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CULTURE / Music
Jan 11, 2000

Ani DiFranco's hard road leads her to a higher plane

Last year, the prolific Ani DiFranco released three albums. Any record company marketing executive would tell you that's more than the market could take. But then, DiFranco doesn't have to answer to any record company. She owns her own.
COMMENTARY
Jan 9, 2000

Doomsayers have it wrong

LONDON -- Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, is a deeply spiritual and thoughtful man. Again and again he brings us back to the really central question of our times -- central in all societies and all religions, and becoming more so in a globalized age. What now binds us together?...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2000

Pessimism, ambivalence about future sum up state of the nation

Staff writer
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2000

Another Century: Slump, aging Japan skew debate on foreigners

Staff writer One sector of Japan's immigrant community comes into view every Friday at around noon, when people wearing white caps walk into a single story prefabricated building in the city of Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture. This is Isesaki Jame-e Mosque -- a sanctuary since 1995 for about 500 Muslims living...
COMMENTARY
Jan 1, 2000

Japan looks for a purpose

The 1990s is said to have been a "lost decade" for Japan. That may be true. In May 1991, Japan's economy plunged into a slump that would be called the "Heisei Recession." In October 1993, the economy "bottomed out," but ever since then it has remained in the doldrums. The protracted slump has had extensive...
JAPAN
Dec 31, 1999

2000 'pivotal' in ties with Pyongyang

Staff writer For better or worse, future historians may characterize 2000 as a pivotal point in Japan's foreign policy toward its hermetic neighbor, North Korea. This is mainly because one of Japan's long-standing diplomatic issues -- normalization talks with Pyongyang -- is likely to enter a critical...
JAPAN
Dec 31, 1999

Obuchi tasked to dissolve Lower House

Even if Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi manages to see New Year's Day pass without serious Y2K problems, a big decision lies ahead of him — when to dissolve the Lower House and call a general election.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 1999

Happy in the Gucci nation

What kind of country will Japan be in the 21st century? The millennial forecast is in and it looks like this: Japan's cultural elite is quickly converging around the notion that Japan should be the first boutique state of the 21st century -- distinctive, well designed and expensive.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 1999

Asylum said in short supply here

Staff writer The number of people granted asylum by Japan in 1999 edged into double digits for the second straight year, but lawyers say some seeking to stay are being deported in an inhumane manner. This year, 11 people have been granted refugee status, down from 16 last year. On Nov. 22, an Iranian...
EDITORIALS
Dec 22, 1999

The Kremlin wins, for now

Russia's parliamentary elections, held last weekend, were a victory for the government. Pro-Kremlin parties appear -- and the qualifier is important -- to have won a commanding share of seats in the 450-member Duma. The immediate benefactors of the vote are President Boris Yeltsin and his prime minister,...
JAPAN
Dec 22, 1999

Ikebukuro and Shimonoseki killers are insane, lawyers argue in separate cases

Lawyers for Hiroshi Zota, who went on a rampage in September on a street in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, killing two people and injuring eight others, claimed Wednesday that their client was probably insane at that time.
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 1999

India's future prosperity lies with IT

NEW DELHI and LONDON -- The image of India that too many people still have in their minds is one of teeming millions, timeless customs, monstrous poverty and a giant, sluggish economy.
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

'Knock' undone by calling victim a liar

Staff writer OSAKA -- The game is finally up for Osaka Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama. Yokoyama announced his resignation Tuesday morning, just hours before prosecutors indicted him over a criminal complaint filed by a 21-year-old university student, accusing Yokoyama of groping her inside a campaign van in...
EDITORIALS
Dec 20, 1999

Less-than-inspiring politics

The extraordinary Diet session that ended Thursday brought to the fore the simmering discord within the tripartite ruling coalition. The Liberal Party threatened to quit the coalition because a bill to slim down the Lower House, which was one of the conditions for the party's joining the coalition, was...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 1999

A diplomatic 'paper tiger'?

