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JAPAN
Jun 11, 1999

Expanded SDF peacekeeping role urged

Staff writer
JAPAN
Jun 10, 1999

Analysis: Lofty administrative goals not attained by bills

It has been said that the two sets of administrative reform bills moving on to the Upper House will bring about Japan's most sweeping reforms in 100 years and end the bureaucracy's dominance over the administration.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 1999

Analysis: Life insurers' credibility shaken

Major and second-tier life insurers' dismal earnings reports for fiscal 1998 have cast yet another shadow over the industry, already shaken by the recent collapse of midsize Toho Mutual Life Insurance Co.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 1999

Hopes ride high on ibis chick's wings

After teetering on the edge of extinction domestically for several years, the Japanese crested ibis took a small step away from the brink when a chick cheeped its way into the world on May 21.
JAPAN
Jun 7, 1999

Tokyo job fair sees 10% fewer firms

A two-day job interview fair with more than 650 companies began Monday in Tokyo in an attempt to help prospective university and junior college graduates in the metro area land work.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

U.N. investigator urges Japan to admit liability for sex slaves

Gay McDougall, a U.N. special investigator on human rights, has urged the government to admit its legal liability and provide compensation to Asian women forced into prostitution before and during World War II.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 1999

France's Corsican question

PARIS -- "France," according to one of its best-known poets and political thinkers, Paul Valery, "is the most heterogeneous country that ever existed." The present tragedy in Kosovo makes this sound hyperbolic, yet there is an element of truth in it. The French who live on the shores of the Mediterranean,...
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 2, 1999

Island life a short cut to evolution

Japan is not just an island; it is an archipelago.
JAPAN
May 28, 1999

Electronics firms lick their wounds after disastrous year

Fiscal 1998 was a disaster year for the nation's electronics industry.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
May 28, 1999

A rebel yell from the Northwest

Whether it's the rainy weather or beautiful scenery, there is something about Washington state that has made it one of the most fertile places for independent music. Though Seattle may have a higher profile, indie labels are as numerous as nose piercings (and that means plenty) in the state capital Olympia,...
JAPAN
May 27, 1999

RCC plans to purchase bad loans in June

The Resolution and Collection Corp. hopes to start buying bad loans from healthy banks in late June or July, its president said Thursday.
JAPAN
May 27, 1999

LDP envisions more jobs via public-private cooperation

A Liberal Democratic Party task force on Thursday drafted a set of measures to create new jobs by implementing public works projects and utilizing nonprofit organizations, party sources said.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 27, 1999

High adventure

Have you decided where you are going to spend New Year's Eve? It should be someplace where you wouldn't mind staying if any of our normal, every day support systems should fail. One unconcerned gentleman has made reservations for a flight over Antarctica. Experts will be on board the 747 to explain about...
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
May 27, 1999

Old and new blended perfectly at Otani

A pebble's throw away from the Akasaka Mitsuke subway station, the Hotel New Otani (which happens to be in the midst of celebrating 35 years as one of Tokyo's premier hotels) might just offer the solution to savvy travelers' "been there, done that" blues.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 26, 1999

Privacy? Get over it

In one of those snide comments that only people worth hundreds of millions of dollars are capable of making with any credibility, Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, dismissed the whole privacy controversy with: "Get over it.
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

Lower House starts tackling administrative reform

The Lower House entered substantive debate Tuesday on two sets of bills designed to reorganize the central government and decentralize state powers, underlining the need to create a new government to meet the changing needs of society.
EDITORIALS
May 24, 1999

The world's second oldest profession

W ith a U.S. congressional committee poised to release a report on alleged Chinese spying at U.S. nuclear facilities, the political furor in Washington over the theft of U.S. military secrets is certain to escalate, and could cause serious political repercussions in the United States and in its foreign...
JAPAN
May 24, 1999

Chronology of alliance, Japan buildup

May 1947: The Constitution, based on an Occupation- compiled draft, debuts with the war-renouncing Article 9.
EDITORIALS
May 23, 1999

Break the corporate extortion habit

The report that as many as 59 leading Japanese companies were victims of extortion by "sokaiya" corporate racketeers, so-called rightist groups, organized gang members and other criminals in 1998 was treated as a major revelation by the mass media. The news came as the result of a survey conducted early...
JAPAN
May 20, 1999

Ship issue to be covered in separate bill

The Liberal Democratic Party, its junior coalition partner, the Liberal Party, and New Komeito agreed Thursday to try to conclude by the end of the month discussions on legislation on the controversial issue of inspecting unidentified ships, party officials said.
JAPAN
May 19, 1999

Japan Telecom posts 1.7% sales drop

Japan Telecom Co. on Wednesday reported 385.3 billion yen in unconsolidated sales for the business year that ended March 31, down 1.7 percent from the previous year.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 19, 1999

Once more, Chiang Mai

I had a mission in Chiang Mai. Many years ago I bought a reclining black lacquer Burmese Buddha there. It had been gilded but much of the gold had been worn off, probably by the hands of the faithful seeking some special blessing. It has a remarkable face. It changes expression as the viewer moves even...
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
May 19, 1999

Journeying into the valley of death

"Death Valley," noted our guidebook, "is an inhuman environment: barren and monotonous, burning hot and almost entirely without shade or water." In short, the ideal antidote to Japan's rainy season, which is why we went.
EDITORIALS
May 16, 1999

'Star Wars' in their eyes

The lines started forming outside theaters in Hollywood in early April. By last week they had sprouted all over America, despite the fact that with just a few days to go fans can now get advance tickets online or by phone. Tickets for what? What event could possibly be worth waiting in line for six weeks...
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
May 14, 1999

U.F.O. travels the globe in style

With their natty suits and sleek musical grooves that fuse jazzy samples with dance beats, U.F.O. has epitomized a certain perception of Tokyo as fashionable and cosmopolitan, ever since "I Love My Baby (My Baby Loves Jazz)" catapulted across the world's dance floors in 1991.
JAPAN
May 13, 1999

Bill could enlarge temp workforce, magnify woes

Staff writer
CULTURE / Art
May 13, 1999

Smithsonian celebrates culture, history of Ainu

WASHINGTON -- An unprecedented, in-depth look at the culture of the Ainu is being offered in the U.S. capital.
EDITORIALS
May 12, 1999

A sudden reversal in Kosovo

Last week, it looked as if the West had the upper hand in the ongoing military and diplomatic campaigns against Yugoslavia. Meetings with Russian officials had yielded agreement on terms for an international peacekeeping force in Kosovo. Mr. Ibrahim Rugova, the moderate Albanian Kosovar leader, had been...
JAPAN
May 12, 1999

Is Japan ready for World Cup fans?

Staff writer
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 12, 1999

What's in store

Everyone in my family is in retail, except me -- unless you consider this journalism gig equivalent to selling snake oil. My mother and sisters have run wearable-art galleries and design-centered shops for a couple of decades, and they seem to be pretty good at it. They travel around the United States...

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past