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computer companies affiliated with the aum_shinrikyo doomsday sect developed software programs for at least 10 government agencies , including the defense ministry , and more than 80 major japanese companies in recent years , police officials said today after a surprise raid on the group 's sites on tuesday . the discovery has raised widespread fears in japan that aum , which killed 12 people five years ago in a nerve_gas attack on the tokyo subways , has access to sensitive government and corporate computer systems and could engage in acts of ''cyberterrorism , '' the officials said . underscoring the immense fear that the sect provokes in japan , the defense ministry and the nippon_telegraph_and_telephone corporation , the country 's main provider of telephone and internet_service , immediately suspended the use of all computer software developed by companies linked to aum . the government said it was considering doing the same at all its agencies . among the government agencies affected are those for construction , education and post and telecommunications , according to documents and commuter disks discovered in the raid , the police said . the authorities said customer ledgers showed that the japanese companies affected were major players in the electronics , food , banking , transportation and metal manufacturing fields . the most prominent corporate customer was nippon_telegraph_and_telephone , or n.t.t . many of the companies and agencies said they had not known they were ordering software from aum related concerns because their main suppliers had subcontracted work to businesses affiliated with the sect . even though some of the orders were placed under the current government , officials did not come under immediate criticism , in part because the many of the computer companies had concealed their relationship to aum . but government agencies and companies that purchased the systems were scrambling today to determine whether their programs were secure . the authorities said aum related companies had developed about 100 types of software , including systems for customer management , airline route management and mainframe computer operations . government security officials , who spoke on condition of anonymity , said they were extremely concerned that aum could use information gained in developing the programs to cripple vital computer and communications networks at public agencies and corporations . the officials said they suspected that during the development process , the aum related companies could have written features into the software that would allow them to breach so called fire walls , which serve to prevent invasion of a computer system by outsiders . they said they also feared that the sect could have planted viruses that could shut down these government or corporate computer systems or send recruitment messages . at least some of the public concern over the aum related software was driven by recent security breaches by internet hackers who posted messages on the web_sites of 11 government agencies . in those incidents , which underscored the vulnerability of the government 's computers , the messages criticized japan 's wartime atrocities in china in the 1930 's . but security officials provided no proof today that the aum sect , which recently changed its name to aleph and denounced its violent past , had the ability or the ambition to interfere with the computer systems of former customers . some aum members said the officials were trying to vilify the sect when it is seeking to live in peace with japanese society and to use funds from its computer operations to compensate victims of its past crimes . ''we are surprised , '' mikio aoki , the government 's chief spokesman , said at a regular news conference . ''we believe that the ministries should check who their suppliers are and that the suppliers should check where the products are made . '' the defense ministry said it had suspended plans to begin using a new communications system today for the army after the police had informed the ministry that the software had been developed by an aum company . a ministry spokesman said that the software system had been installed at 20 ground bases across japan to provide rapid access to the internet but that the system was separate from one that handles classified defense information . ''these computers are not connected to a separate internal network that handles more sensitive material , '' the spokesman said , ' 'so there is no worry that if somebody breaks into it , that there will be a danger or threat to national_security . '' n.t.t . communications said it was immediately suspending an electronic greeting card service that the police said had been developed by an aum affiliate . the company , a subsidiary of n.t.t. , said it was checking the program 's source code to make sure that it did not pose any problems . in addition , n.t.t . communications said it would delay the introduction , planned for this spring , of a service for creating home pages because of a possible link to the sect . the company is reviewing the content of home page software . ''we were shocked to learn that aum might have been involved in the development of this software , '' said fuyuki natsumeda , a company spokesman . ''it was like what we call pouring water into the ear while you are asleep . '' mr . natsumeda said his company had not contracted directly with aum for either of the two software programs and that there were four or five levels of subcontracting between the main contractor it had hired and the aum companies . ''principally , it 's a matter of whether the product is good or bad , but since we are in such a social environment , i do n't think that we can just say the product is good and that 's all we 're concerned about , '' mr . natsumeda said . ''if we knew an aum company was developing the software , we would not want to be involved with it . '' security officials said that while it was not illegal or a violation of government policy to do business with the sect , they were investigating to find out how the software companies had obtained the contracts . the software companies had a reputation for producing high quality systems at low prices , and customers were said to be generally pleased with the work . the companies were able to win business by bidding 30 percent to 40 percent below market prices , the officials said , mainly because their employees , who were all aum members , worked for virtually no pay . the officials said that more than 40 employees worked at the aum related software companies and that many were graduates of prestigious national universities like tokyo_university and kyoto university , where they studied computer science . some worked as systems engineers at major software companies before joining the sect . government officials and corporate executives said that they would take pains in the future to avoid using aum companies as subcontractors , but that doing so was likely to increase the costs of procuring some software . aum officials declined to comment on the development , which could severely hurt its computer operations , a major source of revenue for the sect and the cornerstone of what its leaders say are plans for the sect to reform itself . the sect has set as a major priority providing compensation for victims of crimes committed by former members . an aum member who is familiar with the group 's internal workings and who spoke on condition of anonymity said the sect was still trying to confirm the information provided by the police . even if the information proves to be true , the member said , no harm was done by the sect 's providing good products at cheap prices . ''concerns about cyberterrorism and access to government_agency data are being raised by media reports without confirmation , '' he said . ''they are raising the specter of these things just because aum members are running the shops . '' in the past , the police and the tax authorities have said that aum earns about 65 million a year through the sale of computers at seven affiliated retail stores in tokyo , osaka and nagoya . public anxiety over the aum sect has increased in recent years as it has increased its commercial and recruitment activities . but last year the government passed a law allowing the police to enter the sect 's sites at will to conduct inspections . in its annual human_rights report , the state_department noted this month that while religious_freedom is a guaranteed right in japan , only the aum sect has been placed under government surveillance and is subject to public pressure .

has a location of japan

lead james ( buster ) douglas of columbus , ohio , will be the next opponent for mike_tyson , the undisputed heavyweight champion , on feb . 12 in toyko . tyson had been scheduled to meet donovan ( razor ) ruddock tonight in edmonton , alberta , but withdrew after he came down with a lung infection . the fight was rescheduled for jan . james ( buster ) douglas of columbus , ohio , will be the next opponent for mike_tyson , the undisputed heavyweight champion , on feb . 12 in toyko . tyson had been scheduled to meet donovan ( razor ) ruddock tonight in edmonton , alberta , but withdrew after he came down with a lung infection . the fight was rescheduled for jan . 20 , but home box office , the cable network with the television rights , withdrew its support when no assurance could be given that the fight would come off then . al braverman , director of boxing for don_king , tyson 's promoter , confirmed the plan . ''that 's the date we 're going to go , because the razor ruddock fight has been pushed off , '' braverman said . ''james douglas is next for mike_tyson . '' hbo intends to telecast the tyson douglas fight , said ross greenberg of the cable network . tyson will reportedly receive 5 million for the bout , and douglas will get a minimum of 1 . 3 million . ( ap ) sports people boxing

has a location of japan

his introductory e mail message had the humble , respectful tone of a college student listing his credentials for a summer job . ''this year , i hit 50 home_runs with 107 r.b.i. , and my batting_average was . 334 , '' hideki_matsui wrote to each of the 30 major_league clubs in the fall . ''i hope your team will be interested to offer me a contract for next season . '' long before the message flashed across the screen , the yankees were very interested in matsui . as the most famous player in japan , he needed no introduction . the yankees wanted him badly , for his skills on the field and his appeal off it . yesterday , they got him . matsui agreed to a three year , 21 million contract , contingent on his passing a physical next month . matsui , a 28 year old outfielder known as godzilla , will be paid 6 million next season , 7 million in 2004 and 8 million in 2005 . in choosing the yankees over the baltimore_orioles and the mets , matsui leaves the most storied japanese franchise , the yomiuri_giants , for its american equivalent . the yankees were his first choice all along , but he had conditions . according to a person familiar with the negotiations , matsui insisted on having the contract be for only three years . the yankees wanted to include an option year but abandoned the idea late in the talks because of matsui 's desire to be a free_agent after three years . matsui was even willing to give up potential bonuses in return for the yankees' allowing him to be a free_agent after three years . for matsui to do that instead of waiting six years , as the rules require the yankees could take other steps , including not tendering him a contract after the third season . matsui is not the first elite japanese hitter to sign with a major_league team , but he is the first power hitter to make the jump . the yankees believe he can do it . ''from our viewpoint , he 's one of the few people over there that swings the bat similar to what we teach over here , and what we 're looking for , '' said john cox , the yankees' coordinator of pacific_rim scouting . ''he uses his hands , keeps his right shoulder in , and he 's not flying off the ball like you see ichiro do . he 's not that type of hitter . '' those who have seen matsui stress how different he is from ichiro_suzuki , who has had great success with a more traditional japanese hitting technique . in 2001 , his first season with the seattle_mariners , suzuki won the american_league most valuable player award , slashing singles and doubles and almost stepping out of the batter 's box when swinging the bat while dashing to first . matsui is a far more disciplined hitter . at 6 feet 1 inch and 209 pounds , he is a thick masher who led japan 's central_league in on base percentage ( . 461 ) and slugging percentage ( . 692 ) . ''he 's definitely more of a u.s . hitter , '' said mark johnson , the former mets first baseman who played against matsui in japan . ''he does n't drift . he stays back and rotates , a lot like barry_bonds . he really lets the ball come to him . he 's not like ichiro , who glides into the ball and slaps it around . '' shortly after leading the giants to the japan_series championship , matsui declared his free_agency and said he wanted to play for an american team . he might have earned 10 million a year in japan , but his yankees contract does give him a raise from last season , when he made 5 million . it is an expensive commitment for the yankees , who were burned by their last foray into japan the overweight , underachieving pitcher hideki_irabu and are trying to cut payroll . matsui will displace rondell white in left field or raul mondesi in right , and the yankees were comfortable making the deal before trading those players . the yankees owe 5 million to white , 7 million to mondesi . they would gladly trade either , but it may make more sense to keep mondesi than white . mondesi has a strong arm and could stay in right while matsui , whose arm is only average , plays left . cox said matsui has excellent instincts in the field and a quick release when he throws . but offense is his strength . ''he makes contact , '' cox said . ''he 's got plus power and he can take a pitch . he 's got a good idea of the strike_zone . he 's just a very good hitter . '' the deal goes beyond baseball . the yankees and the giants have a new working agreement , an informal arrangement in which the teams exchange ideas and scouting information and share facilities . the yankees maintained that their association with the giants would not give them an edge in negotiations with matsui , and yesterday they emphasized that there were no inherent financial gains by signing him . lonn trost , the yankees' chief_operating_officer , said that the yankees and the yes network could not make side deals to broadcast games in japan , and that any revenues from the sales of yankees merchandise would go into a central fund split by all teams . but the yankees clearly expect matsui to broaden their fan base and attractiveness to advertisers . ''when you look at how small the world has become , you look at atlantic_city and las_vegas and you see a substantial number of people from foreign countries , '' trost said . ''i would hope that we would be a destination for more people , and our ticket sales would go up . when ticket sales go up , i would hope that companies dedicated to japanese customers would have advertising here that we 'd be able to benefit from . '' baseball

has a location of japan

offered an automatic invitation as the team to play host to the tournament , japan qualified for the first women 's olympic hockey tournament because of geography , not skill . wally kozak , the team 's canadian coach , figures he will need a few trick plays to avoid finishing sixth in a six team field . that 's where an 18 year old , baton twirling forward named aki tsuchida comes in . ''maybe i could get her to distract someone on face offs , '' kozak said . ''have her throw the stick up and twirl it . '' japan opens the round robin tournament against canada , the three time world champion . also on the schedule is the united_states , which defeated the japanese in their last three meetings by a combined score of 42 0 . the americans and the canadians are expected to play for the gold_medal . japan is playing for something that may be just as satisfying respect . ''realistically , it might be a_10 goal differential with the americans and canadians , '' kozak said today as his team prepared for next sunday 's opener . ''if we lose by less than 10 , it 's a victory . '' there is not a more unlikely team in the tournament than japan , whose captain is a kindergarten teacher and whose most indispensable player is a defender from houston who graduated from brown_university . while other teams field full time players , the japanese players are part time athletes and full time students , office clerks and secretaries . they play 10 or so games a season in industrial leagues and practice three or four times a week . for the olympics , they have either taken leaves of absence or quit their jobs because of uncooperative bosses . ''women 's ice_hockey in japan is starting in nagano , '' maiko obikawa , the team captain , said . ''we are the pioneers . we have to play well , then maybe elementary schools will get interested . they never televise games . no one knows about women 's hockey . if we play good , maybe attitudes will change . '' ten of the team 's players are from hokkaido , japan 's northernmost island , which has a russian influence and a long hockey tradition . there are about 30 women 's club teams on hokkaido . most players on the women 's olympic team are affiliated with the iwakura trucking company . the team has little speed and struggles to control the puck , but it spackles over the lack of talent with an olympian sense of dedication . last fall five players paid their way to a hockey camp in calgary , alberta . on a recent european swing , japan defeated the german national team in germany . ''they are at the stage where people are watching them and not feeling sorry for them , '' kozak said . when he first coached the team , at the 1996 winter asian_games in harbin , china , kozak said that even he struggled to keep from laughing at the haplessness of his players . ''they could n't complete passes , they could n't shoot and they fell down a lot , '' he said . it was at that tournament , however , that japan collected its first international victory with a shutout of kazakhstan , which had never played a game and which unsuccessfully tried to convert speed skaters into hockey players . ''they were the best skaters out there during warm_ups , '' kozak said of the kazaks . ''then they threw the puck out and no one could stand up . '' a 9 4 loss in the tournament final to china was encouraging , given that japan had lost by 18 0 in the previous meeting . but the japanese preferred their own coaches , so kozak returned to calgary to teach physical_education and coach hockey until he was hired again in december with the olympics approaching . he uses an interpreter at practice to overcome the language_barrier . but he sometimes finds himself struggling to scale the cultural barrier . today , for instance , some of his players were sick with colds , which raised a larger , sensitive question of how hard japanese women should be pushed during practice . ''they say there is somewhat of a danger because they will allow you to push them without stopping themselves , '' kozak said . in general , however , kozak said he preferred to coach japanese women over japanese men because of a cultural reticence that he found in the men who play . in a country that prides itself on respect for elders , he said , younger male players are hesitant even to body check an older player . women , on the other hand , do not seem bound by japan 's rigid cultural restraints while playing hockey , he said , displaying aggressiveness , passion and emotion often lacking in the men who play . ''in japan , out in public , women have to be reserved , '' said defenseman chie sakuma , a graduate of brown in management who followed her older brother into hockey as a girl in houston . ''on the ice , it 's just women . they do n't have to worry about the outside world . they can be themselves . '' sakuma , according to her coach , is the ''glue that holds the team together . '' kozak said , ''you can call her the coach . '' she first played hockey in japan as a_10 year old , when her father , hajime , now an importer exporter in new york city , coached her houston peewee team on an international tour . after women 's hockey joined the olympic roster , sakuma moved to japan in 1994 and now works as an interpreter for the iwakura trucking company while playing for the company team . she also serves as an interpreter for the japanese olympic team , which has made her invaluable to kozak , but has also somewhat alienated her from her teammates , he said . ''sometimes , i have to do interpreting for the team that 's not why i do n't fit in as well , '' sakuma said . ''i think it 's just different ways we were brought up . it 's not too bad , though . we just do our thing on the ice and that 's what matters . '' what matters at the olympics is securing at least one victory . finland is out of japan 's league , but kozak believes a victory against sweden is possible . the game everybody wants to win is the unofficial asian championship match against china , which learned its chippy style by watching videotapes of national_hockey_league games . ''they 've improved a great deal , '' kozak said of his players . ''now they want to see how much they 've learned . '' olympics

