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LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Feb 21, 2001

Your Earth needs you! Volunteer now

In honor of the United Nations' decision to declare 2001 "The International Year of Volunteers," our last column devoted itself to an utterly shameless advertisement for the book "Kokusai Volunteer Guide: Inside International Voluntary Work," published by The Japan Times and written by Midori Paxton....
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Feb 21, 2001

Who's napping now?

As any music fan knows, the future of Napster, the biggest free lunch of MP3s on the Net, is still very much in legal limbo. Last week a San Francisco appeals court confirmed a decision made this summer: Napster is knowingly infringing the copyrights of recording artists. The court asked U.S District...
MORE SPORTS
Feb 21, 2001

2000 Olympic marathon champ is set to turn pro

Japan's Sydney Olympic marathon champion Naoko Takahashi is expected to inform the Japan Amateur Athletic Federation of her plans to turn pro by the end of this month, athletics sources said Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Feb 21, 2001

Crow problem or people problem?

I have traveled to many countries on all of the world's continents, and, always wearing my naturalist's cap, I tend to notice the wildlife, especially the birds. Some stick in one's memory, some don't, but the only country I have been where what sticks is the crows is Japan. Why is that?
BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2001

Mazda unveils deluxe minivan

Mazda Motor Corp. on Monday launched a deluxe version of its popular MPV minivan.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2001

Nukaga to answer to KSD query on Feb. 26

Former Cabinet Minister Fukushiro Nukaga agreed Monday to give unsworn testimony to a closed-door Diet ethics panel over money he received from the scandal-hit mutual-aid insurance group KSD, Liberal Democratic Party officials said.
BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2001

Small-cap issues find favor

Small-capitalization stocks, especially those traded on the over-the-counter market, are drawing strong buying interest.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2001

Tokyo ward mulls taxing off-track bets

Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward is considering levying a tax on horse-race ticket sales, following in the steps of Yokohama, which approved a plan for a similar such tax in December, ward officials said.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2001

Mori pressed to seek extension of search for missing Japanese

Uwajima Mayor Hirohisa Ishibashi asked Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Monday to urge the United States to commit to continue searching for nine Japanese who went missing Feb. 9 when a U.S. Navy submarine hit and sank a Japanese long-liner near Hawaii.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2001

New Komeito bigwig predicts Mori resignation

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's resignation now appears inevitable, a senior New Komeito leader indicated Monday.
BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2001

Kamei says BOJ is to blame for the 'unstable' economy

Shizuka Kamei, policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, urged the Bank of Japan to ease monetary policies to put the economy on a self-sustainable recovery path.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2001

Corporate investment is key

Amid widespread economic uncertainty, some economists prefer a more expansionary monetary policy or inflation targeting. At a recent meeting of the government's Economic and Fiscal Advisory Council, many members called on the Bank of Japan to relax credit restraints even further.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2001

He ain't heavy, he's Beat Takeshi. And he likes real handguns.

Turning out to promote "Brother" were director "Beat" Takeshi Kitano, stars Omar Epps and Claude Maki, and producers Masayuki Mori (of Office Kitano) and Jeremy Thomas, who has worked in the past with Nagisa Oshima and Bernardo Bertolucci. Filmed on two continents, "Brother" is easily Kitano's most ambitious...
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2001

Kono meets Djibouti minister

Japan and Djibouti agreed Monday to continue their friendly and cooperative relations, Foreign Ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2001

1,389 kg of drugs seized in 2000

The nation's customs authorities confiscated 1,389 kg of illegal drugs in 516 seizures during 2000, the Finance Ministry said Monday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 2001

No game plan for a new politics

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's days are numbered. The latest popularity survey by one vernacular newspaper has found that public trust in his administration has plummeted to 9 percent. Not only the leader of a coalition party but also members of his Liberal Democratic Party are now speaking of the possibility...
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2001

Supreme Court accepts advisory panel on judges

The Supreme Court said Monday it will accept the establishment of a panel that will advise the top court on appointing district and high court judges.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2001

Cabinet set to approve two bills on PCB disposal

The Cabinet is expected to approve two government-drafted bills today that will encourage the processing of polychlorinated biphenyls with an eye to destroying known stockpiles in around a decade.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2001

Emperor meets with President Tito

The Emperor met with Kiribati's President Teburoro Tito on Monday in the pair's third meeting, the Imperial Household Agency said.
BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2001

Firms develop chip interface allowing cellphone video transmission

Toshiba Corp. and Infineon Technologies AG, a leading German semiconductor and system solution company, have jointly developed an interface between their microchips that enables the transmission, decoding and encoding of video to next-generation dual-mode cellular phones, Toshiba said Monday.
BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2001

Firms develop chip interface allowing cellphone video transmission

Toshiba Corp. and Infineon Technologies AG, a leading German semiconductor and system solution company, have jointly developed an interface between their microchips that enables the transmission, decoding and encoding of video to next-generation dual-mode cellular phones, Toshiba said Monday.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 20, 2001

A convenient but fragile liaison

BROTHERS IN ARMS: The Rise and Fall of the Sino-Soviet Alliance 1945-1963, edited by Odd Arne Westad. Cold War International History Project Series, Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, Stanford University Press, 2000, 404 pp. (paper). At least once a year, the leaders of China and Russia get together...
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2001

Hollywood cliches without the thrills

Are Asian films ready for prime time -- that is, for the mall cineplexes of America?
MORE SPORTS
Feb 20, 2001

Volkswagen Sevens slated for April

England's seven-a-side team will make its first appearance before Japanese rugby union fans when it comes to Tokyo for the Volkswagen Sevens, the seventh round of the World Sevens Series, on April 29-30 at Chichibunomiya Stadium, the Japan Rugby Football Union announced Monday in Tokyo.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Feb 20, 2001

Tap in to Rammstein

There are Germans everywhere. You can spot them a mile off. The guys are tall with crap haircuts and the girls are blonde with long necks, and both sexes have finely chiseled features like they've just been cut out of marble. And I suddenly think of Hitler, who for all his love of Aryan perfection was...

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear