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JAPAN
Jul 28, 2000

Improved Pyongyang situation needs new policies

Experts at a Tokyo-based think tank have recently issued a five-point proposal to bring about stability on the Korean Peninsula, calling on the Japanese government to clarify its policies toward North Korea.
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2000

Independent watchdog sought to disable NTT's monopoly

As a level playing field has yet to be laid down in the Japanese telecom market, the establishment of an independent watchdog to keep in check the otherwise formidable NTT Corp. group would be one good option to realize free and fair competition, according to a top executive of the Japanese unit of British...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jul 27, 2000

Sasaki talking the talk in Seattle

SEATTLE -- The good news is that Kazuhiro Sasaki is learning a little English. The bad news is that his teacher is Seattle Mariners teammate Jay Buhner.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2000

G8 summit ready to open in Okinawa

Leaders of the Group of Eight major nations began arriving in Okinawa Prefecture on Thursday to prepare for today's opening of the three-day summit.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2000

Few anti-base protests before summit

NAHA, Okinawa — Japanese police, whose only new equipment for the event are 23,200 pairs of sunglasses, have effectively caused anti-U.S. bases demonstrations at the Okinawa G8 Summit to flop badly.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 20, 2000

Balancing act for G8 leaders in a land apart

Four years ago, in July 1996, I suggested in an opinion piece for the Sankei Shimbun that the Group of Eight summit in 2000 be held in Okinawa.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2000

G8 chiefs' script covers debt relief, 'digital divide'

Helping developing countries ride the global wave of the information technology revolution will top the economic agenda at the Friday-Sunday Group of Eight summit in Okinawa.
COMMUNITY
Jul 19, 2000

Teachers share solutions to school concerns

People arriving in Japan in their professional capacities frequently see little more of the country than the interiors of taxis, hotel rooms and sterile offices, with the occasional tourist sight in central Tokyo thrown in.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2000

Raising taxes invites economic catastrophe

Newspaper reports indicate that Japan's Tax Commission has used its role as an advisory panel to the prime minister to propose lowering the minimum taxable individual-income level. Raising taxes on the poor is justified by attempting to share the income-tax burden more widely. A wide range of allowable...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 17, 2000

Dioxin found deadly for sure -- and they're pumping it out

First, the good news.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 16, 2000

Carp's Lopez back where he belongs

One of the happiest foreign players in Japan pro baseball these days is Hiroshima Carp first baseman Luis Lopez. The 1996 and 1997 Central League RBI leader is obviously back where he belongs; hitting .300 and driving in those runs like he did three-four years ago for the Red Helmets.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 16, 2000

A guide to the music festivals of summer

The recession has reportedly made concert promoters' lives miserable, and yet it doesn't seem to have affected the flood of foreign acts rushing to these shores.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2000

Whalers come out on top in IWC meeting

SYDNEY -- Once again Japanese whale-meat eaters have outwitted the world's whale lovers. Though those diners need not raise too many self-congratulatory cups of sake. Within a year or two the Tokyo whale restaurant tables could be overturned.
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2000

Okinawans having trouble looking beyond the 'three K's'

NAHA, Okinawa Pref. -- Business is slack along Heiwa Dori (Peace Street), one in a maze of narrow streets that make up Machigwa, Naha's central market.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2000

Security role a two-edged sword but U.S. keeping lower profile

CHATAN, Okinawa Pref. -- It's an early Tuesday evening at Morgan's, a popular bar along Gate Two Road, and the mood is festive.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jul 12, 2000

With love, Jean

When I first arrived in Japan more than 40 years ago, one of the first words I learned was sayonara and that it meant "goodbye." As I stayed on, I began to learn that sayonara did not mean goodbye in the sense of "till we meet again" or "God watch over you" as such phrases are used in the West. The literal...
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2000

MOX fuel to be returned to Britain upon route OK

Japan and Britain agreed Tuesday on having tainted plutonium fuel manufactured by British Nuclear Fuels Corp. returned to Britain, Japanese officials said.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jul 9, 2000

Taking better care of business

The 37th annual Japan-United States Business Conference is being held this week at the Hotel Okura. Top business executives from the two nations who comprise separate, compatible organizations are spending three days discussing important issues that concern commerce between the two most important economies...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 9, 2000

Opposition gives flawed economic message

According to some Western pundits, the recent Lower House election was going to be a big yawn, with little debate over real issues. In fact, from the start there was a very real debate between the coalition, which argued that the economy still needed pump priming, and the opposition, which claimed that...
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2000

Kono talks on North Korea, the G8 summit and Russia

The government "will not simply stay idle" in its relations with North Korea, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono said Thursday, noting that Tokyo is ready to reopen stalled normalization talks with Pyongyang following its recent moves to open up to the outside world.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2000

Defense chief does about-face on time limit for Marine base

Newly appointed Defense Agency chief Kazuo Torashima has had to retract a remark that it would be difficult to put a 15-year time limit on the use of a new airport for the U.S. Marines to be built in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture.
LIFE / Travel
Jul 5, 2000

Get back to the garden, the perfect summer oasis

There's a reggae-loving bar owner in Fukuoka who loathes the stereotype that reggae is "summer music." Truth is, though, his business does extremely well during summer. It seems that atmosphere-building is still an essential part of the seasons in Japan.
SOCCER / World cup
Jul 4, 2000

Japanese, Koreans study cohosting at Euro 2000

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- Senior officials from both the Japanese and Korean World Cup organizing committees said Saturday they expected to learn many things from the cohosted Euro 2000 Soccer Championship, but emphasized that the 2002 World Cup was a different kettle of fish with its own attendant problems....
COMMUNITY
Jul 2, 2000

Noh master calling U.K. college alumni

There was some initial confusion when Naohiko Umewaka requested help in finding graduates of Royal Holloway. What was he talking about? The only Holloway known to this Londoner is the district north of the River Thames best known for the prison of the same name. Now here was a story! Japan's best known...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jul 2, 2000

Remembrance

"Sensei." Along with "sayonara," that is one of the first words most of us learn when we come to Japan. Though the image has been somewhat tarnished in these recent years of school disorders and juvenile delinquency, traditionally the word sensei, or teacher, has been one of the most honorific terms...
EDITORIALS
Jun 30, 2000

Germany says 'no nukes'

The agreement reached earlier this month between the German government and major electric-power companies to phase out that country's commercial nuclear program in about 30 years came as a fresh reminder of the global shift away from nuclear energy production. The "irreversible" landmark agreement is...

Longform

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