has a location of japan

in the former east_german sports system , athletes were chosen the way some people choose tomatoes . body type meant everything . gunda_niemann was told that her legs were too short for track and field . determined to succeed anyway , she switched to speed_skating at the age of 17 . nine years later , at the 1992 winter_olympics in albertville , france , she became the first woman to win a gold_medal for a reunified germany . ''i am very proud of this medal , '' niemann , 31 , said from her home in erfurt , germany , speaking through an interpreter . ''it is close to my heart . i was skating for all of germany . '' she won two gold medals and a silver in albertville and a silver and a bronze at the 1994 winter_games in lillehammer , norway , becoming as dominant in distance skating as bonnie_blair was in the sprints . currently the world champion at 1 , 500 meters , 3 , 000 meters and 5 , 000 meters , niemann could add three more golds at the nagano games , matching blair 's career total of five . niemann keeps the medals in a safe place , outside of her home . on occasion , she takes them out and looks at them as if they were photographs , each one defining a surpassing moment in a brilliant career . because she won all of her medals for a unified germany , no one is asking that she give any of them back . her predecessors in the east_german system are not so lucky . east_germany is gone , but revelations and suspicions about its dishonest athletic past continue . some swimmers and officials in the united_states , and elsewhere in the west , have demanded that so called tainted medals be returned and perfidious accomplishments be erased from the books . documents and admissions in recent years have revealed what many had expected , that the east_germans championed communism by building an international sports power , in part through a state sponsored system of doping . many athletes apparently did not know they were receiving drugs , believing instead they were taking vitamins . four former east_german swimming coaches and two physicians have been charged with causing harm to 17 teen_age athletes in the 1970 's and 1980 's by giving them muscle building anabolic_steroids . at the recent world swimming championships in perth , australia , german coach winfried leopold had his accreditation taken away , then later restored by an australian court . leopold , a former east_german coach , admitted to the systematic doping plan in 1991 and was banned from the sport for two years . ongoing investigations by german prosecutors have produced disturbing findings . petra kind schneider , a gold medalist swimmer at the 1980 moscow olympics , has said that she was given steroids beginning at the age of 14 , without her knowledge , and that she now suffers from liver and heart problems . heidi krieger , the 1986 european champion in the shot put , has charged that she was given such massive doses of the male sex hormone testosterone , which serves as a steroid , that she developed facial hair , an adam 's apple and acute psychological problems . according to the german magazine der_spiegel , she considered the process irreversible and has changed her name to andreas after two operations intended to make her a transsexual . reverberations from the doping issue have reached the upper levels of the german_government . on jan . 9 , manfred kanther , the interior_minister , rejected as ''one sided'' and ''absurd'' the demands that former east_german athletes be stripped of their olympic medals . walter troger , president of the german olympic_committee , agreed , saying in a statement that erasing the results of previous olympic_games is ' 'surely not the proper way'' of overcoming the problem of doping . niemann , the star speed_skater , and others have pointed out that athletes in the west also use performance_enhancing_drugs , so the east_germans should not be singled out for punishment . one of the most glaring problems with drug testing is that there are no certified tests for two performance enhancing substances that athletes are widely suspected of using human growth hormone , and epo , or erythropoietin . ''this problem in sport is worldwide , '' said niemann , 31 , who is now married to her manager , oliver stirnemann , and skates under the name niemann stirnemann . ''it 's not appropriate to find a scapegoat in the former east_germany . '' the international_olympic_committee feels the same way . at meetings in nagano before the winter_games begin , the i.o.c . is expected to put a four year limit on challenges to athletic performances . for instance , if someone questions a gold_medal accomplishment at the nagano games , the matter will have to be successfully challenged by the 2002 salt_lake_city games , or it will stand forever as a gold_medal . ''it is a policy not to rewrite history , '' francois carrard , director general of the i.o.c. , said recently in new york . ''you cannot reopen cases forever . '' niemann has repeatedly , sometimes heatedly , said that she did not use drugs as an east_german athlete and that she was never an informant for the stasi , the former east_german secret_police . and she has not been linked to either matter . speaking calmly and without any trace of defensiveness on the telephone , she pointed out that she had become a prominent athlete after the berlin_wall fell in 1989 , not before . german skating authorities said that she is now drug tested up to 30 times a year , sometimes twice in one day , and that she had never failed a drug_test . ''i 'm very clean , '' niemann said . asked if she were concerned that she might have been given drugs without her knowledge as an east_german and might later suffer health consequences , niemann said ''i 'm as fit and healthy as i can be . i do n't spend any time worrying about that . i 'm confident about my health . '' claudia pechstein , 25 , the 1994 olympic champion at 5 , 000 meters and niemann chief rival , is also from eastern_germany . but the former figure_skater was only 16 when the berlin_wall came down she said that she was not concerned that drugs that might have been given to her furtively would damage her health . ''i do n't have drugs , i will not have drugs , '' pechstein said from berlin . ''i was too young for this in east_germany . i 'm really a woman , not a little bit man . '' niemann has continued to live in the eastern german city of erfurt , which remains a center of speed_skating . with her 17 inch calves and 23 1 2 inch thighs , she powered her way to gold medals at 3 , 000 meters and 5 , 000 meters at the 1992 albertville olympics . but disaster struck four years ago in lillehammer , norway . she had not lost a 3 , 000 meter race in three years when she hit a lane marker early in the olympic race and fell . she settled for silver in the 5 , 000 when pechstein skated her career best by an astonishing 19 seconds , and managed just a bronze in the 1 , 500 . ''i was very sad in 1994 , '' niemann said . ''i was in very good form , but i was under incredible pressure from the press back home . they were writing that i was going to win three gold medals . '' she has adjusted smoothly to the new hinged clap skates , but continued recovery from arthroscopic knee surgery last april made her skip the recent european championships . still , niemann is expected to challenge for three gold medals in nagano . and she may continue to salt_lake_city in 2002 . ''everything is possible , '' she said . ''if the health and joy and spirit remain , why not ? '' nagano '98 speed_skating

has a location of japan

lead shinya watanabe was amused at the unlikely sight of his fellow students panicking over a term paper that was almost due . nearby , students sitting in study carrels with their heads bent over western classics occasionally looked longingly out the window . shinya watanabe was amused at the unlikely sight of his fellow students panicking over a term paper that was almost due . nearby , students sitting in study carrels with their heads bent over western classics occasionally looked longingly out the window . ''this school is harder than a japanese university , '' said mr . watanabe , 20 years old . ''here , we have to study . '' although the japanese are well known for studying hard in primary and secondary_school , many college students here often spend more time hitting tennis balls than hitting the books . getting into top universities is hard but getting out is relatively easy , with fewer reading and writing requirements than comparable american schools . the student body at the school mr . watanabe attends in toyko is mostly japanese , but the school itself is , without question , american . the professors come from universities in the united_states and classes are taught in english . it is the japanese branch of temple_university of philadelphia , the first american college to establish a campus in japan . competitive products american higher_education , it seems , is one import from the united_states that the japanese are eager to buy . in fact , dr . chikara higashi , president of temple_university japan , talks about education the way others talk about cars or television sets . ''america 's industrial products are not really competitive , '' he said in an interview , ''but america 's educational products are very competitive . '' japanese higher_education has been criticized by politicians and by national and foreign educators as too inbred and narrow . universities do not encourage intellectual debate and there is little freedom for independent thought . some critics here say the system leads to parochial attitudes among the japanese . those critics are calling for the ''internationalization'' of japan 's educational system . ''if japan is to become a true member of the international_community , then education has to be internationalized as well , '' said yusuke kataoka , executive director of the u.s.a . japan committee for promoting trade expansion . the committee , headed by representative richard a . gephardt , democrat of missouri , and susumu nikaido , a senior member of the japanese parliament , is helping american universities find sites for campuses in mostly rural areas of japan . smaller towns are eager to spur their economies and keep their young people from leaving for the big city . so towns are wooing universities with offers of free land , free construction of campus buildings and free housing for faculty . enrollment is now 1 , 200 inspired by the possibility of recruiting more students and having closer ties to one of the world 's most powerful economies , american universities such as southern illinois , georgia_tech and mississippi_state are planning to start branches in japan . temple_university japan began in 1982 with 250 students . it now has an enrollment of 1 , 200 . many students choose the american_university simply because they want an alternative to the rigidity of japanese style education . temple_university japan is especially popular among ambitious young japanese women . it also appeals to japanese students who attended international schools while living overseas with their families . ''i came back to japan my first year of high_school , '' a sophomore , chiharu takano , said in a thick australian accent , ''and it was really difficult for me to go back to a japanese school . '' much of the japanese high_school curriculum , which is controlled by the federal ministry of education , is dedicated to preparing young japanese for university entrance_exams that require enormous amounts of rote memorization . that makes it very hard for those who have lived abroad to return and get into top japanese schools . ''if a student can get into good schools like keio , waseda , or tokyo_university , they 're not going to come to us , '' said george deaux , dean of temple_university japan , often called t.u.j . ''but that 's not something we 're ashamed of . '' he said that only 60 percent of this year 's college applicants will be accepted by universities . ''even susumu tonegawa could n't get in to tokyo_university , '' added mr . deaux , referring to the recipient of the 1987 nobel prize in medicine . one major problem is that the education ministry will not accredit foreign universities here . that leaves parents concerned that their children will not find good jobs . mr . kataoka of the trade expansion committee said that as more companies move overseas , they find they need employees who not only are bilingual , but also can work easily in another culture . ''many japanese companies are now taking students who have degrees from the united_states , so the attitude here toward a foreign diploma is changing , '' he said . some t.u.j . graduates have already found jobs at_large international companies , like nomura_securities , i.b.m . japan and fujitsu . education

has a location of japan

it 's not the thousands of deaths that trouble her most , or the loss of her home , or the paralyzing fear of the ground swaying again . it 's the screams . the veterinarian around the corner was pinned in his house after it collapsed in the earthquake , but he shouted that he was all right . and so shizuko hirajima shouted back and told him he would be o.k. , and she worked frantically to rescue other neighbors who seemed to be in greater need . when the fire erupted , there was not enough time to go back and dig the vet out of his home , so they stood at the edge of the blistering heat and listened as he burned to death . " we could hear him call out , " she said , shivering . " 'help me ! ' he shouted . 'help me ! ' but we could n't do a thing . we just had to stand there . " the inferno has since been extinguished , and the temblor 's survivors are adapting to their new lives as homeless beggars . in mrs . hirajima 's case , she is dealing with the screams that haunt her by going deaf she has lost much of her hearing since the quake struck on tuesday . the veterinarian 's shouts no longer echo in her head , but she cannot hear much else , either . the reaction of mrs . hirajima , a graying woman of 61 years who wrings her hands endlessly , is unusual . but it reflects the drive of most of the millions of people in the earthquake zone to adjust to what has happened and get on with their new lives . it is this resilience that is most striking more than four days after western japan was struck by the great earthquake , which left more than 4 , 900 people dead and 202 missing and feared dead in the rubble . it also caused tens of billions of dollars in damage , making it one of the most expensive natural_disasters in history . a daylong hike through the disaster zone leaves one with a taste of amazement at the scale of destruction , pain at the quiet suffering of families that are smaller than they were a week ago , and above all of respect for the determination of newly made paupers to press on with their lives . mrs . hirajima , for instance , has done more than just become deaf . she and her neighbors extricated themselves from their damaged houses and , still in their pajamas , rushed around pulling other people from the debris . then they fought fires . and now the hirajimas and half a dozen other families have taken over a tiny public garden and set up camp . they have pitched tents and sleep in them in turns , because there are not enough to go around . they have also dug a latrine , curtained off with cloth fished from the rubble , and built a campfire and organized a rotation for cooking duties . they spend free time at their former homes , searching for anything that can still be of use . mrs . hirajima still cannot sleep at night , for fear of new earthquakes , and she has to fight back the memories of the veterinarian , and of the beautician who lived down another street . the beautician , a 60 year old woman , was entombed when the house collapsed on her , but she could still shout out that she was unhurt . for hours , mrs . hirajima reassured the beautician , telling her it was going to be o.k. , as the neighbors tried to dig her out . but it was impossible without equipment to move the slabs of concrete , and the beautician 's voice began to fade . they last heard her voice 24 hours after the earthquake , and a couple of days later , when the heavy machinery finally arrived , her body was recovered . " when i look at the rubble of her house , i 'm scared , " mrs . hirajima said . " i figure that her spirit will come out from the debris . her spirit must be angry at the way she died . because she cried out , 'help me ! ' but we did n't help . " reactions some laugh away their pains everywhere in the disaster zone , faces are lined with new creases that testify to ways they are bearing the unbearable . in the hard hit neighborhoods , everyone knows someone who has been killed , and many feel perhaps the most wrenching pain of all the shock of parents who survive their children . one man , kitai lin , reportedly held his only son in his arms for 56 hours as they were trapped inside a six story building that had collapsed . mr . lin cradled the boy , 6 year old tatsuya , as they lay in the darkness , pinned underneath a refrigerator and a bed , waiting for rescuers to reach them . " my child is in my arms , " mr . lin is said to have shouted just before being rescued . " we 're all right . " but after surviving for two and a half days in the rubble without food or water , the boy died shortly after rescuers pried them free . mr . lin is one of many in western japan for whom a_20 second temblor means more anguish than a lifetime can assuage . the paradox is that in a zone of so much sadness , good cheer is also extraordinarily abundant . there sometimes seem to be more happy people in kobe than sad ones . norio horinouchi , a lean 66 year old in eastern kobe , speaks lightly of how the earthquake knocked down his house , killing six people on the floor below him . " i had been on the second floor , and then i realized i was on the first floor , " he recalled . " when i felt the house shake , i thought that was the last moment of my life . " asked why he seemed so cheerful , mr . horinouchi grinned . " when my sons came to look for me , they were in tears to find that their father was fine , " he said , glowing with pleasure . " they were so happy ! i knew that i loved my sons , and that they loved me . " kazuko ando , a 53 year old matron whose husband is in the hospital with a back injury , joked about the difficulties of life in a refugee shelter , now that her home has collapsed . asked how she can joke , she shrugged . " we can laugh and smile , " she said . " after all , we know that lots of folks in this area really are suffering with worse problems . some people down that street lost their youngest child . over there , a young couple was killed . but my family members , we 're all safe . " the eeriest time to be in kobe is at night , when the back alleys are dark and silent and the only sound is endless sirens in the distance . the alleys are strewn with bricks and beams , and here and there a building leans so far over that it is difficult to squeeze by it . on the sides are the hulking shadows of abandoned , damaged houses and the open spaces where homes collapsed into piles of debris some of which still contain bodies , or even perhaps a person still alive but now at the limits of endurance . at the end of one such alley , just before it ended abruptly where a home lay toppled onto its side , a dozen former residents of the former houses were sitting around a campfire , cooking dinner and laughing heartily . when a visitor showed up , they beamed and offered a chair and began cracking jokes . " we 're in pain , of course , but to cheer ourselves up we get together and laugh from the bottom of our hearts , " explained kunimasa nakata , a 43 year old engineer and the group 's chief comic . " at any moment , we 're scared . but at least this way , if there 's another earthquake and i 'm killed , i wo n't die alone . " looting reports of looters are mostly rumor mr . nakata and other quake victims said the disaster had in some ways brought out the best in people , inspiring a degree of altruism and cooperation not always present in the hurly burly of mundane jobs . almost everyone interviewed also said that alongside the cooperation , looting had become a serious problem , and many expressed shock and embarrassment that such crimes could happen in japan . yet when people were pressed , the reports of looting almost always seemed to be little more than rumors . a policeman in central kobe , for instance , said gravely that looting was a significant problem that had led to increased police patrols . but he acknowledged that he did not actually know of any cases of theft . one woman said she had found signs that someone had entered her damaged home when she was away , although she did not actually find anything missing . and one man said that two bicycles had been taken from in front of his house during the first hectic hours after the earthquake , although one explanation is that they may have been seized to rescue someone . there was one clear case of looting . on thursday , several young men heaved a rock through a window of a mini market and grabbed some food and ran . " i do n't know how much was taken , because everything was still on the floor from the earthquake , and we did n't have time to count the missing merchandise , " a store clerk said . asked if he was surprised that japanese should engage in such los_angeles style practices as post earthquake looting , the store clerk was momentarily dumbfounded . " no , you misunderstood , " he said firmly . " these looters were n't japanese . they were foreigners . we saw them . three young foreign guys . " koreans helping all , without bias the looters were not koreans . but in fact the largest foreign population in kobe by far is that of ethnic koreans , who have lived in japan for generations . such koreans often face discrimination in japan , and there have long been tensions between them and their japanese neighbors . after the last great earthquake in japan , the one that devastated tokyo and killed more than 140 , 000 people in 1923 , rumors spread that ethnic koreans were lighting fires and poisoning the few remaining water sources even that they had contrived to cause the earthquake itself . japanese mobs hunted down and beat to death any koreans they could find . estimates of those killed range up to 6 , 000 . the aftermath of the quake of 1995 suggests that relations have improved , for no tensions have been reported between japanese and koreans in kobe . " people rescued anybody who cried out for help , " said kang chu ok , a 38 year old korean housewife in one of the worst hit parts of kobe . " nobody paid attention to whether the victim was korean or japanese . people helped me just as if i were japanese . " mrs . kang , who spoke in the alley in front of her new home , now tilting precariously and devoid of its front wall , said firefighters had given the same priority to fires in korean homes as to fires in japanese homes . officials with the two korean associations one linked to south_korea , the other to north_korea also said they had not heard of any discrimination against their members . casualties busy hospitals , busy morgues the second busiest person in kobe these days may be yosuke matsumura , deputy director of the kobe western city hospital , in one of the worst hit areas . mr . matsumura was at home when the earthquake struck , but he immediately hiked the 10 miles to the hospital no other transportation was available and began treating the wave of patients with burns and other injuries . mr . matsumura has not been home since , and he has scarcely slept . the hospital 's first crisis was that it had no emergency generator , and the lights went out and two patients on respirators died in the confusion . one was a cancer patient , the other had pneumonia . a woman was also in advanced labor , with the crown of the baby 's head already visible . the doctors decided that the woman could not give birth by herself , but they dared not perform a caesarean section with no lights or electricity . despite her state , they put her in an ambulance and took her over rubble strewn streets to another hospital where the caesarean was performed successfully . as 1 , 600 patients swarmed the hospital , the atmosphere was virtual chaos . " it was difficult beyond imagination , " mr . matsumura recalled . " on the first floor , patients were told to stanch their bleeding themselves , and to find a place on their own to lie down , because there was no space . and 65 people were brought in already dead , to be revived by us , but we had to focus on the living . " while none of the hospital 's doctors were killed , some had lost their homes or had family members missing , and that did not help their concentration . two of the 260 nurses are still missing , and many staff members are having problems getting to work because of traffic_jams and impassable roads . it is getting better , however . the hospital now has electricity , and while it does not have running water , two portable_toilets have been installed outside the front door . the stream of patients has slowed as well . if mr . matsumura is the second busiest person in kobe , perhaps the busiest is akihiko hagisawa , an undertaker . " for three days after the earthquake i did n't sleep a wink , and then i got five hours' sleep , and then i have n't slept since , " mr . hagisawa said as he drove a body to a temporary resting place in a school auditorium . the problem is not just that the area around kobe has an extra 5 , 000 bodies to dispose of . the undertakers themselves lost employees in the earthquake , and the local government was so overwhelmed at first that it could not issue the death certificates necessary before bodies can be picked up . then the problem became where to find the extra coffins and how to find enough hearses or even station wagons to carry them to the crematoriums . in any case , with the gas supply cut off , the crematoriums could no longer dispose of bodies , and so they piled up in spare rooms of the schools that are used everywhere as refugee shelters . the new homeless find themselves sleeping in one room of a school , while loved ones are laid out along with dozens of other bodies in another room . the winter air is cool , but even so the bodies are beginning to smell , and relatives are outraged . " when i go to a school to take away a body , people surround me and ask for help in cremating other bodies as well , " mr . hagisawa said . " we want to cremate them , but there 's a long line to cremate . " it will take a month to dispose of all of the bodies left from the earthquake , mr . hagisawa estimated . in the meantime , the problem may get worse . " with so many people still missing , " mr . hagisawa said grimly , " i think the backlog of corpses is only going to get longer . " quake in japan the scene

