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EDITORIALS
Mar 4, 1999

Japan passes a medical milestone

The nation breathed an almost audible collective sigh of relief this week, thankful that a successful precedent has now been set for organ transplants. Apart from the media hullabaloo and a short-lived controversy over the diagnosis a couple of days before the verdict of legal brain-death was pronounced,...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Mar 3, 1999

Sorry about that

My sympathy is with a reader who used a previous column as a guide when he had his U.S. driver's license translated and took it to his Japanese licensing bureau for the easy exchange I had promised. He had studied the "Rules of the Road" handbook and didn't expect any problems with the required written...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 1999

Coalition forms millennium bug panel

The Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Liberal Party on Wednesday launched a panel to tackle troubles likely to be caused by the millennium computer bug problem.
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 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.
JAPAN
Feb 25, 1999

Ministry targets U.S. elderly to fix tourism slump

The Transport Ministry will launch a campaign next week to encourage U.S. senior citizens to visit Japan in a bid to stimulate the slumping tourism industry, ministry officials said on Thursday.
JAPAN
Feb 24, 1999

Ministers urge quick review of safe, daily dioxin intake

Cabinet members attending the first ministerial-level conference on dioxin policy agreed Wednesday that a quick review is needed of the tolerable daily intake of the carcinogen in order to form the basis for future policy.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Feb 21, 1999

Sunday afternoon

A reader writes about the Saturday edition of The Japan Times and how much she appreciates the listing of what's going on in our city. She especially enjoyed Robert Yellin's Feb. 13 article about Nezu Museum and its current exhibition revealing the elegance of traditional sake drinking, the sake cups...
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 1999

Haunting the high street

As the Internet insinuates itself deeper into daily life, one key facet of its future role -- electronic commerce -- continues its explosive growth. Estimates of the amount of business conducted in cyberspace vary from $30 billion annually to nearly twice that. But one thing is certain: It is increasing...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 1999

Globalization, the world's whipping boy

For one brief moment less than a decade ago, the idea of "globalization" was viewed with more promise than peril. At the time, it represented an emerging economic reality: the merging of national markets into a single entity that traders and merchants anywhere could access at anytime. This "24-hour,...
EDITORIALS
Feb 16, 1999

Post-impeachment Clinton

Officially, the impeachment ordeal of U.S. President Bill Clinton is over. Last Friday, the Senate -- in two bipartisan votes -- rejected both charges against the president. By a vote of 55 to 45, they threw out the first article of impeachment that alleged Mr. Clinton committed perjury when testifying...
JAPAN
Feb 12, 1999

Celebrate the millennium bug

Japan has drawn up draft proposals for an "APEC Y2K Week" to help the 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, especially developing members, cope with the Year 2000 computer bug problem.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 1999

Jordanian Embassy accepts condolences for King Hussein

The Jordanian Embassy has begun accepting messages of condolence over the death of King Hussein, who succumbed to cancer Sunday in the Middle Eastern country, embassy officials said Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 1999

New 'Japanese way' needed, Kansai seminar says

KYOTO — A new "Japanese way" that places emphasis on greater flexibility in decision making and less bureaucratic control are necessary if Japan's corporations are to remain competitive in the next century.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 1999

OECD drafts corporate governance guides

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has completed a draft of international guidelines for good corporate governance that emphasizes, among other things, promotion and protection of shareholders' rights.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Feb 3, 1999

Easy money?

Have you got Net fever yet? It's hard to resist.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 1999

Zen cowboy longs to be one with bulls

They say that in life you get 15 minutes of fame, but all Jin Shibahara needs is eight seconds — on the back of an angry, bucking bull.
JAPAN
Jan 29, 1999

Crisis team holds first meeting

The Liberal Democratic Party's project team on crisis management held its first meeting Friday, agreeing to discuss 10 issues ranging from North Korea's missile launch to responses to emergency situations to antiterrorism measures.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 1999

Aoshima now called friend of bureaucrats, status quo

Mavericks Yukio Aoshima and "Knock" Yokoyama rode a tidal wave of voter discontent with the status quo four years ago and won gubernatorial races in Tokyo and Osaka, pleasing the public and shocking lawmakers and assembly members of the Liberal Democratic Party and other non-Communist forces.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 1999

Poll Preview: Celebrity governors in need of new shtick

Four years ago, comedian and Upper House member "Knock" Yokoyama entered the Osaka gubernatorial race three days before the official campaign started, saying he was angry about the collusion in the non-Communist ruling coalition in the prefectural assembly.
JAPAN
Jan 26, 1999

Tokyo seeks foreigners for advisory council

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is looking for candidates to sit on its new Foreign Advisory Council.
JAPAN
Jan 26, 1999

Sony, Toyota enter data service venture with IIJ

A joint data communications venture established by Toyota Motor Corp., Sony Corp. and Internet Initiative Japan Inc. announced Tuesday that it will begin high-speed data services of up to 600 megabits per second in April for corporate users.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 1999

Tokyo promises expense disclosure in fiscal '99

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government will disclose all social expenses by the governor and other top officials from fiscal 1999, officials said Friday.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jan 20, 1999

Toys today, tools tomorrow

Cybersurfers never had it so good. The efforts of Apple's Steven Jobs to revive his legacy mean that we can order the iMac in one of five "flavors." Thanks, Steve. Bill Gates wants you to be able to go anywhere you want on the Net -- as long as Microsoft escorts you on the journey
JAPAN
Jan 20, 1999

Fuhonsen currency said prompted by Tang threat

The threat posed by China's Tang dynasty prompted Japan to boost the state's economic strength by minting its first coins in the late seventh century, earlier than previously believed, according to an archaeologist at a national research institute.
JAPAN
Jan 19, 1999

Kan terms Obuchi 'vacuum cleaner' on issues

Opposition parties lambasted Obuchi's policy address Tuesday for lacking specific measures for solving the nation's problems.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 1999

U.S. committed to Okinawa force reduction: admiral

The United States is committed to reducing its forces in Okinawa as much as possible, Adm. Joseph W. Prueher, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, said in an interview Monday with The Japan Times.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 1999

Miyazawa qualifies 0.5% target, notes job, bank roles

Economic development in the January-March period — especially in the areas of employment and bank recapitalization — is crucial to achieve the government's 0.5 percent growth target for fiscal 1999, Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said Monday.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 1999

Indians invited to celebrate Republic Day

The Indian Embassy is inviting Indians in Japan to a flag-hoisting event to celebrate Indian Republic Day Jan. 26 at 8:45 a.m.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 1999

Missile launch would halt KEDO aid, Norota warns

Japan will suspend financial assistance to a project to construct light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea if Pyongyang dares to launch another missile, Defense Agency chief Hosei Norota said Thursday.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami