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JAPAN
Mar 28, 2001

Bill on data protection approved by Cabinet

The Cabinet approved Tuesday a privacy protection bill designed to set a legal framework to regulate the acquisition and dissemination of personal information for commercial use.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Mar 26, 2001

Russians living 'la vida loca'

This semester I am teaching a Dostoevsky course. Implausible plots, stumbling dialogues, everybody in love with everybody, romantic triangles overlap like mating frogs, passions mount, money changes hands and is thrown into the fire -- the normal Dostoevsky stuff.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2001

History will affirm Kim's heroism, vision

SEOUL -- A classical drama consists of five acts. Usually, the key part occurs in the third act. In this regard, the North Korea policy of South Korean President Kim Dae Jung may have something in common with classical theater.
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
Feb 1, 2001

FIFA's football family is fatally dysfunctional

Sepp Blatter, the head of soccer's world governing body FIFA, invariably refers to the world's soccer community as "the football family." Unfortunately, it's a terribly dysfunctional family.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2001

Annan waits on re-election decision

Visiting U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said Wednesday that he will announce in March whether he will run for a second term as head of the United Nations.
BUSINESS
Jan 18, 2001

Amway Japan chief looks to raise firm's public profile, sales

In an effort to combat a decline in sales amid stagnant consumer spending, Amway Japan Ltd. President Stephen A. Robbins is determined to raise the direct selling firm's public profile by forming alliances with major Japanese companies.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2000

120 nations sign treaty targeting top toxic threats

In a recent set of marathon talks that went down to -- and past -- the wire, delegates from more than 120 countries hashed out the first international treaty designed to eliminate some of the world's most toxic chemicals.
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2000

Gender equality measures urged

An advisory panel to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori submitted a report Monday recommending broad measures to promote gender equality in Japan.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 10, 2000

Japan's new goodwill ambassador to the UNEP

Tokiko Kato Tokiko Kato is every bit as energetic and candid in person as she appears on stage. Best known as a singer and musician, Kato is also a poet and painter, and serves on the board of the World Wide Fund for Nature Japan. Though her schedule is hectic, it is by choice, and she has energy to...
BUSINESS
Dec 7, 2000

LDP panel set to extend housing loan tax breaks

The tax panel of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party basically agreed Wednesday to maintain tax breaks for housing loans for two to three years, albeit on a reduced scale, sources within the party said.
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2000

Bill foot-dragging belies pluralist goal

The postponement of debate on a bill that would grant limited suffrage to foreigners until next year at the earliest has prompted long-term foreign residents of Japan to question whether the nation is serious about embracing the foreign population.
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2000

Young people called on to help end exploitation of children

The active participation of young people is key to the successful global effort to fight sexual exploitation of children, according to an adviser to an international conference on the issue scheduled next year in Yokohama.
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2000

Fujimori confirms resignation intent

Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori Monday confirmed he intends to resign within 48 hours, just hours after all 14 members of his Cabinet tendered their resignations in protest of his surprise decision.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 2000

Transparency crucial to corporate survival

Most companies will face a crisis at one point, but it's not necessarily the crisis itself that will dictate that company's future, but rather how it is handled.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2000

Mori fights criticism during Diet debate

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori was forced to fight back Wednesday as opposition leaders urged him to resign during a terse Diet debate that centered on the latest in a growing string of gaffes.
JAPAN
Oct 14, 2000

Mori, Zhu vow to build a better future

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and visiting Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji agreed Friday to build a new relationship in the coming century through enhanced economic cooperation and by steadily resolving bilateral disputes, such as Chinese marine research activities within Japan's economic waters.
COMMENTARY
Oct 5, 2000

No rush to grant foreigners voting rights

A major domestic political debate is brewing over whether non-Japanese permanent residents should be granted the right to vote in local elections of prefectural governors, prefectural legislators, and chiefs and council members of lower local administrative entities. Those foreigners will still be ineligible...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2000

China blocks disarmament

NEW DELHI — U.S. President Bill Clinton's weekend announcement to delay a decision on deployment of the U.S. national missile defense system will do little to end the gridlock at the United Nations' main disarmament body, the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. The CD has been without work for four...
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2000

LDP sidelines 17.2 billion yen loan to China

The Liberal Democratic Party said Thursday that it will postpone approval of a plan to loan 17.2 billion yen to China to protest recent Chinese naval activity in and around Japanese territorial waters, LDP officials said.
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2000

Forum calls for new WTO round

WASHINGTON — Despite the failure of last year's World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, panelists and participants at a recent symposium in Washington remain hopeful that a new round of multilateral trade talks will be launched before the end of next year.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 31, 2000

Japan-Russia exchanges build vital trust

Last month I had an opportunity to visit Kunashiri and Etorofu Islands -- two of the four Russian-occupied islands claimed by Japan -- under a visa-free exchange program. It was my second trip to the Northern Territories, which consist of Kunashiri, Etorofu, Shikotan and Habomai Islands. On my first...
COMMENTARY
Jul 24, 2000

Ethical void damages Japan

The political ethics issue confronts the new administration of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. The question at stake is whether Japan will be able to put an end to the politics of patronage.
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2000

Bailout decisions case by case, says Mori's 'younger brother'

Although the controversial bailout plan for the Sogo Co. department store chain and its group firms was eventually scrapped when the group filed for court-mandated rehabilitation this week, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa is not sure how the government will handle similar cases in the future....
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2000

Japan, U.S. business leaders agree on NTT

Business leaders from Japan and the United States expressed their support Monday for a reduction in Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.'s interconnection charges, a move which they say is essential to information technology-led economic growth.
BUSINESS
May 15, 2000

Constructive advice for launching multilateral talks with the WTO

the summit of major industrialized countries kicks off in July, one of the things the world will be waiting to see is whether the leaders of these nations will be able to launch a new round of multilateral trade liberalization talks under the World Trade Organization.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.