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CULTURE / Art
Feb 17, 2001

Going behind the scenes to explore the in-between

The meandering video and haunted music of perennial outsider Ken Ikeda, 35, make up the latest exhibition at SCAI The Bathhouse, that enduring home for Japanese avant-garde culture located out on the edge of the Yanaka cemetery in Tokyo's Taito Ward. "Behind the Scenes" seems a rather uncomplicated multimedia...
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2001

Departing Foley believes strength of ties will prevail

The following are excerpts from U.S. Ambassador Thomas Foley's interview with The Japan Times: What do you think the U.S. and Japanese governments should do to prevent overall bilateral relations from being damaged by the Feb. 9 accident in which a Japanese ship sank off Hawaii when it was hit by a...
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2001

State to cut housing loan rate to 2.6%

The base interest rate on housing loans charged by the public Housing Loan Corp. will be cut to 2.6 percent per annum from the current 2.7 percent, retroactive to Jan. 22, the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry said Thursday.
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2001

Man held in airport ecstasy bust

OSAKA -- A 34-year-old Spanish man has been arrested and sent to prosecutors on suspicion of attempting to smuggle about 5,000 tablets of MDMA, or ecstasy, into Japan, Kansai airport police and customs officials said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2001

JAMA to vote on GM membership

The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association will decide on March 22 whether to admit General Motors Corp. as a member, JAMA Chairman Hiroshi Okuda said Thursday.
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2001

Mori pledges more aid for Mongolia

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and his Mongolian counterpart, Nambaryn Enhbayar, agreed Thursday to further efforts to build a comprehensive bilateral partnership, with Tokyo pledging to continue economic assistance to Ulan Bator.
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2001

Revised L-mode plan submitted

In a bid to clear a legal hurdle, the two regional call firms of the giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone group unveiled Thursday a revised plan to launch L-mode Internet access service for fixed-line phones.
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2001

Court upholds ban on publishing novel

The Tokyo High Court on Thursday upheld a lower court ruling ordering prizewinning novelist Miri Yuu and publisher Shinchosha Co. to halt publication of a short novel and pay 1.3 million yen to a former friend of Yuu's for violating her privacy.
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2001

Career bureaucrats increasingly opting out

An increasing number of young, fast-track career bureaucrats handling Japan's economic policymaking are leaving public positions, either because they are seeking better work in the private sector or because the recent government realignment is reducing their administrative authority.
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2001

Electronics firms to link on Bluetooth promotion

Electronics makers Toshiba Corp., Taiyo Yuden Co. and the Japan unit of IBM Corp. said Thursday they have established a joint venture to regulate usage of the Bluetooth wireless technology logo in Japan.
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2001

TSE rides negative wave despite BOJ rate cut

The Tokyo Stock Exchange has been characterized by a negative tone in recent weeks amid concern over the continued volatility on Wall Street.
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2001

Symposium discusses African conflicts

The key to resolving and preventing conflicts in Africa is empowering citizens and decentralizing political systems currently controlled by power elites, participants at a two-day Tokyo symposium on African conflicts agreed Thursday.
COMMENTARY
Feb 16, 2001

The Ehime Maru tragedy: spotlight on failed leadership

Both Japanese and U.S. officials are shirking their responsibilities in connection with last weekend's sinking of a Japanese fisheries training ship off Honolulu following a collision with a U.S. nuclear submarine. The training ship Ehime Maru, of Uwajima Fisheries High School, went down after colliding...
CULTURE / Film
Feb 16, 2001

This one's for the record

Call me a vinyl junkie if you will, but I'm one of those guys who files his memories with his music. I could tell you what record I played over and over when my first girlfriend went off to college and stopped answering my letters ("Love Will Tear Us Apart Again," Joy Division, just released as a funereal...
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2001

Departing Foley praises resilient ties, says relations will survive sub accident

The United States is determined to find out the cause of last Friday's accident in which a Japanese fisheries training ship was sunk when it was hit by a surfacing U.S. submarine off Hawaii, U.S. Ambassador Thomas Foley said in an interview with The Japan Times.
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2001

Net users falling prey to overseas call charges

Complaints regarding bloated phone bills from Internet users who are charged for overseas calls or fee-charging services made without their knowledge have shot up, according to the National Consumer Affairs Center.
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2001

Cabbies, waiters and retailers predict a slowdown

Taxi drivers, waiters and workers in other sectors considered close to the man on the street in January were more pessimistic about the economy than in any other month since the government began conducting its so-called Economy Watchers poll a year earlier, the Cabinet Office said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2001

Government to consider towel influx

The government will look into the issue of surging towel imports from China if domestic towel makers want it to do so, Vice Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry Katsusada Hirose said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2001

Kamei asks businesses for input

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party's policy affairs chief asked business leaders Thursday for suggestions in response to its plan to lift restrictions on treasury stock.
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2001

Kamei asks businesses for input

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party's policy affairs chief asked business leaders Thursday for suggestions in response to its plan to lift restrictions on treasury stock.
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2001

Bankruptcies down but liabilities rise

Corporate bankruptcies declined 5.8 percent in January from a year earlier to 1,358 for the first decrease in 15 months, but the failed firms' liabilities jumped 60.6 percent to 969.65 billion yen, a private research institute said Thursday.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Feb 16, 2001

Get out of my inbox

How much e-mail do you get a day? How much of it is junk mail? I get about 80-100 messages daily, and random sampling (i.e., the day I wrote this) shows that about 25 percent was unsolicited mailings, better known as spam.
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2001

Bankruptcies down but liabilities rise

Corporate bankruptcies declined 5.8 percent in January from a year earlier to 1,358 for the first decrease in 15 months, but the failed firms' liabilities jumped 60.6 percent to 969.65 billion yen, a private research institute said Thursday.

Longform

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