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JAPAN
Jun 11, 1999

Economic pain blamed for suicidal surge

Last year's high unemployment rate and numerous bankruptcies led to a surge in suicides across the country, which topped 30,000 for the first time.
JAPAN
Jun 11, 1999

Suicides climb; birthrate sputters

Several national statistics hit record levels last year as the average birthrate dropped to an all-time low of 1.38 babies per woman and the number of suicides topped 30,000 for the first time, the Health and Welfare Ministry said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 1999

Analysis: Lofty administrative goals not attained by bills

It has been said that the two sets of administrative reform bills moving on to the Upper House will bring about Japan's most sweeping reforms in 100 years and end the bureaucracy's dominance over the administration.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jun 9, 1999

High praise

A woman writes that last year she saw several subway advertisements for Hunter-Douglas window blinds and asks if I can find the company's phone number. She complains that local services are extremely expensive and leave a lot to be desired. Recently, for example, she contracted for similar work but as...
JAPAN
Jun 9, 1999

Major insurers book drops in premiums, contracts

All seven of the nation's major life insurers suffered declines in premiums and personal insurance contracts in fiscal 1998, according to earnings reports released Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

Toho Mutual Life told to suspend operations

The Financial Supervisory Agency ordered Toho Mutual Life Insurance Co. to suspend operations Friday, after the ailing life insurer failed to obtain approval from auditors on a fiscal 1998 earnings report, agency officials announced.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

UNEP kicks off third global photo contest

The head of the U.N. Environment Program announced Friday in Tokyo the launch of the world's largest photography contest in anticipation of World Environment Day.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 4, 1999

Musician spreads jazz gospel

"Jazz is my religion," said Joe Lee Wilson in a ceremony last week at the Tokyo campus of the International School of the Sacred Heart, after completing a six-week music workshop with 600 students.
EDITORIALS
Jun 3, 1999

A new world for Japanese business

The latest earnings reports from Japanese corporations listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange provide a running commentary on their predicament. Reflecting a drawn-out recession, both sales and profits plunged in the year to March 1999 (fiscal 1998). On average, sales in all industries except financial services...
COMMUNITY
Jun 3, 1999

Getting to the point of good health

Consider these facts:
LIFE / Travel
Jun 2, 1999

Learning through landscapes

ARBORFIELD CROSS, England -- When Susan Humphries was appointed head of the Coombes Infant School in Arborfield Cross, Surrey, an hour's drive from London, it was doubtless a satisfying moment in career terms. A school of her own at last. What she did not realize, and is likely to dismiss modestly today,...
JAPAN
May 31, 1999

NSC gives Tokai nuclear plant clean bill of health

The governmental Nuclear Safety Commission concluded Monday that there are no safety problems at the suspended nuclear spent-fuel reprocessing plant at Tokai village, Ibaraki Prefecture, paving the way for the plant to resume operations.
JAPAN
May 31, 1999

Finance cool to Keidanren's extra budget call

Top Finance Ministry officials on Monday raised doubts over the need for a supplementary budget to help alleviate the recession during a meeting with the nation's most powerful business lobby.
JAPAN
May 31, 1999

ANA announces restructuring plan, job cuts

All Nippon Airways Co. unveiled a mid-term business plan Monday that includes a 10-percent cut in ANA group's 28,000 workforce over a four-year period.
JAPAN
May 28, 1999

Panel ponders ways to reverse falling birthrate

Amid the declining birthrate, the government held its first meeting Friday of Cabinet ministers to discuss ways to encourage young couples to have more children.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 27, 1999

High adventure

Have you decided where you are going to spend New Year's Eve? It should be someplace where you wouldn't mind staying if any of our normal, every day support systems should fail. One unconcerned gentleman has made reservations for a flight over Antarctica. Experts will be on board the 747 to explain about...
JAPAN
May 26, 1999

The 401(K) Approach: Skandia eyes pension plan gains

First in an occasional series
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

New Defense Role: Next step is to free up SDF

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
May 22, 1999

Red alert for the Loonies

There was gloomy news last week in the sphere of international politics -- so gloomy, in fact, that had it not been for Israel's spirited rejection of its most unhelpful prime minister ever, Benjamin ("Turn-the-clock-back Bibi") Netanyahu, monitors of social progress everywhere would now be inconsolable....
JAPAN
May 21, 1999

Eight city banks report losses as bad-loan woes continue

Eight of the nation's city banks remained in the red at the end of fiscal 1998, a year they spent boosting loan-loss reserves and writing off nonperforming loans, according to earnings reports released by Friday.
COMMUNITY
May 20, 1999

Free university opens doors on a place to open your mind

There's a new and unusual place in Tokyo to learn, grow and have fun -- and it's free. Tokyo Jiyu Daigaku, or Tokyo Free University, has opened its doors for its inaugural year onto subjects ranging from Eastern and Western religion, philosophy and literature, third-world development, creative and spiritual...
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...
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.
COMMENTARY / World
May 15, 1999

The problem of India's 'untouchables'

It is a great paradox that India, one of the world's oldest democracies, is still unable to eliminate a deep-rooted social problem: the widespread violence and discrimination against the Dalits, a name that means literally "broken" peo ple. The Dalits, or "untouchables," are a segment of Indian society,...
LIFE / Travel
May 13, 1999

Nishi-Ogikubo -- waist-high in green

Tokyoites complain about Tokyo: its chaotic haphazardness, its sprawling largeness, its adamant refusal to be beautiful. Like the room of a teenage boy, it keeps accumulating things, things, things. Then everything is kicked under the bed and the boy goes out for a cheeseburger. Tokyoites can only shrug...
LIFE / Travel
May 13, 1999

The 'red, green and white lines': rubies, jade and heroin

Like most things connected to money and profit in Myanmar, there is a sinister side to the north's resurgent economy, a subtext that generally eludes visitors' attention. Still, at least one travel book, Nicholas Greenwood's original and often very funny "Bradt Guide to Burma," has picked up on it. Not...
JAPAN
May 12, 1999

Preparatory talks for 2000 G8 summit held

The government held its first preparatory meeting Wednesday for next year's Kyushu-Okinawa Summit, confirming that related ministries will cooperate closely to make the summit a success, government officials said.
EDITORIALS
May 8, 1999

Blair gambles on federalism and wins

The United Kingdom remains united. In a historic vote earlier this week, the Scots and the Welsh held elections to select representatives for their own newly created Parliaments. Preliminary results indicate that the Labor Party will hold the most seats in the new legislature sitting in Edinburgh, but...
COMMUNITY
May 5, 1999

Immune system research pays off, paves way to AIDS cure

In 1987, American molecular biologists Jack Strominger and Don Wiley shocked the scientific world with a supreme example of the adage "A picture is worth a thousand words."
COMMENTARY / World
May 4, 1999

India rightly resists the Chinese model

India has often been advised to follow the path of China in public investment in human capital. China has done well in the last decade, but it would be a disaster if India were to follow her example. China's approach can be called "two quick steps forward, one slow step back." India's approach, in contrast,...

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes