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ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 22, 2001

Hydrogen future: Iceland's quest for a clean, green energy legacy

The future is wherever people are "thinking outside the box," seeking atypical solutions to problems of the status quo.
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2001

More people urge less aid for developing countries

A record number of Japanese people hope to see a reduction in economic assistance to developing countries now that Japan itself faces economic difficulties, according to a government poll released Saturday.
COMMENTARY
Jan 19, 2001

Mori's fate hangs on Upper House election

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will face a moment of truth in the Upper House election scheduled for July. Results of the election could cause serious political turmoil.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2001

Seirai, Horie win Akutagawa Prize

Yuichi Seirai and Toshiyuki Horie were chosen Tuesday evening as winners of the 124th Akutagawa Prize, one of Japan's most prestigious literary prizes, while the Naoki Prize for popular fiction went to Kiyoshi Shigematsu and Fumio Yamamoto.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2001

Arafat and the art of missing opportunities

If we Israelis had had a leader like the Palestinian Authority's Yasser Arafat, the state of Israel would never have come into being. Why? Because the test of a leader does not lie in his being swept up in his people's dreams; it lies in his pragmatic ability to accept what can be achieved. It is better...
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2001

Cabinet against using public funds to prop stocks

There was widespread opposition Tuesday in Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's Cabinet to the idea of using public funds to prop up the faltering stock market.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2001

Even weaker yen seen ahead

Despite the slowdown in U.S. economic growth, all underlying economic factors other than the U.S. trade deficit still favor the dollar relative to the yen.
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2001

Monkey exterminations on the rise

The number of municipalities exterminating monkeys reached about 500 in fiscal 1999, after the government revised a law to let prefectures eradicate harmful animals, a survey released Sunday shows.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 16, 2001

Three identities and one life

LIVES OF YOUNG KOREANS IN JAPAN, by Yasunori Fukuoka, translated by Tom Gill. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2000, 330 pp. It is estimated that there were 2.5 million Koreans living in Japan at the end of World War II. Although many returned home after the war, there are still approximately 600,000...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 15, 2001

Italian lessons for Japan

Japan's political landscape could change dramatically, depending on the outcome of July's Upper House elections. Mikio Aoki, a Liberal Democratic leader in the Upper House, says the three ruling coalition parties -- the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party -- must win...
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2001

LDP's Koyama facing questions over KSD cash

Prosecutors plan to question Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Takao Koyama as early as today on suspicion he received over 10 million yen in bribes from scandal-hit industrial insurance provider KSD, investigative sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2001

Hijacking suspect arrested

OSAKA -- A 20-year-old cook was arrested Saturday night after hijacking a Kyoto city bus carrying only a driver and another passenger, police said Sunday.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2001

Making gardens accessible proving a slippery path

Legend has it that when the Koishikawa Korakuen Garden in Bunkyo Ward was built in the early Edo Period, it boasted gigantic rocks and majestic, ancient trees reminiscent of the steep mountains and dark valleys of China.
COMMENTARY
Jan 14, 2001

New Cabinet does little to boost Mori

Japan is enveloped in gloom at the dawn of the 21st century, as is much of the rest of the world. The administration of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori continues to suffer from dismally low public-approval ratings, despite the major Cabinet reshuffle he carried out last month. The reorganization of the central...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2001

China tightens grip on the Net

CAMBRIDGE, England -- The Chinese government has been issuing more regulations to control the use of the Internet. As with the earlier ones, there are no surprises. They simply tidy up what was already accepted practice and add nothing new. It is still the slow bureaucratic machine catching up with reality....
BUSINESS
Jan 13, 2001

Don't fret about economy: IMF chief

International Monetary Fund chief Horst Koehler told Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa on Friday that there is no need to worry about the outlook for the Japanese economy, although Japan will experience pain as its labor market goes through a transitional period.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jan 13, 2001

Muscovites get all fired up

"Real Chechnya" -- this is how Muscovites sum up their experiences during the recent holiday season. Fortunately, except for routine scuffles ignited by the excessive consumption of alcohol, there was no fighting in the Russian capital.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2001

In Thailand, good losers teach a key lesson

SISAKET, Thailand -- "If the counting is fair, losers must accept the results," said Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, trying to calm down an anxious nation as rioting spread to over a dozen provinces in the wake of national elections Jan. 6. Having just lost the premiership as his party was trounced...
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2001

Ministry graft probe nears conclusion

A Foreign Ministry investigation into the alleged misappropriation of public funds by a senior Foreign Ministry official will be concluded by Jan. 26, before the expected start of the ordinary Diet session Jan. 31, Senior Vice Foreign Minister Seishiro Eto said Thursday.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 11, 2001

Ichiro already a hit with fans in Seattle

It's great to see Major League Baseball teams and fans embrace their new Japanese signings. When I was in Seattle last summer, reliever Kazuhiro Sasaki's mug seemed to be everywhere, from the cover of the club's fan magazine to T-shirts being hawked on the streets to huge banners adorning the outside...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 11, 2001

Taking stock of the new ryori

Before intrepidly setting out to eat our way through this brave new century, let us pause briefly to consider the state of contemporary Japanese dining. Needless to say, the situation is very different from 100 years ago, when most people were fed by itinerant hawkers, yatai stalls or simple food outlets...
EDITORIALS
Jan 10, 2001

Behind the quest for more babies

The continuing precipitous decline in Japan's birthrate -- in 1999 it was at the all-time low of 1.34 births per woman during her lifetime -- has long troubled planners in both the government and the private sector. Now Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has put himself at the center of the issue by calling...
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2001

Women tackle stalking menace head-on

Exercise combining aerobics and self-defense skills is the latest craze among young women in Tokyo, where the number of reported stalking cases is also on the rise.
COMMENTARY
Jan 10, 2001

Tests loom for U.S.-China ties

How will the election of George W. Bush affect U.S.-China relations? The conventional wisdom was that a Gore administration would have been more favorable to China -- a questionable assumption based in part on the belief that Al Gore would be more inclined to continue President Bill Clinton's policies...
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2001

Evidence of exam leak destroyed

Investigators suspect an executive of Ohu University in Fukushima Prefecture instructed school officials to destroy papers related to a leaked exam immediately after the incident came to light, police sources said Tuesday.

Longform

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