In recent years, we have seen active debate on Japan's sanctions-based diplomacy. Discussions focused on the justifications for and effects of sanctions, as well as changes in the balance of power resulting from the lifting of such measures. The lifting of sanctions against North Korea Dec. 14 renewed...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 1999

Asia archive with LDP spin in works

Japan will open an Asian history archive inside the National Archives in April 2001, as proposed in 1995 by the Cabinet of then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama. The archive will include documents on the war Japan fought from 1926 to 1945 and records of its colonial rule in Asia that are now scattered...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 1999

In the aftermath of the WTO debacle

WASHINGTON -- In the aftermath of the failed WTO meeting in Seattle last month, the big question is, "What now?"
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1999

Majority doesn't mean easy street for coalition

Staff writer The 48-day extraordinary Diet session, scheduled to end today, appears to have exposed the weaknesses rather than strengths of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's new tripartite coalition, which controls 70 percent of the seats in the Lower House. Obuchi had hoped the combined majority of 356...
JAPAN
Dec 13, 1999

Century of Change: Marriage sheds its traditional shackles

Staff writer When Kumiko Nishimura wed two years ago, she thought that registering her marriage with the city office was a natural course of things. But she postponed the registration because she felt it too burdensome to go though the process of changing names on everything -- from her driver's license,...
JAPAN
Dec 9, 1999

Nuclear energy firms form safety network

In an effort to regain public trust in the nuclear energy industry, 35 companies and research institutions formed an association Thursday that subjects members to safety inspections by competitors. September's criticality accident at JCO Co.'s uranium processing plant in Ibaraki Prefecture has jeopardized...
JAPAN
Dec 7, 1999

'Knock' to take suit ruling seriously

OSAKA -- Osaka Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama told a news conference Tuesday that he would "take seriously" Monday's anticipated ruling in the sexual harassment lawsuit against him, which he did not contest. He also told the day's regular news conference that he would pay compensation if the court orders him...
COMMENTARY
Dec 3, 1999

Bully politics back in vogue

Many important bills are pending in the current extraordinary Diet session that closes Dec. 15, and the government and the ruling tripartite coalition no doubt are considering an extension of the session. The three opposition parties, meanwhile, are gearing up to quash the bills and present a no-confidence...
JAPAN
Dec 2, 1999

DPJ giving up its 'well mannered' style

Staff writer In an effort to turn itself from a "well-mannered" party into an "aggressive" force, the Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition party, is beginning to square up to the ruling coalition. "We used to work hard to provide counterproposals (to the ruling alliance) because we thought...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 1, 1999

Kawabata and great truths

FIRST SNOW ON FUJI, by Yasunari Kawabata. Translated by Michael Emmerich. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 227 pp., $24. This collection of stories, plus an essay and a dance-drama, was originally published in 1958 as "Fuji no Hatsuyuki." It is late Kawabata -- most of the major works had already appeared,...
EDITORIALS
Nov 26, 1999

The computer giant stumbles

In the era of globalization, the management mantra seems to be "bigger is better." From automakers to securities traders, every business aspires to the size and weight that would allow it to influence -- if not dictate -- developments in its particular industry. In the fast-moving world of high-technology,...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 1999

Australia's republic: If not now, when?

Australian Prime Minister John Howard recently had an "audience" -- as some Australian media described it -- with Queen Elizabeth II at the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting in Durban, South Africa. During the meeting, the prime minister of Australia personally informed the queen of the United...
JAPAN
Nov 18, 1999

Man faces life term for Sakai stabbings

OSAKA -- Prosecutors demanded life in prison Thursday for a 21-year-old man accused of fatally stabbing a girl and wounding two others on the street in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, in 1998.
JAPAN
Nov 16, 1999

Aceh referendum to come in seven months: Wahid

Visiting Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid said Tuesday that a referendum in the country's troubled Aceh Province may be held in seven months.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 1999

Photos urge students to study selves

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 11, 1999

Government unveils 18 trillion yen stimulus

The government unveiled an 18 trillion yen economic stimulus package Thursday that it hopes will put the economy on a full recovery track in the second half of fiscal 2000.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?