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JAPAN
Apr 15, 1999

Ready for 2000?: Gartner Group sees no big Y2K failures

This is the first in an occasional series on Japan's Y2K preparedness.
JAPAN
Apr 14, 1999

Accelerate reform to avert depression: OECD

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Wednesday urged Japan to expedite regulatory reform efforts to avoid a depression and lay the groundwork for sustainable long-term growth.
JAPAN
Apr 13, 1999

DPJ to ship biscuits to North Korea in bid for talks

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Apr 10, 1999

Key defense questions need answers

The House of Representatives Special Committee on Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation is winding down its deliberations on the guidelines legislation. Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi is eager to secure passage of the bills in the Lower House before he leaves for the United States later this month...
COMMENTARY
Apr 9, 1999

National security put to test

Two suspected North Korean spy boats recently invaded Japanese territorial waters in the Sea of Japan. A national controversy still rages over the incident, which came at a time when the Diet was debating legislation covering the new Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines. The intrusion sparked a...
COMMUNITY
Apr 8, 1999

If it could happen to Superman . . .

Founded in 1995, the Japan Spinal Cord Foundation (provisional, since members are still raising the money necessary to legalize the foundation) has just achieved a major breakthrough. For months, members had been trying to make contact with an established similar organization, the American Paralysis...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 1999

Foreign policy to the fore in Washington

WASHINGTON -- After a year that was unusual, peculiar and unbelievable enough to qualify as one long April Fool's Day, the U.S. government is finally back doing governmental work. It isn't boring, but it is less colorful than the year of Monica et al. We have lost some of our more entertaining characters...
JAPAN
Apr 2, 1999

Local Elections '99: Ishihara vows leadership, straight talk

Staff writer
JAPAN
Apr 1, 1999

Colombia urges more trade transparency

Colombia will join Japan in a comprehensive and collective approach to the coming round of global free-trade talks, but Tokyo must make efforts to abolish agricultural subsidies and improve the transparency of its farm trade rules, Colombian Foreign Trade Minister Martha Ramirez said Thursday.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 1999

Mystery ships spark debate on defense

The government is considering legislative amendments to cope with any future intruding vessels, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi told a Diet committee Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 1999

New war hall said to sidestep nation's guilt

An exhibition hall in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward dedicated to victims of the wars fought by Japan in the 1930s and 1940s will not challenge visitors to think too deeply about how Japan waged those wars and its responsibility for them.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 1999

Ex-Im economist sees dollar settling at 130 yen

Staff writer
COMMUNITY / CROSSING CULTURES
Mar 25, 1999

Glacial change hard for people more used to avalanche speed

Japan can't change. Change in Japan is glacial. Japanese are stuck in their ways. In Japan, disappointment is what you can expect if you expect change.
JAPAN
Mar 24, 1999

MSDF quits chase after boats flee to international waters

Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers early Wednesday gave up chasing two mystery trawlerlike vessels that had intruded into the nation's territorial waters in the Sea of Japan before fleeing toward North Korea, Defense Agency officials said.
JAPAN
Mar 22, 1999

Doctors far from malpractice accountability

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Mar 19, 1999

A welcome step forward

Once again, the United States has shown that engagement with North Korea works. After four rounds of talks in as many months, a deal has been struck in New York with the North Korean government on access to an underground site suspected of housing a secret nuclear-weapons project. Japan, South Korea...
COMMENTARY
Mar 19, 1999

A battle that earned a place in history

I listen to NHK radio every morning. In one program, titled "What happened on this date," the announcer introduces notable events that occurred on that day in Japanese history.
JAPAN
Mar 18, 1999

Diet begins full debate on defense cooperation bills

Full debate kicked off Thursday on bills covering updated Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines with Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi stressing that the legislation will contribute to Japan's peace and security.
JAPAN
Mar 18, 1999

Investment in Vietnam may be aided

Staff writer
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 17, 1999

Become a friend of the Kurilsky Reserve

"It isn't in Japan, so why should I care?" is the reaction of some Japanese to the issue of conservation in the Northern Territories. Yet there are plenty of good reasons why it is in Japan's interest to take a leadership role in protecting wildlife on the islands:
COMMENTARY
Mar 17, 1999

What real bank reform means

Japan seems to like the new and shiny. Tack the word "shin" (new) onto the name of a product -- anything from a detergent to a political party -- and automatically you gain an edge over the opposition.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 17, 1999

Disputed territory is a paradise in peril

Any Japanese schoolchild can wax eloquent about the Hoppo Ryodo or "Northern Territories," the tiny islands Japan has demanded back from Russia since World War II. And with Japan keen to resolve its border dispute with Russia and wrap up a peace treaty by the end of next year, the issue looks likely...
EDITORIALS
Mar 11, 1999

Kochi tests nation's nuclear principles

The long-standing controversy over whether U.S. warships calling at Japanese ports carry nuclear weapons is taking a new twist. The Kochi prefectural government is seeking to obtain "certificates" from the central government showing that U.S. naval vessels visiting ports in the prefecture are not nuclear-armed....
JAPAN
Mar 11, 1999

Obuchi pins hopes on guidelines, other matters

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on Thursday restated his determination to strengthen the Japan-U.S. relationship by quickly pushing through bills related to updated Japan-U.S. defense cooperation during the current Diet session.
JAPAN
Mar 5, 1999

J.League 1999 Preview: Big pack takes aim at Antlers

Special to The Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Mar 5, 1999

Help, maybe

Recently the Franciscan Chapel Center, whose volunteer groups are active in many areas of need in our community, has provided a considerable amount of information for this column. Among them are columns that have dealt with providing rice balls for the homeless, exposed Japan as the leading source of...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 3, 1999

Wareware cyberjin

One of the great mysteries of Internet life is Japan. This country should be Net-crazy. It produces some of the world's best hardware, is quick to exploit new technologies in most walks of life and has an unquenchable passion for gadgets and trends. That should add up to a country that makes cyborgs...
JAPAN
Feb 25, 1999

Ministry targets U.S. elderly to fix tourism slump

The Transport Ministry will launch a campaign next week to encourage U.S. senior citizens to visit Japan in a bid to stimulate the slumping tourism industry, ministry officials said on Thursday.
COMMENTARY
Feb 23, 1999

Small weapons, big problems

The major challenge for post-Cold War disarmament negotiations on conventional weapons is to devise ways of controlling machine guns, automatic rifles and other small arms. Those are main weapons used in civil wars in Asia, Africa and Central America. To tackle the challenge, the U.N. Group of Governmental...
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 1999

Haunting the high street

As the Internet insinuates itself deeper into daily life, one key facet of its future role -- electronic commerce -- continues its explosive growth. Estimates of the amount of business conducted in cyberspace vary from $30 billion annually to nearly twice that. But one thing is certain: It is increasing...

Longform

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