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COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 1999

Pakistan's Sharif fights for his political life

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif faces a rising political storm in his nuclear-capable country, just halfway through his five-year term in office. The significance of Pakistan's worsening political environment has been noted by the United States, which has campaigned for over a year...
JAPAN
Sep 24, 1999

Yugoslavian ambassador slams NATO

Yugoslav Ambassador Radoslav Bulajic said Friday that the 79-day NATO bombing campaign against his country was a serious crime against the civilian population, international law, peace and humanity.
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.
JAPAN
Sep 22, 1999

Small business law outdated, panel tells state

Japan must change its policy from supporting all small businesses -- including weak ones -- to promoting competitive small companies and startups, the Small and Medium Enterprise Policymaking Council said in a report submitted to Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 1999

Office Depot tinkering to get it right

Staff writer
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 15, 1999

Roaming the world's watery dunes

As the typhoon season cuts between summer and autumn, many species are on the move. This is the season of migration for land birds and seabirds. While the land birds island-hop between Northeast and Southeast Asia, some of the seabirds are embarking on journeys that may span entire oceans. Streaked shearwaters...
COMMENTARY
Sep 15, 1999

A growing appetite for safety

LONDON -- Genetic biologists -- especially those working for big U.S. companies such as Monsanto -- and U.S. trade negotiators are furious with Europeans because they are not prepared to accept that hormone-injected beef and gene-modified soybeans, rape-seed oil and other genetically modified crops are...
JAPAN
Sep 10, 1999

Diplomacy central to Obuchi's APEC agenda

Staff writer
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 8, 1999

Beleaguered Pakistan faces tough choices

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is trying hard to put on a brave face, even as his nuclearized country's opposition politicians agitate increasingly loudly for his resignation.
EDITORIALS
Sep 7, 1999

Tokyo declares war on diesels

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara is proving to be a man of his word -- up to a point. It remains to be seen whether or not he can keep some of his promises. Not long after announcing plans to seriously tackle the capital region's notorious traffic congestion, Mr. Ishihara and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government...
JAPAN
Sep 1, 1999

Product-trashing consumer book enjoys sizzling sales

Staff writer
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 1, 1999

The water is wide, I cannot get o'er

The mammals of the Nansei Shoto may be inconspicuous and difficult to observe, but their distribution, and the relationships between the different species and populations in these islands, provides insight into the past history of the archipelago. This interesting mixture of animals has links in the...
CULTURE / Music
Aug 31, 1999

Songs you can hum on the Pavement

The opening act at Akasaka Blitz on Aug. 24 was an earnest Danish group called Thau, who offered a thumping and searing sound reminiscent of the Meat Puppets. The audience awarded their 20-minute set with a warm and noisy ovation, prompting effusive gratitude from the band's drummer, who mentioned what...
JAPAN
Aug 26, 1999

Testing of genetically modified food on rise

Staff writer
JAPAN
Aug 25, 1999

Ministries, agencies aim cash at endocrine disrupters

The Environment Agency will request roughly 3.13 billion yen in outlays in the fiscal 2000 budget to fight endocrine disrupters -- nearly double its allowances for the current fiscal year, agency officials said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 1999

Internet station pulls in global FM tunes

Staff writer
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 1999

South Asia's dwindling hopes for peace

ISLAMABAD -- Weeks of lingering hopes for a limited improvement in relations between South Asia's two large nuclear-armed neighbors, India and Pakistan, were shattered in less than two minutes when an Indian fighter jet shot down a Pakistani naval patrol aircraft.
JAPAN
Aug 20, 1999

LDP, New Komeito plan policy accord by September

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito agreed Friday to form a basic agreement on five key policy areas by the end of the month, taking another step toward a tripartite alliance, officials of the two parties said.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Aug 18, 1999

Refuge of the world's wildest rabbit

The wildlife of the Nansei Shoto is a fascinating mixture of species, and as is clear from recent research on the spiny rats that are unique to the central islands, there may be more species there than we realize.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 18, 1999

A big bang, and then there was life

Five days and 116 years ago, a small island in the Sunda Straight between Java and Sumatra exploded.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 1999

No capitulation, no food: Komura to Pyongyang

The resumption of Japan's food aid to North Korea depends on whether Pyongyang takes constructive steps to clear away international concern over its nuclear and missile development programs, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura reiterated Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 1999

Hinomaru makes 'auspicious' debut in press clubs

A pristine Hinomaru flag adorned a corner of the Foreign Ministry press briefing room Friday, the day a law officially recognizing it as the national flag took effect.
JAPAN
Aug 12, 1999

Health ministry sets smoker reduction targets

Both the number of smokers as well as tobacco consumption in Japan should be halved by 2010, a Health and Welfare Ministry advisory panel said in a report released Thursday.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 12, 1999

Making a pilgrimage to an expo

KUMANO, Wakayama Pref. -- Ordinarily, I am not an "expo" kind of person.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 1999

Legislation slated to aid venture firms in autumn

The government will take legislative steps in the upcoming Diet session, expected to convene this fall, to help revitalize small and medium-size enterprises and nurture venture businesses, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi said Wednesday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Aug 11, 1999

Like it is

Language is enriched by people who don't speak it very well, using phrases made up of words that contain the meaning of what they want to say but not the usual form. The result is sometimes quite effective. How about this one reporting a break in the summer heat: The weather is going down a bit, or this:...
LIFE / Travel
Aug 10, 1999

Dive into the dazzling Philippines

Ask scuba divers what attracts them to the sport, and they'll probably tell you that it's the exotic underwater world. A dive in Japan, however, often means endless train rides, big crowds, small spaces and exorbitant sums of money -- all too similar to the everyday world.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 7, 1999

Nationalism to the rescue

LONDON -- A French philosopher remarked some years ago that national politics had become "a secondary activity." What he meant was that, with the globalization of finance and economic forces, and with the citizens of the world linking up across borders (700 million people will be linked to the Internet...
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Aug 6, 1999

Number Girl's gotta have it

If Tokyo's live houses have provided little in the way of new musical inspiration recently, the provinces have picked up the slack with a vengeance. Sapporo's burgeoning hip-hop scene has produced new rap heroes the Blue Herb, while Kyoto, with DJs 1945 and Nobukazu Takemura, is becoming the home of...
JAPAN
Aug 6, 1999

Nonaka proposes removing war criminals from Yasukuni

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka on Friday proposed separately enshrining seven hanged class-A war criminals memorialized at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine and stripping it of its religious status to enable the prime minister and Cabinet ministers to pay official visits there to honor Japan's war dead....

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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?