has a location of japan

saburo masaoka speaks with the enthusiasm of a klondike prospector . in rapid fire sentences that roll figures and the fanciful into one , he talks about panning for gold , silver , platinum and palladium . but mr . masaoka is no ordinary 49er . he is a salesman at yokohama metals , a scrap_metal recycler whose mother lode is found on the dark side of the wireless revolution the millions of cellular_phones thrown in the trash heap each year . yokohama metals , one hour west of tokyo on the road to mount fuji , is one of a handful of japanese recycling companies that mine precious_metals from high tech gear past its prime . walking through the company 's spartan warehouse , mr . masaoka , 51 , waves toward 20 foot high racks holding baskets of circuit_boards , ceramics and wiring that will be melted , with the metal removed and refined into ingots . the prize catch , though , is brought down by forklift two bales containing thousands of handsets . sorting through them is like an archeological dig . clunky models from the early 1990 's are tossed in with sleek star_trek style handsets that still bear the cutesy stickers applied by their former owners . to mr . masaoka , they are all part of a trove because one quarter of each cellphone by weight is metal . ''old jewelry is easier to recycle , '' he said . ''but it 's better than pulling gold out of the ground . '' cellphone recycling is in essence a numbers game , and the numbers are sufficient to make it viable while , as yet , voluntary . last year yokohama metals hauled in 1.7 million used handsets , about 10 percent of japan 's recycled phone market . the company pays 10 yen ( 7 cents ) for each handset it buys the gold and other metal in each phone is worth about 30 yen . in all , 120 , 000 phones are needed to produce a one kilogram bar of pure ( 99 . 99 percent ) gold , which sells for just under 10 , 000 . japan is not alone in trying to squeeze gold from high tech discards . across asia , recyclers are collecting millions of tons of old electronics from the united_states and elsewhere and mining them for precious_metals . in places like china and india , where rules governing waste_disposal are weak and rarely enforced , electronics recycling can pose both environmental and health hazards , according to a report by five environmental groups issued this week . but the same report credited japan for its approach , which has included steps to put more safely recyclable material into electronics equipment and has given manufacturers the primary responsibility for collecting the used gear . mining cellphones for gold is , in fact , just one way the japanese are finding new uses for what they cast off . they are among the world 's most avid recyclers , and for good reason . with nowhere near the abundance of natural_resources found in the united_states , japanese have long recycled items ranging from lacquered lunch boxes to tatami mats . still , the amount of garbage produced has soared nearly 60 percent in the last three decades , and the tokyo metropolitan_area , where 20 percent of the population lives , is fast running out of landfills . as the cost of waste_disposal soars , recycling has increasingly become not only a habit but a requirement , too . last april , the government passed a law requiring home appliance manufacturers like hitachi and toshiba to recycle all the washing_machines , refrigerators , air_conditioners and televisions they make and import . the government is likely to expand the law to include personal_computers and office equipment ( though not cellphones ) , a prospect that is pushing companies to increase the amount of reusable and recyclable content . ''they see the writing on the wall , '' said dylan tanner , a briton who is director of the yokohama office of environmental resources management , an environmental consulting_firm . ''they are going to have to phase out using a lot of materials , so they want to stay one step ahead . '' but with the exception of the cellphones and a few other items , recycling is a money loser . for home appliances covered under last year 's law , consumers pay a recycling fee of up to 35 , with 60 percent going to manufacturers and the remainder to retailers who collect the goods and turn them over for recycling . while motors and metals are easily sold , most of the remainder must be dumped . that makes it difficult for electronics makers to turn a profit on recycling even though they retrieved more than one third of the nearly 20 million appliances thrown out last year . ''basically we 're losing money , but we 're getting more products than we thought , so our loss is shrinking , '' said yusuke tokita , who runs the recycling promotion group at the mitsubishi electric company , which built the nation 's first recycling plant that uses no water or incinerators . cellphone recyclers have better luck because handsets have no resale value and transporting the phones from shops to warehouses is less expensive . but extracting the metals from the phones is not easy . handsets are poured en_masse into a crusher , which spits out a pulp that is then melted at high temperatures and turns into black sludge . canvas sacks full of that material are suspended from racks and dunked into pools of solvent . over two four day periods , chemicals leach silver from the bags . metal collects like tinsel on the sides and bottom of the tanks . similar processes extract gold , platinum and other materials from the sludge . ( the company says it disposes of the waste properly , and it has been certified as meeting international environmental standards . ) the metal in cellphones , however , is low grade . though the gold in japanese phones is 30 times purer than what is typically mined in south_africa , recyclers must still spend days or weeks on the refining process that ultimately yields the one kilogram bars of gold that are shipped to stores and manufacturers . over all , it takes six months to extract metals from a cellphone , compared with a month to melt and refine jewelry . that limits profit_margins , which also depend heavily on market prices . yokohama metals makes a profit of up to 7 cents for every gram of gold and palladium that it resells and one fifth of one cent for every gram of silver . fortunately for the company , fears of a financial downturn in japan have driven local gold prices to a three year high . there are other hiccups in the recovery and recycling process . although most carriers tell handset manufacturers not to include certain toxins in their phones , many older handsets still contain lead soldering . and most companies are unwilling to pay recyclers extra to take apart phones by hand , rather than melting , to ensure that plastics are disposed of in the cleanest way possible . even the cellphone recyclers face uncertain economics . with the mobile_phone market almost saturated and the recession pushing customers to hang on longer to their phones , handset shipments fell last year for the first time since 1996 . ''the era of high turnover rates for phones is over , '' said mr . masaoka , who expects collection rates to rise only slightly this year . for now , in any case , recyclers are getting a steady flow of phones from japan 's carriers . with little government involvement , ntt_docomo , kddi and j phone , the country 's three largest mobile_phone operators , took back nearly 10 million old phones in the year ended last march , or one fifth of the 53 million phones produced , the telecommunications carriers association says . unofficial estimates suggest that the figure may have been closer to 15 million . the collection process is relatively painless for the carriers . retailers receive old handsets from customers who buy new models . carriers run promotions like the ''come back'' campaigns of ntt_docomo , the market leader . for two months , three times a year , customers who turn in phones can win eco friendly sony minidisc players , solar powered watches and other items . ''there 's no law for us to follow , but we are trying to do our part , '' said satoshi yokoshima , a manager in the corporate citizenship office at docomo , which started collecting handsets in 1997 . similarly , battery makers have formed an alliance with retailers to collect and recycle used batteries from phones and other gadgets . and cellphone makers no longer use nickel cadmium , which is toxic , and mainly produce lithium ion batteries that can be recycled . by voluntarily setting up such programs , the companies give the government less incentive to mandate them . but law or no law , mr . masaoka of yokohama metals will get his phones . after all , there 's gold inside those handsets . treasures gleaned the amount of metals in a metric_ton ( 1 , 000 kilograms , or 2 , 205 pounds ) of cellphones ( about 16 , 670 handsets ) gold 0.4 pounds silver 2.6 pounds copper 255 . 7 pounds palladium 0.2 pounds steel 205 pounds aluminum 83 . 8 pounds ( source ntt_docomo tokai )

has a location of japan

a group of high technology executives urged the wealthiest nations today to take action to erase a growing digital_divide resulting from the economic chasm separating the developed and developing worlds . the perception that the world is increasingly being divided into information_technology haves and have nots is among the topics that the seven leading industrial nations and russia will take up at their annual summit meeting , which begins on friday in okinawa . today a task_force established by the world_economic_forum , a policy organization made up of many of the world 's largest corporations that meets annually in davos , switzerland , presented a series of proposals on the issue to japan 's prime_minister , yoshiro_mori . at a news conference here , members of the task_force appeared sensitive to the issue of self interest on the part of the large corporations backing high technology spending . ''this is all about self interest , '' said vernon j . ellis , international chairman of andersen_consulting , a member of the task_force . ''there is nothing wrong with self interest , as long as it is enlightened , long term self interest . '' the task_force , including the chief executives of sony_corporation and toshiba_corporation , japan 's two largest consumer_electronics companies , proposed a set of principles including telecommunications and internet deregulation , universal access to education and technology training , as well as support and financing for small entrepreneurs . the proposal , prepared at japan 's request this year at the davos meeting , also includes the creation of a peace_corps style volunteer group , the global digital opportunity corps , and the establishment of local technology community centers . japanese high technology executives said tonight that mr . mori planned to announce at the summit meeting that japan would commit 12 billion in loans and 3 billion in grants over five years to information_technology initiatives in the developing world . the move is intended to prompt similar commitments from other countries , a japanese executive said . mr . mori , who acknowledged this week that he is a computer novice who has only recently learned how to use a mouse , appeared today with an international group of high technology executives to underscore his nation 's commitment to the proposal . ''i 'd like to make this an information_technology discussion , mainly focusing on the developing nations , '' mr . mori said . ''this digital_divide issue is a crucial matter . '' the issue of the a global digital_divide has been seized on in the last year by corporate executives , eager to prove they are socially responsible . but there is disagreement over what the divide represents . a number of economists and technologists believe that the world income gap created by the industrial_revolution may still be the fundamental dividing line between rich and poor nations rather than the question of access to technology . one member of the task_force said the digital_divide should not overshadow traditional issues defining rich and poor nations . ''it 's really not a digital_divide , said the participant , richard t . k . li , chairman and chief executive of the pacific century group , an internet company based in hong_kong . ''it is an education divide , and information_technology is only a conduit to promote education . '' other companies represented on the task_force include sun_microsystems , microsoft , yahoo , 3com , motorola , hewlett_packard , novell and alcatel . sony 's chairman , nobuyuki idea , acknowledged that his company had struggled with its own internal digital_divide and had been slow to deploy information_technology among its workers . ''this is a good indication of the problems that will confront us , '' he said . klaus schwab , the founder and chairman of the world_economic_forum , said in an interview this week that he believed that inexpensive digital wireless_technology systems would increasingly spread in the third world . ''i personally feel that a breakthrough is coming , '' he said . united_states officials said on monday that information_technology held promise for creating economic opportunity as well as improving access to health_care and education . but they noted that while there are now an estimated 332 million people connected via the internet around the world , only 1 percent live in africa . and less than 5 percent of the computers connected to the internet are in developing_countries . the officials would not offer any united_states commitment or pledge of a specific dollar amount to help bridge the digital_divide . but they said they would welcome such proposals from other nations and from the american private_sector . correction july 24 , 2000 , monday an article on thursday about a call by technology executives for action on the world 's digital_divide referred incorrectly to two companies represented in the group sony and toshiba . ranked by worldwide sales last year , they are the third and fourth largest electronics companies in japan , trailing hitachi and matsushita .

has a location of japan

it was cloudy and cool outside the north portico of the white_house this morning as steve doocy , the jovial fox_news_channel weatherman , asked al roker , the ebullient nbc weatherman , just why it was that the president of the united_states had invited them over . ''because we promised to bring krispy kremes ! '' mr . roker chortled . then he sobered up and told the fox viewers watching the live broadcast that mr . clinton wanted to talk about changes in the global climate . ''al , let me ask you this , '' mr . doocy said . ''about the global_warming thing we 're against it , right ? '' ''we do n't like global_warming , '' mr . roker agreed . but he added that , looking at the bright side , he owned some land in pennsylvania , ''and within a few years , i may have beachfront property ! '' on the theory that you do , in fact , need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows , mr . clinton invited more than 100 national and local television forecasters to the white_house today for a chat with him and vice_president al_gore and for briefings on climate_change from government experts . the administration hopes that the forecasters will influence public opinion on climate_change more than the journalists on the evening news clinton aides complain that they pay scant_attention to the issue . ''you , just in the way you comment on the events that you cover , may have a real effect on the american people , '' mr . clinton said this afternoon to the assembled broadcasters , who were overwhelmingly white , male and shorter than they appear on television . playing host to the nation 's television weather forecasters was the most innovative step in a white_house campaign to rally public support for new binding global targets for restricting greenhouse_gases . a broad coalition of industry and labor groups is spending some 13 million on advertising opposing such targets , which may be adopted at an international conference in december in kyoto , japan . ''i do n't ask for you to advocate or do anything outside of whatever your own convictions are , '' mr . clinton said this afternoon , as the skies cleared and the east_room brightened . ''but i do think it 's very important , since you have more influence than anybody does on how the american people think about this , that at least you know what you believe and how you think we should proceed . '' as the 5 o'clock broadcasts rolled around , dozens of weathermen milled about in the mellowing sunlight on the north lawn of the white_house , straightening their hair , consulting notes , muttering lines . while others waited their turns , about six stood bathed in white lights before cameras , speaking to the folks back home or standing , faces blank and microphones at the ready , as they listened for their cues in the distant chatter among the anchors . as they talked about the chill in buffalo or the pleasant weather here , the forecasters also described the concerns of the president . ''he wants all of us to think about what is happening to our climate , '' said chuck gaidica jr . of wdiv in detroit . some were careful to distance themselves from the white_house 's arguments . global_warming is ''a theory that is widely accepted , but it 's still under debate in the scientific community , '' cecily tynan told viewers of wpvi in philadelphia . ''judging by the p.r . event that was orchestrated here , it 's certainly become a very hot_topic in the clinton_administration . '' but other forecasters confessed to their viewers that they were thrilled to be there . ''to be honest with you , i 'm just like a little kid , '' said bob kovachick of wnyt in albany . after the camera stopped rolling , mr . kovachick , like many of the other meteorologists , said that he intended to return to the subject of global_warming in broadcasts later tonight and on thursday . bryan norcross , of wbry in miami , told his viewers about the detailed presentations from mr . clinton and mr . gore . ''everyone in the room came away impressed that they know what they 're talking about , that this is n't just a political event , even though the vice_president is going to run for president , '' he said . several weathermen said in interviews that they had already been sold on the dangers of climate_change before their visit to the white_house . craig allen , the cbs morning weatherman , said he felt ''absolutely honored'' to be invited to the day 's session . ''he feels very strongly about it , '' he said of the president , ''and he just wants us to get the message out . and i 'm happy to do it because i lean in that direction . '' calling the day a success , michael d . mccurry , the white_house_press_secretary , said that the weathermen ''appreciated being treated as something other than airheads . '' gail macdonald , president of the global climate coalition , which is made up of business and trade groups opposed to binding targets for reducing emissions , said she did not object to the white_house 's tactics . ''we think that any kind of any increased public discourse is good , '' she said . ''we think the journalists involved will look critically at the data and be professional . '' indeed , some forecasters said they were frustrated that mr . clinton and mr . gore had not spelled out any remedies . mr . clinton , who is planning to hold a conference on climate_change at georgetown_university on monday , is not expected to reveal his proposed emissions targets for another two or three weeks . ''we really have n't heard what it is they expect us to give up or change in our habits , '' mr . gaidica said . ''i mean questions as simple as can we use the barbecue today or can we use the waverunner anymore . '' beyond such skepticism , some weathermen took advantage of their appearance at the white_house to attach a few barbs to their famously chipper chatter . ''we got here real early this morning , '' mr . doocy deadpanned on fox . ''it was just me , the crew , and the special prosecutors . '' correction_october 10 , 1997 , friday an article on oct . 2 about a visit by television forecasters to the white_house misidentified the television_station in miami where bryan norcross presents the weather . it is wfor , not wbry .

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a report in the technology briefing column of business day on friday about microsoft 's plan to push its new xbox video_game player into the online game business in japan misstated the number of game titles sega would develop for xbox . it is 11 , not 5 .

has a location of japan

hideki_matsui 's broken left wrist is brangelina level news in japan , the type that prompted a former prime_minister to offer solace and sent a nation of his fans to mourn the end of his streak of consecutive games played . ''fans gasp over the broken bone , '' the mainichi_shimbun 's headline said last week . ''his professionalism amplifies the shock . '' so it was no surprise that most of the 65 to 70 japanese journalists credentialed to cover matsui ( and the yankees , often their secondary interest ) gathered with the smaller non japanese press corps to question , photograph and videotape him yesterday at yankee_stadium in his first post fracture news conference . ''he 's a superhero in japan , '' yasuko yanagita , a reporter for the hochi shimbun , said in the steamy , packed auxiliary clubhouse . ''not only in the baseball world , but in the sports world . '' many of the japanese journalists in the yankee_stadium press box last thursday held up tape_recorders when matsui 's injury was announced over a loudspeaker by rick cerrone , the team 's senior director for media relations . scores lingered outside the stadium after he was taken for x rays . five days later , there was matsui , his left arm in a sling , his chin jutting , his expression unreadable , the center of a bilingual news conference that was a microcosm of the frenzy in japan of which he professed ignorance . first came the english_language portion , with translation by roger kahlon , then a longer one in japanese , moderated by isao hirooka , the yankees' media adviser for japanese affairs . matsui relaxed a bit in the japanese session even as a dozen photographers , nearly all japanese , closed in on him from his left and right flanks , clicking like cicadas . matsui offered few clues as to how quickly he would recover and said he did not want to come back short handed , according to the translation . in japanese , he said that he had worried for a while that an injury would end his streak , and that now he could relax , yanagita said . it is a journalistic predicament for the japanese contingent , here largely to chronicle the matsui era , to see him unable to play , his streak of playing 1 , 768 games consecutively with the yomiuri_giants and the yankees ended . ''he was the treasure of japan , '' said go egawa , a producer for the public broadcaster nhk , which may now reduce its slate of 15 yankees games by adding games featuring teams with other japanese players . japanese fans and the news_media were so spoiled by matsui 's nearly gehrigian resilience and hitting feats that he remains bigger than any star still in japan . ''we were too used to seeing him , '' said takeo nakajima , a reporter for nhk . ''him so suddenly hurt and out for a couple of months is a big deal . '' hiroshi kanda , a reporter for kyodo_news , said confidently , ''no other player 's broken wrist would be front page news . '' egawa added ''the whole nation of japan is worried . viewers want to know how he 's doing . '' he said that the news conference ended too early to be shown live on nhk 's morning show but would be seen on a tape_delay . news of the broken wrist led nhk 's morning and evening news . just what will the large japanese news_media contingent do while matsui 's wrist heals , a period that could stretch to the end of the season ? the reporters may cover lesser japanese stars like closer akinori otsuka of texas ( who gave up the winning home_run to jorge_posada in the yankees' 14 13 victory last night ) , outfielder so taguchi of st . louis or second baseman tadahito iguchi of the chicago_white_sox . they may spend a little time with the other , less accomplished , less beloved , often injured matsui , kazuo of the mets . but you sense they would rather not leave , that hideki_matsui , ensconced on the disabled_list and unable to hit , remains their most compelling option . ''i 'm covering hideki , '' said kanda of the kyodo_news . ''but i wo n't be here all the time . i 'm going to cover his practice , his rehabilitation . it 's still an interesting story . but maybe i 'll go to st . louis or texas . '' some other japanese reporters , a few of whom kanda had never seen until yesterday , may return to japan until matsui returns , he said . perhaps a few will find their way to seattle games , but 25 japanese journalists are already embedded with the mariners , chiefly for ichiro_suzuki , but to a degree for kenji johjima , the first japanese catcher in the major_leagues . but if matsui stays in new york , as he said , and is asked to root from the dugout , as he said he would , yanagita said she needed to follow him . ''if something happens , there has to be a hideki update , '' she said . ''fans want to see what he 's doing . i 'd like to stay here . '' tv sports

