movement

Disabled people should not take trains -- at least that's what Take Maruyama, who needs a wheelchair because of cerebral palsy, was told by his family when he was growing up in a small town in Tochigi Prefecture. Fortunately, he didn't listen.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2000

Tokyo International Film Festival to screen 16 films by new directors

Sixteen films by new directors will be screened in competition at the 13th Tokyo International Film Festival, which will begin Oct. 28, according to event organizers.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2000

Kyoto to host religious peace forum

Representatives of religions from nearly 150 countries will convene in Kyoto on Nov. 29 and 30 to discuss disarmament and mark the 30th anniversary of the World Conference on Religion and Peace, according to WCRP officials in Japan.

Longform

The building of new high-rise residential buildings has some alarmed that they could empty and fall into disrepair as Japan's population shrinks.
The high cost of letting Japan's condos crumble