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COMMENTARY / World
Jun 21, 2000

Back to what they do best

The World Bank employs many of the best and brightest development professionals. The International Monetary Fund attracts some of the ablest brains in the financial sector. Established at Bretton Woods in 1944, both have generally been blessed with exceptional chief executives. But now, wrestling with...
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2000

Panel advocates two-week holidays

An advisory panel to the labor minister will propose the introduction of a two-week vacation system in a report to be presented in July, Labor Ministry sources said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 21, 2000

Two Kims now face a win-win situation

SEOUL -- Both North Korea's Kim Jong Il, the younger host, and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, his older guest, have come off last week's world-dazzling summit with a bounce. But can they keep the momentum going?
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jun 21, 2000

Hawaii's fire island a travel hot spot

All the Hawaiian islands are the peaks of submarine volcanoes. Only one island, however, is still volcanically active -- the aptly named Big Island, largest in the 2,400-km-long archipelago and unquestionably the wildest of them all.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 21, 2000

The dying truth

In our marriage, my Japanese wife and I have met and resolved oodles of cultural issues, but one fairly thorny matter remains . . . how to face that ultimate marital crisis: death.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2000

Vision seen eluding campaign

The main problem voters face in Sunday's Lower House poll is that no party has presented a clear vision to address public concerns about the future, according to journalist Soichiro Tawara.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2000

Ex-Prime Minister Takeshita, 76, dies

Former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, who wielded enormous influence over Japanese politics long after scandal forced him to resign more than a decade ago, died of respiratory failure at 12:53 a.m. Monday at Kitasato Institute Hospital in Tokyo, his aides said. He was 76.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2000

Scandal-tainted kingmaker also a 'caring man'

The political career of the late Noboru Takeshita was rocked by a series of scandals that forced him to largely wield his influence from behind the scenes after he stepped down as prime minister in 1989.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2000

Alliance chiefs take pitch to Osaka streets

OSAKA — For the first time since last Tuesday's official start of campaigning for the June 25 general election, the leaders of the three ruling parties took to the streets together on Monday in Osaka, trying to impress voters with their solidarity.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 20, 2000

A holocaust foretold by the pattern in the rock garden

BEFORE HIROSHIMA: The Confession of Murayama Kazuo and other stories, by Joshua Barkan. London: The Toby Press, 2000; 139 pp., $12.95 (paper). "Before Hiroshima" is 31-year-old American Joshua Barkan's first published collection of fiction, and the title story, which makes up almost half the book,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2000

New rules, old political games

Japanese go to the polls June 25 in the nation's second general election that combines single-seat constituencies and proportional representation.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 20, 2000

Shallow pits and rabbit hutches

JAPANESE HOMES AND LIFESTYLES: An Illustrated Journey through History, by Kazuya Inaba and Shigenobu Nakayama. Translated by John Bester. Kodansha International, 2000, 144 pp., $32. Do you curse costly rents, cramped quarters and cluttered cupboards? Do you think tatami are terrific, futons fabulous...
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2000

Expat candidates enter the political fray

As campaigning for Sunday's Lower House election heats up, two candidates are lucky to have a guaranteed point of interest — one comes from Finland, the other from China.
EDITORIALS
Jun 19, 2000

In 'the Lion's' shadow

The death last week of Mr. Hafez Assad, the president of Syria, leaves a gaping hole in the Middle East. Mr. Assad was one of the last of the region's strongmen. He ruled Syria with an iron fist. He was an unbending defender of the Arab cause and one of the most resolute opponents of the state of Israel....
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2000

44% of electorate undecided, poll says

Interest in next Sunday's general election has grown over the past week, but 44 percent of voters are still not sure which party to vote for, a Kyodo News poll showed Sunday.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 19, 2000

Sure, Japanese rice is expensive -- you're paying for all the chemicals

Don't expect the government to look out for your best interests when it comes to chemicals.
COMMENTARY
Jun 19, 2000

Defining issues for Japan

The June 25 Lower House election will be critical for Japan, since it will mark the first step in charting the nation's course for the 21st century. The most important campaign issue is the makeup of the next government. These alternatives are possible: the existing tripartite coalition of the Liberal...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 18, 2000

Giants and 'Maru-chan' a perfect match

Yomiuri Giants first baseman Domingo Martinez last week celebrated his one-year anniversary with the team, and plucking him out of the Mexican League last June and bringing him back to Japan was one of the best things the Giants have ever done.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2000

PC outlet staffed by Aum delayed

The scheduled opening Saturday of a personal computer sales outlet in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, to be staffed by followers of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, has been postponed due to a request from the landlords, sources close to the store said.
COMMUNITY
Jun 18, 2000

Learn a new language (and how!) in two weeks

Setsuko Iki may have retired in 1998 as a professor at Sanno Junior College in Tokyo, but she has not stopped working. As the leading Japanese authority on Suggestopaedia-Desuggestopaedia, systems of intensive language teaching initiated by Dr. Georgi Lozonov in Bulgaria in the 1960s and then developed...
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2000

Nissin targeted in 5 million yen extortion bid

OSAKA — Nissin Food Products Co., a leading food maker based in Osaka, received an extortion letter Wednesday containing a threat to put needles in its products unless the company pays 5 million yen, police sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2000

Yokohama sin tax prompts cries of no fair

YOKOHAMA — After Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara announced his controversial plan to impose a local tax on the city's banks earlier this year, other local governments have been searching for new revenue sources to replenish coffers drained by recession.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 18, 2000

Three weeks is a lifetime for pet crickets

Welcome to Japan's rainy season, also known as the Insect Season. Although I live in an old Japanese house with generations of insects going back as far as the Heian Period, I also live with the comfort of knowing I'll never starve to death. "Getemono," the Japanese word for "gross things to eat," includes...
MORE SPORTS
Jun 18, 2000

Bolivia hopes for surprise

Taking advantage of a similar playing style, Bolivia manager Carlos Aragones said he is looking for "a surprise" in Sunday's Kirin Cup final against Japan at Yokohama International Stadium.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2000

Empress Dowager dies at 97; family at her side

The Empress Dowager, the widow of Emperor Showa, died Friday afternoon, two days after she began experiencing breathing difficulties, the Imperial Household Agency said. She was 97.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2000

Great changed witnessed in her life

The Empress Dowager, who died Friday afternoon aged 97, saw firsthand the sweeping changes that engulfed the Imperial system after World War II as the wife of Emperor Showa.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2000

Domestic violence law sought

Japan needs to enact a law to recognize domestic violence as a crime and keep abusive husbands away from victimized women, according to the head of HELP Asian Women's Shelter, a private organization that provides emergency refuge for abused women.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2000

Reconciliation on the horizon

The joint declaration signed between North Korea leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung during the latter's just-concluded visit to Pyongyang is a truly historic document. It will, and should, require a complete reassessment of what is and is not possible regarding North-South reconciliation...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2000

A clash of perceptions in the Philippines

MANILA -- It so happened that I arrived at Manila airport just one day after a bomb explosion there that, fortunately, created more worries than victims and was quickly characterized as "an oversize pyrotechnic." Still, it doesn't take long for a visitor to the Philippines to realize that this "pearl...
CULTURE / Art
Jun 17, 2000

Sculptures that capture the mysterious rhythms of nature

The press release for the sculptor Susumu Shingu's "Wind Caravan" project opens charmingly with a quote from Christina Rossetti: "Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I, but when the trees bow down their heads, the wind is blowing by."

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go