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MORE SPORTS
Dec 5, 2000

JSA announces new techniques

The Japan Sumo Association on Monday announced 15 new winning techniques for use in professional sumo tournaments, boosting the number of official techniques to 87.
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2000

Columnist feels 'stronger' despite living with HIV

Patrick Bommarito is a 35-year-old openly gay American who lives in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2000

Use of 'absolute criteria' urged to evaluate academic standing

Elementary and junior high schools should stop evaluating students' academic performance in relation to others and instead use an "absolute criteria," an advisory panel to the education minister proposed Monday.
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2000

Biker sues Osaka TV station for staging role in rampage

OSAKA -- An imprisoned motorcycle gang leader filed a 23 million yen damages suit against an Osaka TV station Monday, claiming he was sent to prison for a reckless driving incident that was staged for a program by the broadcaster.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2000

A Taiwanese lesson in statesmanship

CAMBRIDGE, England -- So our great leaders were unable to reach agreement in The Hague last month on how to save the planet from environmental pollution. So we can continue pumping out ozone-destroying fumes to our hearts' content, especially gas-guzzling drivers in the good old United States. Forests...
BUSINESS
Dec 5, 2000

Firm says air conditioners pose fire risk

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Monday that some of its air conditioners produced from 1988 to 1996 could malfunction and catch fire.
COMMENTARY
Dec 5, 2000

Old guard may still deliver

As suggested in an earlier column (Nov. 16), the Liberal Democratic Party faction leader, Koichi Kato, probably deserved to fail in his recent attempt to overthrow his party's leadership. His timing and approach were flawed. His call for immediate structural reform and fiscal restraint was bad economics....
EDITORIALS
Dec 5, 2000

A ticket to ride -- at what price?

As of this week, long-suffering passengers on Japan's crowded local train lines are still awaiting a satisfactory explanation, rather than an excuse, for why they were overcharged if they followed the posted fare tables. In some cases, the overcharging has continued for more than three years. The reasons...
MORE SPORTS
Dec 5, 2000

Lions to let go of Fernande

The Seibu Lions will release infielder Tony Fernandez after having the services of the veteran major leaguer for only one season, Seibu officials said Monday.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Dec 5, 2000

Audio Active beams down the space dub

Masa of Audio Active has gone AWOL. I'm at the new offices of his management company, Beatink, in Shibuya. Tae, who arranged the interview, is refilling my coffee cup and apologizing, telling me that the main man is not answering his keitai and nobody knows where the hell he is.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 5, 2000

Handful of history

COLUMBIA CHRONOLOGIES OF ASIAN HISTORY AND CULTURE, edited by John S. Bowman. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000, 752 pp., $85. Oh, "if men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us! But passion and party blind our eyes, and the light which experience gives is a lantern on the...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 5, 2000

What is the weight of a fractured atom?

ATOMIC FRAGMENTS: A Daughter's Questions, by Mary Palevsky. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000, 272 pp., $24.95 (cloth). With the benefit of hindsight and a distant or nonexistent memory of World War II, we pass moral judgment on those who were directly involved with the invention and construction...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 5, 2000

Blues for the new millennium

The new CD puts a contemporary spin on classic blues-rock. "It's a ticket to the show." That's how Canadian band leader Robin Suchy describes the newly released CD he produced with his 10-man blues band, the Howling Loochie Brothers.
EDITORIALS
Dec 4, 2000

Prepare for bumps ahead

The U.S. economy is slowing down and that could mean trouble for the rest of the world. The United States has acted as consumer of last resort for many of the world's exporters. As the U.S. economic expansion brakes, those countries will have to find other markets for their goods or risk a slowdown of...
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2000

World's tallest building planned in South Korea

South Korea's Lotte Group is to construct the tallest building in the world -- nearly one-third as tall again as the highest building in Japan, the Landmark Tower in Yokohama -- at a cost of some 1.2 trillion won, over $1 billion.
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2000

Red Army kin could return by yearend

Prospects increased that five family members of the former Red Army Faction members who hijacked a Japan Airlines jet in 1970 will return to Japan from North Korea as government sources said Japan plans to allow an agent to apply for visas for them.
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2000

Mori poised to turn to familiar old faces in Cabinet reshuffle

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori continued tinkering with the task of matching Cabinet portfolios with names Sunday, but many of his appointments in the reshuffle expected Tuesday are likely to be old hands retained from his present administration, political sources said.
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2000

Liberal Party wants SDF role spelled out in Constitution

The opposition Liberal Party has worked out a draft proposal for revising the Constitution to allow Japan's Self-Defense Forces to participate in all types of U.N. peacekeeping activities, party sources said Sunday.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 4, 2000

Hosei U. captures Kanto title

YONO, Saitama Pref. -- Yoshimoto Usugi rushed for 138 yards and two touchdowns as the Hosei University Tomahawks cruised past the Nippon Sports Science University Golden Bears 65-23 Sunday in the Clash Bowl -- the Kanto Collegiate League final.
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 4, 2000

Reds to name Tita manager

URAWA -- Former Brazilian international and Vasco da Gama manager Tita said Sunday he is ready to take the helm at the Urawa Reds next season and will sign a contract with the J. League Division One bound club on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Dec 4, 2000

Kosovo's meaning for Japan

NATO's campaign against Yugoslavia last year was illegal but legitimate. This was a conclusion at a recent conference on the "Implications of the Kosovo Conflict on International Law," sponsored by the Institute for International Policy Studies in Tokyo. It was illegal because it did not have United...
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2000

Miyake islanders may have long wait

Miyake Island, which was fully evacuated in September due to the volcanic activity of Mount Oyama, may not be safe enough to return to for another three months to a year, a leading expert said Sunday.
COMMENTARY
Dec 4, 2000

Turning a blind eye to Chinese proliferation

NEW DELHI -- It speaks volumes that just when the United States determined that China was engaged in clandestine missile trade with Pakistan and, to a lesser extent, Iran, Washington announced that it was waiving a law requiring imposition of economic sanctions in such a situation. The unmistakable message...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji