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JAPAN
Mar 2, 2000

Terrorists tease press from cells

BEIRUT -- With just days left before five Japanese Red Army members are due to be released here, local and foreign press interest in the captives is heating up.
EDITORIALS
Mar 1, 2000

Who is policing the police?

Two high-ranking police officials resigned Tuesday as an expression of responsibility for their misconduct amid a public outcry that they deserved even heavier punishment. In fact, such was the degree of public disgust that the resignations of the disgraced officials, Mr. Yoshiyuki Nakada, head of the...
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2000

Advisers, clients face tax fraud complaints

Tax authorities have filed complaints with prosecutors against three business consultants and three of their clients over concealment of some 1.5 billion yen in income.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2000

State agencies dealt with Aum

A police raid of eight facilities related to Aum Shinrikyo on Tuesday revealed that major companies and government agencies had placed orders with a computer software company believed to be a major source of funds for the cult, investigators said.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2000

Handling the bugaboo of post-POW stress

It is well-known that U.S. presidential aspirant John McCain, a former U.S. Navy pilot, was struck by North Vietnamese fire over Hanoi during the Vietnam War and subsequently spent five and a half years in various prisoner-of-war camps. He still bears physical scars from the experience, notably the fact...
COMMUNITY
Mar 1, 2000

In quest of Amelia Earhart

Ric Gillespie has been chasing the same lady for more than 12 years. Now he reckons he knows where she is. If he's right -- and the evidence his foundation has collected is pretty compelling -- then one of the longest-running mysteries in the history of aviation has been solved.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2000

Police laxity in Niigata inexcusable, Obuchi says

(Kyodo) The new chief of the Niigata Prefectural Police took office Tuesday, replacing a disgraced Koji Kobayashi who failed to interrupt a drinking and mah-jongg session upon reports a girl missing for nine years had been found.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2000

Tough new laws stir outrage in Australia

SYDNEY -- Johnno, a 15-year-old Aboriginal boy, steals a few pencils and some paint. The magistrate has no option but to send him to prison for four weeks. After three weeks behind bars, Johnno hangs himself.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2000

Leap day efforts not enough: Aoki

A leap day computer glitch affected some systems and automatic teller machines Tuesday, but the government did not found any severe malfunctions, Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki said.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2000

Low-cost cruises are reeling them in

Singapore-based Star Cruises, the leading ocean cruise line in the Asia-Pacific region, is enjoying an overwhelming response after it recently announced the operation of low-priced luxury cruises.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 1, 2000

Take this job ...

I like my job. I even enjoy going to the office -- most days. That's why I'll probably continue the trudge to Tamachi, even though this job is one of the most suited to telecommuting.
BUSINESS
Mar 1, 2000

Wall Street downturn dampening dollar

After climbing past the 111 yen level for the first time in six months early last week, the dollar has come under fresh downward pressure amid worries about volatile moves on Wall Street.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Mar 1, 2000

Always more

In recent columns I explored purchasing English-friendly computers in Japan. Here is a little more information submitted by a reader who thinks it will be useful for those needing extended language capabilities for their computers, but first he has something to say about agreements, both local and international,...
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2000

Care-givers, doctors face turf war

Hirohiko Nakamura's message to doctors is clear: Back off.
COMMUNITY
Mar 1, 2000

Conspiracy theories: just waiting to be shot down

Amelia Earhart's fate has long been fertile hunting ground for conspiracy theorists, leading to some credibility-stretching explanations for her disappearance over the Pacific in July 1937.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2000

Budget's passage puts focus on polls

The Lower House approval Tuesday of the fiscal 2000 budget, a major hurdle in the ongoing 150-day regular Diet session, is expected to give Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi a freer hand in dissolving the chamber for a general election.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 1, 2000

Why ignore the canaries in the coal mine?

For all that the toads that I wrote about in this column a few weeks back have thick warty skins, amphibians in general are thin-skinned and very sensitive. That sensitivity is proving their undoing, and we should be paying much more attention to their demise than we are.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Mar 1, 2000

Conversation: enough said

I heard once that the average male speaks 2,000 words a day, while the average female speaks 7,000.
EDITORIALS
Feb 29, 2000

First principles in Kosovo

One simple question has always hung over the peacekeeping operation in Kosovo: What is the goal? Is it peace at all costs or is it the restoration of the multiethnic communities that existed in Yugoslavia before the country shattered in violence? If the former, then partition may be the solution to Yugoslavia's...
JAPAN
Feb 29, 2000

With budget set, elections may be next

Lower House approval of the fiscal 2000 budget, a major hurdle in the ongoing 150-day regular Diet session, is expected to give Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi a freer hand in dissolving the chamber for a general election.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 29, 2000

Japanese politics are gray, not green

GREEN POLITICS IN JAPAN, by Lam Peng Er. Routledge, March 1999, 232 pp., $90. The next 100 years have been dubbed the century of the environment. While this pronouncement may be a bit premature, even inflated, it reflects the swelling interest in environmental issues. From global warming and dioxins,...
CULTURE / Music
Feb 29, 2000

I just want to go to Chelsea; the best live show in Japan

You're cruising on a silent sea in a big warm boat when suddenly a tsunami hits and you're dumped in the ocean and you're chased by sharks to the nearest island where you encounter mustachioed cannibals with Spock haircuts waving Hinomaru flags who chase you through a snake-infested jungle and up a mountain,...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 29, 2000

Pilgrimage for the 21st century

EXPLORING KANTO: Weekend Pilgrimages from Tokyo, by Michael Plastow. New York: Weatherall, 1996, 262 pp., with color photos and maps, $19.95. A long journey of exalted purpose is one of the dictionary definitions of pilgrimage. One makes such a demanding endeavor for personal or, if you will, spiritual...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 29, 2000

Asia's real entrepreneurs shine

THE NEW ASIAN CORPORATION: Managing for the Future in Post-Crisis Asia, by Michael Hamlin. Jossey-Bass, 1999, $21.95. There are few more compelling subjects than the future of the Asian corporation.
JAPAN
Feb 29, 2000

Fiscal 2000 budget clears Lower House

The Lower House on Tuesday approved the government's 85 trillion yen fiscal 2000 budget, which the ruling bloc calls "a final push" to put the economy back on a recovery track. Now that the budget has cleared the Lower House, it is certain that it will clear the Diet before the new fiscal year starts...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 29, 2000

Staying on the beaten track in darkest Saitama

THE CITY OF YES, by Peter Oliva. Toronto, Canada: McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1999; 336 pp., $21.99. Like many another young, sensitive, well-intentioned foreigner, Canadian-born Peter Oliva -- or his protagonist -- came to Japan for a year and was so bowled over by the place that he felt the world...
BUSINESS
Feb 29, 2000

Road ahead clears for Tokyo stock market

After struggling to find its direction for weeks, the Tokyo stock market appears poised to test higher ground.
EDITORIALS
Feb 28, 2000

HIV case judgment is a warning

The Osaka District Court on Thursday marked a historic and welcome first for this country. Three former presidents of the defunct Osaka-based pharmaceutical company Green Cross Corp. were found guilty of professional negligence and sentenced to prison in the case of a hospital patient who died of AIDS-related...
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2000

New FRC chief vows fairness, details transparency hurdles

Staff writer Sadakazu Tanigaki, new chief of the Financial Reconstruction Commission, said Monday that he will be committed to "fairness and transparency" in handling reforms to the banking system, following the sudden resignation of his predecessor for seemingly antireform remarks. "The nation's administration...
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2000

Stray cat glut spurs odd neighborhood response

Staff writer YOKOHAMA -- A first glance at Masumi Nomura feeding cats in a Yokohama park may lead you to believe she loves the furry felines, but the opposite, however, is true. For years this 61-year-old Isogo Ward resident's daily trips to the park have included feeding a group of homeless cats. Even...

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.