has a location of japan

apple made no new hardware announcements at its big macworld computer show in san_francisco last month , but it made up for the lapse in japan yesterday when it unveiled new and upgraded versions of its powermac , powerbook and ibook product lines . seeking to capitalize on the surprising success of the graphite colored imac special edition desktop computer that it introduced late last year , apple introduced a special edition of its ibook notebook . but aside from a new color_scheme and a modest increase in processing power , the new ibook se is not as special as its desktop counterpart , whose appeal included more memory , a bigger hard_disk and a dvd drive . the new ibook se ( 1 , 799 ) has the cool graphite and ice color_scheme of the imac se , and it has a 366 megahertz g3 processor , up from the 300 mhz offered in the original ibooks . otherwise it has the same 64 megabytes of ram , 6 gigabytes of hard_disk space and cd_rom drive that apple offers in its upgraded orange and blue ibook siblings . the price of the 300 mhz ibooks , still available in either orange or blue models , remains unchanged at 1 , 599 despite the doubling of memory and hard_disk capacity . the more impressive portable macintosh announcements came at the high end , as apple substantially upgraded the performance of its g3 powerbooks . the new powerbooks keep the same physical design but come in 400 mhz and 500 mhz models . both have an airport wireless networking antenna , a dvd drive , better 2 d and 3 d graphics , and a pair of high speed firewire ( ieee 1394 ) ports for working with digital_video . the new 500 mhz powerbook , which costs 3 , 499 , has 128 mb of memory and a_12 gb hard_disk . apple says it weighs 6.1 pounds with a high capacity battery . for an extra 500 , the hard_disk capacity swells to 18 gb . the 400 mhz powerbook comes with 64 mb of memory and a 6 gb hard_disk and costs 2 , 499 . the announcements of new and more powerful versions of apple 's g4 desktop computers were somewhat anticlimactic , in that apple had originally announced them last year but failed to deliver when it could not get enough of the high end chips from motorola . apple now says it has a reliable supply of the 500 mhz g4 chips , so it simply recycled its original announcement . peter h . lewis news watch

has a location of japan

american engineering experts said yesterday that they were surprised by the extent of the collapse of roadways and other structures in the earthquake near kobe , japan . but they said it was too early to tell if some of the damage was related to the fact that the japanese take a slightly different approach to earthquake engineering than do americans . sections of several major expressways collapsed , as did many modern buildings . some roads and overpasses buckled . and as can be expected in an old , densely_populated city , many wooden buildings with heavy tile roofs collapsed . " i am extremely surprised by the damage , " said andre reinhorn , a professor of structural engineering in the national center for earthquake engineering research at the state university of new york at buffalo . " a building or bridge or other structure is not a single object , " he said . " it is a complex piece of engineering with core components . " those include columns that connect decks and side portions that help hold the structure together . japanese and american engineers connect those elements in slightly different ways , dr . reinhorn said . and the details can be critical . in general , he said , japanese engineers use more steel . their beams and columns are stiffer . they tie components together in novel ways , using different kinds of bolting methods , arranging steel rods inside concrete differently and putting different amounts of reinforcement around side columns . the japanese are also fanatical about quality_control , dr . reinhorn said . this approach provides strength over flexibility , he said the structures are designed to stand firm rather than yield in an earthquake . american structural engineers , dr . reinhorn said , use less steel and more concrete , so the buildings are not as strong . but they are tied together in ways that make them more flexible , he said . " each structural element is designed to deform after it is damaged without completely breaking , " he said . the two countries' building codes are equivalent in terms of protecting structures in moderate and large earthquakes , dr . reinhorn said , and " one is not better than the other . " the goal of both is to let structures sustain damage , but not so much as to cause them to collapse . if it turns out that newer structures were deformed by the kobe quake but did not collapse , dr . reinhorn said , then japanese engineering efforts will be shown to have succeeded . but if they failed , he said , structural engineers on both sides of the pacific will have to reconsider everything they have learned . dr . michael constantinou , a professor of civil_engineering at the buffalo campus , said the japanese approach to earthquake engineering could account for some failures . " if you design a building to be strong , you may get a false sense , from weaker quakes , that the structure is safe , " he said . " by designing for strength , the structures may be less able to deform elastically . " quake in japan

has a location of japan

by the last night in japan , things were so normal that baseball reverted to the usual fare of bobby_valentine 's managerial etiquette and incipient feuds , to say nothing of benny_agbayani 's announcing loud and clear that he really ought to stick around . the brief experiment in exporting north_american baseball like a traveling rock show ended tonight with agbayani clobbering a pinch hit grand_slam homer with two outs in the top of the 11th inning to give the mets a 5 1 victory over the cubs , who had won the first overseas game wednesday night . agbayani knows he is due to be demoted to the minor leagues as soon as the mets need to activate glendon rusch to be their fifth starter , probably within a week . he has not been thrilled with the prospect , since he showed considerable power as a part time starter last year . on wednesday night he had dinner with konishiki , a prominent sumo_wrestler in japan , who is of hawaiian descent , as is agbayani . ''he told me to keep the faith and work hard , '' agbayani recalled . in the 11th inning , danny young , making his first major_league appearance , loaded the bases and agbayani blasted the ball over the 406 foot sign in deep center to send all the hard working salarymen home for a few hours of sleep . agbayani leaped in the air , ran around the bases and was soon rewarded with a replica of a shogun 's helmet , the traditional prize for the star of every baseball game here . but agbayani also realized that his precarious state with the mets still exists because he can be optioned to the minors , while several other players notably his fellow outfielder jay_payton are out of options . ''i 'm glad he 's here today , '' said valentine , who has made it clear he prefers to keep agbayani with the mets . ''i 'm glad he was here last year , helping us win games . i think he 's a good player . '' then valentine added , ''he 's a big boy , and he knows life is not always fair . '' true to the code of a loyal samurai serving the shogun , agbayani said ''it 's only one game . it 's not like i did it for 50 games . '' the agbayani situation replaced the earlier controversy , involving the itchy relationship between valentine and cubs manager don baylor . baylor had been annoyed wednesday night by valentine 's ninth_inning protest of an irregularity on the cubs' lineup card . baylor had written jeff reed 's name twice as a reserve and omitted jeff huson 's name , and valentine decided that could mean the cubs were using an ineligible player . it was merely a slip of the hand , and valentine soon admitted ''there is no protest , '' but in the meantime , he had introduced an american style litigious note in front of a bemused japanese audience . ''i would n't have done it , just out of respect for the guy on the mound , '' baylor said tonight , defending his closer , rick aguilera . ''aguilera has over 200 saves in the major_leagues . you keep him standing out there trying to distract him . for me , it was pretty much nonsense . '' valentine seemed astounded that baylor would be upset , saying ''the manager makes up his lineup card and the other manager protects his team by protesting . i said five times in the dugout , 'i do n't want to do this , ' but i had guys telling me i had to do it . '' fred_wilpon , the co owner of the mets , said he ''would n't have been terribly disappointed'' if the cubs actually had 26 men , and valentine had not protested . wilpon added ''we lost the game on the field . we gave up 10 walks and a hit batsman . '' bud_selig , the commissioner , thrilled with this expedition , did not want to fan the little controversy , saying , ''i 've watched managers for the last 50 years and i 'm never surprised , good and bad . '' baylor 's set jaw suggested he might remember the incident after the cubs crossed the international dateline . but tonight , it was mostly straight baseball . the mets scored first off kyle farnsworth in the fifth on two walks , a sacrifice bunt by rick reed and a sacrifice fly rickey_henderson . the cubs tied the game in the fifth after a walk to joe girardi . farnsworth put down a bunt , and todd_zeile , who has been converted to first base this season , heaved the ball wide of second base , sending girardi to third . girardi scored on an infield double_play . reed pitched eight innings for the mets , giving up four hits and the one unearned run . both teams went deep into their bullpens , which they could afford because they did not have another game until their stateside openers on monday . a bemused laugh went around the ball park at the end of nine innings when the announcement was made in japanese that the game would be played to its conclusion . in the central_league here , all games must stop after 15 innings if tied , and in the pacific_league the limit is 12 innings . in the 11th , zeile hit a single with two outs , rey ordonez and melvin mora walked , and agbayani put in his bid to cancel his exile . how can you farm out a player with a shogun helmet ? inside pitch rey ordonez fumbled a first inning grounder by eric young , his first error in 101 games , a record for major_league shortstops . he had handled 418 straight chances in that streak . armando_benitez finished the game but did not get a save . dennis cook was the winner . . . . in the spirit of this international series , fans were allowed to keep all foul balls that went into the stands . when the giants open the central_league season friday night , the fans will have to exchange balls for inexpensive trinkets . . . . the winner of the john j . murphy award for the outstanding rookie in spring_training this year is none other than garth brooks , the country singer who was hitless in 17 at bats in exhibitions . his charity work and spirit made brooks accepted by players and fans . he will receive his award next monday , before the home opener against the padres . baseball

has a location of japan

when henry wong talked to ambassador walter f . mondale yesterday , his only remaining hope was that a search team of american embassy officials in japan would find the body of his daughter , apparently the only american killed by tuesday 's earthquake . mr . wong said he had told mr . mondale that he wanted the body of his daughter , voni lynn wong , retrieved and sent home before it was cremated with many of the thousands of japanese who were killed . " our daughter was beautiful , " mr . wong said in an interview yesterday . " but she is glorious now . " her death , he said , simply means that " she is just leaving a little ahead of us . " ambassador mondale had phoned mr . wong at his home in van nuys , calif . , to express his sorrow at the death of his 24 year old daughter , who was crushed to death in her bed in ashiya , about 10 miles east of kobe , when the earthquake struck at dawn tuesday . mr . wong said he had asked mr . mondale to " do everything you can to recover the body of my daughter and her possessions . " he quoted mr . mondale as saying , " we 'll do everything we can . " toward that end , a team of embassy officials from tokyo were in kobe yesterday , searching through the hospitals , schools and buddhist temples where most of the victims were taken for american casualties . in the chaos of the stricken city , with nearly 900 people still missing , there was no way to know yesterday how many other americans might have perished under the char and rubble of demolished buildings or have been seriously injured . the state_department said there were about 12 , 000 americans in the kobe and osaka areas . of that number , it said , anywhere from 1 , 200 to 2 , 000 lived in or near kobe , an industrial and commercial city of 1.4 million inhabitants . nyda budig , a state_department spokeswoman , listed ms . wong 's death as the only officially confirmed american fatality . her death was reported to her family by friends who knew her in japan . ms . wong was an honors graduate of the university of california at los_angeles . her father is a retired engineer at litton guidance systems in woodland hills , calif . all her grandparents were born in canton , china . henry wong , the victim 's brother , said " my sister originally wanted to teach in china . but she found she could make more money in japan , so that 's where she went . " he said the institute where she taught had suffered from financial problems recently , and she had applied to a government_agency for nearly 6 , 000 in back wages . he said that she had returned to kobe after a visit to china two weeks ago and that jack serra , a friend who accompanied her on that trip , had volunteered to bring her body back to los_angeles . the last word her family received from her was a postcard from china . quake in japan victim correction january 20 , 1995 , friday an article yesterday about victims of the earthquake in japan referred to the death of one foreigner incorrectly in some copies and misstated his citizenship . the police in kobe , japan , say that the dead man , nana demasio , was found hanged and that they are treating the case as a suicide , not as a quake death . mr . demasio 's family said in new york yesterday that although he had applied for american citizenship , he was still a ghanaian citizen .

has a location of japan

one of the biggest changes in japan 's education system since it was established 120 years ago will take place on saturday . schools will be closed . public elementary , middle and high_schools throughout japan are to close for one saturday a month to give overworked students a break . government officials say the move is the first step toward a full five day school week some years in the future . one saturday off a month might not seem like a whole lot of extra leisure time , but in workaholic japan the new policy has set off a wave of debate , and even fear . while some educators , parents and students say it will improve the lives of children , others warn that it is the beginning of a descent into laziness that will undermine the nation 's academic achievement and industrial competitiveness . 'some kind of plot' " i almost tend to think this is some kind of plot to weaken japan 's economic prowess by attacking the final fortress education , " said miyuki ohashi , a professor of sociology at nihon university . others are worried about a more immediate matter how are the students going to fill this new free time ? " i have nothing to do unless i come to school , " said atsushi sumida , a 13 year old seventh_grader at ginza junior high_school in tokyo . concerned that children , or their parents , might not be able to come up with ideas by themselves , the ministry of education has called on local_governments , corporations and cultural institutions to organize activities for saturday . and japan inc . , with a mixture of patriotism and self interest , is rising to the occasion . department_stores are organizing tours , story telling sessions and other activities to help the national cause , and to lure some young customers . a fish cultivation center in shizuoka prefecture will allow children to dive into a concrete tank containing 10 , 000 red_sea bream . even the country 's pool halls will throw open their doors on saturday to let children play free . the envy of others one thing education ministry officials do not want to see children doing this saturday morning is studying . japan 's education system is often the envy of other countries because it produces a well educated and disciplined work force . but some scholars say the system robs children of their childhood and turns them into automatons in matching uniforms and backpacks . japanese students attend school 240 days a year compared with about 180 days in the united_states . there are about six hours a day of schooling on weekdays and three or four hours on saturday mornings . on top of that , many students attend private cram_schools , or juku , on nights and weekends to prepare for college and high_school entrance_examinations . getting into the right college is all important in determining one 's career prospects . critics contend that in addition to the long hours the schooling is geared too much toward rote learning rather than creative thinking . " maybe the school education has been too strict , creating kids who are rather uninspired , " said masami zeniya , director of the elementary_school education division at the ministry of education . " we should focus more on raising children who can think by themselves and make decisions by themselves , rather than just accepting knowledge . " free thinking is the aim the saturday off plan , by giving children more time for themselves , is intended to encourage free thinking . it is also part of a push by the government to make japanese relax more . many companies and government agencies have already gone to a five day work week . not everyone thinks the saturday closings will result in more leisure . the education ministry , they note , has neglected to change the school curriculum , which calls for a certain number of hours to be devoted to each subject a year . to meet the requirements , schools are making up for the missing saturday classes by having students stay longer on weekdays or by scheduling classes at times once used for sports or club activities . " i 'm not happy at all because the hours we cut on saturday will be added to the other days , " said shino ikeda , an eighth_grader at ginza junior high_school . a principal is warned as in any revolution , there are those who resist . many parents are against the plan because it will mean more time taking care of their children and will pose hardships when both parents work on saturday . a poll by the newspaper tokyo shimbun last spring found 49 percent approving the idea of one saturday off a month , with 44 percent disapproving . but when it came to the idea of closing schools every saturday , those opposed slightly outnumbered those in favor . government officials are trying hard to stamp out the counterrevolutionaries . a high_school principal in kagoshima prefecture , in southern japan , was reprimanded by the local authorities when he suggested too strongly that students attend voluntary classes that will be offered on the saturdays school is closed . some experts say that as long as the pressure of college entrance_examinations remains , it will be difficult to reduce school hours . with public schools closed on saturday mornings , some students will just go to cram_schools instead . yoshiya abe , professor of comparative culture at aichi gakuin university , said a more fundamental change might occur because japan 's low birth_rate was leading to a gradual reduction in the number of high_school seniors . " by the year 2005 there will be more places in the universities than there are applicants , " he said . " this will really reduce the pressure to work hard for the college entrance_exams . "

has a location of japan

just past the tattoo parlors and used cd shops on st . marks place in the east_village of manhattan , erudite gamers scour the racks of a cluttered video_game shop called multimedia 1.0 . rows of vintage atari 2600 cartridges are in one corner . new titles for the playstation_2 are down the way . but the real draw is the japanese imports epic adventures , cheeky dating simulations and surreal do it yourself disc_jockey games that , though big in japan , will not officially get to the united_states for weeks or months , if they ever make it at all . zone of enders , for example , is an import action adventure for the playstation 2 that will be released here this month . it sells for 80 , about 30 percent more than most american releases . but for hard core players like kevin o'connor , the extra cost is worth it . ''we buy games at incredible mark ups , all in the pursuit of the hottest and newest , '' said mr . o'connor , a 25 year old import fan from fort_lee , n.j. , who spent twice the retail value of a sega dreamcast machine just to have it six months before its american release . ''we live gaming . we do n't care about games being in japanese . we 'll prod and stumble until we get through . it 's the highest level of gaming there is . '' in the production universe of the multibillion_dollar gaming industry , japan has long been the mother ship . the country has been supplying a steady stream of games ever since donkey kong stomped into american arcades in the early 1980 's . japanese companies like nintendo , capcom , konami and square soft continue to churn out hundreds of new titles every year , but fewer than half make it to the united_states . some of the lure of imports lies in the age old desire to have something before everyone else does . ''if you 're a real gamer , '' said jesse labrocca , owner of multimedia 1 . 0 , ''you want to be the cool guy on your block who has the games that no one else has . '' but for mr . o'connor and others , a large part of the appeal is the alien nature of the games themselves . japanese games often have a different look and feel than similar types of american games . and there are some game genres that are popular in japan but virtually unheard of in the united_states . take dating simulations , which challenge a player 's ability to woo a high_school sweetheart . such games are chart toppers in japan , but little known in the united_states . tokimeki memorial , a classic of the genre , is set among high_school freshmen . american gamers snatch up such titles . ''it is interesting to see the cultural differences in the games , '' said greg wilcox , 36 , a new yorker who has collected thousands of japanese titles in the past decade . ''you might see a japanese game with a western cowboy who has a sword in one hand and a gun in the other . '' japanese games often push further into the realms of sex and violence than american products . depictions of smoking and drinking , common in japanese versions , are not acceptable for mainstream united_states release . ''japan tends to be ahead of the curve as to what kinds of games are accepted , '' said richard briggs , a sega product manager . when japanese game developers are deciding whether to market a title in the united_states , a factor they consider is how it will be rated by the industry 's voluntary ratings group , the entertainment software ratings board . companies will also consider the quality of the graphics and the levels of interactivity . ''many japanese games tell a straightforward and compelling story , but these do not come with the interaction nor the depth of graphics that consumers in the u.s . market are looking for , '' said ken ogasawara , a manager at konami of america who assesses and develops games for american release . capcom , a japanese developer that produces games for sony , nintendo and sega , employs similar guidelines . ''if a game would n't make sense to the american consumer , then we wo n't release it , '' said matt atwood , a company spokesman . in these cases , gamers have to settle for buying the import games at specialty shops like multimedia 1 . 0 , which gets its supply through japanese connections . a foreign game that is selected for united_states release has to go through an elaborate process called localization . a game is evaluated to see what changes need to be made for american audiences . some of the changes , which are implemented by the developers and dictated by publishers like sony , are little more than cosmetic . for example , when sony 's crash bandicoot appeared in japanese games , his eyes were small and beady . when crash came to the states , his eyes were large and wide . sometimes the changes are based on difficulty levels . the conventional_wisdom is that american gamers like to be challenged more than the japanese_american versions , as a result , often include more difficulty options for players to choose , as well as little stumbling_blocks through a game , like fewer bonus health packs . among gamers , such changes cause controversy . when a japanese horror game called biohazard 2 was released in the united_states as resident evil 2 , players protested online , saying that although sony promised the original game , it delivered one that was less violent and missing key scenes . the company responded eventually by releasing resident evil 2 director 's cut . one of the first and most obvious changes is language . role playing games , which are especially dialogue heavy , often require as much translation as a foreign film , if not more . some players say the games are translated in a slapdash manner . greg cook , an import fan in new zealand , sat down to play final fantasy vii in english , only to find himself scratching his head . ''so many times during the game i could n't really understand what they were talking about , '' mr . cook said . ''i felt that the translation just did n't do the game justice . '' as a result , some import fans collect japanese releases the way a nabokov fan hunts down original works in russian . fan web_sites offer translations and walk throughs of the games . mr . o'connor said he had even picked up some rudimentary japanese from years of playing import games . coping with instructions in a foreign language is only one of the hardships that fans of imported games endure . to get the programs to work on american console systems , mr . labrocca said , players often need to modify their systems with black_market hardware . mr . labrocca said that companies make too many assumptions about the tastes of american gamers . in addition to the status of having games that few others have , import fans like the variety that japanese games offer . jeremy goldman , a_20 year old student in new york , said that japanese games were often more inventive than american releases . one of his favorites , dragon ball z , a street fighter import that will probably never be released in america , has a cast of anime characters with their own personalities and moves . ''these people at these companies think we wo n't like these games , '' he said . ''but we actually do . '' beyond japan from many nations , space , fantasy and action games though most imported playstation titles ( as well as those for the pc ) come from japan , many come from other countries outside the united_states . here is a sampling mdk2 country canada what it is the sequel to the 1997 hit mdk . ''austin powers'' inspired kookiness as players become kurt hectic , a heroic custodian who fights alien invaders . theme hospital country england what it is essentially , sim sickos . this simulation game lets you build your own hospital . then you have to hire staff , like psychologists and janitors . laura's happy adventure country france what it is eerily cheery children 's game based on a line of german toys . laura has to charm her way through a fantasy land to light up all five sides of her magic diamond . enemy infestation country australia what it is shoot 'em up game . players join an intergalactic human space colony that must battle a swarm of alien insects . jet force gemini country england what it is a rave music inspired team created this ''jetsons'' style space caper with cyborg insects , gunfights and characters resembling the indie band cibo matto . picker country russia what it is a company description ''you are walking through the woods , picking up edible mushrooms and avoiding poisonous ones . the journey is dangerous ! good for children . '' david kushner

has a location of japan

a few weeks ago prime_minister kiichi_miyazawa , who graduated from the university of tokyo in 1941 , turned to his chief aide , koichi_kato , who graduated from the same university in 1964 , and declared that a nagging problem with the japanese government had got out of control too many of the country 's powerful bureaucrats emerged from the same school . so a few days ago mr . miyazawa 's cabinet issued what passes for japan 's first affirmative_action program , one intended to diversify within carefully proscribed japanese limits the country 's ruling_class . over the next five years , mr . miyazawa 's government declared , no more than 50 percent of the recruits for japan 's top government jobs may come from the campus known as todai . after all , mr . miyazawa said , " a healthy society has a variety of values , " and it would be foolhardy for a country in desperate need of some innovative ideas in the 21st_century to entrust its future entirely to leaders who all sat through the same lectures , passed the same tests and drank at the same watering holes . 'it wo n't be easy' or would it ? after listening politely and nodding in seeming agreement , the senior officials of the ministries that keep this country plowing ahead despite perpetual political scandals were widely and anonymously quoted in the nation 's biggest newspapers , asking who this miyazawa fellow thought was running japan , anyway . " it wo n't be easy , " kazuya taguchi , the assistant_director of the personnel division of the prime_minister 's office and a 1980 graduate of todai , said with some resignation the other day when a visitor inquired how he would begin to put the new rules into effect . " can you imagine wanting to be a bureaucrat and going to waseda ? " he said , referring to one of japan 's most exclusive private universities . " unthinkable . " ever since the emperor meiji created tokyo imperial university a century ago , the university , particularly its law_school , has been the breeding ground of japan 's governmental and business leadership . todai graduates plotted japan 's strategy in autos and computer chips . they set foreign_policy and industrial_policy , rising in lockstep with their " class " on rungs of the government ladder . and despite a lot of talk about how quickly japan is changing , the todai tradition seems in little danger . of the 24 new graduates who survived this year 's grueling competition for a spot on the " elite track " of japan 's ministry of finance the ministry where mr . miyazawa began his career five decades ago 22 are todai graduates . so are 59 percent of those accepted for the fast track at the education ministry , the telecommunications ministry , the trade ministry and other centers of power . last year 14 , 836 students took the test for the " elite track , " and 508 passed , more than half of them todai graduates . of those , 310 accepted government posts the others , presumably , were lured away by higher salaries in private industry . " the first thing that people know about you when you enter a ministry is whether you went to todai or not , " a young official of the foreign ministry , who did not , said the other day . he added that " in a lot of ministries , there are many jobs you can forget about " if you graduated from someplace else . symbol of greater ills for years social critics here have complained about this system , finding it at the root of some of japan 's worst ills . mr . kato seemed to echo those complaints at a news conference the other day , saying " the concentration of university of tokyo graduates in government ministries is a symbol of the academic oriented society that has spawned the 'exam hell' phenomenon , " the years of preparation for japan 's all important university exams . nothing makes a japanese mother happier than if her child passes the todai exam or , failing that , marries a todai graduate . so complete is todai 's hold that many are skeptical that mr . miyazawa really wants to tinker with success . some say he is merely grandstanding , hoping to win the hearts of the vast majority of japanese who resent todai 's monopoly on power . " you have to assume that it is just an effort to win some popularity , " said taichi_sakaiya , a former high official of the ministry of international_trade and industry , and a member of the todai class of 1960 . others say that mr . miyazawa 's intentions are pure , but that he stands about as much chance of changing the way japan works as detroit stands of driving toyota into bankruptcy . indeed , mr . miyazawa is attacking not only todai 's hold on power but , curiously , tokyo 's hold as well . though it is a national university , the vast majority of students attending the university of tokyo come from the capital or its immediate surroundings . few come from japan 's outer islands of hokkaido or okinawa . no academic boasts similarly , young women often report that they view todai as a hostile place , and not surprisingly , they too are vastly underrepresented in the senior levels of the bureaucracy . no one has suggested , however , that quotas or targets be set for women or others who have traditionally been excluded from the high reaches of the government . curiously , very few people even the university 's graduates argue that vastly superior academic achievement accounts for todai 's standing with the government . in recent years the newspapers have been filled with reports questioning the university 's academic standing , and faculty_members report an institutional insecurity about whether the place is up to snuff . " there is no proof that todai students are better than non todai students , " mr . sakaiya said . " and the number of very good professors at todai is small . but japan is based on brand name goods , and todai is the brand name . " at todai , the faculty has taken this all in stride . the president of the university , akito arima , said that " of course , monopoly is bad , but i cannot approve government control " of the quotas . a senior member of the law faculty said the whole thing would be " sort of ignored , unless it takes any real effect . " meanwhile , the todai graduates in government also seem fairly relaxed . japan changes prime_ministers with great regularity and little effect , but its bureaucrats stay behind their battered gray desks forever .

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lead a strong earthquake with a preliminary reading of 5.6 on the richter_scale occurred in the pacific_ocean off central japan today , the hong kong observatory reported . the observatory said the quake hit at 12 56 p.m . and its epicenter was about 340 miles south of tokyo in an area where several small islands are located . a strong earthquake with a preliminary reading of 5.6 on the richter_scale occurred in the pacific_ocean off central japan today , the hong kong observatory reported . the observatory said the quake hit at 12 56 p.m . and its epicenter was about 340 miles south of tokyo in an area where several small islands are located . the observatory had no additional information on the quake . there were no reports of damage or casualties .

has a location of japan

on the verge of winning a medal in men 's figure_skating , todd_eldredge ticked off the name of other athletes whose redemptive success had come after years of failure . it was a club he hoped to join by saturday night . ''i think it would be a great ending , like john_elway , like dan_jansen , like paul wylie , '' eldredge said . ''to end it that way would be fantastic . '' wylie was the last american man to win an olympic figure_skating medal . he took silver at the 1992 winter_games in albertville , france , while eldredge was beginning a three year slump caused by injury , illness and a lack of confidence that even led him to briefly quit skating . while wylie skated the program of his life in albertville , eldredge finished an undistinguished 10th . he had skipped the united_states championships with a back injury , receiving a bye to the olympics . in albertville , he was stiff and tentative . the takeoff on his triple_axel ''felt like someone was sticking a knife in my back , '' eldredge said . he fell on the double_axel . ''when you 're in pain , it 's hard to be aggressive , '' he said . a year later , eldredge finished sixth at the 1993 national championships . he had won consecutive titles in 1990 91 but appeared to be washed up at age 21 . his confidence was already shaken , and when he overheard a judge criticizing his skating , his self assurance shattered . after the national championships , he quit the sport and returned home to chatham , mass . , where he had learned to skate at age 5 on hockey skates . ''i was n't having a good time , '' eldredge said . ''every time i got on the ice , i wondered if i would be able to land a jump or if i would stand up . '' for two months , he played golf , hung out with his brother , scott , and tried to untangle the knot of bad feelings about skating . eventually , he said , he grew bored and felt unfulfilled . so he called his coach , richard_callaghan , in bloomfield_hills , mich . , and decided to give skating another shot with a different approach . he would skate for the enjoyment of it if he fell , so what , he would still have fun . ''i wanted to get back in there and make it right , '' eldredge said . a year later , though , he suffered another misfortune at the 1994 olympic trials in detroit . several days before the competition , eldredge began suffering from flu like symptoms and passed out in his hotel room . still weak during the competition , he finished fourth , while only scott davis and brian_boitano qualified for the winter_games in lillehammer , norway . while he watched on television , all the favorites collapsed . boitano , viktor petrenko and kurt browning were replaced on the medal stand by the kids on the block aleksei_urmanov of russia , elvis_stojko of canada and philippe candeloro of france . ''when i saw what happened in the olympic_games , that spurred me to keep going for another four years . '' eldredge said . by 1996 , eldredge had become world champion . a year ago , he won a silver_medal at the world_championships . he has recovered from a shoulder injury earlier in the season , and thursday night he finished third in the olympic short_program to ilya kulik of russia and stojko . he has got to this point with consistency , not risk , and he is not likely to attempt a quadruple_jump in saturday 's long program . ''i want a clean , strong program , '' callaghan said . ''he 's going to have to prove to me that the quad is a piece of cake . '' if kulik , stojko and aleksei_yagudin land the quad , so be it . eldredge , 26 , would rely on his advantage in spins and speed and blend of athleticism and artistry . dependability is his main strength . during warm_ups before the short_program , eldredge felt his legs were dead , so he left the ice and rehearsed his jumps in a hallway . having regained his composure , he skated a clean program and landed a flawless double_axel , flashing back to albertville . ''do n't miss like '92 , '' he told himself , and he did n't . he added more elaborate footwork and change of direction to his long program after skating dull crossover strokes at the national championships . and he would count on the possibility that suffocating pressure would leave the men 's competition resembling boxing , with the man left standing declared the winner . ''that 's what we 've tried to work on consistency , '' eldredge said . ''going out and making everything happen . if things do n't go great , do n't dig it into the ground . let it roll off and keep plugging away . '' the xviii winter_games figure_skating

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lead the japanese have a word for people like hiromitsu ochiai . the word is ''goketsu . '' it is not a quality japanese parents encourage in their sons . the japanese have a word for people like hiromitsu ochiai . the word is ''goketsu . '' it is not a quality japanese parents encourage in their sons . ''goketsu'' translates roughly as ''individual hero . '' in a country that talks of trying to promote individuality as a group effort , ochiai stands apart . he does so both in performance and in character . last season , the 32 year old ochiai won his third triple_crown and his second in succession . he batted . 360 , hit 50 home_runs and drove in 116 runs . now he stands apart in salary , too . in december , ochiai became the highest paid player in the history of japanese_baseball . his new team , nagoya 's chunichi_dragons , will pay him roughly 850 , 000 a year this after a month 's speculation on the front pages of japan 's sports dailies about where he might play after he refused to sign with his former team , the lotte orions . that he refused to re sign after lotte 's manager was dismissed , that he insisted on holding out for what is in japanese_baseball an inordinate amount money , only reinforced the image ochiai has fostered . he is not only japan 's best hitter , he is also the japanese game 's most celebrated character character being the polite assessment of a man who titled his autobiography , ''whatever you may say , i 'll do it my way . '' generally , the only time a japanese will publicly use the words ' 'my way'' is when he is in a bar and very drunk and is singing the song that bears the words as its title . his own training method ochiai 's way means training the way he wants to train , which has meant refusing to swing at a single pitch in an exhibition_game so that he could sharpen his batting eye . it has meant opening the season by openly predicting he will win another triple_crown . it has meant going to see the same romantic movie five times rather than join everyone else in practice . of such behavior , in japan , heroes are made , heroes who become heroes for all the wrong reasons . ''it 's rare in this country to find someone who will do it his own way , '' ochiai said . he smiles and jokes . he has the look of a boy forever being sent to the principal 's office . ''it 's hard to find a person worthy of the word goketsu , '' he said , ' 'someone with his own ideas who cannot be bothered by someone else . i do n't think i 'm that kind of person . but people want to see that kind of image in me . '' that they do tells much about what this country looks for in a baseball idol both the acceptable and barely acceptable sorts . ochiai 's emergence has come at a time when japan has been eagerly trying to fill the void left by the retirement of her two greatest baseball heroes , shigeo nagashima and sadaharu oh . oh hit more home_runs than anyone else in the world . nagashima won the nation 's heart . he was to japan what babe_ruth was to america , a man whose lusty , ebullient play encapsulated a society on the upswing japan of the 1960 's , as compared to america of the 1920 's . played with 'guts' nagashima was polite . he did not brag . he was deferential and a team man . he hit the game winning home_run at emperor_hirohito 's first game . he displayed proper ''fighting spirit'' and played with ''guts . '' and in so doing he defines a socially acceptable japanese sporting hero . heroism , like all things japanese , is achieved according to a specified ''way . '' that ochiai did not follow the way of the hero set him apart all the more . ''first you become a star at koshien , '' daigo tamura , a writer for baseball magazine , said of the stadium near osaka where each summer the nation turns to watch japan 's most popular sporting_event the high_school baseball tournament . stardom at koshien can lead to a professional contract , or to a good college team , or perhaps to a company team . ''but ochiai , '' tamura added , ''was quite unknown when he was a high_school boy . he entered the university and quit after one year . he worked for a company that was not even famous in the inner city corporate tournament . '' even at an early age , tamura said , ochiai was prone to flouting the rules . ''he was not an obedient student in high_school and college , '' he said . ''he would be told to go to practice and not go . when he did n't go to practice he would go to the movies , to romantic movies made for women . always romantic movies . '' teammates cool to him still , it was while he was playing for a company team in a tokyo suburb that lotte noticed him and signed him . ochiai was not an immediate hit with his teammates , according to those who remember his early years with the team . the older players , they said , did not much care for his public declarations of personal ambitions . he talked of batting titles . he talked about what he wanted for himself . in his third season he led the pacific_league in batting and did so again in his fourth and fifth years . in his fourth season he also won his first triple_crown . and although he has always played for a team with a limited following the orions play in an old , decaying stadium in the gray industrial city of kawasaki people began taking notice of him . the joy of being an ochiai booster , tamura said , came in the vicarious pleasure of watching someone saying and doing things that are very hard to do here . ''everybody has a sort of desire to be like ochiai , '' he said . ''japanese company employees are such a suppressed people . parents may say , 'do n't be like ochiai . ' but today 's kids may themselves want to be like him . '' understanding his appeal ochiai , too , understands the nature of his appeal . ''everybody envies the other person 's way of living , to be like the boss , or to be like me , '' he said . ''if i were a salary man i could n't succeed like i do in the baseball world . this is a world based upon true ability . i can do or say anything i want to say . '' for a long time , ochiai said , ''i walked on the dark side . now i walk on the bright side . '' he talks about helping his new team . he practices with the other players . but perhaps , he added , it was his early reluctance to conform and his subsequent life as an outsider his years on ''the dark side'' that freed him from the constraints that keep most people here from straying too far . having been already deemed a failure , or at least a disappointment , he said , he stopped worrying about what people thought of him . ''i felt that once i had failed i no longer cared , '' he said . ''if someone can think that way , they can be like me . '' and although ochiai may speak to a certain place in the japanese heart and he remains one of the few dynamic personalities , tamura said , in a sea of bland sports personalities last season provided a reminder that , given a chance , japan will seize upon a hero who might represent her more noble qualities . ochiai may have his followers among the disaffected , but last season was the season of the ''golden rookie , '' a 19 year old first baseman named kazuhiro kiyohara . another baseball 'genius' kiyohara is tall and handsome and by the season 's end was being dubbed as a baseball ''genius . '' he hit 31 home_runs , breaking the record for a rookie , and helped his team , the seibu lions , win the japan_series . there were stories told of 20 , 000 people leaving the ball park after kiyohara 's final time at bat because they had seen what they had come to see just as they had once left when oh and nagashima had finished batting . kiyohara has done everything right . he was a high_school star . he was signed by a popular team . and when he was not signed by the team of his choice , the yomiuri_giants , he bravely fought back tears . tears can score points for a hero in japan . kiyohara 's rise brought with it the remarkably intensive news_media scrutiny accorded to those who the media has deemed worthy of watching . no detail of his life was left unreported not his weight at birth more than 10 pounds his hobby sleeping his least favorite food fermented bean paste , or his romance . in kiyohara , it seemed , the nation had finally found a suitable replacement for nagashima and oh . and though ochiai continued hitting , and talking his mind , it became clear that although japan has a place for an unconventional hero , the greater glory goes to those who become a hero in a suitable way .

