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COMMENTARY
Nov 24, 1999

Japan's Middle East role

In January 1996, I was dispatched by the Japanese government to observe the election of the Palestine Council and the president of the Palestinian Authority. Because Palestine was still under Israeli occupation, it was not a sovereign state: Sending international observers to such a region was unprecedented....
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Nov 24, 1999

Web's blog, stardate 1999

The Internet could be blamed for empowering armies of blowhards, chatterboxes and gas bags. While you probably have no shortage of these around you in the real world, you are just as likely to bump into them online, boasting, preaching, whining, ranting, blathering on about whatever has crossed their...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 24, 1999

Ghostly tanka with a steely brightness

HEAVENLY MAIDEN: Tanka, by Akiko Baba, translated by Hatsue Kawamura and Jane Reichhold. AHA Books, 1999; 115 pp., $10. More expressive than the briefer haiku, tanka can more easily incorporate the flow of events and thoughts that make up ordinary life:
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Nov 24, 1999

A mountainous garden undertaking for all

Rikugien in Tokyo is the last in this series on gardens built in old Edo (modern Tokyo) by daimyo under the Tokugawa military government (bakufu) between 1603 and 1868.
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
Nov 24, 1999

When the going gets tough, the tough drink coffee

When I was a child, my mother didn't hesitate to drag me along on her shopping sprees, and if she managed to find some bargains, she would celebrate (and reward my good behavior) by treating me to something sweet at the department store coffee shop.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 24, 1999

Lured to Katsuragawa's fishing hot spot

The morning sky looked threatening and my previous day's fishing charter had been rained out, but I still had an overwhelming urge to go out and wet a line.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Nov 24, 1999

The ultimate solution

This notice was posted recently on my neighborhood bulletin board -- To people who feed stray cats: Please also take care of spaying or neutering them. While strays have become a problem recognized by the government, little has been done to eliminate it by the most obvious way: providing an inexpensive...
LIFE / Travel
Nov 24, 1999

Sights above and below watermark

Diving enthusiasts have no doubt heard of Belize, a sliver of land bordered by Mexico in the north and Guatemala to the west, for its spectacular barrier reef. The Caribbean reefs, located on the eastern side of the island, offers endless walls and undulating coral ridges. It stretches a few hundred...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 24, 1999

British bulldogs in a China shop

BRITAIN IN CHINA: Community, Culture and Colonialism 1900-1949, by Robert Bickers. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1999; 276 pp., 45 pounds (hardcover), 15.99 pounds (paper). When Lord Macartney opened his British Embassy in China in 1792, he was told to ask for bit of land or,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 24, 1999

Gilded lilies of the Tokugawas

EDO: ART IN JAPAN 1615-1868. Edited by Robert Singer, foreword by Earl A. Powell III. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998, with assistance from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs and the Japan Foundation. 480 pp., 281 color plates. Unpriced. THE EYES...
COMMENTARY
Nov 24, 1999

New Luddites at the gates

LONDON -- Ned Ludd was the leader of a mob, circa 1815, who went around smashing up new textile machinery in factories. Ludd calculated, correctly, that traditional jobs would be lost and familiar ways of life destroyed for thousands, even millions of British workers if the machines prevailed.
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 1999

Terror for the 21st century

A few weeks ago, New York was hit by an outbreak of the West Nile virus. Five people died and another 50 were sickened before authorities were able to respond. West Nile fever is a rare, encephalitic virus that is common in Africa and Asia, but had never before been diagnosed in the Western Hemisphere....
JAPAN
Nov 23, 1999

ASDF aid flights climb to legalistic threshold

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 23, 1999

Foreign carmakers wedge feet in door at Toyohashi

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 23, 1999

Car crash culprit held in slaying

AKITA -- A 49-year-old man fatally stabbed an insurance salesman here Monday night and seriously injured a woman in a head-on collision with her car an hour later, police said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Nov 23, 1999

Tips sought in search for Ise reporter

TSU, Mie Pref. -- Family and friends of a female reporter who has been missing for nearly a year called on citizens of Ise Tuesday to come forward with any information regarding her disappearance.
JAPAN
Nov 23, 1999

Pension reform plan draws flak

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Will LDP let Ozawa come in from the cold?

Staff writers
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Two die in ASDF jet crash; power cut to 800,000

Power was cut to about 800,000 households in Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture on Monday afternoon after an Air Self-Defense Force jet severed a power line before it crashed, killing its two crewmen.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Coalition drafts bill to lower child-rearing burden

A project team of the three ruling parties has drafted a bill to reduce the financial burden of child-rearing as a way to deal with the nation's falling birthrate, coalition officials said Monday.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Parents sue ward over girl's 'discriminatory' registry

An unmarried couple filed a suit Monday with the Tokyo District Court, demanding that the justice minister and the mayor of Tokyo's Nakano Ward pay 4 million yen in damages and nullify family registry records that list their daughter simply as "female," indicating she was born out of wedlock.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Futenma chronology: Outrage sparked relocation

1) Sept. 4, 1995: Three U.S. servicemen rape a Japanese schoolgirl in Okinawa Prefecture, igniting anger over the presence of U.S. military forces.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Major banks report mostly in the black

All but one of the nation's 17 major banks scored pretax profits in the first half of fiscal 1999, according to midterm reports released by the banks Monday.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Life Space guru denies suggesting man leave hospital

The founder of the Life Space self-enlightenment group on Monday denied responsibility for moving a member of the group from a hospital in Hyogo Prefecture to a hotel in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, where the man's mummified corpse was found earlier this month.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Matsushita, Daikin plan AC alliance

OSAKA -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Daikin Industries, Ltd. announced plans Monday to collaborate in the air conditioning business that will include establishing a joint venture company in April.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Profits up at JR East, JR Tokai

Two Japan Railway group companies on Monday reported a rise in their unconsolidated pretax profits during the first half of fiscal 1999, despite declines in total revenues.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Focus needed to revive Made in Japan sheen: Okuda

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Nago base relocation no done deal

YOKO HANI Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Restructuring of Nissan brings 323 billion yen loss

Struggling Nissan Motor Co. announced Monday a consolidated net loss of 323.5 billion yen for the first half of fiscal 1999. The automaker said the losses were due to pension and retirement expenses as well as the cost of a massive restructuring program.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Internet disclosure bills to be submitted in 2000

The government will submit bills to the Diet next year to enable electronic authorization and disclosure of financial statements, the Finance Ministry said Monday.

Longform

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