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BUSINESS
May 30, 2001

Dire straits hit Tokyo Metallic

Tokyo Metallic Communications Corp., an Internet access service provider specializing in digital subscriber lines, faces a management crisis due to fundraising problems, the company's president said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2001

Household spending dives 4.4%

Spending by wage-earning households turned downward in April for the first time in five months, plummeting a real 4.4 percent from a year earlier to an average of 347,882 yen, the government said Tuesday in a preliminary report.
JAPAN
May 30, 2001

Elementary school teachers to run English gantlet

Offering English language education in an entertaining, communicative way sounds just fine. In theory.
SOCCER / World cup
May 30, 2001

Blatter: ISMM trouble won't affect World Cup

SEOUL -- FIFA president Sepp Blatter put a positive spin on the problems surrounding the collapse of its marketing partners ISMM/ISL on Tuesday to emphasize the positive aspects of a big year ahead in the world soccer calendar.
JAPAN
May 30, 2001

Upper House member Tomobe loses appeal of fraud case

Upper House member Tatsuo Tomobe, 72, faces 10 years in prison, the heaviest punishment ever imposed on a lawmaker, as the Supreme Court has dismissed his appeal in a fraud case involving the Orange mutual aid society, judicial sources said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2001

MMC to cut up to 1,200 jobs

Struggling automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Tuesday it will introduce an early retirement program to phase out up to 1,200 jobs.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 30, 2001

Marines reel off fifth straight win

Chiba Lotte first baseman Kazuya Fukuura singled home Tadaharu Sakai from third to break a 1-1 tie in the eighth inning as the Marines downed the Daiei Hawks 2-1 at Chiba Marine Stadium on Tuesday to extend their winning streak to five games -- their longest this season.
JAPAN
May 30, 2001

Tanaka listed as richest of Cabinet's 17 ministers

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka tops a list ranking the personal assets of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his 17 Cabinet ministers, measured when the Cabinet was established April 26.
CULTURE / Film
May 30, 2001

Memories as microcosms

Directors, it's often said, keep making the same movie over and over, though the sameness is more evident with some than others. Akira Kurosawa was among the most eclectic directors of his generation, filming everything from Shakespearean drama ("Throne of Blood") to popcorn entertainment ("The Hidden...
BUSINESS
May 30, 2001

Monthly BOJ bond reports aim to up liquidity

Moving again to increase monetary liquidity, the Bank of Japan said Tuesday that it will begin publishing the issue-by-issue balances of its outstanding government bond holdings once a month.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2001

Tokio Marine's group pretax profit surges 58.9%

Tokio Marine & Fire Insurance Co. said Tuesday its group pretax profit for the 2000 business year surged 58.9 percent to 85.45 billion yen.
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
May 30, 2001

The names are insane and I like it like that

What's in a name? Well, when it comes to Japanese bands, a lot, actually. Japanese rock groups, like Western psychedelic bands of 30-some years ago, have been coming up with some extraordinarily creative and just plain nutzo band names of late.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 30, 2001

'Lovers Leap': Dan Bryk

In art, confession treads a fine line between catharsis and showing off. A subset of current punk bands like Wheatus and Blink 182 utilizes the geek mode to comment on classic macho-rock poses, but since they have nothing original to say (girls ignore you at school? figure it out), geekiness turns out...
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2001

Futura 2000 is now

A graffiti legend from the very earliest days of New York's underground hip-hop movement, Futura 2000 is presently being elevated to iconic status by his progeny. At 46, he is old enough not only to be their father but also to know better.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2001

Haseko marks first pretax profit in three years

Housing contractor Haseko Corp. said Tuesday it registered a consolidated pretax profit in fiscal 2000 for the first time in three years, helped by brisk demand for condominiums.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 30, 2001

'Exciter': Depeche Mode

With a name like a dubious aphrodisiac jelly, "Exciter," the latest effort by the ever-boyish Depeche Mode, promises more of the "pervy" lyrics and electronic pop/rock that has seen it sell 50 million albums since the early '80s.
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2001

How a legend is born

Born Lenny Hilton McGurr, he first picked up a spray can in 1970, aged 15. An only child from a lower-middle class Manhattan home, graffiti provided him with "a solution to my identity crisis" -- a crisis brought on by the news he was adopted.
JAPAN
May 30, 2001

3,708 fewer visa violators deported

There were 51,459 foreigners deported for violation of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law in 2000, down 3,708 from the previous year, Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 30, 2001

'Come Dream With Me': Diana Krall

Female jazz vocalists have typically fallen into one of two categories: fresh-faced innocence or worldly wise sophistication. The most popular recent example of the latter is Diana Krall, who has had a stunning series of releases in the past few years. In contrast, the most recent newcomer, Jane Monheit,...
JAPAN
May 30, 2001

Environment Ministry plugs green tax in first white paper

In its inaugural white paper approved Tuesday by the Cabinet, the Environment Ministry is touting the merits of introducing an environment tax to help put Japan on a more environmentally sustainable path and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2001

Inside angle on the subcontinent

From the scowl of a Calcutta street kid to the prayer-locked, wrinkled face and hands of Mother Theresa; from the quiet orange of a Taj Mahal sunrise to the bustle of a Delhi bazaar -- it seems the full breadth of India's people and places live in the photographs of Raghu Rai.
JAPAN
May 30, 2001

April jobless rate inches up to 4.8%

Japan's unemployment rate rose to a seasonally adjusted 4.8 percent in April, up 0.1 percentage point from the preceding month for the first upturn in four months, the government said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2001

Double-formed print visions

The first solo exhibition in Japan by print artist Sean Caulfield is currently on show at Session House Garden in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward.
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2001

Where corporate queen bees work and play

An exhibition by Dutch photographer Jacqueline Hassink will open Thursday at Galerie Deux in Tokyo's Meguro Ward.
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2001

From darkness into light

At the turn of the 20th century, Odilon Redon (1840-1916) was one of the most intriguing and original painters in Paris, and his subject matter, the timeless world of myths and dreams, has ensured he is not forgotten. With the current exhibition of his works at the Odakyu Museum in Shinjuku, the curators...
COMMENTARY
May 30, 2001

Monarchy makes a comeback

LONDON -- The Crown Prince of Japan visited Britain last week and was warmly received all round.
JAPAN
May 30, 2001

Vote delayed on foreigners' suffrage bill

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Tuesday that a pending bill to allow permanent foreign residents to vote in local elections will not be put to vote during the current Diet session, which ends in late June.

Longform

Construction equipment sits idle in a park near Shiba Toshogu shrine in Tokyo's Minato Ward. While Japan has a history of treating its trees with reverence, green coverage is said to be lacking in most of the major cities.
Do Japan's trees no longer occupy the sacred space they used to?