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EDITORIALS
Sep 20, 1999

Negotiating with North Korea

The United States and North Korea have struck yet another deal. This time, the two parties seem to have negotiated a framework for the relaxation of U.S. economic sanctions against North Korea in exchange for the suspension of Pyongyang's ballistic missile testing program. Some ask, why does the U.S....
COMMENTARY
Sep 19, 1999

Smooth sailing ahead for Obuchi and LDP

It appears certain that Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi will be re-elected president of the Liberal Democratic Party Sept. 21, which means he will remain at the helm of the government. Although his term as head of the ruling party does not run out until Sept. 20, 2001, whether he will serve out as prime...
JAPAN
Sep 17, 1999

Ishihara rants after tour of U.S. military park

After touring the U.S. military's Tama Recreation Center in western Tokyo on Friday, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said what he saw made him question even more whether the 200-hectare site is necessary to U.S. forces and Japan's defense.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 1999

Office Depot tinkering to get it right

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 14, 1999

Airlines prove Y2K-compliance with test flights

Test flights conducted at midnight Monday proved Japan's major airlines and aviation control systems can cope with the Year 2000 computer problem, Transport Minister Jiro Kawasaki said Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 12, 1999

Fashion and its victims

How does one get inside a girl's head? This rueful question must have occurred to many people recently on hearing reports of the death of a 25-year-old woman in Kanagawa Prefecture after she tripped and fell while wearing sandals with 10-cm-high cork soles. To observers of the elevated-shoe fad over...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Sep 12, 1999

Praiseworthy

My earliest memories of Honolulu include my introduction to Japanese food; it had not yet become a cuisine. It was at a tiny Waikiki restaurant where each day a cook created four or five special lunches on two gas burners. One was for sauteing and frying, the other for simmering, steaming and warming....
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 1999

Australia's tragic Timor role

Australia fears the fallout from the East Timor chaos. But Canberra helped create that chaos.
EDITORIALS
Sep 8, 1999

Deja vu in the Middle East

For what was supposed to be a new era for the Middle East, the recent rituals have been all too familiar. As the deadline for another peace agreement approached, negotiations ground to a halt. The Israeli prime minister dug in his heels as his Palestinian counterpart made last-minute demands and shifted...
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 3, 1999

Japan can intervene at any time: Miyazawa

Japan can step into the currency market on its own to sell yen for dollars without consulting the United States, Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 1999

Product-trashing consumer book enjoys sizzling sales

Staff writer
COMMENTARY
Aug 31, 1999

ODA helps Japan, the world

Medium-term policy guidelines for Official Development Assistance, announced by the government Aug. 10, set the standards for implementing Japan's ODA between 1999 and 2003. The guidelines place emphasis on aid to Asian countries to help them implement structural reforms aimed at solving their economic...
EDITORIALS
Aug 26, 1999

Close the business loophole

During the last Diet session, the tripartite alliance of the Liberal Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and New Komeito voted a host of key bills into law on the back of their numerical strength. But not all major bills were cleared. Among them is a measure to ban corporate donations to politicians....
JAPAN
Aug 26, 1999

Ward funds residents in suit against cultists

Tokyo's Toshima Ward has extended 3.8 million yen in loans to a group of residents who are preparing a lawsuit to have members of Aum Shinrikyo evicted from an apartment complex, ward officials said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 1999

Hatoyama declares entry into DPJ presidential race

Yukio Hatoyama, deputy secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, officially declared his candidacy Thursday for the DPJ's presidential election next month, seriously clouding the prospect of incumbent leader Naoto Kan's re-election.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 1999

Testing of genetically modified food on rise

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Aug 24, 1999

Steps to stop the AIDS threat

With no advance warning, a team from the Health and Welfare Ministry has announced that a large-scale infection of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is a far greater threat in this country than the public has been led to believe. After what seems like a long ministry silence on the issue, the team estimates...
EDITORIALS
Aug 23, 1999

Bridging Kosovo's gulf of hatred

Nearly 10 weeks after the last Yugoslav forces pulled out of Kosovo, ethnic cleansing has once again reared its ugly head in the troubled Balkan province. This time around, however, it is ethnic Albanians that are terrorizing Serbs and forcing them to flee. Reports are heard daily of Serb deaths or beatings....
COMMENTARY
Aug 21, 1999

Mr. Robertson's agenda

LONDON -- The appointment of George Robertson, formerly the British secretary of state for defense, as secretary general of NATO has rekindled discussion on a number of important defense issues facing Europe. Robertson should be able to influence the outcome, but decisions will largely rest with the...
CULTURE / Music
Aug 20, 1999

Plotting the return of a '70s icon

Prodigy's Keith Flint declared himself a big fan. Gary Barlow says, "he was my reason for getting into the business. The man is a God." Britain's most infamous tabloid, The Sun, chimes in with, "The legend is reinstated for a whole new generation."
CULTURE / Books
Aug 18, 1999

Yes, there was a Nanjing Massacre

Did the 1937 Nanjing Massacre really happen? This might seem like an absurd question, but then the recently elected governor of Tokyo is on record as having denied that the looting, rape and assembly-line murder reported by eyewitnesses ever took place. The Dr. Feelgoods of Japanese history, Yoshinori...
EDITORIALS
Aug 17, 1999

The good fight against war crimes

On Aug. 12, the world observed the 50th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, four international agreements that set limits on the conduct of participants in armed conflicts. At first glance, the conventions seem quixotic: How can we apply the rule of law to war itself, where the goal is to bend an...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 1999

End the 'one China' fiction

China is again rattling its sabers over Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui's recent statement that Taiwan will henceforth conduct its relations with China as "a special state-to-state relationship."
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Aug 12, 1999

Nihonshu's sweet spectrum

Perhaps the best way to buy sake is to have tasted enough to know exactly what you are looking for, and find that label. Advice and recommendations go a long way too. But we all need to foray into the unknown and try new things at times.
EDITORIALS
Aug 11, 1999

Predictably capricious

True to form, Russian President Boris Yeltsin has astounded his country and the world. Demonstrating that nothing is more important to the mercurial Russian leader than the fate of his regime and his family -- it is hard to distinguish the two -- Mr. Yeltsin this week dismissed Prime Minister Sergei...
JAPAN
Aug 9, 1999

Flag, anthem now official

The Diet enacted controversial legislation Monday that legally recognizes the Hinomaru as Japan's national flag and "Kimigayo" as its anthem.
CULTURE / Art
Aug 7, 1999

Through the unflinching eye of realism

Most painters, whatever style they eventually adopt, generally start their career by setting their own likeness down on canvas. It is a kind of baptism by fire attempted once and usually abandoned. This we know because there are far fewer portraits of artists in middle or old age than in their youth....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 4, 1999

How to keep the main clause interesting

Many years ago when she was studying for the TOEFL exam, my wife asked me to explain the difference between a main clause and a subordinate one. She somehow had it in her head that as a native speaker I would instinctively know what those words meant.

Longform

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