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JAPAN
Feb 7, 2000

NTT to establish cybermarket

NTT Communications Corp. plans to start providing a marketplace on the Internet for companies to sell a broad range of products, from financial services to music and game software, company sources said Monday. NTT Communications, a domestic and international long-distance carrier, plans to start what...
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2000

Ota ready to slash Osaka government jobs

Staff writer OSAKA -- Newly elected Osaka Gov. Fusae Ota said Monday that her priority is to restore financial health to the prefecture, noting she is confident she can push through plans for major cuts in local government jobs as part of the effort. "If prefectural officials really want to save Osaka...
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2000

Experts deplore flaws in Japanese court system

Staff writer Legal experts watching the confused and drawn-out legal proceedings surrounding the 1985 rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Soka, Saitama Prefecture, say the case reflects common defects that plague Japanese criminal trials. The case, in which six juveniles were found guilty in a...
EDITORIALS
Feb 6, 2000

Flying fingers, sluggish brains

"Yo what's up? how bout those rams. *grin*. erm, gotta run, ttyl :]"
CULTURE / Music
Feb 6, 2000

Tokyo's musical riches are many, mighty and marvelous

The year end is filled with performances of the beloved Beethoven Ninth, known familiarly as the "Choral" symphony, prized for its message of hope in the lofty poetry of Schiller's "Ode to Joy."
MORE SPORTS
Feb 6, 2000

Hingis vs. Testud in Toray final

After cruising past world No. 11 Anna Kournikova in Friday's quarterfinals, top-seeded Martina Hingis was forced to play competitive tennis on Saturday against Chanda Rubin of the U.S. The Swiss star responded with a 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 victory over Rubin to reach the final of the Toray Pan Pacific Open tennis...
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Feb 6, 2000

When you need it most

A reader read about the benefit of influenza shots and called her doctor, who told her there was no vaccine in Japan. That seemed unlikely in a country prone to flu epidemics, so she asks why.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 6, 2000

Mysteries at the top of the staircase

Be it the elegant neoclassical past or that of the Hollywood musical of the 1930s and '40s, staircases that are immortalized on canvas, paper or celluloid tend to be those designed expressly for a spectacular entrance. Hitchcock and other directors shifted the focus from the ornateness of the staircase's...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 6, 2000

Philip Harper

To be billed as Japan's only foreign sake brewer conveys a claim unusually intriguing. Even the man in question, Philip Harper, expresses some surprise at the way things have gone for him as he gets close to achieving the status of master brewer in Japan.
COMMUNITY
Feb 6, 2000

The best parents are both parents

David Brian Thomas (who with a name like that can only owe his heritage to Welsh Wales) carries two photos in his wallet. One shows a baby; the other a gravely sweet 3-year-old -- the age Thomas last saw his son seven years ago.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2000

Exotic wildlife on a short leash in Asia

PUSAN, South Korea — Every night at 8 p.m., Roma Khachaturyan, a Russian-Armenian from Moscow who now lives in Korea, feeds a Siberian tiger named Cesar.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2000

ASEAN debates growth or consolidation

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- The current tour of some ASEAN capitals by East Timorese hero Xanana Gusmao has triggered soul-searching in various places around the region.
EDITORIALS
Feb 5, 2000

Men, machines and messages

Sen. John McCain has jolted the race for the Republican presidential nomination. His landslide win in the New Hampshire primary this week stunned the front-runner, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, and reinvigorated the campaign. New Hampshire is not representative of U.S. politics, but the results there foreshadow...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 5, 2000

Calligraphy breaking the silence

For any child, gaining literacy is the skill that follows speech on their road to self-expression. The act of writing one's name is the first step to the establishment of a public identity.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 5, 2000

At last, a live house for hogaku

Tokyo, being a vibrant, world-class metropolis, is home to hundreds of small musical venues ("live houses") which offer everything: the top names in the jazz world, rock and punk, piano parlor music, ethnic music from Asia, China, Korea, Africa, India, among others, as well as American and European folk...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2000

'Tea and sympathy' mark U.S.-Japan ties

There are new frictions looming just over the horizon in U.S.-Japan relations, based mainly on the perceived growth of nationalist sentiment.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 5, 2000

It's not hard to get hooked on fly-fishing

Fly-fishing has a certain mystique. It's not uncommon for an angler equipped with a deep knowledge of aquatic insects and a perfect midair loop to stand in the cold for hours without netting a single trout.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2000

The odd debacle in the Diet

In an unprecedented development in Japanese political history, the opposition forces are boycotting all Diet proceedings to protest the ruling coalition's handling of the controversial legislation for reducing the number of Lower House seats. The Democratic Party of Japan, the Japan Communist Party and...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2000

Japan changes -- its own way

"Is Japan changing?" This is the question asked by virtually every recent visitor to Japan. The question reveals both the long-standing desire by many non-Japanese to see Japan change in fundamental ways and the heightened expectations fostered by years of hope-inducing Japanese rhetoric that the country...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2000

The real reason the U.S. stays in Japan

The greatest naval armada the world had ever seen assembled on April 1, 1945, before the Ryukyu island chain. Operation Iceberg, the invasion of Okinawa by Allied forces, was about to begin. The fleet assembled for the task consisted of more than 40 aircraft carriers, 18 battleships, 200 destroyers and...
EDITORIALS
Feb 4, 2000

Time to stop playing games

The Diet is stuck in turmoil, with all opposition parties boycotting both plenary and committee sessions. In both Houses, all legislative procedures -- the delivery of key policy speeches, questions and answers, and even a vote -- have been conducted by and for the benefit of only the ruling-party members....
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2000

Wounded dragon dances again in Jakarta

SINGAPORE -- The first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year will be celebrated Saturday on a grand scale in many shops and homes. This has been the tradition among overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, particularly in Singapore and Malaysia.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2000

Calligraphy: window to soul of disabled

Staff writer NARA -- Keitaro Shimotsu, 21, leans forward over a desk from his wheelchair and moves his calligraphy brush on the paper. Suffering from cerebral palsy, he needs to gather great strength to complete one kanji character. But working on calligraphy is an expression of his inner spirit, creating...
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2000

Koreans want governor to push for their rights

Staff writer OSAKA -- A new Osaka governor will be elected today by some 7 million eligible voters in the prefecture, which has a population of 8.83 million. While voter turnout figures show nearly half did not cast ballots in the last three gubernatorial elections, some are unable to vote in local...
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2000

Diet boycott shows no sign of letting up

The opposition camp's boycott of all Diet sessions went into its ninth day Friday and shows no sign of letting up. The Lower House Budget Committee, which started deliberation on the fiscal 2000 national budget Thursday, adjourned Friday morning immediately after opening because all the opposition interpellators...
CULTURE / Music
Feb 4, 2000

Rescuing abandoned electones from a grim fate

The electone, better known as the home organ, might recall memories of drunken uncles playing shambolic versions of Christmas songs, or upwardly mobile parents forcing a bit of culture down junior's throat. In many family homes, it is a dust-gathering fixture, a hulking monument to the musically dasai....
CULTURE / Art
Feb 4, 2000

Digital world bids farewell to Soseki

The Japanese press doesn't seem to have had quite the frenzy of millennium coverage that took place in America, but there were various attempts to look back at the recent past of Japanese literature and to forecast its future. I found two discussions in particular interesting for their contrasting viewpoints....
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2000

Exhibition teaches U.S. kids there are no samurai in Ginza

Staff writer Attention American kids! There are no samurai striding down the streets of Tokyo anymore. And, you know, the "Pokemon" character you're so crazy about actually originated in Japan. Despite the long-standing partnership with Japan and the permeation of Japanese products into daily life in...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2000

Rising tension in South Asia

ISLAMABAD -- India and Pakistan have maintained an ongoing standoff for much of their 52-year history, but it is only during moments of heightened tension that the international community focuses on South Asia.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2000

Japan to face WTO pressures at Nara meeting

OSAKA -- At a meeting this weekend in Nara to prepare for the Group of Eight summit in July, the U.S. will press Japan to move quickly toward the next round of World Trade Organization negotiations, a senior U.S. State Department official said in Osaka on Friday.

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