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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

Civil servants upbeat on reorganized bureaucracy

Bureaucrats in their 20s and 30s were apprehensive but upbeat Tuesday when work started in earnest following the biggest administrative shakeup since the end of World War II.
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.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Jan 10, 2001

Daimyo's garden: tall trees among the embassies

Arisugawa Memorial Park has an area of 3.6 hectares and is the largest park in Tokyo's Minato Ward. The collection of tall mature trees gives the park a pleasing woodland effect.
LIFE / Digital
Jan 10, 2001

Asian news and connections

atimes.comAlmost immediately after the Asia Times added Western standards to Asian journalism back in 1996, it was pushed under by the debt it took on to launch, becoming one of the first bankruptcies of the region's financial meltdown. Now it's back, at least online, and although it's still a mere shadow...
BUSINESS
Jan 9, 2001

Cellphone shipments set to hit 420 million

Worldwide shipments of mobile phones will likely reach 420 million units in 2000, far outpacing the 280 million shipped in 1999, the Japanese unit of U.S. high-tech consulting firm GartnerGroup Inc. said Monday.
JAPAN
Jan 9, 2001

Man stabs vendor at Tokyo station

Police arrested a 63-year-old man Monday for robbery and assault after he stabbed a male shop clerk near the Yaesu central exit of JR Tokyo Station.
EDITORIALS
Jan 9, 2001

Ministry shakeup just a beginning

The government reorganization that took effect last Saturday is designed to create an administrative system more responsive to the needs of the times, with politicians, not bureaucrats, taking the initiative in shaping public policy. In the most drastic bureaucratic reform in half a century, the number...
JAPAN
Jan 9, 2001

Liberal Party 'prep school' opened

The Liberal Party on Monday formally opened its "prep school" for future politicians at a hall in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Jan 9, 2001

Curb in emissions to cut economic growth: panel

A U.N. panel on climate change predicts industrialized countries' economic growth will be cut 0.2 to 2 percentage points if they reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases to the levels agreed to under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, according to a study obtained by Kyodo News.
BUSINESS
Jan 9, 2001

Lenders grow tighter, charge more: survey

Banks and other private financiers in Japan are becoming more selective in their lending practices and charging higher interest rates on loans to small businesses that have a greater dependence on borrowing, according to a survey unveiled Monday by a government financier.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 9, 2001

A peep inside the otaku cocoon

Writing about Japanese films in English, I am usually flying below the radar of the local industry -- I can skewer a director's latest triumph on this page and meet him laterat a party secure in the knowledge that he has not the foggiest idea of what I've said about his movie. Once in a while, though,...
MORE SPORTS
Jan 9, 2001

Suntory to meet Kobe in semifinals

Suntory set up a semifinal showcase with defending champion Kobe Steel in the National Company Rugby Union Championship after beating Kintetsu 45-20 on Monday at Tokyo's Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium.
BUSINESS
Jan 9, 2001

Hitachi, GE, Toshiba to team up on low-cost nuclear reactor

Toshiba Corp., Hitachi Ltd. and General Electric Co. of the United States have agreed to jointly develop a high-powered nuclear reactor that would require only half the development costs needed for conventional reactors, company sources said.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2001

Caution and patience are key to Japan-North Korea relations

There have been earthshaking developments on the Korean Peninsula in the past six months. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il began to play a central role in Pyongyang's international relations, a year after the country started making diplomatic overtures worldwide. North Korea relaxed tense relations with...
MORE SPORTS
Jan 9, 2001

Kunimi captures high school crown

Japan under-19 international Yoshito Okubo scored twice Monday as Kunimi of Nagasaki Prefecture beat Shiga's Kusatsu Higashi 3-0 in the final to win its fourth national high school soccer championship.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 9, 2001

Shinohara to miss Kano Cup

Olympic silver-medalist Shinichi Shinohara will sit out next week's Kano Cup international judo competition, officials said Sunday, pointing to a lack of training since last fall's controversial loss in the Sydney Olympics heavyweight final.

Longform

The students at Mitaka Municipal No. 7 Junior High School have access to various cooling devices for when they play sports.
Japan's extreme heat is causing a rethink of school sports