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EDITORIALS
Mar 30, 2000

The real need for foreign workers

Japan must soon get ready to accept, even to welcome, a far greater number of legal foreign workers in its midst. The possibility is not remote, in view of plans just announced by the Justice Ministry's Immigration Bureau to relax visa procedures for non-Japanese workers in a wider range of fields than...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Mar 30, 2000

American arrogance rears its head

Over the years, the United States has gained a reputation for arrogance and self-centeredness. A couple of opinions expressed in The New York Times last week did nothing to dispel this perception.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2000

Former Yamaichi president given 2 1/2-year prison term

Two former top executives of the defunct Yamaichi Securities Co. were given prison terms, one suspended, by the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday for conspiring to conceal more than 200 billion yen in losses from shareholders between fiscal 1995 and 1997.
LIFE / Travel
Mar 29, 2000

Samurai, silk and soba in a classic castle town

Like many castle towns, the identity of Ueda, in Nagano Prefecture, is closely intertwined with its castle.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 28, 2000

The marvelous paradox of Ise

ISE -- JAPAN'S ISE SHRINES: Ancient but New, by Svend Hvass. Holte: Aristo Press, 146 pp., profusely illustrated, 6,000 yen. Ise holds one of the most important Shinto shrines in Japan. Enshrining the ancestral gods of the Imperial family, it has a long and varied political career. Such was its power...
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2000

State slow in Tokai fiasco, report notes

The government reacted slowly last year to the nuclear disaster in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, which resulted in the first fatality from radiation exposure in postwar Japanese history, according to a government report obtained by Kyodo News.
SUMO
Mar 27, 2000

Lowly Takatoriki captures first Emperor's Cup

No. 14 maegashira Takatoriki stunned Miyabiyama and the entire sumo world Sunday when he upset heavily favored sekiwake Miyabiyama to clinch the championship of the Haru Basho in Osaka with a spectacular 13-2 record. It not only marked 'Riki's first yusho, but it was also the first time in sumo history...
COMMUNITY
Mar 26, 2000

Lebanese Marie-Rose has a lot to say on love

Last Tuesday Marie-Rose Ishiguro was at odds with her handbag. Dressed in a bright red suit, with gold jewelry and matching buttons, she looked every inch the power executive. But her battered brown leather bag -- more a holdall really, handles secured with string and spilling papers, books and clothes...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 26, 2000

Yoshihiko Ueda

People often ask Yoshihiko Ueda why he became a photographer. He replies that he has no clear memory of the beginning. "Perhaps it was almost coincidental," he said. His wife offers the explanation that his sister gave him a camera to console him when he was disappointed at failing boyhood examinations....
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2000

Redress for 'karoshi' suicides eased

The Supreme Court's decision Friday upholding a lower court conclusion that an employer bore responsibility for its employee's suicide is a stamp of approval on a ruling that has led to revisions of labor administration policies.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2000

Supreme Court rules Dentsu responsible for man's suicide

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld lower court rulings in which advertising giant Dentsu Inc. was held responsible for neglecting to act to prevent the 1991 suicide of a 24-year-old employee who showed signs of depression from overwork.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2000

National Diet Library goes online

Hiroyuki Taya, a senior staff librarian at the National Diet Library, realized the power of the Internet when the nation's largest library recently launched a new service to open part of its collection to online users.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2000

No more Indian idealism

NEW DELHI -- U.S. President Bill Clinton's weeklong tour of South Asia has caused an outbreak of Clinton-mania in the region, generating bloated expectations. In the Indian cities on his itinerary, streets have been cleaned, signposts washed or repainted, and tree branches cut back. The Great White Messiah...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2000

Breaking down the doors of Japan's discriminatory press clubs

In May 1993, David Butts, then Tokyo bureau chief of Bloomberg Business News, was fed up. After years of unsuccessful efforts to penetrate Japan's press clubs through polite negotiation, the tall Texan chose a more direct approach. On the day annual company reports were released, Butts, with other foreign...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 22, 2000

