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COMMENTARY
May 20, 2000

Bigger isn't always better

The failure of the proposed merger between Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank ought to have signaled the end of the merger mania among the world's major banks and to have cautioned banks and other enterprises that big does not mean best. But the message does not seem to have seeped through to some people...
JAPAN
May 18, 2000

Religious groups condemn Mori's 'divine nation' remark

Religious groups in Japan on Wednesday blasted Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's remark that people should recognize Japan as a divine nation with the Emperor at its core.
JAPAN
May 17, 2000

Mori's 'divine nation' remark spurs outrage

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Tuesday moved to contain potential political damage after saying Monday that Japan is a "divine nation centering on the Emperor," a sentiment some compared to the nationalist fervor stoked before and during World War II.
JAPAN
May 15, 2000

Business leaders hail Obuchi's achievements

Japan's business leaders on Sunday praised the efforts of late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi to revitalize the country's economy and lift it out of the worst economic downturn since World War II.
JAPAN
May 15, 2000

Obuchi's 20 months as leader

The following is a chronology of the major events that took place during former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's 20 months in office.
JAPAN
May 15, 2000

Foreign leaders express their condolences

World leaders expressed their condolences Sunday at the death of former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, but heaped praise on his achievement of getting Japan's faltering economy back on track and helping Asian neighbors out of their acute financial crisis.
COMMENTARY / World
May 15, 2000

Fix the mood, fix the economy

The United States has been urging Japan to expand domestic demand, as if that was the only policy Japan could implement to help promote recovery of the global economy. Washington repeated that demand at the recent Group of Seven meeting of finance ministers and cen- tral bankers.
BUSINESS
May 15, 2000

Female condoms perfect fit for Japanese market

Amid rising concern over the spread of AIDS throughout Asia, The Female Health Company of Chicago has begun shipping the first of 2.5 million female condoms to Japan through local partner Taiho Pharmaceutical.
JAPAN
May 14, 2000

Planned Middle East environment conference in danger of cancellation

An international conference on the Middle East's environment, scheduled for the end of this month in Tunisia, will almost certainly be canceled due to a slower pace of progress in the revived regional peace process than initially expected.
MORE SPORTS
May 13, 2000

Bolivia, Slovakia set for Kirin Cup

Bolivia and Slovakia will join Japan in next month's Kirin Cup soccer tournament, the Japan Football Association announced Friday.
SOCCER / J. League
May 11, 2000

Troussier report due today

An assessment report on Japan manager Philippe Troussier's performance will be submitted to Japan Football Association president Shunichiro Okano on Thursday morning, Kunishige Kamamoto, a vice president and chief of the JFA technical development department, said Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 10, 2000

Report focuses on NGOs, missile threat

The government will step up its efforts to build partnerships with nongovernmental organizations and other groups to meet emerging diplomatic challenges, according to the Foreign Ministry's annual foreign policy report released Tuesday.
BUSINESS
May 9, 2000

OECD official calls for deregulation

A top official of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Monday urged Japan to accelerate regulatory reform to help spur economic growth led by information and communications technology.
COMMENTARY
May 9, 2000

Hold the line with Russia

The St. Petersburg summit held April 29 between Japan's new prime minister, Yoshiro Mori, and Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin marked a new stage in bilateral negotiations on signing a peace treaty. The two nations had earlier agreed to settle their territorial dispute on the Northern Territories...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 9, 2000

Kafu's sure but fleeting touch

AMERICAN STORIES, by Nagai Kafu. Translated and with an introduction by Mitsuko Iriye. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000, 240 pp., unpriced. In 1903, the young man who was to become one of Japan's finest writers left for the United States. He did not particularly want to go -- he would have...
JAPAN
May 9, 2000

City strives to school foreign youth

TOYOTA, Aichi Pref. -- When the bell signals the end of the day at Homi Junior High School here, students run out of the building to play on the grounds.
COMMENTARY / World
May 7, 2000

Controversial look at Constitutional change

Resurgent nationalism by Japan's youth, a feeling that military dependence on the United States cannot last forever and a sense that Tokyo should be more ready to participate unambiguously in peacekeeping are reasons for a renewed interest in constitutional change, analysts say.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
May 5, 2000

Classification, distinction and ecumenism

There is a tendency in Japan to adhere to strict classifications and distinctions. This is especially true in regards to music. Hogaku is one kind of music, Western classical is another. Pop and world music belong to yet other genres. Each genre is considered entirely separate, and performers, audiences...
JAPAN
May 4, 2000

Divisions run deeper on Constitution Day

Activists from the left and right of the political spectrum staged rallies Wednesday as Japan observed its 53rd Constitution Day, coinciding with an increase in interest in the document because of the establishment of Diet panels to study its revision.
LIFE / ALTERNATIVE LUXURIES
May 4, 2000

Threads of culture weave picture of a wider world

One of the great paradoxes of world travel (especially that which is slow and makes intimate contact with the peoples of other lands) is that the traveler returns with a greater appreciation of what is valuable and troubled in her own native land. Talking with fabric artist and mother Keiko Haraguchi,...
JAPAN / History
May 4, 2000

MacArthur pondered Showa conversion

Gen. Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander during the Allied Occupation of Japan, once considered attempting to convert Emperor Showa to Christianity, a diary of the U.S. secretary of the Navy shows.
EDITORIALS
May 3, 2000

Doing battle over Article 9

More than two months have passed since the Diet began debating the Constitution for the first time. It is too early to predict how the debate at the Constitutional Review Council will develop, but conservative hardliners both in and outside the ruling coalition are already talking up the need to rewrite...
BUSINESS
May 3, 2000

Nicaragua to get more ODA after leader's visit

Japan and Nicaragua will agree next week to conclude a treaty aimed at facilitating Japanese technical cooperation to help the impoverished Latin American country rebuild its economy, government sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 2, 2000

Kin connect with long-lost mariner

When 94-year-old Californian John Ramsay was asked by his daughter-in-law if there was anything he wanted to do before he died, he said yes.
JAPAN
May 1, 2000

Overstayers march in plea for resident permits

About 250 foreigners staying illegally in Japan and their supporters marched Sunday in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district, calling on the government to grant them resident permits that would allow them to stay in the country legally.
COMMENTARY
May 1, 2000

Racism and human rights

LONDON -- Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara's recent remarks suggesting that many foreigners in Japan are criminals and could cause trouble in a time of crisis have inevitably aroused fears abroad that Japanese rightwing politicians are continuing to pander to popular prejudice and have their eyes on re-election...

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