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EDITORIALS
Dec 4, 2000

Prepare for bumps ahead

The U.S. economy is slowing down and that could mean trouble for the rest of the world. The United States has acted as consumer of last resort for many of the world's exporters. As the U.S. economic expansion brakes, those countries will have to find other markets for their goods or risk a slowdown of...
COMMENTARY
Dec 4, 2000

Turning a blind eye to Chinese proliferation

NEW DELHI -- It speaks volumes that just when the United States determined that China was engaged in clandestine missile trade with Pakistan and, to a lesser extent, Iran, Washington announced that it was waiving a law requiring imposition of economic sanctions in such a situation. The unmistakable message...
COMMENTARY
Dec 3, 2000

Britons going nowhere fast

LONDON -- Is Britain in crisis? Many people think so, after a month in which large swathes of England have been inundated by filthy flood water. Television news showed comic snippets of boats in the streets rescuing old ladies and dogs, snaps of sturdy men and women counting their blessings as the flood...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 3, 2000

The cutting edge of sound and vision

For some, myself included, the U.K. Sound Design exhibition, held Nov. 23-27 at the Ground in Harajuku, was a stroll down memory lane. Organized by the British Council in Japan, the show assembled record sleeves from seminal British designers of the last 30 years. Seeing many old records that had made...
EDITORIALS
Dec 2, 2000

Mr. Barak's bold gamble

One odd fact has hung over the violence that has descended upon the Middle East: The current Israeli government is more committed to a peaceful settlement than any that might replace it. Prime Minister Ehud Barak genuinely wants to make peace. The question is whether the Israeli people are behind him....
BUSINESS
Dec 2, 2000

NCB sees two key balances move back into the black

Releasing its first financial results since its sale on Sept. 1 to an investment consortium led by Softbank Corp., Nippon Credit Bank said Friday its operating and pretax balances moved back into the black in the first half of fiscal 2000.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Dec 2, 2000

The new American autism

George W. Bush, Al Gore or civil war? This is the question being asked now by alarmists, especially those with a taste for theatrical overstatement.
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2000

Mori weathers storm but warned against further gaffes

The 72-day extraordinary Diet session comes to a close today with Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori clinging to power despite a series of challenges that could have ousted him from office.
COMMENTARY
Dec 1, 2000

The end of a nasty election in sight at last

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. presidential election will soon be over. Finally. And likely resulting in what most people expected all along: a George W. Bush victory.
EDITORIALS
Nov 30, 2000

Help society's youngest victims

It is a sad commentary on today's adults that the physical and psychological abuse of children is a growing and increasingly troubling phenomenon in Japan more than half a year after the Diet enacted a law prohibiting chronically abusive parents from meeting or corresponding with offspring they have...
SOCCER / J. League
Nov 30, 2000

Alex: Dreadlocks in deadlock at S-Pulse

SHIMIZU, Shizuoka Pref. -- It's an image that sticks very firmly in the mind. Sixty seconds into a crucial game against the Yokohama F. Marinos, a brilliant 60-meter pass out of defense by Kazuyuki Toda catches a flurry of dreadlocks on the run.
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2000

Mori sympathizes with water-tosser

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who has come under fire a number of times for making controversial remarks, on Tuesday expressed sympathy for a lawmaker facing suspension from the Diet.
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2000

Farm co-op fined for hiding income

The National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (Zenno) hid about 1.4 billion yen in taxable income over three years through March 1999, industry sources said Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Nov 28, 2000

Quit coddling NTT

The Telecommunications Council, an advisory panel to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, has produced a preliminary report calling for stepped-up competition within the NTT group. The report, however, falls far short of expectations. The overall impression is that the panel is keen to minimize...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 28, 2000

When writing Asia-Pacific history, the rhetoric is the reality

JAPAN AND PACIFIC INTEGRATION: Pacific Romances 1968-1996, by Pekka Korhonen. London/New York: Routledge, 1998, 246 pp., $50 (cloth). The title of this book suggests that it is about the integration of the Asia-Pacific area, about regionalism, and about the role Japan plays in this process.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2000

Back to square one in politics

Koichi Kato, a leading dissident in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, failed miserably in his latest attempt to unseat Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.
COMMENTARY
Nov 27, 2000

Japan reconsiders the free trade agreement

Next January, Japan and Singapore will kick off a round of government-to-government negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement. The plans in the works reportedly call for signing the pact by the end of 2001 so that it will take effect in 2002.
CULTURE / Art
Nov 26, 2000

The modernist innovations of Mackintosh

Tall, dark and handsome, the chairs of Charles Rennie Mackintosh are international objects of desire. Belying their age, they stand in design studios, hotel lobbies and private homes like stylish question marks.
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2000

Falsely accused seek system to make press clean up its act

After his nightmare summer of 1994, when the media branded him the prime suspect in the fatal sarin gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, Yoshiyuki Kono embarked on a crusade to end press violations of citizens' rights.
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2000

Ministry confirms StarLink finding

The Health and Welfare Ministry on Wednesday said tests have confirmed the presence of banned StarLink corn in food products sold at retailers in Japan.
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Nov 23, 2000

End your festive feast with a liquid dessert

With yet another Thanksgiving, Hanuka, Christmas and so forth soon to come, the question is, should you gorge away at the big dinner or discreetly desist a bit to "make sure," as some say, "that there's still some room left for dessert"?
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 22, 2000

Japan needs to abandon the 'image game'

Domestic politics is not my specialty, but I am so disturbed by recent developments that I am prompted to write down some of my thoughts. First, newspaper comments and articles suggest that the opposition parties and the media have succeeded in establishing a public image of Yoshiro Mori as an incompetent...
EDITORIALS
Nov 21, 2000

An electoral tremor in Tochigi

Yet another basic change has jolted Japan's established regional power structure. This time around, it occurred in Sunday's gubernatorial election in Tochigi Prefecture, in which "floating voters" succeeded in demonstrating their political power. Riding on the strength of such unorganized voters, a 52-year-old...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 21, 2000

WTO falling victim to its own success

The World Trade Organization is headquartered, like its predecessor, the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trades, in the placid Swiss city of Geneva. These days, however, the WTO is more often associated with Seattle, Washington, and the images that come to mind when the organization is mentioned aren't...
EDITORIALS
Nov 20, 2000

Mr. Kato throws down the gauntlet

Infighting in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is intensifying. Former Secretary General Koichi Kato is demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, citing his low approval ratings. Tension is also building outside the LDP now that major opposition parties are set to present a no-confidence...
SUMO
Nov 20, 2000

Akebono king of Kyushu

Akebono, facing a potential playoff with No. 9 maegashira Kotomitsuki, overwhelmed fellow-yokozuna Musashimaru in the final bout of the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament on Sunday at Fukuoka International Center to take his 11th yusho with a 14-1 record.
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2000

New laws to promote government budget efficiency

The Management and Coordination Agency has drafted legislation designed to measure the effectiveness of public works, various regulations and other policies devised by the government, agency sources said Sunday.
COMMENTARY
Nov 19, 2000

U.S. credibility put to test

NEW DELHI -- Political scientist Samuel Huntington has aptly described the United States as the "sole state with pre-eminence in every domain of power -- economic, military, diplomatic, ideological, technological and cultural -- with the reach capabilities to promote its interests in virtually every...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2000

Awards lift expectations of Kim Dae Jung

SEOUL -- South Korean President Kim Dae Jung is more popular abroad than he is within his own country. This is the impression I have gathered after discussing South Korean politics with many people both in South Korea and beyond the shores of the peninsula.

Longform

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