Clinton's opportunities in South Asia

ISLAMABAD -- U.S. President Bill Clinton will travel to Pakistan on March 25, on the last leg of his South Asian journey, which began last Sunday. But the few hours he plans to spend in Islamabad may represent more than just a passing phase in Washington's new diplomacy in South Asia.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 22, 2000

China faces democracy bug

LONDON -- Taiwan's transition to democracy is complete. On Saturday, after half a century of rule by the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party), the offshore island's 15 million voters elected a president from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, Chen Shui-bian. "I feel very, very badly about this,"...
LIFE / Travel
Mar 22, 2000

Dejima getting back into shape

First-time visitors to Dejima, Nagasaki's historic artificial island, are usually puzzled on arrival. Looking around for water, they find only a kitsch scale model of the island and several oldish buildings. Although Dejima's front sea wall looks authentic enough, landfills have gradually enclosed the...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 22, 2000

Won't be fooled again

When asked about the dot-com economy, Tim Dyson was succinct and acid -- almost contemptuous. "There's only one metric," he said. "Stock price."
CULTURE / Books
Mar 20, 2000

Valuable guide through the legal thicket in Japan

JAPANESE LAW (second edition), by Hiroshi Oda. Oxford University Press, 1999, 16,900 yen. First and foremost, this is a book about the commercial law of Japan. Initially published in 1992, the second edition endeavors to reflect the many changes that have occurred in Japanese law in the years since...
COMMUNITY
Mar 19, 2000

She walks! She talks! She dances!

The Hello Kitty logo is ubiquitous. She is everywhere, on everything, from pencil cases and T-shirts to cellular phones and suitcases. Without a doubt, Hello Kitty is a globally recognized icon, but in a musical revue directed by Amon Miyamoto, she becomes more than just a logo. She is given life. She...
CULTURE / Art
Mar 19, 2000

Feeling the past through your skin

How can we be intimate with the past? Human beings have always yearned to know the ways and feelings of those who came before. History books, old folk music, paintings and petroglyphs: All of these tell us about how our ancestors thought and felt. For textile craftswoman Eiko Noda, the way to feel what...
SUMO
Mar 17, 2000

Yokozuna Wakanohana announces retirement

OSAKA -- Injury-prone yokozuna Wakanohana announced his retirement from sumo Thursday night after staying at the summit of the traditional Japanese sport for nearly two years along with younger brother Takanohana.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2000

A new era of democracy in Taiwan

TAIPEI -- On Saturday, the Republic of China will hold its second direct election for the presidency and the vice presidency. Throughout Chinese history, the concept of popular sovereignty has never been so strong as it is now. Therefore, this election will surely demonstrate to the international community...
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2000

British nuclear activist fights for disarmament

A 48-year-old British antinuclear activist proved that direct action by citizens can contribute to global disarmament and even prevent potential mass murder when, in a landmark ruling, she was acquitted for vandalizing a British warplane and a nuclear submarine research facility.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2000

Inflation scare won't loosen purse strings

Most of Japan's modern economic history consists of a long series of achievements pronounced impossible by the outside world. Japan was building the foundations of world-beating steel and electronics industries while Occupation officials urged that scarce resources be devoted to "suitable" exports such...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2000

If only Greenpeace told the truth about whaling

On Nov. 9, 1999, Japan's whale research fleet departed for the Antarctic to begin the 13th year of its research program. The research program involves both a sighting survey whose primary purpose is the estimation of trends in abundance, and a sampling component that involves the take of up to 440 minke...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 15, 2000

Seeds of knowledge

Welcome to the digital revolution, where we crunch numbers, process information and mine data. Maybe we don't get grease under our fingernails, but one wonders how far we've progressed beyond the industrial revolution. Though the metallic cling-clang of factories is rare, isn't there something familiar...

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic