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News
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Wednesday • April 9,1
Wealthy country, poor citizens
leave Japan in throes of doubt
TOKYO (AP) — Tumbled from its pin- sentative said in a recent wide-ranging war highs. The banking system is awasl
TOKYO (AP) — Tumbled from its pin
nacle of wealth, sparkling economic
growth and boundless confidence,
Japan seems stuck in self-doubt.
It is still an industrial giant, and its
economy appears to be edging out of a
long slowdown. The standard of living
remains high. Yet the country that a
decade ago appeared poised to own the
21st century now has difficulty seeing
beyond the next generation.
In a culture where the well-being of
one’s children is paramount, the uncertain
outlook has many Japanese depressed.
“They’ll have to work harder and hard
er just to stay in place,” liquor company
employee Toshiyuki Hozawa said of his
sons during a recent family picnic. “I won
der what it will be like in 20 or 30 years.”
The attitude reflects how Japan’s eco
nomic status has changed over the last
10 years, how prospects have dimmed
for a nation that inspired awe at home
and abroad with its wealth and bravado.
“The time of high-speed growth is
over,” Hozawa’s wife, Yuko, said as the
boys, ages 7 and 3, ran around their pic
nic blanket beside the Tama River, on
Tokyo’s western outskirts.
The couple’s musings are more than
matched by a constant drumbeat of pes
simism in editorials and commentaries
that pound home one message: Japan
will be left behind by the rest of the
world unless something is done quickly.
“In recent years, a shadow has fallen over
the safety and security of Japanese society,”
Japan’s Economic Planning Agency repre
sentative said in a recent wide-ranging
report on the “national lifestyle.”
Japanese levels of safety and civility
still are tough to match. But crime, drug
use and gun offenses are on the rise.
More people are seeking treatment for
depression, and surveys show declines
“I don't know if people are
willing to make the sacri
fices that the government
is asking them to make."
Walter Hatch
Coauthor, Asia in Japan’s Embrace
in optimism and job security. Many fear
a growing elderly population will soon
overburden the younger generation;
critics blame flagging national morality
for a myriad of problems.
“Society in general has lost hope,” said
psychiatrist and writer Kazuo Sakai, direc
tor of a clinic in Tokyo. “Japan doesn’t have
a religious or political ideology ... a posi
tive way of understanding the world.”
Many of Japan’s most powerful insti
tutions are being held up as in need of
repair or overhaul, including schools,
politicians, the health care system, and
even the powerful bureaucracy.
The most glaring challenge is the econ
omy. At the end of Japan’s longest down
turn since World War II, unemployment
and bankruptcy liabilities hover at post
war highs. The banking system is awash in
bad debt; the government is running up a
deficit; the stock market is taking a beat
ing. Despite decent growth in 1996, fore
casts for this year are less rosy.
Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto is
pushing a package of reforms to deregulate
the economy to make sure Japan remains a
topflight power in the 21st centuiy.
Such a plan is sure to bring painful
changes as protected industries are forced
to restructure. And the pain will come at a
time when many were hoping to reap
more benefits from decades of hard work.
“I don’t know if people are willing to
make the sacrifices that the government
is asking them to make,” said Walter
Hatch, a Fulbright Scholar at Keio
University and coauthor of Asia in
Japan’s Embrace.
A decade after Japan was proclaimed
an economic superpower, people like
the Hozawas still have no access to the
larger homes and ample free time that
their counterparts in other wealthy
countries enjoy. And it is not certain they
will anytime soon.
“I’m 33 years old and I live in an apart
ment, not a house,” said Toshio Hirokawa,
a securities company employee and
father of two. “I can’t buy a house yet
because I had to take out a loan for a car.”
The Japanese have long complained
they are poor citizens of a rich country.
And while the rest of the world sees
Japan as a fierce competitor, people here
often see themselves as underdogs
struggling to keep up with the world.
Y ’ | i y 1
j
Sink or
Swim?
Pat james, The Battas
Boris Matisziw and Evan Zimmerman, senior ock
engineering students, make some last minute
changes to a submarine before testing it in thewa
pool at the Offshore Technologies Research Cente
Death of Palestinian sparks riots that kill two other
HEBRON, West Bank (AP) —
Jewish seminary students shot and
killed a Palestinian on Tuesday,
sparking fierce riots in which Israeli
troops killed two Palestinians and
injured dozens. It was the West
Bank’s worst violence in months.
The rioting in Hebron raged for
more than five hours, with hundreds
of protesters hurling stones and fire
bombs at the Israelis, who fired back
tear gas and rubber bullets.
In Jerusalem, Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu called for
Israeli security forces and
Palestinian police to Cooperate in
restoring calm and warned that
one more major terrorist attack
could scuttle the peace process.
Palestinian police tried to pre
vent the protests from spilling over
from the Palestinian-controlled
part of the city into the enclave still
held by Israel, where the shooting
occurred — only to be pelted with
stones by their own people.
The violence in Hebron —
where 500 Jewish settlers live in
uneasy coexistence with 130,000
Palestinians — came amid Arab
dismay over the failure of
Monday’s summit between
President Clinton and Netanyahu
to break the deadlock.
