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JAPAN
Nov 4, 2000

KSD affiliate hit for abusing foreign trainees' rights

An affiliate of KSD, a mutual aid group under criminal investigation for alleged lending irregularities, has been admonished by the Justice Ministry for alleged violations of foreign trainees' human rights, according to ministry officials.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 4, 2000

Two Koreas grapple with a long history

U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright's recent remark that "my glasses aren't rose-colored" when it comes to North Korea has touched a deep chord in South Korea. The pace and productiveness of North-South exchanges has noticeably slowed since the summer, and off-again, on-again North-South meetings...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2000

Furor over Hindu die-hards

NEW DELHI -- It may not be an exaggeration to say that India's Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, or National Volunteers Corps) has a certain religious doggedness which is uncomfortably similar to the rabid Taliban in Afghanistan.
JAPAN / LIFE OFF MIYAKE
Nov 2, 2000

Assemblyman places fellow exiles first

The future of Miyake Island may be as hazy as the smoke billowing from its volcano, but for Kazuyoshi Yamada, it comes before his own losses.
EDITORIALS
Nov 1, 2000

Japan's new disarmament offensive

At the current meeting of the disarmament committee of the United Nations millennium assembly, Japan has presented a draft resolution calling for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. The proposal, which lays out a timetable for total nuclear disarmament, marks a step forward from previous appeals...
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2000

The rising price of knowledge

BEIJING -- It should have been party time on the bright summer day 18-year-old Li Junliang was accepted by prestigious Beijing University. Fewer than one in 10 of China's students secure places at any of the country's crowded colleges and universities, let alone the Oxford University of China. But the...
EDITORIALS
Oct 29, 2000

Glamour in a good cause

There was a gathering at the United Nations in New York last Monday that nobody paid much attention to. The World Series and a high-wattage Senate race were distracting New Yorkers. A murderous flareup in the Middle East and a surreal encounter in Pyongyang were distracting the rest of the world.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 29, 2000

Local boy makes good on his own

It is practically impossible to beat the odds and attain major recognition and success in Japan as an individual artist. When an artist does achieve success it is usually the result of a miracle -- or nepotism. It is not uncommon for gallerists who want to promote a particular artist to arrange a show...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 29, 2000

Sexism remains a rampant social disease

I am fortunate to be able to count among my relatives a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Felix Frankfurter. Felix, appointed to the court by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was a cousin on my mother's side of the family and, needless to say, far removed from me in age.
JAPAN
Oct 28, 2000

Sanyo rocked by fresh disclosure

OSAKA -- In this week's second revelation concerning defective products, Sanyo Electric Co. announced Friday that it will replace, free of charge, parts of refrigerators sold from 1995 with doors that could fall off.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 28, 2000

Identity found among shifting personas

A tour-group traveler posing in front of the Empire State Building; a junkie punk jonesing on a dirty park bench; a mail-order bride photographed standing beside her snaggletoothed, shotgun-toting redneck husband -- Nikki S. Lee is all of these people, and then some.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2000

Why do some doctors anesthetize brain-dead patients?

Tetsuo Furukawa, professor emeritus of neurology at Tokyo Medical and Dental School, is a rarity in Japan: a neurologist who has been crusading against the practice of transplanting organs from brain-dead donors. Furukawa worries that patients in a supposedly brain-dead state may nevertheless feel pain,...
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2000

Grade crossings taking time, taking lives

The mercury was already testing its upper limit when 83-year-old Kane Moritani left her Yokohama home one morning last summer to visit the neighborhood dentist.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2000

It's a matter of life and death

Staff writer Brain death: It's a phrase we hear every day. In Japan, the public has been exposed to it to the point of numbness through nationwide campaigns for more organ donors. "Brain death is human death, and organ donation saves lives," we are exhorted. In the United States, the world's leading...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 24, 2000

Revealing the nation one grain at a time

THE POLITICS OF AGRICULTURE IN JAPAN, by Aurelia George Mulgan. London & New York: Routledge, 2000, 856 pp.,82 British pounds/$125 (cloth). In 1890, a young German academic agreed to evaluate a survey of landowners in the German provinces east of the Elbe River. Overcoming the limitations of biased...
EDITORIALS
Oct 23, 2000

Yugoslavia's long road

Having toppled Mr. Slobodan Milosevic, Yugoslavia's new president, Mr. Vojislav Kostunica, must now consolidate power if he is to return his country to the family of European nations. His efforts to form an interim government have been hampered by Yugoslavia's federal structure and the bad blood between...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 22, 2000

Bidding goodbye to the monoculture myth

Some years ago I was sitting at the counter of a rather exclusive sushi restaurant in the Roppongi district of Tokyo when I noticed that a middle-age man a few stools along was making monosyllabic comments each time I ordered a morsel of sushi or slipped one into my mouth.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 22, 2000

All you ever wanted to know about voodoo

Gaston Jean-Baptiste, known as "Bonga," is a voodoo priest and a conga player. Bonga has been touring Japan giving workshops on Haitian music and teaching the traditions of Haiti. Luckily, one of the stops on his tour was my living room. A small, amiable man with dreadlocks, Bonga spoke from his "zabuton":...
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2000

Woman says boss ordered her to kill

A restaurant employee charged in a murder-for-insurance case has told police that she laced food and liquor served to a man whose body was later found floating in a river with the poisonous herb aconite, according to sources.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2000

Peace far away under fragile coalition

NEW DELHI -- Peace seems to be eluding Sri Lanka. The latest parliamentary elections there has caused disquiet and confusion after the electorate failed to give a clear mandate to either Chandrika Kumaratunga's People's Alliance (PA) or Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP).
EDITORIALS
Oct 19, 2000

Back to step one in the Middle East

After two days of intense negotiations, Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed this week to a ceasefire that would end the bloodiest unrest the region has experienced in decades. Neither Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak nor Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat has evinced much enthusiasm for...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 17, 2000

An unambiguous democrat

At the moment of his greatest personal triumph, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung once again demonstrated his magnanimity. "I return all my honor to the people and the citizens of the world, who love democracy and human rights," the president was quoted as saying after he was awarded the Nobel Peace...
COMMENTARY
Oct 16, 2000

Reorganization isn't reform

Japan's central bureaucracy will be reorganized, effective Jan. 6, to mark the start of a new administrative system. The reform will have significant influence on local governments and the public, too. It is part of efforts to restructure Japanese society, which has been bound by webs of restrictions...
MORE SPORTS
Oct 16, 2000

Halard-Decugis, Schalken claim Japan Open tennis titles

It was death by a thousand cuts or, to put it another way, victory by a thousand errors.
EDITORIALS
Oct 15, 2000

Turning the clock back

The Middle East continues its descent into violence. The immediate task is ending the bloodshed that has occurred throughout Palestinian territory and restoring order. The question hovering over the carnage is whether the peace process can be resurrected. Nearly 100 people have been killed in a little...

Longform

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