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JAPAN
May 19, 1999

Peru requests loans totaling $300 million

Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori asked Japan on Wednesday to provide $300 million in untied loans via the Export-Import Bank of Japan to help his nation's ailing financial institutions combat the region's financial crisis.
JAPAN
May 19, 1999

Miyazawa drops extra budget hint

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa hinted Wednesday that the government may prepare an extra budget to expand the government's job creation fund.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 19, 1999

Voices in the machine

In the hyperaccelerated world of "news," my topic -- the Littleton, Colo., massacre -- may seem dated. But in living rooms, classrooms, legislatures and, of course, on the Net, the aftershocks are still reverberating
JAPAN
May 19, 1999

Japan Telecom posts 1.7% sales drop

Japan Telecom Co. on Wednesday reported 385.3 billion yen in unconsolidated sales for the business year that ended March 31, down 1.7 percent from the previous year.
JAPAN
May 19, 1999

Pollution sparks action to halt Universal Japan

OSAKA -- Three people living near the construction site of the Universal Studios Japan theme park in Konohana Ward here filed a petition Wednesday with the Osaka District Court, seeking a court order against USJ Co. and Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. to suspend the ongoing project.
JAPAN
May 19, 1999

Ramsar signatories aim to extend treaty's scope

Staff writer
JAPAN
May 19, 1999

Rising fears prompt calls to keep Aum in check

The government must respond to growing fears neighbors of Aum Shinrikyo facilities have and make efforts to restrict the cult's activities, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Wednesday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 19, 1999

Once more, Chiang Mai

I had a mission in Chiang Mai. Many years ago I bought a reclining black lacquer Burmese Buddha there. It had been gilded but much of the gold had been worn off, probably by the hands of the faithful seeking some special blessing. It has a remarkable face. It changes expression as the viewer moves even...
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 19, 1999

Back bayous of the Danube Delta

Adrift on a boat, with a wall of freshly leafed willows passing steadily on each side, I could not help thinking of Ratty and Mole's adventures on the river in "The Wind in the Willows." There were fresh mole hills to be found on the banks, and here and there holes in the riverbanks that might just have...
COMMUNITY
May 19, 1999

Redevelopment fiasco leaves locals in limbo

KOFU, Yamanashi Pref. -- The home of Yutaka Endo (not his real name) resembles one in a lesser-developed nation. His living room walls are stained where the rain has leaked through cracks; the wind whistles through warped window and door frames.
ENVIRONMENT
May 19, 1999

Azaleas rioting

WASHINGTON -- Henry Mitchell liked azaleas (and many other plants). "With them," he once wrote, "you can be as riotous, gaudy and vulgar as you please, or as delicate."
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
May 19, 1999

Journeying into the valley of death

"Death Valley," noted our guidebook, "is an inhuman environment: barren and monotonous, burning hot and almost entirely without shade or water." In short, the ideal antidote to Japan's rainy season, which is why we went.
COMMUNITY
May 19, 1999

Memories of old Honmoku

This is a story of Honmoku Motomachi, my hometown in Yokohama, a neighborhood on the southwest coast of Tokyo Bay. Not too long ago, the land extended to tidal flatlands that were abundantly endowed with a wide variety of marine life and provided sustenance and a livelihood to generations of fishermen....
JAPAN
May 19, 1999

Life term sought for Asahara's driver

Prosecutors demanded life in prison Wednesday for a former Aum Shinrikyo fugitive accused of chauffeuring one of the cultists accused of releasing sarin in the deadly Tokyo subway gas attack of March 1995.
EDITORIALS
May 18, 1999

Keep trade reform alive

An open international trade system is the backbone of the global economy. Vigorous trade has been the instrument of international prosperity in the past half-century. The secret of the trading order's success has been its continual expansion in terms of members (the number of nations) and reach (such...
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

New probe into fatal car accident sought

OSAKA -- The families of two boys who were struck and killed by a car in 1994 will file an appeal with the Osaka High Prosecutor's Office and Supreme Prosecutor's Office, arguing that Osaka district prosecutors inappropriately dropped charges against the driver, sources said Monday.
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

Digital camera sales continued steep ascent in '98

Domestic sales and exports of digital still cameras increased dramatically in fiscal 1998, with shipments jumping 36 percent in terms of units and 78 percent in terms of value, an industry association said Monday.
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

FRC panel declares failed NCB stocks worthless

A committee of the Financial Reconstruction Commission said Monday it has evaluated the stocks of the failed Nippon Credit Bank as worthless.
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

New Komeito plays up role as fickle ally

Staff writer
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

Third brain-death transplants conducted in Osaka, Kyoto

Heart and liver transplants from a brain-dead donor got under way in Osaka and Kyoto prefectures Monday in the third case since Japan legalized the procedure in 1997.
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

Extra budget possible by mid-July

The government can prepare a 500 billion yen supplementary budget for fiscal 1999 by mid-July if everything goes well, Vice Finance Minister Koji Tanami said Monday.
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

Bosnia-Herzegovina absentee ballots available

The Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina is calling on citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina living in Japan to register their current addresses with the embassy in order for them to participate in the upcoming general election by post or fax.
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

Diet session may run to early September

The government and the Liberal Democratic Party decided Monday to seek an extension of up to 85 days for the current Diet session to accommodate a supplementary budget for fiscal 1999 as well as other legislation to finance industrial competitiveness measures.
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

Volunteers struck by refugees' fortitude

Staff writer
CULTURE / Music
May 18, 1999

Alec Empire's mission: disturb and offend

At first glance Alec Empire, in black leather from head to foot, appears the archetypal rocker, but his short clean hair and his drug-free, no-drinking, no-smoking stance hardly screams "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll."
CULTURE / Books
May 18, 1999

Half a biography of Fujimori

THE PRESIDENT WHO DARED TO DREAM: Alberto Fujimori of Peru, by Rei Kimura. Worcester, U.K.: Eyelevel Books, 184 pp., $14.90 (paper). Peru and Japan just celebrated the 100th anniversary of the first Japanese immigrants' arrival in Peru on April 3, 1899. President Alberto Fujimori, himself the son of...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
May 18, 1999

Holy big beat funk, Captain!

Check him out now, the funky captain. Check him out now, the F-U-N-K-Y captain. Ch-ch-ch-ch-nu-nu-na-na. (cue big drums) . . . . There's a new superhero in town, folks. His name is Captain Funk. He's touching down in a disco den near you. His manifesto is simple:
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 18, 1999

Culture: mirror or straitjacket?

THE WORLDS OF JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE: Gender, Shifting Boundaries and Global Cultures, edited by D.P.K. Martinez. Cambridge University Press, 1998, 212 pp., unpriced. THE WORLDS OF JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE: Gender, Shifting Boundaries and Global Cultures, edited by D.P.K. Martinez. Cambridge University...
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

Restrictions on chemical exports to ease

The government plans to ease controls on exports of general-purpose high-tech communications equipment, cryptographic products and chemicals in accordance with deregulation undertaken by two multinational watchdogs on arms and chemical transfer worldwide, officials said Monday.
CULTURE / Books
May 18, 1999

Tracing a profile of the new Japan

REGIME SHIFT: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy, by T.J. Pempel. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1998, 263 pp. I'm confused. On the one hand, we're told Japan has undergone tumultuous change since the beginning of the '90s. The Liberal Democratic Party lost its 38-year-long...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji