search

 
 
COMMUNITY
Dec 31, 2000

Michinoku Ginko chief banks on Japanese-Russian relations

Talk about a profitable end to the year. Invited to meet a Taisho man -- that is, someone born in the last year of what many consider to be Japan's most liberal period of the 20th century -- I was met in one location to be maneuvered into a taxi and delivered outside another: a nondescript utility block...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 31, 2000

One mighty orchestra, two mighty conductors

Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester Nov. 26, Mariss Jansens conducting in Suntory Hall -- "Oberon" Overture (Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber, 1786-1812), Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 99 (Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich, 1906-75) featuring Hilary Hahn; Symphony No. 8 in...
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2000

Currency scam puts police on alert

Police said they are on the lookout for criminals swindling cash from people with a scam involving old German currency notes and bonds that are now worthless.
COMMENTARY
Dec 31, 2000

Flaws are part and parcel of democracy

LONDON -- How democratic are the world's so-called democratic countries? Can there be totally fair elections?
CULTURE / Art
Dec 31, 2000

The art of being a farm village

"Grez was an idyllic little place," wrote a Swedish artist in 1884, "offering subjects wherever you looked . . . the river with its watermills and little waterfalls, the sun on white walls, old men in clogs, old women in coifs, girls in the sunshine, hens and ducks, grazing cattle, groves, fields and...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Dec 31, 2000

Minoru Akimoto

"For a college kid in a provincial town in the early 50s, there were not many options for learning English. My teachers were Hollywood movies. I memorized a script and then sat in a movie theater all day, watching and listening to the same movie time and again."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 31, 2000

Slithering on through the year of the snake

It's almost 2001, the year of the snake. I've done a little research using the Chinese "koyomi" calendar for the 13th year of Heisei, the year of the snake, in order to let you know what kind of year you're about to have.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2000

Solving the Kashmir dispute

Three of the world's most protracted conflicts are in Asia: the Palestinian-Israeli crisis in West Asia, Kashmir in South Asia and Korea in East Asia. The world's interest is engaged in South Asia because of the fate of over 1 billion people, the importance of India as the world's most populous democracy...
EDITORIALS
Dec 30, 2000

Economy still stuck in a rut

Looking back to 2000, the critical question hanging over the Japanese economy is: Has there been movement, or at least the preparations for a move, toward a new system befitting the start of a new century? The answer, unfortunately, is no.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

Aum ranks' rights compromised by fear

NAGAREYAMA, Chiba Pref. -- As night falls, all the houses in this quiet bedroom community melt into darkness.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

Nikkei flirts with two-year low as 2000 trading draws to gloomy close

The Tokyo Stock Exchange on Friday bid farewell to 2000 with the main gauge falling enough to flirt with a two-year low.
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 30, 2000

Antlers, S-Pulse reach Emperor's final

YOKOHAMA -- The Kashima Antlers moved one step closer to winning their third title of the season on Friday after advancing to the final of the Emperor's Cup with a 3-2 extra-time win over Gamba Osaka.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

Driver of credit union car killed in 46 million yen heist

A credit union employee was fatally shot when two men carjacked a credit union vehicle containing 46.6 million yen in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward on Friday, police said.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

Osaka homeless shelter opens

OSAKA -- The Osaka Municipal Government opened a controversial new homeless center Friday morning in Nagai Park.
BUSINESS
Dec 30, 2000

Haggling, fast turnover key to new fashion market

Young women browse through vogue clothes, leather jackets, accessories, wigs and colorful lingerie displayed at about 50 booths in Tondemun Sijan, a new fashion market in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

Children of Asahara forced to pay for guru's alleged crimes

RYUGASAKI, Ibaraki Pref. -- Watching them play on the floor amid scattered toys and books, it's hard to believe that these two boys were once hailed by thousands of Aum Shinrikyo members as holy children and heirs to their guru's legacy.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

Hearing-impaired to get subtitles over the Internet

Television program subtitles will be simulcast over the Internet starting in 2001 to audiences with hearing problems, a support group for the disabled said Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

LDP lawmakers try to quell non-Japanese suffrage moves

A group of Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers has urged local LDP chapters to revoke local assembly resolutions that favored a bill to give permanent non-Japanese residents voting rights in local elections.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 30, 2000

Korean owners cancel 2001 baseball season

The 2001 baseball season in South Korea has been canceled by the owners of the eight Korean Baseball Organization teams in retaliation for a surge in players' union membership.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

North Korea-linked credit union ruled insolvent

The Financial Reconstruction Commission on Friday declared insolvent Chogin Kinki Shinyo Kumiai, the largest pro-Pyongyang credit union in Japan, and decided to send in state-appointed administrators.
BUSINESS
Dec 30, 2000

Mitsui sets five-year reconstruction plan

Mitsui Construction Co. announced a five-year restructuring plan Friday under which the ailing general contractor will ask about 10 creditor financial institutions, including Sakura Bank, to forgive debts totaling 163 billion yen.
BUSINESS
Dec 30, 2000

Fresh from ODA victory over Kamei, Mori turns to IT aid initiative

Fresh from surviving a hard-fought battle against political pressure for Draconian cuts in its foreign-aid budget, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's government is stepping up efforts to implement his $15 billion aid initiative in the area of information technology.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 30, 2000

Mukai named new Japan rugby coach

Former Toshiba Fuchu manager Shogo Mukai has been named coach of the Japanese national rugby team, taking over from Seiji Hirao who resigned late last month, officials of the Japan Rugby Football Union said Friday.

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