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COMMENTARY
Jun 16, 2001

Urgent tasks for Koizumi

Peace and stability in East Asia in the coming years will hinge on Japan's political and economic leadership, North-South rapprochement on the Korean Peninsula, China's policies as an emerging regional power and strategies of the United States, the sole superpower.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2001

Basics must still precede computer skills: teachers

While the government is actively promoting education on information technology starting in elementary school, some teachers question the wisdom of getting children started on computers at such an early age.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2001

Education key to Uzbekistan's future

Alisher Shaykhov, outgoing Uzbekistan ambassador to Japan, expressed gratitude Thursday for Japan's contribution to educational development in the Central Asian republic, which has been striving for economic reform since it became independent in 1991, following the Shaykhovbreak up of the Soviet Union....
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 15, 2001

Korean summit fails to meet expectations

SEOUL -- Under normal circumstances, the meaning of a great event should become clearer in retrospect than in prospect. Yet on the first anniversary of last year's Korean summit, confusion rather than clarity reigns. In a sense, a year is too short a time to know if real change has occurred, setting...
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2001

Cuba envoy fund misuse to be probed

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka indicated Wednesday she will thoroughly investigate reports that a former ambassador to Cuba diverted taxpayer money for private purposes.
BUSINESS
Jun 14, 2001

Yamasaki to ask BOJ for even easier money

Taku Yamasaki, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Wednesday he will ask Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami to ease monetary policy further to prevent the economy from decelerating.
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2001

Stabbing suspect aimed to harass relatives

OSAKA — The suspect in last Friday's massacre at an elementary school in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, has told investigators that he wanted to "stir up a commotion" to harass his relatives, it was learned Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 14, 2001

Pressure mounts for reform in Iran

TEHRAN -- Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's landslide victory in last week's presidential election is seen as a great boost for him and his reformist followers in the power struggle that pits them against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the hardline clerical establishment.
COMMENTARY
Jun 14, 2001

Solving Asia's nuclear-waste dilemma

Nuclear energy is news again. It has always been an issue for some people -- environmental activists and energy industry groups -- but nuclear power has largely faded from public consciousness, despite periodic incidents that highlighted fears of a catastrophic mishap at a nuclear power plant. The luxury...
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2001

JCCI probes alleged exam leak

Questions on an accounting license examination conducted Sunday by the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry may have been leaked to students at accounting schools, JCCI officials said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
Jun 14, 2001

Britain's real battle begins

LONDON -- The Labour government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Tony Blair, has gained a second term of office. The conservative opposition has been utterly defeated and its leader, William Hague, has duly "fallen on his sword" by resigning.
COMMENTARY
Jun 13, 2001

A windfall for Nepal's Maoists

KATMANDU -- The picturesque Himalayan nation of Nepal, wedged between India and China-occupied Tibet, was once an idyllic hideaway for Western trekkers and hippies. Although still a popular tourist destination, Nepal has been wracked in recent years by an expanding Maoist insurrection in the countryside....
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jun 13, 2001

Super Butter Dog: Bow wow wow yippee yay

When I first saw Super Butter Dog at an industry showcase a few years back, I thought they were a joke. First, of course, there was the name. Super Butter Dog sounded like one of those quasi-edible agglomerations of animal byproducts and chemicals you buy at dubious-looking matsuri stalls. And the band...
EDITORIALS
Jun 12, 2001

Discord in the Foreign Ministry

The Foreign Ministry has been mired in an internal struggle between Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka and senior ministry bureaucrats. The faceoff shows no signs of ending, although Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has issued a warning to both Mrs. Tanaka and Vice Foreign Minister Yutaka Kawashima. Mrs....
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2001

Recession looms as GDP shrinks 0.2%

Japan's economy shrank during the last three months of fiscal 2000, according to government data released Monday, confirming fears that the world's second-largest economy is on the brink of another recession.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2001

Teachers check up on students

IKEDA, Osaka Pref. — Three days after the fatal stabbing of eight schoolchildren at Osaka Kyoiku University Ikeda Elementary School, teachers began efforts Monday to prepare students to return to classes by first visiting them at home with mental health care counselors.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 12, 2001

Leprosy case exposes social ills

For more than a century, Hansen's disease patients and their relatives in Japan have suffered unreasonable discrimination. Since the Meiji Era, Japan has forced patients into social isolation under the Leprosy Prevention Law, ruining their lives.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2001

Koizumi's bid to empower urban voters hit

Toshikatsu Matsuoka is frustrated.
EDITORIALS
Jun 10, 2001

Labour wins a mandate to carry on

The crushing victory of Britain's Labour Party in Thursday's general elections presents Prime Minister Tony Blair with his greatest challenge. His progress since becoming party leader almost a decade ago has been remarkably smooth, and his remodeled party now enjoys a dominance in British politics equivalent...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 10, 2001

Japan, America and women's place

THE ROAD WINDS UPHILL ALL THE WAY: Gender, Work, and Family in the United States and Japan, by Myra H. Strober and Agnes Miling Kaneko Chan. The MIT Press, 2001, $21.95. The image of Japanese women walking several steps behind their "master" husbands is alive and well in the American popular imagination....
COMMUNITY
Jun 10, 2001

Home (not so) sweet home

"The word 'home' comes from the Nordic and Germanic languages and means a place of comfort, a warm fire and a place to sleep," said Colleen Lanki, artistic director of Kee Company, a Tokyo-based bilingual theater group.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

Thieves may have targeted abandoned Miyake residences

More than 20 possible cases of theft have been reported on Miyake Island after its residents were forced to evacuate last summer due to volcanic eruptions, according to police.
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2001

Tanaka threatens legal action

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka said Thursday she is considering taking legal action against bureaucrats in her ministry who she claims have leaked remarks she reportedly made about the U.S. missile defense program.
COMMENTARY
Jun 8, 2001

Reform easier said than done

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi replaced former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on the grounds that he was a reformist and Mori was not. Yet Koizumi's first move was to cancel one of Mori's sensible reforms -- the bid to settle Japan's Northern Territories dispute with Moscow by first accepting the two...
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2001

Tanaka-bureaucrat standoff yet to let up

Despite the announcement Wednesday of Foreign Ministry reform plans and the lifting Monday of a "freeze" on personnel transfers, the standoff between Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka and senior bureaucrats is showing no signs of abating.
MORE SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jun 7, 2001

Minding your P's and Q's

"F*** your mother"
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 7, 2001

Good intentions jinx the 'living dead'

Doom and gloom this week for those who believe in the essential goodness of the human race, with two papers in the journal Science that implicate humans in mass extinctions of mammals in North America and Australia.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 6, 2001

Power surge in the Pacific League

Instead of playing up the Monday night games innovation (which it really is not doing anyway), the Pacific League should exploit the sudden increase in home-run power this season. Either they've juiced the ball or the guys are taking some go-go juice (just kidding), and Seibu Lions slugger Alex Cabrera...
CULTURE / Film
Jun 6, 2001

Now you see her, but know you don't

Malena Rating: * * * * Director: Giuseppe Tornatore Running time: 92 minutes Language: Italian/EnglishOpens June 9 These days, we've become used to women in cinema meeting certain standards. They should be visually stunning, but they must also be brave, self-assertive, sometimes violent, smart and...

Longform

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