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few have risen and fallen as spectacularly as takafumi horie , 34 , the self made internet billionaire now on trial in japan 's courts of justice and public opinion . at age 31 , he became famous overnight for trying to wrest a baseball_team from a_league controlled by some of japan 's most powerful businesspeople , or , in his words , ''the club of old men . '' he turned his start up , livedoor , into a household name and built it with the kind of aggressive moves unseen here . a swooning media crowned the spiky haired , t_shirt clad , trash talking upstart as the living challenge to japan 's ossified establishment . for 18 short months , mr . horie defied gravity . then in early 2006 , the offices of livedoor , which had built an eclectic social network site , were raided , and he was arrested on charges of securities_fraud depending on one 's view of mr . horie , the charges amounted to just deserts or political payback . television networks showed his enemies gloating about his downfall , reinforcing the impression that the establishment , or some part of it , had decided to destroy mr . horie . he was transformed into the symbol of all that was bad about the new japan and its supposed embrace of a ruthless , american style capitalism . denounced and demonized , mr . horie has yet to be silenced . in a country where defendants face enormous pressure to plead_guilty and criminal cases almost always result in convictions , he has fiercely proclaimed his innocence . and though his trial has yet to end , mr . horie has taken the extremely unusual step of speaking out to the media , leaving nothing unsaid . ''i 'm being made into a bad guy through endless leaks from the prosecution to the media , '' he said . ''so when something 's wrong , i have to state that it 's wrong . otherwise , they 'll set people 's image of me , and that 's not good . '' at the tokyo_district_court , prosecutors have demanded a four year prison term for mr . horie , whom they accuse of having masterminded accounting frauds totaling more than 40 million and other securities violations at his company . driven by greed , lacking a law abiding spirit , mr . horie had shown no remorse and still presents a menace to society , they said . ''is n't it a fact that you raised the value of livedoor shares , sold them and used the profits to pursue your personal interests and desires ? '' one prosecutor asked early in the hearing . mr . horie replied ''you have a twisted mind . you should repent . '' he said livedoor 's accounting practices were on the level . he has acknowledged misreporting the source of about 10 million , but blamed ryoji miyauchi , now 39 , the chief_financial_officer . mr . miyauchi , who has pleaded_guilty to similar charges against him , said in court that mr . horie was aware of the wrongdoing . but mr . miyauchi wavered on this point under cross_examination . mr . horie said he was caught in the cross hairs of a japanese establishment of elite bureaucrats who he said do not want ordinary japanese ''to think too much'' and powerful business executive who fear the changes he represents . the infractions with which he is charged ''are not something that typically merit a raid and arrest , '' he said . indeed , by any standard , mr . horie has been treated very severely by the authorities . in japan , companies have long engaged in financial window_dressing , often in collusion with accounting firms , though regulators have cracked down on this practice in recent years . despite the change , companies charged with accounting violations similar to or greater than livedoor 's have been penalized by financial regulators but have not drawn criminal indictments . in november , for example , the nikko cordial corporation , japan 's third largest brokerage house , admitted to falsifying its books by 160 million , but the case was settled with a_4 . 2 million fine and the resignation of the company 's two top executives . mr . horie is expected to receive his judgment in march . during a two hour interview in his lawyer 's office , mr . horie spoke with his characteristic self confident , blunt and unguarded style . his lawyer , yasuyuki takai , was present but did not interrupt once . mr . horie wore jeans and a black pullover with ''billionaire boys club'' across his chest . ( at the peak of livedoor 's stock , his wealth topped 1 billion it is estimated to have dropped to about a tenth of that . ) mr . horie often speaks of his youth in yame , a city known for its tea agriculture , in western japan . his father , a salaryman , never gave him an allowance but bought him only useful things , like a set of encyclopedias , which the boy devoured , and a bicycle , which he rode 12 miles a day to and from a famous private secondary_school . he started at the university of tokyo , the nation 's top college , but dropped out to run the company he had founded with 50 , 000 in capital livin' on the edge , the predecessor to livedoor . consciously imitating american internet start_ups , mr . horie built a very un japanese company where informality reigned . in contrast to most japanese companies , employees were hired regardless of school ties , and they moved up thanks to ability and ambition , regardless of seniority or gender . ''the people who found me the most offensive are mid managers with a stake in the old system those in their 40s and 50s , '' mr . horie said . those people have invested decades in their companies , he said , in the expectation of enjoying the full rewards of senior status . ''they do n't want the world they believed in and guarded until now to break apart , not after they 've toiled for 20 , 30 years without enjoying its benefits . they 're going to let this punk smash it all ? '' he expanded livedoor by buying up various businesses , then took aim at the core of japan 's establishment by trying to buy a baseball_team and part of the fujisankei communications group . the establishment pushed back , accusing him of getting rich without the sweat of his brow and of playing a ' 'money game . '' ''i called them a club of old men , but that 's exactly what they are , '' mr . horie said of the conglomerates that own baseball teams . ''it 's a world of connections , that 's it . if you 're young , have no connections , and you 're from a modest family , there 's nothing you can do , your whole life . this is a big loss to society , a society in which you ca n't put your talents to use . this kind of society will keep declining . '' his audacity won him the admiration of many japanese , especially the young , who found him exciting and refreshing , even endearing . he may have dated models and driven around town in a ferrari , but there was also in him the fat kid at school . he was nicknamed horiemon , after a lovable pudgy cartoon cat named doraemon . during the 94 days he spent in detention , mr . horie was tried and convicted in japan 's clubby news_media . leaks from the authorities fueled reports that livedoor had laundered money and had ties to the underworld , though no such charges were filed . investigators searched in vain through mr . horie 's private life for damaging information , according to mr . horie , his lawyer and a recently published book . ( prosecutors declined to comment on the case . ) ''they printed out the photos and names and background information of dozens of women i 'd met , and they pumped people for information about them , '' he said . nowadays , with free time on his hands , he has pursued a lifelong interest in space travel by investing in the development of a new rocket . he watched ''the aviator'' and felt a kinship with howard hughes , the billionaire aviation pioneer who is the focus of the film , ''though i 'm not as handsome as he is , or as obsessive compulsive . '' true to his character , mr . horie has not assumed the posture of contrition that japan demands of someone in his predicament . he says he would not change the way he challenged the old men or tried to buy their companies , even though he failed . ''i enjoyed each occasion , '' he said . ''instead of doing anything to succeed , i want to succeed on my own terms . because if i ca n't i 'm , like , 'whatever . ' '' the saturday profile

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for many , his quest had come to say as much about japanese provincialism and insularity as as it did about baseball . but in the end , tuffy rhodes , a veteran american player with the kintetsu_buffaloes , came up short in his bid to set a single season home_run record in japan . in his final game of the season tonight , a grimacing rhodes showed the first signs of the frustration that has surely eaten away at him for at least a week . he swung for the fences but could do no better than a short fly ball in going 0 for 4 in a_7 1 loss to the orix blue wave . rhodes had been stuck at 55 home_runs since sept . 24 , leaving him tied with sadaharu oh , the legendary japanese slugger , who set the record 37 years ago . rhodes , 33 , had bounced around the major_leagues for several years before landing in japan , where he found his groove as a highly productive hitter . but near season 's end he seemed to come unglued by a blatant effort by oh 's team , the daiei hawks , to deprive him of a shot at the home_run record . rhodes was deliberately walked time after time in a weekend series that had no bearing on the standings . rhodes had no hits in that series and could do little in the season 's final series against the blue wave , the former team of the japanese sensation ichiro_suzuki . but rhodes will enjoy postseason play because the buffaloes comfortably won the pacific_league pennant . in addition to leading the league in home_runs and tying the record , he came close to winning the triple_crown with a . 327 average and 131 runs batted in . the sweetest reward , however , may be the new seeds of doubt about the spirit of openness to outsiders and about fair play in japanese_baseball , especially at a time when the united_states is proving more cosmopolitan than ever , not in the least through the celebration of suzuki , the seattle_mariners' new standout . in an ichiro mad japan , where a 1 for 4 performance leads the sports news , rhodes 's run at a storied home_run record merited scant_attention . tonight 's game was not televised nationally , or even in the kansai region where the game was played . ''it was an insult to the fans , and japanese_baseball will decline if such behavior continues , '' said kunihiko ichimura , a 58 year old from kyoto who took a half day off from work to attend rhodes 's season finale . ''daiei 's conduct violates basic sportsmanship . records exist to be broken , and if rhodes was a japanese , i do n't think he would have been walked that way . '' randy bass , another american , was the last player to threaten oh 's record , and his season ended in a similar way . oh was the manager of the team that walked bass throughout the final series of that 1985 season , leaving bass at 54 home_runs . baseball

has a location of japan

chihiro sato hated the morning and evening mass in the catholic_school she attended in first grade and felt ostracized by other students when she switched to a public_school for second grade . she began suffering headaches and nausea when it came time to go to school . ''my father would pull me out of bed and force me to go , '' chihiro , now 16 , recalled . but by the end of second grade she had joined the ranks of a growing group in japan children who will not go to school . last year , one in 85 junior high_school students missed at least 50 days of classes because of school phobia , according to the ministry of education . as schools in japan reopened after summer vacation , there is concern that the truancy rate will increase again this year , just as it has for more than 20 years . the school refusers , as they are called here , represent an underside of japan 's vaunted education system , which is generally admired for producing nearly universal literacy , a conscientious work force and high_school graduates who can solve sophisticated mathematical problems . but the pressure to conform and excel can overwhelm some students , experts say . the truancy problem is viewed seriously here as a sign of societal breakdown and of the need for a broad re evaluation of japan 's school system , which some educators and business leaders say stifles individuality and creativity even as it indoctrinates children into japan 's group oriented society . to be sure , the truancy rate in japan appears small compared with that in the united_states . while directly comparable figures are not available , about 6.6 percent of american junior high_school students are absent from school on any given day , for all reasons . in japan , truants have generally been considered psychologically ill , or social misfits with character defects , at least up until a few years ago . ''in the past they were taken to therapists or hospitals and locked in a room like a prison cell and soaked with medicine , '' said keiko okuchi , the founder of an alternative school for children who refuse to go to regular schools . nowadays , there is more tolerance of the truants . and after protests from parents of such children , the ministry of education in 1992 changed its guidelines to admit that the school system itself , not only defects in the child 's character , could be contributing to the problem . while the problem is most severe among junior high_school students , truancy has also been growing among elementary_school pupils , 1 in 667 of whom were absent at least 50 days last year . experts say a major reason that children stay away from school is that they are bullied by other students . yuji suzuki , now 19 , stopped going when he was in fifth grade . fellow students , in a play on his first name , began calling him ''uji , '' or maggot . ''during breaks i drew pictures by myself in the room when others went out to play , '' he said . strict rules covering behavior , dress and hairstyles , and corporal punishment by teachers are cited as other reasons . and then there is grinding pressure . for some students , sports practice and club activities begin at 6 a.m . after school , many students attend private cram_schools into the evening to prepare for high_school or college entrance_exams that could have a big impact on their future . mrs . okuchi , a former teacher , has led a crusade to change attitudes . in the early 1980 's her eldest_son was bullied at school . ''he started having headaches and stomachaches , '' she recalled . ''he began to lose weight and could n't walk and stand up . '' a psychiatrist recommended letting him stay home from school . but the school principal said that would ruin her son 's life . and he chastised her for raising her child poorly . so 10 years ago mrs . okuchi founded tokyo shure , the name being the japanese pronunciation of schule , the german word for school . the 100 students at tokyo shure , who include chihiro sato and yuji suzuki , are under no obligation to attend every day or to take any of the classes offered in subjects like english and history . on one typical day , most students were playing_cards or table_tennis , reading comics or taking a dance class . tuesdays are set aside for day trips like hikes or museum visits . students can get involved in projects like helping to plan and build a log_cabin . mrs . okuchi 's attitude is not widely shared . many programs for the refusers aim at getting them to go back to school . but the success rate is low . ''giving you actual percentages would destroy the hopes of parents whose children are trying to go back , '' said dr . taizo satoh , vice director of tokyo metropolitan umegaoka hospital , which has 210 patients and , he said , is the largest psychiatric_hospital in the world devoted solely to treating students who refuse to go to school .

has a location of japan

takeshi komatsu should have been at his office this morning . instead , dressed in his suit and carrying his briefcase , he was standing with about 200 other people in a light rain , staring at a huge television screen mounted on the side of a building . " i 'm going to go right after nomo finishes , " promised komatsu , who works for a construction company . japanese_baseball fans , and many people who are n't fans , turned out in large numbers to see los_angeles_dodgers pitcher hideo_nomo , who has become a hero in japan , start for the national_league in the all star game at arlington , tex . the game was broadcast live on satellite_television via channel nhk , the public_broadcasting company , but many people do not have satellite antennas . and the game started at 9 30 a.m. , when japan 's diligent salarymen are supposed to be at their desks . so , many people gathered to watch the game on big screens set up by nhk in public places . others crowded into electronics stores . still others , at places ranging from nomura_securities , toyota and the powerful ministry of international_trade and industry , watched the game in their offices , even though this might have been against the rules . in shibuya , a fashionable shopping district , people stood under umbrellas . some people gasped when kenny_lofton , the first batter against nomo , pulled what appeared to be a home_run toward the right field stands . they let out their breath when the ball curved just foul . a minute later , they applauded as nomo struck out lofton , the first of the three strikeouts he recorded in two innings of shutout pitching . still , this being japan , where reserved behavior is the norm , most of the onlookers did not cheer or applaud at all . the 26 year old " tornado , " who was a star pitcher for the kintetsu_buffaloes in japan for five years , has become the pride of his country for making it in the supposedly superior major_leagues . his story has struck a particular chord with japan 's salarymen , who labor long hours for the same company their whole lives and cannot easily change jobs . nomo , by contrast , had a dispute with his bosses at kintetsu , and got his revenge by leaving and making it big elsewhere . " he 's a typical success story , following his own dreams , " said mario kamo , who works for a government affiliated institute . " many salarymen ca n't do that the same way . " today 's morning television news shows were filled with live reports from the ballpark in arlington , focusing on how nomo , the national_league 's strikeout leader , had inspired a mania in the united_states . japan 's colorful sports newspapers , with their garish tabloid style headlines and girlie pictures inside , splashed nomo stories on their front pages . sports nippon stretched a string of big yellow k 's across its front page . nikkan sports said that nomo had " hijacked " the all star game by stealing all the attention . some of the papers ran small profiles and photographs of all the starters in the all star game , a sign that nomo 's success has led to increased interest in american baseball in general among the japanese . nonetheless , most people had come only to see nomo . after his two innings were over , nhk interrupted its broadcast of the game for a few minutes of news . when the game broadcast resumed , many of the onlookers had left . " he did pretty well , " said minoru tsuchida , who came to watch after working the graveyard shift . " he 's cool , " said akinori uchiyama , a_20 year old college student . he added that he wished catcher mike_piazza had dropped frank thomas 's foul pop in the second inning so that nomo would have had a chance to strike out the white_sox slugger . baseball

