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JAPAN
Apr 21, 1999

Empress, Foley laud CWAJ feats

Several hundred past and present members of the College Women's Association of Japan, which promotes international education and cross-cultural exchange, celebrated the group's 50th anniversary Wednesday at a luncheon with the Empress and U.S. Ambassador Thomas Foley.
JAPAN
Apr 21, 1999

Survey shows children abused by 9% of moms

About 9 percent of mothers rearing preschool children repeatedly abuse them by beating or denying them necessary care, according to a survey released Wednesday by a Tokyo-based social welfare organization.
EDITORIALS
Apr 20, 1999

Foot-dragging in South Korea

The signs from South Korea are promising. After shrinking 5.8 percent in 1998, the economy registered 3.1 percent growth in the first quarter of 1999. Analysts now forecast that the economy will expand nearly 4 percent this year, twice the original predictions. In one indication of the new mood, government...
JAPAN
Apr 20, 1999

U.S. English study fair now touring

A fair to provide information about intensive English-language courses at U.S. colleges and other academic institutions will travel to Fukuoka, Osaka and Tokyo later this month.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 20, 1999

Learning from the real world, not the schoolroom

LEARNING IN LIKELY PLACES: Varieties of Apprenticeship in Japan, edited by John Singleton. Cambridge University Press, 376 pp. For many foreigners living here, the chance to study some Japanese art or craft, be it aikido, shakuhachi or tea ceremony, is very much a part of their "Japan experience."...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 20, 1999

Soseki's deep well of sadness

CHAOS AND ORDER IN THE WORKS OF NATSUME SOSEKI, by Angela Yiu. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1998, 251 pp., $42 (cloth). This, the first full-length study of Soseki in English, is based upon the proposition that "beneath the emphasis on order, responsibility and a clear sense of morality, [there]...
JAPAN
Apr 19, 1999

Ishihara's China stance throbbing headache for Japan

Japan has no intention of changing its policy toward China, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Monday when asked to comment on Tokyo Gov.-elect Shintaro Ishihara's series of anti-China remarks.
JAPAN
Apr 19, 1999

Hokuriku Special: Illegal immigrants find new gateway

Staff writer
JAPAN
Apr 19, 1999

In with a Bang: Allstate banks on discount edge

Last in our series on financial deregulation
JAPAN
Apr 19, 1999

Hokuriku Special: Russian village goes modern

NIIGATA -- Niigata Russian Village at the foot of the Gozu mountain range will make a new start at the end of this month with additional attractions, including a record-large hot air balloon and a theater featuring the latest technology to lure more tourists to the theme park.
JAPAN
Apr 19, 1999

Hokuriku Special: Bone find linked to relocated Christians

KANAZAWA, Ishikawa Pref. -- When construction workers first dug human bones out of a ridge on Mount Utatsu in Ishikawa Prefecture in October, they had no idea what they had unearthed.
JAPAN
Apr 19, 1999

Cyberspace offers chance to study business at USC

Beginning in September, Japanese will have the opportunity to take a University of Southern California business course in their homes -- using the Internet and satellite TV.
EDITORIALS
Apr 18, 1999

Goodbye to all that

Sometimes -- make that usually -- the range of rational reactions to life on this planet seems dismally narrow, beginning with bafflement, passing through exasperation and rage, and ending in sorrow. We may distract or console ourselves with the doings of babies and small animals, the pleasures of music...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Apr 18, 1999

Travel report

Never before have I returned to Japan after an overseas trip at the end of the cherry blossoms. Don't do it! The season is best when it is being anticipated. When I left, there was just the hint of a pink haze around the trees, the first indication that the blossoms were readying their show. That is...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 1999

Silicone Valley clones lack the right stuff

All over Asia, governments are trying to replicate California's Silicon Valley. Each of the projects, so far, is a failure. The main reason for the failure is that Asian leaders have not yet realized that it takes more than a plot of land, an impressive budget, a graduating class of computer engineers...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 1999

It's the (domestic) economy, stupid

Forget about export-led growth. The global economy has changed everything. Leaders of countries locked in the economic doldrums need to understand that they never experienced "miracles," nor can they count on one to resolve their problems. Quite simply, they must undertake radical restructuring of their...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 1999

Learning to break the cycle of poverty

Lack of education, particularly among children, continues to be one of the main challenges to the well-being and quality of life of children worldwide, concludes a recent Oxfam International report titled, "Education Now: Break the Cycle of Poverty." According to this report, there are currently 125...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 1999

Kobayashi stirs up the still-life genre with brushes, oil and inspiration

In these times of multiplying media choices, it is not uncommon to find those artists whose interests run to realism tripping the shutters of cameras, while their more introspective contemporariesput brush to canvas, with often grand or abstract results. The painter, after all, works from an inner source...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 1999

U.S. trade policy all at sea

When Pat Buchanan launched his third campaign for the presidency of the United States, the protectionist candidate visited the archetypal steel town of Weirton, West Virginia. Buffeted by a surge in imported steel, Weirton offered a natural backdrop for Buchanan's xenophobic fulminations.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 1999

Fourteen planes, six boats and a chopper

SYDNEY -- The boat people are landing. Although still just a trickle, the mostly Chinese illegal immigrants look set to flood through the open door named Australia. Nor is it just human cargo being offloaded on these unprotected shores. Heroin from the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia is also being...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 1999

Life lessons in pottery and prints

KOBE -- Traditional Japanese art aficionados in Kansai will have a rare chance to learn the finer points of both Bizen pottery and ukiyo-e woodblock prints through a double exhibit of John Wells' Bizen works and Peter Ujlaki's ukiyo-e collection at the Community House and Information Center (CHIC) on...
EDITORIALS
Apr 16, 1999

Tit for tat in South Asia

Earlier this week, India tested a new intermediate-range missile, the Agni II. The missile, capable of carrying either a conventional or nuclear payload a distance of 2,000 km, has most of China and all of Pakistan within its range. The test has been trumpeted as another display of India's technical...
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Nissan to slash domestic production by 25%

In a desperate effort to accelerate its restructuring, Nissan Motor Co. will cut its annual domestic production capacity by about 25 percent to 1.5 million units over the next few years, President Yoshikazu Hanawa said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Opposition parties demand Diet nod for SDF-U.S. missions

New Komeito and the Democratic Party of Japan have separately submitted proposals for amending bills covering the updated Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines to a board meeting of the Lower House special committee debating them, party officials said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

DKB vice president convicted on 'sokaiya' loans

A former vice president of Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank was sentenced Friday to a suspended eight-month prison term for violating the Commercial Code by extending illegal loans to "sokaiya" corporate extortionist Ryuichi Koike.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Osaka shootings bring cops out in force

OSAKA -- More than 250 riot officers and 10 patrol cars are keeping a 24-hour vigil over Osaka's Konohana Ward, where three residents have been shot and wounded since the end of last month.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Japan won't back U.S. in anti-China resolution

Staff writer
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Transport industry protests defense bills

About 100 union members from the air, sea and ground transportation industries rallied at the Diet Friday to urge the scrapping of the updated Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Apr 16, 1999

Trends are a no-show at U.S. music fest

If there was any next big thing at this year's annual South by Southwest music confab of the musically hip and happening, it was that there is no next big thing. In a festival that featured everything from soca to singer-songwriters, it was individual artists rather than any one all encompassing trend...
JAPAN
Apr 15, 1999

Politicians blast Justice Ministry over Norisada flap

Lawmakers strongly criticized the Justice Ministry on Thursday for what they called its leniency in reprimanding a former high-ranking prosecutor.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan