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JAPAN
Jan 16, 2001

Two Japanese films receive invites to Berlin festival

Two Japanese films have been invited to compete in the 51st Berlin International Film Festival for the first time since 1982, according to officials of the distributing agency Toho Co.
BUSINESS
Jan 16, 2001

LDP prepares to inflate sagging stock market

The Liberal Democratic Party on Monday decided to set up an in-house panel to draw up measures to bolster Japan's faltering stock markets, party officials said.
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2001

Governor cues tidal flat plan review

Chiba Gov. Takeshi Numata said Monday he is open to reconsidering the size of a reclamation project that would bury some of the last remaining tidal flats in Tokyo Bay. However, he added that he thinks the prefecture has already cut the plan as much as it can.
BUSINESS
Jan 16, 2001

Disney, T&E in online games tieup

The Disney group of the United States and T&E Soft Inc., a Nagoya-based developer of computer games, have reached a nonexclusive agreement to develop online Disney-branded games for broadband networks, the two firms announced Monday in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Jan 16, 2001

Current account surplus shot up 22.1% in November

Japan's current account surplus shot up 22.1 percent in November from a year earlier to 972.2 billion yen in a sharp turnaround from a 28.6 percent decline in October, the Finance Ministry said Monday. The upturn is largely due to an expansion in the surplus in goods and services trade stemming from...
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2001

Monkey exterminations on the rise

The number of municipalities exterminating monkeys reached about 500 in fiscal 1999, after the government revised a law to let prefectures eradicate harmful animals, a survey released Sunday shows.
BUSINESS
Jan 16, 2001

Matsushita ties up with EC Factory.com

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Monday it has tied up with EC Factory.com Inc., an Internet application service provider, to provide application software to companies setting up electronic commerce businesses.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jan 16, 2001

The buy-or-die albums of 2000

In 2000 America rocked with Limp Bizkit, Slipknot and At The Drive In, while Britain got all soppy and introverted with Richard Ashcroft, Coldplay and Belle & Sebastian. As for Japan, I have mixed feelings. It was great that Melt-Banana, Audio Active and 54 Nude Honeys (my favorite Japanese bands) all...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 16, 2001

New looks at an enduring alliance

NEW PERSPECTIVES ON U.S.-JAPAN RELATIONS, edited by Gerald Curtis. Tokyo: Japan Center for International Exchange, 2000, 302 pp., paper. JAPAN-U.S. ALLIANCE: New Challenges for the 21st Century, edited by Nishihara Masashi. Tokyo: Japan Center for International Exchange, 2000, 191 pp., paper. It's...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 16, 2001

Three identities and one life

LIVES OF YOUNG KOREANS IN JAPAN, by Yasunori Fukuoka, translated by Tom Gill. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2000, 330 pp. It is estimated that there were 2.5 million Koreans living in Japan at the end of World War II. Although many returned home after the war, there are still approximately 600,000...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 16, 2001

A lesson for our swollen egos

SOUTHERN SILK ROAD: In the Footsteps of Sir Aurel Stein and Sven Haedin, by Christoph Baumer. Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2000, 152 pp., profusely illustrated with color plates, drawings, maps, $35 soft cover. This is the revised and expanded English edition of Baumer's "Geisterstaedte der Suedlichen Seidenstrasse...
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2001

Key LDP figure resigns post over KSD scandal

Masakuni Murakami, a senior member of the Liberal Democratic Party, resigned Monday as chairman of the LDP members' general assembly in the Upper House to take the blame for a money scandal involving industrial insurance provider KSD and a former aide.
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2001

Ex-professor admits to exam malfeasance

A former Ohu University professor arrested on suspicion of leaking questions on a national dentistry examination to students last year has admitted acquiring some 10 questions prepared for the exam, police sources said Monday.
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 16, 2001

Time for Ide to stop looking back over his shoulder

The word furimukuto describes the action of looking over your shoulder, as if suspicious that somebody is watching you, or perhaps just to check what's going on around you from all visual angles. Choreographer Shigehiro Ide chose it as the title for his newest dance work at Theater Tram in Tokyo's Sangenjaya...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 16, 2001

Yoshimoto's mixed-up women

ASLEEP, by Banana Yoshimoto, translated by Michael Zimmermich. Faber & Faber, 2000, 477 pp., 9.99 British pounds (paper). In these three stories the principal female characters, all young, seem as interested in their own sex as they are in men. They are impulsive and impressionable.
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2001

Upper House poll likely to be held at end of July

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has decided to convene the regular 150-day session of the Diet on Jan. 31, setting the stage for Upper House elections at the end of July.
BUSINESS
Jan 15, 2001

Next U.S. president should use surplus to pace savings rate

Amid growing signs of a slowdown in the U.S. economy, the whole world is closely awaiting the new policies of President-elect George W. Bush, who prevailed in one of the closest presidential races in U.S. history after more than a month of unprecedented legal wrangling.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 15, 2001

Overseas Indians: Use them or lose them

Delivering the keynote address at the inaugural convention of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin in New Delhi on Jan. 6, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee called for "a partnership among all children of Mother India so that our country can emerge as a major global player." Noting the...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 15, 2001

No wonder Seoul's politicos get no respect

SEOUL -- Some days ago I received a telephone call from the Office of the Chief Spokesman of the National Assembly. A friendly public-relations officer invited me to write an article for the National Assembly Review with personal observations regarding the challenges for parliamentary politics in South...
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2001

ASEM conference stresses teamwork

KOBE -- Finance ministers from the 25-nation Asia-Europe Meeting group wrapped up their two-day conference here Sunday by adopting a chairman's statement emphasizing the importance of enhanced cooperation to avoid financial crises.

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