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CULTURE / Books
Nov 15, 2000

Textbooks in the service of the state

CENSORING HISTORY: Citizenship and Memory in Japan, Germany and the United States, edited by Laura Hein and Mark Selden. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2000, 301 pp., $24.95. History loomed over the recent visit of Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji like a threatening storm cloud. But other than some scattered...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2000

China refuses to let history be

The recent visit to Japan by Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji has certainly created a favorable impression among the Japanese -- a contrast with Chinese President Jiang Zemin's visit two years ago -- but it has had no significant politi cal impact on public opinion in this country.
COMMENTARY
Oct 30, 2000

Zhu puts relations to rights

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji's visit to Tokyo this month marked a turning point in Sino-Japanese relations, which have been strained for the past two years as a result of disagreements over wartime history. In a Tokyo news conference Oct. 16, Zhu said the Japanese people, as well as the Chinese, were "victims...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 24, 2000

Revealing the nation one grain at a time

THE POLITICS OF AGRICULTURE IN JAPAN, by Aurelia George Mulgan. London & New York: Routledge, 2000, 856 pp.,82 British pounds/$125 (cloth). In 1890, a young German academic agreed to evaluate a survey of landowners in the German provinces east of the Elbe River. Overcoming the limitations of biased...
LIFE / Travel
Oct 18, 2000

Toronto gets a taste of Japanese culture

TORONTO -- The Japanese and Canadian communities here in Ontario recently kicked off a six-week celebration showcasing Japanese culture and lifestyle.
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2000

Zhu tones down stance on wartime atonement

Visiting Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji said Monday that Japan needs to admit its wartime aggression and be careful not to repeat the same mistake.
JAPAN
Oct 14, 2000

Mori, Zhu vow to build a better future

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and visiting Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji agreed Friday to build a new relationship in the coming century through enhanced economic cooperation and by steadily resolving bilateral disputes, such as Chinese marine research activities within Japan's economic waters.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2000

Agency to target whale poaching with revised rules

The Fisheries Agency will clamp down on the possession and sale of illegal whale meat by revising regulations to impose fines and prison sentences amid criticism that poached whale meat is being sold in Japan, sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2000

Foreign residents on slow boat to get vote

The Japanese woman was unhappy.
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2000

Full text of prime minister's speech to the Diet

Following is the full text of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's policy speech given to the 150th Diet session Thursday.
COMMENTARY
Sep 18, 2000

Toward peace with Pyongyang

While North and South Korea are moving dramatically toward rapprochement as a result of the inter-Korean summit in June, Japanese and North Korean officials are set to meet again next month to discuss ways to normalize relations. Establishing diplomatic ties with Pyongyang, along with settling the territorial...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2000

U.S. whaling sanctions smack of hypocrisy

Japan's whale-research vessels are now scheduled to return to port after completing their observations and sampling in the northwestern Pacific. Meanwhile, the United States continues to criticize Japan's research program and threaten trade sanctions. One can't help but suspect that all the antiwhaling...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 10, 2000

High costs a barrier for foreign students

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- An editorial in The Japan Times a few weeks ago focused on the Japanese government's efforts to increase the number of foreign students in Japan. No one would disagree with the government's dual aims of assisting in the development of human resources of poorer Asian countries...
JAPAN
Sep 5, 2000

Mori-Putin talks stay at impasse

Japan and Russia began negotiations Monday in Tokyo on sovereignty over Russian-held islands off Hokkaido but failed to narrow their differences, making a peace treaty, the conclusion of which has been targeted for year's end, appear as distant as ever.
BUSINESS
Sep 4, 2000

Japanese seen embracing a risky future

At 30, Tetsushi Nakamura is a seasoned stock investor. The system engineer from Hibarigaoka, Saitama Prefecture, got his hands on stocks when he was in his fourth year of elementary school, buying shares of a construction company on his dad's advice.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 29, 2000

End this dysfunctional relationship

LEAVING JAPAN: Observations on the Dysfunctional U.S.-Japan Relationship. By Mike Millard. M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, NY, 2000, 200 pp., $37.95. The $79-billion question is why does the United States continue to tolerate the lopsided economic relationship with Japan that led to a such a massive trade imbalance...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Aug 28, 2000

A revisionist's view of Japanese history

"Kokumin no Rekishi," published last year, has been touted as the first major attempt to rewrite Japanese history. I've acquired and read it because I've been asked to comment on Japanese nationalism next month, in Chicago. The author of the book, Kanji Nishio, has been prominent in the movement known...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2000

Language questions reflect changing times

In times of transition, when the need for reform is felt more keenly than usual, there is heightened openness to bold suggestions. Japan is in the middle of such a period. Public debt exceeds 100 percent of GDP. The social-welfare system needs a drastic overhaul. Unemployment is at an all-time high....
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2000

Cuba's VP coming to Tokyo in fall

Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage plans to visit Tokyo in early October at the Japanese government's invitation to discuss with Japanese leaders ways to strengthen hitherto estranged relations between the two countries, diplomatic sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2000

BOJ votes to abandon ultraeasy money policy

The Bank of Japan on Friday defied acute political pressure and decided to abandon its "zero-interest-rate" policy.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2000

Singapore free-trade talks to open

In a significant departure from its traditional trade policy, Japan will open formal negotiations with Singapore by the end of this year on concluding a free-trade agreement between the two Asian countries, government sources said Thursday.
COMMENTARY
Aug 2, 2000

Hasten slowly on ties with Pyongyang

Japan is moving to expedite negotiations on a peace treaty with North Korea, but it should be in no hurry at all. Famine-stricken North Korea has often asked foreign countries for food aid, and Japan has obliged by supplying a large amount of rice. There is no way of knowing if the Japanese-supplied...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2000

South Korea's new take on the world

The emotional pendulum swings in Korea are mesmerizing -- and predictable. First there was the euphoria triggered by last month's historic summit between the two Korean leaders. Then there was the inevitable reaction as more sober heads pointed out the difficulties that lie ahead: continuing talks to...
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2000

Stimulus policy should continue: Imai

While acknowledging that the much-anticipated economic recovery has become more evident, Takashi Imai, chairman of the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren), is emphasizing that the government should continue its current stimulus-oriented fiscal and monetary policies for the foreseeable...
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2000

Okinawans must look beyond crossroad for future success

Staff writer CHATAN, Okinawa Pref. -- The music meandering from Rinken Teruya's sea-front live house is a catchy, vibrant blend of sing-along pop and Okinawan folk song.
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2000

The sacrificed island's dream remains deferred

NAHA, Okinawa Pref. -- On Aug. 9, 1958, the entire nation was riveted to the first round of the National High School Baseball Tournament, which pitted Okinawa's Shuri High School against Fukui Prefecture's Tsuruga High School.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2000

A yen for stability in a new age

Along with increasing liberalization of trade and investment, economic globalization has been making rapid progress in Asia. Goods, capital, technology, and management resources are moving briskly across national borders. At the same time, the domestic markets of individual Asian nations have been increasingly...

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Members of the Wajima City Morning Market Association pose for a group photograph on the site where the market once stood.
In the wake of disaster, the revival of Wajima's market brings hope