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BUSINESS
Mar 21, 2001

Curb on Chinese sweet potatoes sought

MITO, Ibaraki Pref. (Kyodo ) An association of sweet potato farmers from the village of Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, will demand that the government curb imports of dried sweet potatoes from China, association members said Tuesday.
SUMO
Mar 21, 2001

Kaio remains in driver's seat

OSAKA -- Ozeki Kaio made mincemeat out of fellow ozeki Miyabiyama on Tuesday to remain firmly in the driver's seat at 10-0, heading into the final straight at the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament.
BUSINESS
Mar 21, 2001

G8 may help poor states develop solar, wind power

The Group of Eight countries plan to pledge at their July summit in Italy that they will help developing countries develop solar and wind power generation, Japanese government sources said Tuesday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 21, 2001

Confessions of an outsize fashion cretin

If it is true that clothes make the man, then I confess to being poorly constructed.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Mar 21, 2001

Detective work in snow country

Though farther south you are already reveling in springlike breezes, the steady accumulation of snow in the northern third of Japan continues to provide an opportunity for detective work.
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2001

Estimates not examined before Matsuo given funds

The Cabinet Secretariat failed to examine cost estimates and other details of prime ministers' overseas trips before it handed discretionary state funds to a former Foreign Ministry logistics chief arrested earlier this month on suspicion of fraud, police sources said Tuesday.
LIFE / Digital
Mar 21, 2001

'Metal Gear Solid 2' is worth waiting for

"Zone of the Enders," a new game for PlayStation2 from Konami, is one of the finest giant robot games ever made. But it has been upstaged by a freebie -- a bonus demo Konami packed in with ZOE.
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2001

MPD officer arrested for possessing stimulants

The Metropolitan Police Department arrested a 46-year-old police officer Tuesday for possession of about 0.065 gram of methamphetamine, a violation of the Stimulant Drugs Control Law.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Mar 21, 2001

Bookmarks old and new

www.newkoyo.com The New Koyo Hotel is doing for Tokyo what Kao Sahn Road has done for Bangkok. Beware of an influx of budget travelers. A gaijin zoo is springing up north of Ueno, and the temporary inhabitants are being attracted by room rates that start at 2,500 yen. The Web site is packed with other...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 21, 2001

Unfit to print

I was planning to write about the rivers of blood that are running through world stock markets. Paper losses of $4.5 trillion have a way of drawing the eye and demanding an explanation. But the world intervened. (Devoted cybernauts may get that column yet; stay tuned, kids.)
EDITORIALS
Mar 20, 2001

Explosive pressures in China

China has been hit by a series of explosions in the last week. The facts in the two cases have nothing in common, but the circumstances behind them suggest there is a link. Both blasts are the product of the mounting pressure created by economic modernization. China is under increasing strain; more such...
SUMO
Mar 20, 2001

Kaio stays in front with 9-0 record

OSAKA -- Kaio bulldozed his way to a pace-setting 9-0 record Monday, keeping his bid for a second Emperor's Cup on track by mugging fellow ozeki Dejima at the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament.
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2001

Nihon Unisys decides on new chief

Nihon Unisys Ltd. will appoint Mitsui & Co. Vice President Seiichi Shimada as its president, industry sources said.
JAPAN / GREENING PAINS
Mar 20, 2001

New appliance recycling plan poses question of where the buck stops

With the Home Appliances Recycling Law coming into effect April 1, Japan is taking a significant step in changing its waste disposal policy from burying discarded appliances to recycling as much as possible.
COMMENTARY
Mar 20, 2001

Japan wasting its top resource

LONDON -- In Britain, the Equal Opportunities Commission is a powerful body that has been working hard to ensure that there is no discrimination in the workplace, particularly on grounds of gender. Women have still not achieved complete equality in pay and conditions, but much progress has been made....
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2001

BOJ revives 'zero-interest-rate' policy

The Bank of Japan decided Monday to effectively revive the "zero-interest-rate" policy, only seven months after abandoning it, as it tries anew to get a hold on the nation's faltering economy.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2001

USS Missouri to honor kamikaze

A memorial service for kamikaze pilots who died in an attack on the battleship USS Missouri in spring 1945 will be held in April on board the ship in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, with Japanese and Americans in attendance, organizers said Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2001

Japan braces for green mandate

Given Japan's acute shortage of landfill sites, the introduction of the Home Appliances Recycling Law on April 1 heralds a new era in the nation's efforts to promote recycling.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 20, 2001

Takeout that fails to deliver

The first Japanese filmmakers, like first filmmakers almost everywhere, thought of their new medium as an extension of still photography: a way of recording reality. Thus the early films of kabuki plays, in which the camera was planted squarely in front of the stage and left there, with pauses only to...
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2001

Students to set up Goodall institute for chimp studies

Japanese university students and scholars on primates will set up an organization to support the research activities of famed British chimpanzee scholar Jane Goodall as well as to help conserve forests in Africa, group members said.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2001

U.S.-ROK ties show new signs of strain

SEOUL -- It is difficult not to compare the Seoul summit between South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and its sequel in Washington between Kim and U.S. President George W. Bush, given both countries' long history and deep involvement in Korean affairs. The stark...
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2001

Midday shooting in Shinjuku hotel leaves gangster dead, cop injured

Two gunmen opened fire Monday on gangsters and police meeting in the lobby of a Shinjuku hotel, killing a gangster and injuring a policeman and one other man.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2001

Maruya to attend UNCHR session

Parliamentary Foreign Secretary Kaori Maruya will travel to Switzerland and Poland from Tuesday to attend a U.N. Commission on Human Rights session in Geneva and hold talks with Polish officials, the ministry said Monday.
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2001

Toshiba shifts output of all TVs to China

Toshiba Corp. will stop producing cathode-ray tube television sets at the end of March and transfer all TV production, including digital models, to China, beginning in April, company officials said Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2001

Scrap gender from state accolades: panel

An advisory panel to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori proposed on Monday that sex distinction should be abolished in conferring the nation's decorations and honors.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2001

Manager of volunteer group suspected of embezzling welfare money

OSAKA -- The manager of a volunteer group in Osaka has been arrested on suspicion of embezzling welfare support money from a homeless man, police said Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2001

Miyake students graduate from junior high

Thirty-nine junior high school students evacuated from Miyake Island in September in the wake of volcanic eruptions attended a graduation ceremony Monday at a boarding school in Tokyo.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb