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MORE SPORTS
Feb 25, 2000

End of rugby road for Suntory warrior Ennis

For the past 20 years, Glenn Ennis has loved throwing his weight around the rugby pitch.
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2000

Particulate matter linked to urban lung tumors

Suspended particulate matter found in urban areas where air pollution is severe may be a factor that leads to lung tumors, according to the results of a recent study announced Friday. The study, conducted by researchers at the Tokyo Metropolitan Research Laboratory of Public Health, used lab rats to...
EDITORIALS
Feb 24, 2000

Congratulations, but be careful

The United States economy continues its amazing performance. It has just marked the longest economic expansion in the country's history, growing for a record 107 consecutive months. The unemployment rolls are shrinking and inflation is under control. Whatever the explanation -- and there is no good one,...
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
Feb 24, 2000

JFA flash: Don't follow us, we're lost too

Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! Yes, today we're playing ping-pong with Frenchmen.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2000

Americans hold positive view of Japan

An important new poll on U.S. attitudes toward Japan's wartime past will please neither those who feel that Japan has not done enough to atone nor those who believe that Japan has done all it needs to do. Using a sample of 1,000 registered voters in California, the survey by Pacific Research & Strategies...
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2000

Green Cross chiefs receive prison terms for HIV scandal

OSAKA -- Three former presidents of the now-defunct Green Cross Corp. were sentenced Thursday to prison terms ranging from 16 months to two years for professional negligence resulting in death in connection with the firm's sales of HIV-tainted blood products. The Osaka District Court sentenced Renzo...
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2000

FRC chief in hot water

The chairman of the Financial Reconstruction Commission came under fire Thursday for recent remarks to financial executives that some have interpreted as indicating a willingness to intervene during government inspections. The nationwide inspections -- to be conducted by the Financial Supervisory Agency...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 24, 2000

The go-mi system of sake tasting

Describing and conveying the flavor of sake has always been problematic. How does one explain a gustatory experience in words alone? It certainly isn't easy. And, as sake flavor profiles become more complex and subtle, it is bound to become even more difficult.
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2000

Kindergartner's killer said sane, gets 18 years

OSAKA -- A 21-year-old man was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison for fatally stabbing a kindergarten girl and wounding two others in the city of Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, in January 1998. According to the Sakai branch of the Osaka District Court, the man, who was 19 at the time of the crime, inhaled...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 24, 2000

Luxembourg's grape history: wine country since day one

Mother Nature used her wintry palette to redefine Luxembourg in mere minutes, lacing its naked boughs and barren lawns with soft, tufted snow. This, too, is wine country.
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2000

'Restrant' cooks up new jobs for castaway workers

Staff writer Starting a new business in the midst of a protracted recession would seem a brave -- if not reckless -- move to most. But in the case of a restaurant that opened Thursday in Tokyo's Uguisudani district, the recession is its very raison d'etre. Restrant Genki Kosaten, a Japanese-style tavern,...
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2000

85 trillion yen budget for 2000 hit as pre-election pork barrel

Staff writer An election looms this year and criticism is mounting that the 85 trillion yen fiscal 2000 budget is nothing more than a gigantic pork barrel. As the government debt mounts and more public works outlays are earmarked, the ruling bloc, which defends this policy, is squaring off in the political...
COMMUNITY
Feb 24, 2000

Home is where change is

A visit to Tobetsu would surprise anyone looking for a glimpse of "old Japan" in the countryside.
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2000

Berlin panel looks at Japan economy, management

This was the general consensus of panelists at a symposium held Feb. 17 at the Japanese-German Center Berlin. The symposium was called The Japanese Economy and the Renewal of Japanese Management, and it was sponsored by the center and the Keizai Koho Center (Japan Institute for Social and Economic Affairs)....
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2000

DPJ's Kumagai sees yen in the Net

In what appears to be the first such attempt in Japan, Hiroshi Kumagai, deputy secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, has begun soliciting political donations through the Internet. Kumagai, a veteran Lower House member, said the move is an attempt to secure more funds from individual donors...
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2000

