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LIFE / Travel / ON THE ARCHIPELA-GO
Mar 3, 1999

Kyoto: The 'City of Flowers' defined by its waterways

Ever since Kyoto was founded by the Emperor Kanmu in 794, its temples, garden sanctuaries, artisan quarters, elegant back streets and superb inns and shops have lent credence to the city's nickname, "Hana no Miyako," the City of Flowers.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 1999

Colombian president to visit in May

Colombian President Andres Pastrana will from May 10 to 13 make his first visit to Japan since his swearing-in in August, the new Colombian ambassador said Wednesday.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Mar 3, 1999

Belize offers cay to a good vacation

Belize City (population 60,000) sucks. Crack addicts, muggers, deranged loafers, unprovoked verbal abuse of the anti-whitey variety. A spoonful of water from its rancid canals, if strategically distributed, would wipe out the People's Republic of China. Belize City's got the lot.
EDITORIALS
Mar 2, 1999

Kosovo's tentative peace

No one expected much from the Kosovo peace talks that were held last month in the French town of Rambouillet. Yet even with those diminished expectations, few people are much satisfied with the results. The talks have recessed until March 15, no party signed anything, fighting has already erupted between...
JAPAN
Mar 2, 1999

Sony lifts veil on next-generation PlayStation

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. gave a preview Tuesday of the new graphics and massive calculating power of its next-generation video game machine, announcing plans to release a successor to its No. 1 PlayStation this winter.
JAPAN
Mar 2, 1999

State moves to validate Hinomaru, 'Kimigayo' after suicide

The government will start working to legally recognize "Kimigayo" as the national anthem and the Hinomaru as Japan's flag, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Mar 2, 1999

Steel exports mark fourth consecutive plunge

Japanese exports of hot rolled steel to the U.S., which have become the target of an antidumping claim by the American steel industry, took another plunge in January to hit 294 tons, down 74.7 percent from December and 99.7 percent from a year ago, according to a government report issued Tuesday.
JAPAN
Mar 2, 1999

Leaders of five parties call for Constitution review panel

The secretaries general of five political parties asked the Lower House on Tuesday to create a research panel to review the Constitution.
COMMENTARY
Mar 2, 1999

A world bereft of leaders?

LONDON -- Hardly a day goes by without someone deploring the lack of political and economic leadership in our world. Commentators bemoan that with the departure of politicians like former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl the world is bereft of political leadership....
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Mar 2, 1999

Twin with a twisted heart

The indomitable, incorrigible and completely insane Aphex Twin -- who has just released his latest single "Windowlicker" with its controversial video -- can never be branded boring.
JAPAN
Mar 2, 1999

Intel launches Pentium III with controversial user ID

Intel Corp. launched its latest but controversial Pentium series microprocessor product Tuesday in Japan, as more than 30 system vendors including NEC Corp., Sony Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd. released Pentium III models the same day for the Japanese market.
JAPAN
Mar 2, 1999

Dam plan rivals urged to review project together

A nongovernment environmental organization on Tuesday urged Tokushima Prefecture and the Construction Ministry to involve citizens in a review of a controversial dam project and ensure an adequate environmental impact assessment is carried out.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 2, 1999

Faith isn't enough for China's Catholics

CHINA'S CATHOLICS: Tragedy and Hope in an Emerging Civil Society, by Richard Madsen. Berkeley, CA.: University of California Press, 1998, 191 pp., $27.50 (cloth). The Catholic Church has had a long and powerful influence on China. Missionaries first traveled to the Middle Kingdom in the seventh century...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 2, 1999

Alexei Sultanov

Not long ago a famous American classical pianist gave an interview to a Japanese newspaper in which he complained, "I can't tell if a Japanese audience is enjoying the performance or if they're bored."
JAPAN
Mar 2, 1999

Bilateral deregulation talks called 'constructive'

Two-day vice-ministerial talks on deregulation between Japan and the United States closed Tuesday in Tokyo with each side demanding further deregulation by the other, a government official said.
JAPAN
Mar 2, 1999

Hatoyama submits Diet resignation

Kunio Hatoyama, deputy head of the Democratic Party of Japan, submitted his Lower House resignation Tuesday so he can run in the April 11 Tokyo governor's poll.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 2, 1999

Where Japan draws the line

EROS IN HELL: Sex, Blood and Madness in Japanese Cinema. Texts by Jack Hunter, Rosemary Hawley Jarman, Johannes Schonherr, Romain Slocombe. London: Creation Books, 1998, 228 pp., b/w photos, profusely illustrated, 14.95 British pounds. In 1966, Jack Hunter says, when the notorious publication "Death...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 2, 1999

BOOK BITES

THE FUTURE OF ASIA AND THE PACIFIC, by Geoffrey Hawthorn. London: Phoenix, 1998, 57 pp., 2 British pounds. This little volume is one of a series of 24 short books whose authors attempt to forecast the future across a range of social, economic and political subject areas.
JAPAN
Mar 2, 1999

BOJ board voted for credibility rather than bonds

The Bank of Japan Policy Board in its Jan. 19 meeting rejected the idea of underwriting government bonds on grounds that it would undermine the credibility of the central bank, according to minutes of the meeting released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 1999

NCB reform plan cuts 290 jobs

The nationalized Nippon Credit Bank released a restructuring plan Monday calling for cuts of roughly 290 jobs to bring the total workforce to 1,800, according to the Financial Restructuring Commission.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 1999

New high school courses to break with tradition

Breaking away from the nation's traditionally rigid and formatted educational system, high schools will begin focusing more on nurturing the unique abilities of each student in the coming century, according to the draft of the Education Ministry's new teaching guidelines, released Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 1999

Mitsui Trust to lower wages in Chuo merger

In an unusual move, Mitsui Trust & Banking Co. plans to cut wages to the level of those offered at Chuo Trust & Banking Co. after its planned merger with Chuo in April 2000, industry sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 1999

High court rejects Kadokawa smuggling appeal

Haruki Kadokawa's four-year prison term for cocaine smuggling and embezzlement stands, the Tokyo High Court ruled Monday, rejecting an appeal from the 56-year-old former president of Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 1999

Parties to request Constitution review panel

The secretaries general of five political parties agreed Monday to request creation of a research panel to review the Constitution.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 1999

Doctors complete historic transplants

Japan's first heart, liver and kidney transplant operations involving a legally declared brain-dead donor were successfully completed early Monday morning, hospital officials said.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 1999

Miyazawa urges IMF to reform aid strategy

The International Monetary Fund should reform its procedures in order to enhance accountability and better reflect the needs of aid-recipient countries, Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 1999

Transplant network apologizes to family

A Japan Organ Transplant Network executive offered an apology Monday to the family members of an organ donor in Kochi for the group's insufficient protection of their privacy.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 1999

Recruit sells building to U.S. firms

Recruit Co., a major information service company, has sold its office building in front of JR Kawasaki Station to two U.S real estate firms as part of efforts to reduce its huge debts, informed sources said Monday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 28, 1999

Shiny happy people

The elusive butterfly of happiness has been fluttering before humanity for a long time. America's Thomas Jefferson declared the pursuit of it an inalienable human right over 220 years ago. But a good 1,800 years or so before that, another great farmer-philosopher had seen the urge to chase happiness...
COMMENTARY
Feb 28, 1999

Constitution unfit for a sovereign nation

Most Japanese do not realize that the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty is a military alliance pact. Unlike a conventional military alliance treaty, however, the pact is not based on reciprocal obligations. For the U.S., the treaty is unfair and is not really bilateral.

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