has a location of japan

if ''the closer'' is n't any good , blame the winter_olympics hype . among cbs 's perks for broadcasting the olympics despite lower than expected ratings was its ability to unleash torrents of promotions for its programming , including last night 's premiere of tom selleck 's new situation comedy . having spent about 80 hours in cbs 's company , i know selleck is back . ( but where 's courteney cox ? ) i 'm certain ''cybill'' is moving to wednesdays . and i 'm glad to declare that i love raymond , too . ( now , will channel 2 finally stop the sappy olympic athlete and family profiles ? ) so it was n't one extended , 17 night hermann_maier tumble for cbs . by various measures , the 1998 winter_games were highly successful for the network , even if the 16 . 2 prime time nielsen_rating was far below guarantees to advertisers . even if critics were cranky and viewers appeared dissatisfied . ''the olympics were not without disappointment , '' said gil schwartz , cbs 's senior vice_president of communications . ''but in substantial ways , they did exactly what they were supposed to do for cbs . '' john tinker , an analyst with nationsbank montgomery securities , said ''the stations did well , the network rating was way higher than the competition 's and letterman was matching leno . in that sense it was successful . '' a peek at the numbers ( but if you do n't want to know , turn away ) for the february sweeps really the main reason to pay 375 million for the winter_olympics cbs won every night but sunday ( when oprah winfrey 's film ''the wedding'' beat all ) . cbs 's 16 . 0 rating was 70 percent better than nbc 's 9 . 4 , 122 percent better than abc 's 7.2 and 132 percent better than fox 's 6.9 . the 12 stations that cbs owns in nielsen 's 38 metered markets averaged an 18 . 2 rating in prime time , up 88 percent from the same period a year ago . in new york , channel 2 jumped to a 16 . 3 from a 9.3 . the minneapolis station leaped 89 percent to a 23 . 3 . kdka in pittsburgh rose 81 percent to a 22 . 6 . plus , the stations' late news averaged an 11 . 6 rating , up 40 percent from 1997 . ( so if you fancy how fetching warner wolf looks on channel 2 's new set , you might stay . that 's the great thing about having the olympics as your lead in . ) ''late show with david_letterman , '' which seemed to revive creatively , beat ''the tonight show'' by a 5.6 to 5.4 nielsen score . the race culminated with letterman 's 8.5 overnight rating last friday , which thumped the 4.8 of ''tonight . '' ''a significant number of people rediscovered letterman , '' schwartz said . but now it 's back to regular programming . ''the nanny'' will have to do more than deliver reports from nagano . whatever halo effect the olympics provided for the network and the stations may disappear tonight . ''you ca n't expect the halo to go on forever , '' said neal pilson , an industry consultant who was the cbs_sports president when the nagano deal was made . ''your programming still has to be good . '' said schwartz ''it 's back to the usual battle . there are no gimmes . '' but at least more people know where to find their cbs station 184 million are said to have watched all or part of the olympics . now , the olympics are all nbc 's , from 2000 in sydney to 2008 in a city to be named much later . will cbs 's struggles with the 14 hour time difference from nagano to the eastern time zone bear on nbc 's efforts in sydney , which will have a 15 hour time difference ? will cbs 's woes with event postponements in a blizzard beset winter locale shift plans for 2002 in salt_lake_city ? dick ebersol , the president of nbc_sports , anticipates no problems . ''the summer_olympics is a 26 ring circus , and there 's never a paucity of events to put on , '' he said by telephone from sydney . ''and americans are medal participants in all sports . '' despite the time difference , despite everything being on tape , ebersol said his production will be propelled by storytelling . nbc should have an easier time in salt_lake_city than cbs did in japan . besides being a domestic enterprise , ebersol said , ''we 've shown that the olympics have to be produced more as an entertainment than a sporting_event . '' pilson had a scheduling idea for salt_lake_city nbc should show an indoor event , like pairs figure_skating , on the first night of competition , to avoid a weather related postponement of downhill skiing , which bedeviled cbs . ebersol is convinced that storytelling will triumph over choices offered by other media , which will surely expand and morph over the next four years . ''there is a lot more fragmentation out there , from on line , so they 'd better hit the emotional high points all the time , '' tinker said . emotion ? at nbc ? no problem . john tesh will be playing his keyboards at the luge and halfpipe . weeping snowboarders should move us all . airwaves bob page , set to leave ''msg sportsdesk'' april 1 because his contract was not renewed , anchored his last show sunday . his reference to ''politics behind the scenes at madison_square_garden management'' during a report on the rangers' firing of coach colin_campbell ired network brass . ''we had an arrangement with mr . page and his representatives that he would be professional , and we are not pleased with the results of that arrangement , '' said mike mccarthy , executive_producer of msg . sandy montag , page 's agent , said ''it 's no big deal . '' tv sports

has a location of japan

in a resolution that sends everything back to the beginning , outfielder kevin millar was freed from his agreement with the chunichi_dragons last night and returned to the roster of the florida_marlins . the next step , a lawyer close to the situation said , will be for the marlins to sell or trade millar to the boston_red_sox , who want him to play first base . the lawyer said the language of the agreement still had to be completed . major_league_baseball announced the settlement shortly before midnight . under the agreement , the dragons , of japan 's central_league , will receive an undisclosed amount of money for dropping its claim on millar . the dragons paid the marlins 1 . 2 million last month for rights to the 31 year old millar , then reached an agreement with him on a two year , 6 . 2 million contract . the marlins then placed millar on waivers to release him so he could go to the dragons , and the red_sox claimed him . however , acting on his agreement with the marlins , millar rejected the claim . millar then changed his mind about playing in japan , saying his family did not want him to leave at a time of possible war with iraq . baseball

has a location of japan

the rookie season of the los_angeles_dodgers pitching star hideo_nomo has been selected as the top sports story of the year in japan by both the daily yomiuri newspaper and the kyodo_news service , a japanese news_agency . nomo , 27 , the national_league rookie of the year who is from japan , had a 13 6 record with a 2 . 54 earned_run_average and led the n.l . with 236 strikeouts . he started in the all star game and pitched two scoreless innings . ( ap ) sports people baseball

has a location of japan

japan , indicating that it was ready to go into space alone , today outlined an ambitious space_exploration program , including helping to put a huge telescope on the moon . the 10 year government program includes regular unmanned probes of the moon and the planets and development of new space vehicles . the program coincides with wide publicity for a japanese astronaut , koichi wakata , who flew last week on the united_states space_shuttle endeavor . the report says a japanese mission to the moon should serve as the first step toward expanded manned_space activity .

has a location of japan

negotiators from more than 150 countries moved closer today to an agreement requiring reductions in the emission of heat trapping greenhouse_gases by industrial countries , but a firm deal continued to elude them . with a deadline looming later today , the discussions focused on a proposal put forth by raul estrada oyuela of argentina , the chairman of the talks , that would cut average emissions of carbon_dioxide and other greenhouse_gases during the period 2005 through 2010 by 5 percent below the level of emissions in 1990 . in meeting the overall target , different countries and groups of countries would be assigned different targets according to their economic profiles . thus , while the united_states would cut its emissions by 5 percent and japan by 4.5 percent , for instance , emissions of the european_union would be reduced 8 percent . but all would fall within a narrow band ranging from that 8 percent reduction to increases of 5 percent permitted in australia and norway . ''the trend is a very positive one , '' mr . estrada said after the talks recessed at 2 30 a.m . at issue are emissions of six greenhouse_gases . the most important is carbon_dioxide , which is produced by the burning of fossil_fuels like coal and oil . the others are methane , nitrous_oxide , hydrofluorocarbons , perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexachloride , but various proposals on reductions would leave decisions on some gases for another conference . all trap heat in the atmosphere , and some scientific advisers at the talks say the gases will raise the average global temperature by 2 to 6 degrees_fahrenheit by 2100 if emissions are not reduced . by comparison , the world has warmed by 5 to 9 degrees since the depths of the last ice age , and these scientists say the predicted warming would cause widespread climatic and environmental disruption . on the sticky question of how developing_countries can be brought more closely into the effort to control emissions , the proposal suggested setting up a special fund to serve as a conduit for the transfer of money and technology from rich countries to poor ones , so that the latter can adopt appropriate technologies . the united_states ''welcomes'' this concept , said stuart eizenstat , the chief american negotiator , who called it ''exactly the kind of bridge both worlds should hope for . '' mr . estrada 's proposal also provides for developing_countries to submit to binding controls on emissions at any time , at their option some countries , including chile , have expressed interest in this . the developing_countries have been insisting that they will not accept any further commitments under the 1992 rio treaty on climate_change , beyond general ones already binding them to take measures to cut emissions , until the rich countries submit to binding reductions . but dr . mark mwandosya , chairman of the developing_country caucus in the talks , said on tuesday that ''we will not be a stumbling_block'' to mr . estrada 's efforts to forge a deal . the united_states signaled that it was moving in the direction of mr . estrada 's plan on at least one key element , that of the emissions reduction target . mr . eizenstat said the united_states had proposed going below 1990 levels . earlier reports from the european camp that the proposal involved a cut of 2 percent were ''understated , '' he said . mr . eisenstat said the revised american target was contingent on the acceptance of a package that includes the ''trading'' of emissions among countries and regions , and the estrada proposal includes this feature . in emissions trading , a country or industrial company would be able to meet its target by cutting emissions itself , by buying reductions from a country or company that achieved excess cuts , or by both approaches . proponents of the approach argue that it provides an incentive for companies and countries that find it easier and cheaper to cut emissions to reduce them below the target and then sell the excess reductions , at a profit , to companies or countries that find it harder or more costly to reduce emissions on their own . the americans say this results in cheaper and more effective reductions , but the europeans worry that countries might be able to buy their way out of their obligations . the americans proposed on tuesday that the united_states join with a group of countries including but not limited to japan , russia , australia , new zealand and canada in an emissions trading group . this would potentially make it easier for the united_states to achieve its commitments because russia 's economic troubles have reduced its emissions drastically . the european_union has long insisted that its 15 countries be allowed to band together to achieve a common target . the estrada plan would allow countries to meet part of their obligation by counting natural features , mainly forests , that absorb carbon_dioxide . the americans favor this , but the europeas are skeptical .

has a location of japan

the builder of a rocket that had to be destroyed after it careened out of control over the atlantic_ocean focused its investigation today on engine failure . a multimillion_dollar japanese broadcasting satellite was aboard the rocket . the television_network in tokyo that was counting on quick use of the spacecraft said the loss might result in a service disruption for its four million customers . the atlas centaur rocket was blown up by remote_control six minutes after it lifted off thursday night from cape canaveral air force station , sending a hail of debris into the ocean about 240 miles away . the explosion was too far away to be seen or heard from shore . the rocket and satellite were valued at more than 100 million . the spacecraft was insured . cause of failure the builder of the rocket , the general_dynamics_corporation , said the problem occurred just after the centaur upper stage separated from the atlas booster as planned . a preliminary review indicated that one of the two engines on the upper stage had failed to ignite , the company said . the 30 foot centaur , with the satellite still attached , immediately lost speed and began tumbling toward earth . the air_force sent commands that destroyed the rocket to keep it from falling on land . the company that makes centaur engines , the pratt_whitney division of the united_technologies_corporation , said today that it would not speculate on the cause of the accident " until the results from the investigation are known . " the pratt_whitney engine , which weighs 305 pounds and stands more than five feet high , is the world 's first liquid hydrogen fueled space engine . it was designed in the late 1950 's and has been used since 1963 to power the centaur upper stage , which guides spacecraft to their proper orbit . record of successes before the accident on thursday , 178 of the engines had fired in space , all successfully , the company said . the last atlas centaur failure , in 1984 , was caused by a fuel tank leak that had nothing to do with the engine . three years later , lightning destroyed an atlas centaur rocket shortly after liftoff . the last atlas centaur launching , which was the first commercial version of the rocket , successfully put a nasa scientific satellite in orbit in july . the japan broadcasting corporation ordered the satellite to replace one that was destroyed in the explosion of a european ariane rocket in february 1990 . it was to have been a backup for one put in orbit last august that recently developed solar panel trouble . japan 's national nhk television_network had asked the satellite 's owner , the astro space division of the general electric corporation , to get the spacecraft up and running as quickly as possible . g.e . astro planned to pass ownership of the satellite to the broadcasting company once it was in orbit 22 , 300 miles above borneo . officials at g.e . astro talked to executives of japan broadcasting on friday , and further telephone conferences were planned . " it certainly was a service nhk was counting on , " said lawrence greenwood , vice_president and general_manager of g.e . astro . the accident was a major setback for general_dynamics , a newcomer in the commercial launching business . the industry was formed after president_ronald_reagan ordered all commercial cargo off space shuttles after the 1986 challenger accident . general_dynamics' atlas program lost 300 million last year .

has a location of japan

the principal 's office in the little country school here has a gleaming new bell and loudspeaker system to broadcast messages and summon the student body from recess . but it would be simpler to yell through the window for daiki saito to come in . daiki , an impetuous 7 year old with a mischievous sparkle in black eyes that dance beneath bushy eyebrows , is the only student in the entire school . this boxy , cream colored schoolhouse is a monument to japan 's commitment to equality and also to japanese inefficiency . daiki is the sole child living in this little village surrounded by forests in the foothills of mount_fuji , but the government spent more than 100 , 000 renovating an abandoned old schoolhouse for daiki and then assigned him his own first grade teacher and principal . it costs 175 , 000 a year to run daiki 's school . as japan struggles to revive its economy and avert a global recession , it is under enormous pressure to make itself more efficient and thus stimulate a new burst of economic_growth . but it finds itself profoundly torn , for efficiency would come at the price of egalitarianism and other values that many japanese regard as at least as important as economic_growth . ''nowadays , everybody calls for reforms and efficiency , '' said tomishige yazaki , daiki 's principal . ''but if we just pursue efficiency , the world would become a very dry place , with no sensitivity . '' japan is often denounced as recalcitrant and paralyzed as its economy sinks into its worst recession in six decades , and it is true that japanese leaders have spent years denying the existence of economic nettles instead of grasping them . but in some respects this is a principled paralysis . japan 's economic catastrophe has harmed all of asia and arises largely from political incompetence , endemic corruption , webs of relationships that misallocate resources and a parliamentary system that hugely over represents the most backward parts of the country . some of japan 's most serious delays , such as confronting its bad_debts and banking instability , have involved more paralysis than principle . yet while everyone around the globe is complaining about how bad japan is , in other respects the problem is that it has been too good . economists have long known of the ''paradox of thrift , '' which states that although it is admirable to save , a country that saves too much ends up hurting itself . that is one of japan 's ailments , but more broadly it is being pummeled by what might be called a ''paradox of virtue . '' the economy is in deep recession in part for reasons that , in an old fashioned way , seem honorable a passion for prudent fiscal planning , for stamping out inflation , for saving for the future and perhaps most important of all , concern for the human flotsam of capitalism and for equality for all citizens . fiscal nightmare recklessness urged japan 's commitment to equality is intricately linked in at least two ways to its economic crisis and the world 's . first , it is producing a welfare_state for the inefficient , leading to a growing misallocation of resources in the world 's second largest economy . second , the impulse to improve the quality of life in remote areas by building tiny schools and countless mountain roads has helped send costs spiraling out of control . soaring budget_deficits and concern about how to pay for the retirement of japan 's baby_boomers led the government to raise taxes last year . there is now broad agreement that the tax increase was a fatal misstep that plunged japan into recession . but even if its timing was catastrophic , japan was trying to do what economists believe is in principle the right thing reduce budget_deficits and plan for the aging of the baby_boom generation . all industrialized_countries face this challenge but most have put off the hard decisions , while japan 's leaders last year ignored its economic weakness and confronted the problem by raising taxes . in retrospect , this was as foolish as it was well intentioned , and the results were calamitous japan 's economy fell to pieces , and the government now says that economic output will contract this fiscal year for the second year in a row . the stock_market is at a_12 year low , and japan 's biggest banks eight of which have assets worth as much as the entire russian gross_national_product are wobbling . ''japan has found itself in the position of fighting the last major economic war , the great depression , '' said adam s . posen , a scholar at the institute for international_economics in washington and author of a new book on japan 's economy . ''and its government has chosen to pursue the strategy that lost that war . '' mr . posen and many other economists here and abroad recommend a gigantic fiscal_stimulus , such as a huge new spending program coupled with tax cuts . japan has reluctantly taken steps in that direction , but it has dithered because huge spending increases seem so , well , irresponsible . japan finds itself hampered as well in its monetary_policy , because in the past it attacked inflation so relentlessly that interest rates are extremely low . that makes it difficult to ease monetary_policy by lowering rates further , and so some experts are urging japan to get out of this box by pledging to be irresponsible and taking steps to nurture inflation . the upshot is that for a diligent , serious nation like japan , the present economic crisis is a nightmare it is being scolded on all sides and advised that it must be more fiscally reckless and monetarily irresponsible . a fiscal or monetary stimulus may rescue japan in the short run , but most economists here and abroad say that in the longer_term japan must restructure its economy and pay much more attention to efficiency rather than equality . yet the calls for efficiency run smack into the egalitarianism that has been a national ideology since the end of world_war_ii , when a defeated japan was told of the evils of its traditions of authoritarianism and hierarchy . many economists and business leaders say that an obsession with equality is stifling japan . inefficiencies and bureaucracies take the government 's building projects . they are partly a way of showing thanks to construction companies , which contribute mightily to the liberal_democrats . yet such projects also seem to reflect an egalitarian commitment to improve the lives of people in remote areas . on ikarajima , a sleepy little islet in southern japan that is home to only 350 people , a dazzling new 125 million steel bridge rises like a mirage , to connect one end of the island with a neighboring island . the bridge , built in 1996 to replace a ferry that used to take 15 minutes , cost 357 , 000 for each resident of ikarajima . that led to some sniping about waste of money , and so plans for a 250 million bridge on the other side of ikarajima have been put on hold for now . ''the island people have been eagerly waiting for this new bridge , but now because of reports of waste , they are deprived even of their dreams , '' said kenzo uehara , a town official on the island . ''i do n't know that you can criticize these projects just by the logic of numbers . '' one of the most breathtaking economic inefficiencies is the expenditure on tiny schools with just a handful of students . while daiki 's case is unusual , another school near ichinosetakahashi also has just a single pupil , and so does a school in the southern city of kumamoto . the education ministry says it does not know how many single student schools there are in japan . but it says the country has 3 , 324 elementary schools 14 percent of the total with fewer than 50 students in all grades put together . why run an entire school for a single student , regardless of cost ? the main reason is obliviousness to costs , coupled with a feeling of obligation to rural communities that want their children to have a neighborhood school just like city kids . but japan 's sometimes rigid bureaucracy can also be a factor . in daiki 's case , the neighboring town operates an elementary_school just 20 minutes away . but the authorities say that because that school falls under a different administrative region , it is inconceivable that daiki go there . income distributed too equitably ''it might be less costly , and we would be happy to make such an arrangement if it were possible , '' said tadashi michibayashi , an official in the enzan board of education . ''but we in the administration have to draw the line somewhere . '' of the various elements of egalitarianism , japan is particularly proud of its even distribution of income . the richest third of the population in japan enjoys a total income three times as great as that of the poorest third compared with more than five times as much in the united_states . several global studies have found that an egalitarian distribution of income helps promote economic_growth within a country . but by most counts japan takes it too far . japan relies on 65 percent marginal tax rates its tax system is among the most progressive in the world and japanese companies suppress income differentials by paying employees according to seniority rather than merit . the tax rates and corporate practices reflect a psychology of egalitarianism , many say , that has tended to suppress entrepreneurship and hold back the most talented sector of the population . ''when i was here in high_school , there were four classes of about 50 kids each in my 11th_grade class , '' said robert alan feldman , who first came to japan as an exchange student and is now chief economist at morgan_stanley in tokyo . ''and as i looked around , it struck me that there were a couple of really bright kids in each class , and a bunch of medium kids and a bunch of dumb kids . and i asked the teacher , 'well , why do n't you track the kids in some way , like have a bright class ? ' ''and he gave me an answer i 'll never forget . he said 'it would n't be democratic . ' and i thought , gee , these people define democracy very differently . '' gaining consensus , respecting 'wa' more broadly , japan seems troubled by economic changes that are beneficial overall but that make losers out of some people . creating losers would upset the society 's ''wa , '' or harmony , a value that has been central to japanese society at least since prince shotoku in 604 proclaimed a constitution decreeing ''wa must be respected . '' the emphasis on wa often impresses visitors , but it also results in paralysis . japan has difficulty carrying out changes that benefit the majority but that are vigorously opposed by a small group of prospective losers . ''japan is a society of consensus , and as long as 30 percent of the population holds out against a decision , the government will not act , '' said yoshio hatano , a former ambassador to the united_nations . the tensions between the united_states and japan thus seem to arise not just from tokyo 's political paralysis but more fundamentally from a set of enormously different attitudes and values , not just about economics but about life itself . ''we are at two ends of the spectrum , the u.s . and japan , '' said masaru yoshitomi , one of japan 's leading economists . mr . yoshitomi noted that japan 's egalitarianism runs so deep that when schoolchildren take part in sports day activities , the prizes often go not just to the winners of the races but to absolutely every child who takes part . he suggested that this takes equality too far , breeding cohesion but suppressing the excellence that drives a modern economy . ''there are no outstanding people in japan , '' mr . yoshitomi said , only partly joking , ''and that has to change . ''

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when the detroit_tigers signed cecil_fielder three years ago for 3 million over two years , many people wondered why the tight fisted tigers would spend so much money on a player returning from japan who had been a part time player before he left . now comes orestes destrade , and the florida_marlins hope he will be cecil ii . destrade , 30 years old , has played in japan for the last four seasons . before that period , he batted 76 times in the major_leagues with the yankees and the pittsburgh_pirates after laboring in the minor leagues for seven seasons in the yankees' organization . so why should the expansion marlins sign destrade to a two year contract worth 3 . 5 million ? " our scouts felt he would help the big_league club , " general_manager dave dombrowski said . " he 's got tremendous power . he always has had that . you 're not looking at a guy who 's been taking advantage of short fences . no question , there 's some gamble in it , but we felt it was worth it based on the reports we received . " destrade , a first baseman , led japan in home_runs each of the last three seasons the first foreigner to do so with 42 , 39 and 41 . not so coincidentally , his team , the seibu lions , won the japanese championship all three years . the lions were prepared to give destrade about 6 million for two more years , but he could n't pass up the chance to go home . " it 's a great opportunity , me being a cuban from miami , " he said , speaking from hawaii , where he and his seibu teammates were celebrating their most recent championship . " my family " his wife and two young children " and i love japan , but there 's nothing like being at home . " montreal , cleveland and st . louis also made him offers , destrade said , " but i would n't have gone to any of those places . it was either miami or back to japan . " in his younger days , destrade had difficulty reaching the majors with the yankees because don mattingly was the first baseman . when he was traded to the pirates , he found sid bream at first . finally , in june 1989 , destrade gave up on baseball in this country and went to japan . when fielder spent a season in japan , destrade said , he gained greater confidence in his ability and learned to play while being the center of attention . fielder returned to the major_leagues and has become their most awesome slugger . what has japanese_baseball done for destrade ? " definitely i 'm better , " he said , " but a lot has to do with maturing age wise . i had to become mentally stronger . i was on a team with only one other foreigner , and he was a taiwanese pitcher . i had to mentally motivate myself . i did n't have coaches and friends when i got in slumps . that 's where my game has gotten stronger . " santiago 's plunge benito santiago was once considered the premier catcher in the major_leagues . in the last couple of years , however , his reputation plunged precipitously both as a catcher and as a personality in the clubhouse . despite his more recent status , the marlins decided to sign him as a free_agent for 7 . 2 million for two years . " we felt a change of scenery will benefit him a great deal , " dombrowski said . " we felt he was eager to play here . he had a good visit with rene lachemann . lach felt very comfortable after visiting with him and felt he 'd like to have him . " with top flight catchers a rarity , the earlier santiago would have commanded at least 5 million a year . if lachemann and dombrowski have guessed right , they could have a bargain . if they guessed wrong , the marlins would have squandered money better spent elsewhere . the definition of chaos on the last day of the winter_meetings , dec . 9 , bud_selig of the milwaukee_brewers , the man in charge of the major_leagues in the absence of a commissioner , told assembled reporters in no uncertain terms that contrary to whatever they may have written or thought , baseball was not in chaos . one week later , participating in a panel discussion , richard_ravitch , the owners' chief labor executive , said , " there is chaos in baseball and nobody can deny that . " selig , who as chairman of the player relations committee board is also ravitch 's boss , was said not to be amused by the contradiction . on the other hand , charlie sutton , the agent for terry steinbach , must have been amused at least puzzled when the yankees made what they said was a four year , 16 million offer to the free_agent catcher . adding the numbers , sutton got 17 million and informed general_manager gene michael of his mathematics . " then i guess it 's 17 million , " michael was said to have replied . unconvincing the son in law insists he is running the yankees himself with no help from his still exiled father in law , but he has n't convinced anyone in baseball . although no one has first hand , eyewitness evidence , owners and executives who are asked their opinion see the fingerprints of george_steinbrenner all over the yankees' deals of recent weeks . asked if there were any doubts that steinbrenner was orchestrating the club 's moves , one executive laughed and said , " of course not . " joseph molloy , who has added the duties of general_manager to those of general managing partner , denied last week that he toots his tuba to the beat of steinbrenner 's baton , although he admitted that sometimes he has to " bite his tongue " to resist temptation . they did n't even discuss free agents at thanksgiving dinner , baseball 's best known and best behaved son in law said . perhaps not . but one can imagine a coded conversation at the dinner table in which the father in law clearly gave molloy instructions to sign four free agents . and the shrewd steinbrenner was so clever that anyone listening would have thought just the opposite . chomping on a big turkey leg , steinbrenner might have said , " owin' as to how the key to our season is my return , we ca n't get bogged down in discussions about free agents now . " sad days for pirates now that the dismantling of the three time division champion pittsburgh_pirates has been completed , syd thrift has only the memory of his success in resuscitating the team and insuring its continued residence in pittsburgh . " it 's sad , " thrift said when asked how it felt to see the developments of the past 13 months , in which barry_bonds , bobby bonilla , doug drabek , john smiley and jose lind have left the pirates . thrift was the general_manager who built the team that manager jim leyland molded into a champion . their efforts came just as the pirates were teetering on the precipice of disaster and departure to another city . looking at the remains of the pirates , thrift , now the chicago_cubs' assistant_general_manager , acknowledged that they have a difficult task ahead . but he added " they 're better off than we were in 1986 because of the players they have . they 're stronger . " bonds at the podium barry_bonds should know when he 's ahead and stop talking about his years in pittsburgh . he 's becoming offensive . during the national_league playoff in october , bonds went on and on about what a great place pittsburgh was to live in ( it was the best , he said ) , what a great bunch of guys the pirates were to play with and what a great manager jim leyland was to play for . of course , bonds was n't willing to take fewer millions to remain in his personal eden . with his agent , dennis gilbert , maneuvering to make him the highest paid player , bonds became a free_agent and held out for top dollar . when he got it from the san_francisco_giants , he instantly told the world how wonderful it was to go home ( his father played for the giants from the time barry was 3 years old until he was 10 ) . then , at his unveiling in san_francisco last week , bonds told a rally of giants' fans , " when i was in pittsburgh , we would 've played for jim leyland for nothing . " in truth , he would n't have played for leyland for 7 million a year , because even that would n't have made him the highest paid player in the game . notebook

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government officials and businessmen in japan reacted with indignation and puzzlement today over reports that american baseball officials were opposed to the offer by a japanese company to help buy the seattle_mariners . hiroshi yamauchi , president of the nintendo company , which has teamed up with a group of businessmen in washington_state to bid for the mariners , held a news conference today to explain the offer . he said he might be forced to withdraw the bid if the public reaction was negative . although the reception in seattle was favorable , the baseball_commissioner , fay_vincent , said it was unlikely the bid would be approved . yamauchi said the company should not be criticized for making a takeover attempt because it was first approached by political leaders in the united_states . " this is entirely different from an acquisition of an american corporation by a japanese corporation , " said yamauchi . 'simply a response' " it is simply a response to the urgings of the senator and governor of washington , " yamauchi said at a news conference in kyoto , where his company has its headquarters . " a foundation was established , and upon request , i invested in that foundation . " if accepted and approved by baseball officials , the offer by the family that founded nintendo would represent the first time that a potential investor outside north_america had bought a controlling interest in an american club . the controversy over the bid for the mariners was one of a string of episodes in the last week that have emphasized what some say is growing american resentment of japanese economic strength . news reports have focused all week on american anger over a comment by a leader of the japanese parliament that american workers are lazy and illiterate . there has also been considerable publicity over the rejection by los_angeles of a previously awarded bid by subsidiary of the sumitomo corporation for construction of railway cars . japanese officials have been careful not to denounce the county of los angeles by name , but some warn that the cancellation of the los_angeles contract could have damaging repercussions for the american drive to get construction contracts in japan . " this new japan bashing is very unfortunate , " said a senior economic policymaker , asking not to be identified . " any backlash in japan will make it more difficult to make progress in our own government_procurement procedures . " he was referring to japan united_states pacts in recent years permitting american construction companies to bid on dozens of projects , many of them airports and other projects put up by local authorities . a spokesman for the foreign ministry , masamichi hanabusa , said that the latest efforts to block japanese activity may be part of a wave of criticism or japan bashing , but that this was a temporary phenomenon caused in part by the recession . in defending the nintendo baseball proposal , yamauchi said the bid was in keeping with the community minded spirit of the american subsidiary of the company , which has made considerable money in america . " this is a kind of social service , not a business activity intended to make a profit , " yamauchi told the yomiuri newspaper today . he said it was not his intention to change the name of the mariners or to utilize the mariners' name in the nintendo business . echoing this view , hanabusa of the foreign ministry said he could not understand why there would be a negative reaction to a possible nintendo purchase , because it should be seen as part of japanese efforts to support community activities . baseball

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ichiro_ozawa , a highly unusual japanese politician who calls for a virtual revolution in his nation 's politics , economics , society and foreign_policy , was elected leader of japan 's main opposition party today . mr . ozawa , who would almost certainly put relations with the united_states on a new footing , thus moves one step closer to the prime_minister 's office . his platform calls for sweeping deregulation in almost every sector , a far reaching restructuring of the educational system and much greater willingness to use military force . still , it is far from clear that mr . ozawa will become prime_minister after the next general_election is called . and even if he were to become prime_minister , it is uncertain how much impact he would have . in any case , though , his rise to lead the main opposition party , the new frontier party , underscores a generational transition toward politicians who aim to be leaders as well as prime_ministers . mr . ozawa and others of his generation he is 53 are far more self confident than those who have ruled japan for 50 years . " i will fight to my last breath , with all my power , for the new frontier party and for japan , " a beaming mr . ozawa told a victory celebration of supporters who cheered him with shouts of " banzai ! " meaning " 10 , 000 years , " or " long life . " if mr . ozawa were to become prime_minister , there would inevitably be some strains in relations with washington , for his vision is of japan as a full partner of the united_states rather than as its caddie . yet mr . ozawa also favors the kind of broad deregulation in japan that americans have yearned for . moreover , mr . ozawa places enormous emphasis on military cooperation , and he would be far more willing than any other japanese politician to back up united_states forces in a conflict with north_korea or another country . the election of mr . ozawa means that the next prime_minister is likely to be either he or ryutaro_hashimoto , the leader of the liberal democratic_party , japan 's biggest political group . mr . hashimoto is also a new style politician , unusually assertive and ready for japan to exercise power , although he does not favor the same kind of sweeping changes . mr . hashimoto today called mr . ozawa " a superb politician " and said , " i look forward to being able now to hold a fair and aboveboard debate on the issues . " that was a dig at mr . ozawa 's reputation as a king maker , forging back room deals without stepping forward to engage in public debate . one reason mr . ozawa is not more popular is that he is widely seen as embodying precisely the tradition of behind the scenes machinations that he says he is determined to end . the party election process broke new ground . normally it is primarily members of parliament who choose a party 's leader . but the new frontier party allowed any japanese over 18 to vote for a_10 contribution , and 1.7 million people voted . a general_election must be held by july 1997 . mr . ozawa has a reputation as a brilliant campaign strategist he masterminded his party 's stunningly good performance in july elections for the upper_house of parliament and the next election will be held under a new system of single seat constituencies that make the outcome difficult to predict . mr . ozawa faces two other obstacles his health and his prickly personality . he has had heart problems , although it is not clear how severe they are now . what is clear is that he is a difficult person to work with , often as prone to pummel egos as to stroke them . a broader challenge would be how to prevail over an entrenched bureaucracy . two years ago another bold young politician , morihiro_hosokawa , became prime_minister and talked of far reaching change . he lasted less than a year as prime_minister and left little mark on the nation .

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in a nation that was widely regarded as well prepared for earthquakes , something clearly went wrong last week in the city of kobe . and now , some people are saying the temblor also exposed what is wrong with the leadership of japan . newspapers editorialists and other critics are complaining strongly about the response by the administration of prime_minister tomiichi_murayama , who did not hear about the earthquake until he watched the morning news on television . in a possible sign of weakening confidence in the government , the nikkei stock_market_index dropped more than 1 , 000 points today , a decline of 5.6 percent , after smaller declines in the days immediately after the quake . and newspapers are publishing a growing number of accusations that poor preparation , indecision and bureaucratic rivalry may have added to the death toll . " this earthquake symbolizes the systemic weak point in our postwar system , " said takeshi sasaki , a professor of political_science at tokyo_university . " there is no systemic flexibility . this kind of rigidity in our system is proved by this enormous tragedy . " " when something disrupts our system , " he added , " the system becomes unworkable . " fault lines run underneath the soil of most parts of the japanese islands , so earthquakes have been a part of this country 's psyche for generations . as a result , japan has developed sophisticated equipment for measuring and detecting earthquakes , as well as systems in earthquake resistant buildings that automatically shut off gas at the first tremor . the problem is that while money went into earthquake related technology , it does not seem to have gone into crisis_management organizing rescue and relief operations in the aftermath of an earthquake . of course no city could be expected to insulate itself against an earthquake of this scale , and after all , 99 . 9 percent of the population in the earthquake zone survived . nonetheless , critics say , even after the quake the kobe region and the national government seemed to be at a loss as to how to handle the crisis . " early warning of the earthquake was practically impossible , " said seizaburo sato , professor of political_science at keio_university . " but once the earthquake started , the government could have done a much better job . " " murayama said he was inexperienced , that it was natural to make mistakes , " he added . " that 's an excuse that no japanese_prime_minister should use . it 's like if japan is invaded , the japanese_prime_minister cannot just say 'i 'm inexperienced , and this is my first experience with this . ' " government officials acknowledge that there were problems in the response to the quake . " we realized the large scale of the damage almost at the same time as they were reported on the television , and we were surprised , " said masayuki kitamoto , deputy director at the national land agency 's disaster prevention bureau . " probably local officials were confused , and communication lines were shut down instantly . at least we should have flown a helicopter much earlier to grasp the whole picture earlier . " some critics say mr . murayama did not grasp the gravity of the quake soon enough , and the mainichi daily news quoted the chief_cabinet_secretary and other cabinet members as saying they were poorly informed of its scale . then , because of a quirky bureaucratic procedure , the order to send a full fledged contingent of the self_defense forces , japan 's military , was not issued until nine hours after the quake . moreover , traffic_jams delayed the arrival of many soldiers for five more hours into kobe and its stricken neighbor , nishinomiya . firefighters were available to tackle flames that had erupted throughout kobe and nishinomiya , but water was not , and so buildings and houses burned down . trucks equipped with food and water were sent late and were delayed even longer because of the traffic_jams . the tardy response seems to have resulted partly from the bureaucratic system and the consensus style of management for which japan is noted . communication lines among bureaucracies and ministries broke down , and many officials seemed reluctant to act decisively , scholars and critics say . in addition , emergency measures were difficult to initiate because of the devastating nature of the quake . for starters , electricity in the government building went out , generators to power satellite transmissions were damaged and a number of officials were unable to get to work . the result was that emergency plans could not be carried out . one reason for the heavy losses was that while japan has stringent codes to protect buildings from quake damage , many homes predated the regulations . many residents interviewed in kobe and nishinomiya seemed completely surprised by the earthquake and said they thought that their area was in no danger of quakes . many middle_aged citizens interviewed in recent days said they had never taken any precautions or made any preparations for an earthquake . " i never went through any drills , " said kazuko miyamoto , a 60 year old woman who stood in line waiting for water in kobe one recent evening . " i naively believed that this is a safe place . i was too optimistic . " kobe is often considered one of the nicest places in japan to live , and some people even move to kobe to evade the risk of earthquakes in other areas , like tokyo , or yokohama , a suburb of the capital . kobe had no record of a serious earthquake . " i grew up in yokohama and believed that an earthquake could ruin our lives , " said mitsui oku , 57 , who moved to kobe 13 years ago . after the move , she said " i completely forgot about earthquakes . i thought that we were so lucky to be living in a disaster free area . " the schools , however , are the one remaining pillar of earthquake discipline . students go through practice drills in classrooms , jumping under desks , dashing to the safety of the playground outside , sometimes running through tunnels of smoke with handkerchiefs over their faces . but while these drills may have at one time served to educate the japanese about earthquakes , most of the preparation is focused in the tokyo area , and most japanese seem to pay scant_attention . " we used to do drills in school , " miki demoto , a 25 year old resident of kobe , said in a phone interview . " but i never took them seriously . " on jan . 17 , the day of the quake , a japan american workshop on reducing the hazards of earthquakes in urban_areas was being held in kobe , as a way of drawing the attention of local officials to the risks . " kobe was chosen for the reason that we were trying to bring attention to this area , " said susan k . tubbesing , executive director of the earthquake engineering research institute , based in oakland , calif . " there are lots of places in the united_states that have similar seismic risk potential , like seattle and the new madrid area in the southern midwest kentucky , tennessee , missouri , and arkansas . " quake in japan the leadership

has a location of japan