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COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 1999

Taiwan quake shakes China's mandate

BEIJING -- Chinese news coverage of the killer earthquake in Taiwan has been both muted and sporadic, ranging from solicitous concern for the rogue province to no news at all. When the earthquake did get print or air time in the week following the temblor, coverage tended to focus on what mainland authorities,...
JAPAN
Oct 1, 1999

COP5 gathering to set rules for emissions goals

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Sep 30, 1999

Russia's Chechen scapegoat

A wave of terrorist bombings in Moscow is pushing Russia once again toward war. No government can permit its citizens to be terrorized, and the scale of the recent attacks suggests that a formidable enemy is at work. Still, Moscow's response to the bombings seems ill-planned and desperate. Just as troubling...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 1999

More reform needed to underpin Japan's economic recovery

Japan has made important progress in recent years in the area of regulatory and other structural reforms, but there is an urgent need for further and more rapid progress to strengthen future Japanese growth and prosperity.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 1999

Chinese students embrace lessons of Japanese advertising

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 30, 1999

Cut in broker commissions to bring unheralded competition

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 30, 1999

Tokai nuclear accident goes critical; remains out of control

A nuclear accident at a uranium-processing plant 125 km northeast of Tokyo on Thursday reached criticality, injuring three and pushing radiation levels up to 20,000 times beyond normal in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 1999

Campaign for Anti-Aum law to continue

The government remains committed to its plan to draw up a new law to specifically restrict the activities of Aum Shinrikyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 1999

Pressure on Jakarta urged to head off Timor debacle

Regional correspondent
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 30, 1999

Iron stomachs and chefs give it their all

Japan has produced a fair number of marathon stars. It's an achievement that probably has less to do with genetically bound physical attributes than with culturally bound psychological ones. The "gambaru" mentality that governs so many endeavors in Japan, especially in the world of sports, is central...
JAPAN
Sep 30, 1999

Aum cultist given death sentence for part in subway attack

A senior Aum Shinrikyo member was sentenced to death Thursday for releasing deadly nerve gas on the Tokyo subway system in March 1995 and for illegally manufacturing a rifle.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 1999

Washington consensus cracks, but what is next?

WASHINGTON -- Is the so-called Washington consensus coming to an end?
JAPAN
Sep 30, 1999

Japan to tighten ties with Libya, send ambassador

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 30, 1999

Workers said exposed to A-bomb level radiation

The amount of that three of 14 workers irradiated in a nuclear accident at uranium-processing firm JCO Co. were exposed to is estimated to have been at least eight sievert, doctors said Thursday evening.
EDITORIALS
Sep 29, 1999

Japan's binding promise to the G7

At the G7 conference of finance ministers and central bank chiefs that was held in Washington over the weekend, the delegates from other member nations agreed to adopt a read-between-the-lines statement in which the world's top financial managers shared their worry over the recent sharp rise of the yen....
JAPAN
Sep 29, 1999

Aum followers held in raid; confinements alleged

A current and former member of Aum Shinrikyo were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of detaining a female follower who attempted to escape from a cult facility in Kiso-Fukushima, Nagano Prefecture, police said.
JAPAN
Sep 29, 1999

Computer grandmas enter digital age at jijibaba.com

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 29, 1999

'Charisma beauticians' under fire

In response to the large influence wielded by trendy but unlicensed beauticians working in Tokyo, the Health and Welfare Ministry has instructed municipalities to check the licenses of those applying to open beauty parlors.
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 28, 1999

Indonesia's armed forces strike back

Indonesia's powerful military is not giving up. After humiliating the country with its mishandling of East Timor, the armed forces have rammed legislation through the Parliament that gives the government new powers in the event of an emergency. Opponents fear that the groundwork is being laid for a coup,...
JAPAN
Sep 28, 1999

ITS systems expo opens in Ikebukuro today

The U.S. Embassy will hold ITS Japan '99, a trade seminar for promoting intelligent transportation systems, at the U.S. Trade Center in Ikebukuro in Tokyo's Toshima Ward today and Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 1999

Analysis: LTCB sale prelude to industry reforms

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 28, 1999

New WTO chief to visit Tokyo next week

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 28, 1999

Asian Y2K experts conclude confab with vigilance vow

Asian policy coordinators for the Y2K problem concluded their two-day meeting Tuesday in Tokyo with a pledge to continue efforts to accelerate their preparations for contingencies that the millennium glitch might trigger at the turn of the century.
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Sep 28, 1999

Afrobeat lights up the dance floors

Strange how music trends seem to go around in circles. Since spearheading the world music boom at the end of the '80s, African music sales have been on a downward spiral for much of this decade. Now in the form of Afrobeat, the music is making a strong comeback and sweeping dance floors around the world....
JAPAN
Sep 28, 1999

IOC members head for Osaka despite travel-ban proposal

OSAKA -- Although an advisory panel to the International Olympic Committee recommended this past weekend that IOC members be banned from traveling to candidate cities, at least 11 members are expected to visit Osaka next month for a meeting of top-level sports executives.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 1999

Amnesty International fetes the Year of Child

Amnesty will stage its annual Tokyo charity concert Oct. 3 with one of Tokyo's longest-running bands, the Howling Loochie Brothers, providing music to get people up and dancing.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 1999

Japan, Laos to sign aid agreement

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 27, 1999

Nissan lends Hypermini for transport system tests

Nissan Motor Co. will put its Hypermini electric car through its paces in two experimental transportation projects before the car's expected debut in February, the automaker announced Monday.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 1999

Storm-delayed MOX ship docks amid tight security

Staff writer

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it