Sega, Swatch to join forces in Internet projects

Sega Enterprises, Ltd. and Swatch, A.G. on Thursday announced three new collaboration projects to enhance their Internet entertainment services. The two firms said one of the projects will entail the launch this year of a new service called "Internet & Wearable," for which Swatch will begin marketing...
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2000

Nursing coverage denies smaller group home operators

Staff writer When the government first announced its planned public nursing-care insurance program, group homes were to be covered. The definition of "group homes," however, is causing problems for some small operators, including the Tanoshiya nursing home in Urawa, Saitama Prefecture. When the system...
BUSINESS
Feb 24, 2000

U.S.-style takeovers threaten safe village

German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim achieved the first successful hostile takeover of a publicly listed company in Japan when it went for SSP Co.
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2000

Group led by Softbank named buyer of NCB

The Financial Reconstruction Commission on Thursday effectively named a consortium led by Softbank Corp., an Internet-oriented Tokyo-based holding firm, as the buyer of the nationalized Nippon Credit Bank. The government aims to finalize a basic agreement with the consortium -- which also includes leasing...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 24, 2000

Italian home cooking from a solo artist

It's always depressing when news comes in that another good restaurant has bitten the dust. In the past month we've found out that two of the best (in their own ways) have given up the ghost. So it was with not a little trepidation that we hiked off into nether Ebisu to see if our long-time favorite...
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2000

Taxing times for Tokyo banks

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara's plan to levy a new tax on large banks in the metropolis has created a stir. The banks are dead set against it, but Tokyo citizens -- and the public at large -- are applauding the idea. No Japanese politician, national or local, has made such a widely acclaimed decision...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2000

It's simple: Economic freedom is the key to prosperity

In a world of plenty, want abounds. To blame are big corporations, international trade and open markets, according to demonstrators who have been attacking the World Trade Organization.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2000

DPJ chief ready to testify over donations

The president of the Democratic Party of Japan said he is willing to give testimony if he is summoned over allegations in a magazine that he accepted illegal donations of 50 million yen. Yukio Hatoyama, president of the largest opposition party, made his announcement in response to a question during...
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2000

Trade surplus plummets for 10th straight month

The nation' trade surplus in January plummeted 30.7 percent from a year earlier to 522.6 billion yen, marking the 10th straight month of year-on-year decline, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday. Rising oil prices helped imports, particularly those from the rest of Asia, outpace an expansion in exports,...
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2000

Tokyo backing Arabian Oil to very end, Fukaya says

Trade chief Takashi Fukaya underlined Wednesday the government's determination to support Arabian Oil Co. until its negotiations with Saudi Arabia over the renewal of the firm's rights to a major oil concession there are exhausted. Despite media reports on the apparent pessimism of some government officials,...
BUSINESS
Feb 23, 2000

Poor economic news weighing down yen

The yen may remain under selling pressure for some time, given the recent spate of unnerving economic and corporate news developments.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Feb 23, 2000

Local variations

With the new animal welfare law about to be enforced, several readers have asked how they should report examples of cruelty they have seen. One woman was repulsed by a game she saw recently. Players tried to catch live lobsters crowded into an aquarium with a cranelike tool operated by remote control....
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2000

New century proposals seen as more than unlikely dreams

Staff writer Recent ambitious proposals by the Commission on Japan's Goals in the 21st Century may be eye-catching but are unlikely to be achieved, according to skeptics. Those people, however, are wrong, according to commission head Hayao Kawai, who also serves as director general of the Education...
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 23, 2000

Building tropical paradise on a trash heap

Yumenoshima is a man-made island in Koto Ward, Tokyo.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2000

Ishihara's bank tax plan leads charge for local autonomy

Labeling a controversial tax proposal submitted Wednesday to the metropolitan assembly "a challenge from Tokyo," Gov. Shintaro Ishihara opened the legislature's regular session with a call for local autonomy. He also blamed the nation's top-down political and administrative systems for what he called...

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?