The Israeli leader, however,
insisted that “interesting ideas” on
how to restart talks had come out of
the Washington summit. Further
progress, he said, depended on the
prevention of further violence.
Although Tuesday's fighting was
the bloodiest, Palestinians and
Israeli soldiers have battled in the
streets of the West Bank almost daily
since Israel brol^e ground March 18
for the Har Homa housing project in
east Jerusalem, the sector
Palestinians want as their capital.
In Washington, Clinton urged
both sides to prevent the violence
from stopping progress toward
peace. “We’ve just got to keep
going,” he said Tuesday.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich,
speaking to a pro-Israel lobby,
blamed the crisis on Arafat, saying
the Palestinian leader was an active
accomplice in a campaign of “ter
ror and coordinated propaganda”
that was aimed at defeating Israel.
Netanyahu accuses Arafat of
orchestrating the riots and authoriz
ing militant attacks, including a sui
cide bombing in Tel Aviv last month
that killed three Israeli women.
Arafat spokesperson Marwan
Kanafani accused Netanyahu of
having “blood on his hands” after
Tuesday’s shootings. Arafat him
self, speaking before the shooting,
said Netanyahu’s refusal to sus
pend settlement building means
“he does not want peace.”
The Supreme Court removed
the last legal challenge to the pro
ject on Tuesday, rejecting a Jewish
land owner’s attempt to prevent
Israel from confiscating his 140
acres — about one-third of the
construction site.
There were conflicting reports
about the shooting in Hebron.
Palestinians said the attack was
unprovoked, while Israelis insisted
it was brought on by Palestinians
who sprayed two Jewish seminary
students with tear gas as they
walked to the Tomb of the
Patriarchs. Both students had tear
gas burns, police spokesperson
Linda Menuchin said.
The students opened fire with
Uzi submachine guns, Hebron
police commander Benny
Baharon said. One shot hit Assam
Rashid Arafeh, 23, in
killing him, Palestinian |
hospital workers said.
Israel Radio reported tl j
police investigation
students — identified as Id
Deel and Zeev Mok — I
in self-defense. Police
investigating whether i
with the intent to kill.
Palestinians, angered o\tf
shooting, lobbed gasoline Id
and rocks, injuring at least
Israeli soldiers and set
Palestinian policemen.
Israeli troops fired teat f
rubber bullets, wounding arf
Palestinians. Seven of them itP
hospitalized Tuesday night. |
Pharmaceutical giant
gives away internation
abortion pill rights
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PARIS (AP) — Threatened by
boycotts from American anti
abortion groups, the European
pharmaceutical giant Hoechst on
Tuesday unloaded its remaining
rights to the abortion pill RU-486.
The company gave the rights
to one of the drug’s creators, Dr.
Edouard Sakiz, who plans to
form a smaller company that
will be less vulnerable to con
sumer pressure.
The move was a further
attempt by the French drug
company Roussel-Uclaf — a
Hoechst subsidiary — to dis
tance itself from the controver
sial drug. Just two years ago, in
the face of boycotts, it ceded
“This product can
no longer be part
of the strategy of
an international
company."
Catherine Euvrard
Hoechst spokesperson
U.S. rights to RU-486 to a non
profit American group.
Sakiz said his new company
will have nothing to do with the
U.S. market.
“In the United States, they’re
on the verge of a civil war” over
abortion, he said.
The $3.5 million in annual sales
of RU-486 — also known as
mifepristone — was not worth
risking Hoechst’s $1.63 billion in
U.S. business, Hoechst spokesper
son Catherine Euvrard said.
“Roussel-Uclaf no longer has
the means to be able to with
stand the boycott threats” from
American anti-abortion groups,
she told reporters in Paris.
“This product can no longer be
part of the strategy of an
international company.”
An American anti-abortion
group last week threatened to
it
boycott Allegra, a Hoechst ani
tamine, Euvrard said. Ho
and Sakiz already had decidi
make the transfer, she said
The Washington-based Nal
Right to Life Committee,
threatened the boycott, \
comment on the transfer of
rights to RU-486.
About 200,000 women
ended pregnancies withth
486 since it debuted oi
French market in 1988, $
also is sold in Sweden';
Britain. In the United States'
486 is expected to received
approval and begin distrio|
by the year’s end.
Alexander Sanger,
American group
Parenthood, said he
transfer of Hoechst’s rightsto
drug would make RU-
available worldwide.
But Sakiz, who did notp 3 !
rights to the drug, said he"' 11
only distribute the drug tot 111
tries that followed strict
lines for its use, a require 11 ! 1
that would exclude most dev® 1
ing countries and Russia.
Sakiz’s company will take 1
all manufacturing, marketing
distribution of RU-486.
The new company is exp e
to make little or no profit"
RU-486, though any profits^
the drug would go towardnw
research, Sakiz said.
Sakiz retired from Rod
Uclaf’s board a fewdaysag 1
set up the new comp 1
which will probably leavett
of the production and dis 1
ution to outside compa
he said. He declined ton
potential partners.
In the meantime, prodtf
will done by Hoechst.
Sakiz will personally pa)'
start-up costs of the new cot
ny, but said he could notesfii
his initial investment.
Asked if he was frustrate
the controversy surrounding
tribution of the drug, Sakiz
“No, it’s a challenge.
1