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COMMUNITY
Jan 19, 2000

Lafcadio Hearn: interpreter of two disparate worlds

He created an illusion and lived his days and nights within its confines. That illusion was his Japan. He found in Japan the ideal coupling of the cerebral and the sensual, mingled and indistinguishable, the one constantly recharging the other and affording him the inspiration to write.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2000

Fukushima exits chamber on bright note

To the eyes of the former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, the Japanese business environment has changed over the last several years, thanks in part to an influx of foreign companies and capital.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2000

Cut U.S. military presence

Japan faces intense pressure to settle uncertainties regarding the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps heliport now at the Futenma Air Station in Okinawa before July, when it hosts a Group of Eight summit. Unless the problems are settled by then, U.S. President Bill Clinton is likely to face a firestorm...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 10, 2000

How to level the business playing field

CRISIS AND OPPORTUNITY IN A CHANGING JAPAN, by William R. Farrell, with a foreward by Walter F. Mondale. Westport/London: Quorum Books, 1999, 275 pp., $60 (cloth). It's the Black Ships, round II. JETRO reports that foreign direct investment into Japan leaped 89.4 percent last year, topping $10 billion...
BUSINESS
Jan 4, 2000

ACCJ chief aims to fortify bilateral bridge

While major elections are likely to consume Tokyo and Washington in 2000, trade disputes are simmering beneath the relatively calm surface of Japan-U.S. economic relations.
JAPAN
Jan 4, 2000

Another Century: Strategies turn to partnerships with Asia

Staff writer For Elok Halimah, 21, an Indonesian student at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, learning Japanese in Tokyo has been a long-term aspiration. "Eventually, I hope I will be able to work for a Japanese company in Indonesia," said Halimah, who came from Jakarta in October. "In Indonesia,...
COMMENTARY
Jan 3, 2000

Building peace in a new era

As we greet the new millennium, we should ask ourselves what Japan should do to contribution to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, establish military and nonmilitary security, help solve global problems and prevent conflicts.
BUSINESS
Jan 1, 2000

The next loud bang could be in retailing

Just as foreign companies have accelerated reorganization of financial and automobile industries, powerful foreign chain stores are now gearing up to expand in the general merchandising market in Japan.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 30, 1999

Japanese politics, a model democracy

JAPANESE DEMOCRACY: Power, Coordination and Performance, by Bradley Richardson. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997. 325 pp.. $17. Do the revisionists have any clothes? Bradley Richardson argues that the interpretations of Japan popularized by the revisionist school do not bear scrutiny and that...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 1999

Happy in the Gucci nation

What kind of country will Japan be in the 21st century? The millennial forecast is in and it looks like this: Japan's cultural elite is quickly converging around the notion that Japan should be the first boutique state of the 21st century -- distinctive, well designed and expensive.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 1999

A diplomatic 'paper tiger'?

In recent years, we have seen active debate on Japan's sanctions-based diplomacy. Discussions focused on the justifications for and effects of sanctions, as well as changes in the balance of power resulting from the lifting of such measures. The lifting of sanctions against North Korea Dec. 14 renewed...
COMMENTARY
Dec 17, 1999

Why put up with U.S. bases?

Why is Japanese officialdom so willing to tolerate troublesome U.S. military bases? In Okinawa, Tokyo constantly risks harmful local antagonism in its efforts to satisfy U.S. base demands there.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Dec 15, 1999

Follow the money

Japan's back. After nearly a decade of economic stagnation, this country is getting its act together.
COMMUNITY
Sep 23, 1999

Tenure in bronze for Todai's foreign professors

The number of outdoor statues of foreigners (five) on the campus of the University of Tokyo might seem unusually high for a Japanese institution.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Sep 5, 1999

Late returns

A reader remembers a column about Gen. Douglas MacArthur's office in the Dai-Ichi Insurance building. It was ideally situated for the role he was to play -- it overlooked the Imperial Palace. He established his own imperial pre-eminence when the Chinese carpet he always used in his office was delivered:...
JAPAN
Jul 7, 1999

Economic progress hoped for at China summit

Staff writer
JAPAN
Jun 25, 1999

Nuclear plants feared vulnerable coastline targets

MIHAMA, Fukui Pref. — A North Korean submarine runs aground on the nuclear plant-dotted shores of Fukui Prefecture and 11 commandos armed with antitank rockets storm ashore.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

U.N. ambassador presses for UNSC role in future conflicts

Although Japan supported Western efforts to end the atrocities in Kosovo, the government wants the U.N. Security Council to authorize future actions, according to Yukio Satoh, Japan's ambassador to the United Nations.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 11, 1999

Come clean on defense policy

In July last year I took issue with an article written by former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa ("Japan-U.S. Security Treaty: A kind of insurance policy" July 11, 1998). In his recent May 31 article "A de facto treaty revision," Hosokawa called for "a full dress debate on se curity issues, including...
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 1999

A de facto treaty revision

The Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, signed in 1951, is understood to be an arrangement whereby the United States, in exchange for the use of military bases in Japan, is committed to the rescue of this nation in the event of external aggression. Japan, with its "war-renouncing" Constitution, follows a policy...
COMMENTARY
May 28, 1999

A step in the right direction

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi agreed with U.S. and South Korean officials in Tokyo Monday on the need to continue trilateral cooperation in their policies toward North Korea. It is highly significant that Obuchi's agreement with U.S. policy coordinator William Perry and South Korean Unification Minister...
JAPAN
May 24, 1999

Diet enacts defense bills, but doubts on alliance linger

Staff writer
COMMENTARY
May 5, 1999

Hold off on U.S.-style layoffs

Japan's big businesses once had a reputation for not firing workers even in hard times. Not anymore. Now major corporations are going full blast to restructure, with older workers bearing the brunt of the austerity drive. The lifetime employment system, once touted as a symbol of corporate Japan, is...
JAPAN
Apr 28, 1999

Obuchi visit may not be all smiles

Staff writer
JAPAN
Apr 26, 1999

Analysis: Defense changes dodged public debate

Staff writers
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 1999

In the wake of the spy boats

Two North Korean spy boats disguised as trawlers recently intruded deep into Japanese territorial waters in the Sea of Japan. This was the second incident to have heightened tension between Tokyo and Pyongyang since last August, when a Taepodong ballistic missile test-fired by North Korea flew over northern...
JAPAN
Apr 7, 1999

Experts air views on defense bills

Further military cooperation with the United States is vital to maintain a bilateral security alliance the nation cannot do without, former Ambassador Hirohisa Okazaki told a Diet committee Wednesday.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 9, 1999

Building a nation in time and space

REINVENTING JAPAN: Time, Space, Nation, by Tessa Morris-Suzuki. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1998, 236 pp., $19.95. Every country exists in time and in space. This is a simple fact that is often taken for granted.
COMMENTARY
Feb 28, 1999

Constitution unfit for a sovereign nation

Most Japanese do not realize that the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty is a military alliance pact. Unlike a conventional military alliance treaty, however, the pact is not based on reciprocal obligations. For the U.S., the treaty is unfair and is not really bilateral.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 1999

A new bridge over the Pacific revealed

Is friendship between nations possible? Can Japan and the United States be friends as the U.S. is with Canada and Britain, or are they forever destined to have a relationship that turns on a calculation of mutual advantage?

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go