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OLYMPICS
Sep 16, 2000

Fire and glory open 2000 Olympics

SYDNEY-- Carrying the hopes of her nation both in sport and racial reconciliation, 400-meter world champion Cathy Freeman ran a guard of honor the length of the stadium before lowering the Olympic torch into a pool of water Friday to light a submerged cauldron to open the biggest and last Olympic Games...
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2000

Koreans welcome 'cultural invasion'

SEOUL -- The Japanese are coming -- but this time they're being welcomed with open arms.
SOCCER / World cup
Sep 14, 2000

World Cup 2002 tickets to sell Oct. 2

Tickets reserved for residents of Japan for the 2002 World Cup will start selling Oct. 2 after a computer draw selects who can buy them, the Japanese World Cup Organizing Committee (JAWOC) announced Wednesday.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 14, 2000

Bruised flowers: China's hidden army of child laborers

BEIJING -- Hu Changjun was desperate to escape the poverty trap in Wuxi County in southwest China's Sichuan Province. So she couldn't believe her luck when a fellow villager named Changyan offered her work at a joint-venture factory in distant Beijing. "A joint venture means a foreign company, where...
OLYMPICS
Sep 13, 2000

Arimori advises Japan marathoners to stay focused

Imagine this: The moment you have waited a lifetime for has finally arrived. Years of blood, sweat and tears have been invested to bring you to your date with destiny -- the women's Olympic marathon final.
COMMENTARY
Sep 12, 2000

Japan needs a Third Way

Through the last decade of the 20th century, the Japanese economy has been in a state of confusion. After the bubble peaked in 1987-90, the economy went into a tailspin. The economy hit bottom in October 1993, according to official statistics, but since then it has shown few tangible signs of robust...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 10, 2000

Chris McDonald

To commemorate his having lived for 50 years in Japan, Chris McDonald produced an engaging book of memories. In it he wrote: "If I were asked to single out one aspect of Japan that I have found more rewarding and enjoyable than any other, I would not hesitate to answer quite simply: 'Its people.' From...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 10, 2000

High costs a barrier for foreign students

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- An editorial in The Japan Times a few weeks ago focused on the Japanese government's efforts to increase the number of foreign students in Japan. No one would disagree with the government's dual aims of assisting in the development of human resources of poorer Asian countries...
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2000

Unemployment adds to Miyake Island evacuees' woes

With an end to the volcanic activity on Mount Oyama nowhere in sight, evacuees from Miyake Island are facing an uphill battle in trying to secure sources of income upon settling into temporary housing in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Sep 9, 2000

Putin's obscure mind games

I know very little about judo. Actually, I know nothing about it at all. Yet I like the image of two people wearing cool outfits accentuated by stylish belts, circling the mat with stony faces, waiting for the right moment to jump at each other like two splendid bobcats. It is undoubtedly the sport of...
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2000

Evacuees to get new homes

The processing of evacuees from the volcanic island of Miyake is going smoothly and the first of three groups of islanders is scheduled to move into public housing today, officials of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said Tuesday.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Sep 6, 2000

The horror, the horror

We're back. Did you miss us? That question isn't the product of an (especially) insecure soul. I mean it.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 6, 2000

Walking the ridgetops in the Japan Alps

KARAMATSU PEAK, Nagano Pref. -- The sight of the red and green mountain huts nestled below the summit of Mount Karamatsu was a welcome one. It was there that I planned to rest my aching legs for the coming night.
JAPAN
Sep 5, 2000

Serial killer may be after Western women

A serial killer who preys on attractive Western women may be on the loose in Tokyo, according to a well-known Japanese criminologist and psychiatrist who has advised the family of Lucie Blackman.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 5, 2000

Asia takes capitalism on its own terms

ASIAN VALUES, WESTERN DREAMS: Understanding the New Asia, by Greg Sheridan. Allen & Unwin, 1999, 326 pp., 14.99 British pounds (paper). A lot of people thought -- hoped, really -- that the Asian economic crisis would end all that nonsense about "Asian values." The region's stumbles were supposed to...
COMMUNITY
Sep 3, 2000

Kennedy gives answers with Tokyo Q online

Rick Kennedy loves Tokyo. He has been here for years, yet still can't get over the kindness of its citizens, the flawless attention to detail, the sensory feast to be partaken of at every twist and turn -- much of which can be eaten and drunk! So great is his enthusiasm that we missed our stop, Hamamatsucho,...
COMMUNITY
Sep 1, 2000

Internet makes itself felt in publishing

Stephen King is currently shaking up American publishers with his experiment in making his novel "The Plant" available for downloading one chapter per month directly from his own Web site. In Japan, too, various ventures are taking place in digital publishing and distribution.
EDITORIALS
Aug 31, 2000

More than a private matter

Not for the first time, members of the Japanese public seem to be proving the experts wrong by their behavior. It is no longer merely a provocative social phenomenon, however, when the means by which they choose to do so is suicide. According to a new report from the National Police Agency, 33,048 Japanese...
CULTURE / Music
Aug 27, 2000

Maestro Comissiona bows to talent of Asian youth

When Sergiu Comissiona was invited to take over as conductor of the Asian Youth Orchestra in 1993, one of his first concerns was whether he could take the heat.
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2000

Psychiatrists took brains for research without consent

Two psychiatrists at a national health institution in Chiba Prefecture kept for research purposes the brains of 95 people autopsied at the Medical Examiner's Office in Tokyo without the consent of relatives of the deceased or the proper authorities, it was learned Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2000

Wahid battered but still kicking

SINGAPORE -- The threat of impeachment from angry legislators stared Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid grimly in the face on Aug 7., when the 695-member People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) convened in Jakarta to review Indonesia's progress.
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Aug 22, 2000

Shang Shang Typhoon blowing back in to devastate main islands

At the start of the 1990s, when "world music" became a generally accepted term, some Japanese started to look at themselves and wonder what their own country had to offer -- not only in Japan but to the rest of the world.
EDITORIALS
Aug 20, 2000

Et in Arcadia too much ego

Maybe it's just a result of the August doldrums, when heat and inactivity combine to make one feel peevish with the world, but there is a pattern of behavior evident in the cloud-cuckoo-land of the news makers that is getting downright annoying.
COMMUNITY
Aug 20, 2000

Words to remember

"I once did an IQ test in which the questions just seemed absurd. I couldn't focus on any of the, mathematical problems, and I think that I scored about zero. I worry about all the people who have been classified as stupid by these kinds of tests. Little do they know that often these IQ tests have been...
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2000

Police to probe Snow plant toxin

SAPPORO -- Hokkaido Prefectural Police have decided to launch an investigation into the discovery of toxin that can cause food poisoning in powdered skim milk produced at a Snow Brand Milk Products Co. factory in southern Hokkaido, police sources said Saturday.
COMMUNITY
Aug 20, 2000

Contestants jump at chance to net annual award for catching goldfish

YAMATO KORIYAMA, Nara Pref. -- Similar to the high school baseball championships at Koshien, it is a national championship with 2,000 participants striving to be Japan's No. 1. It could even be compared to the Olympic Games, where contestants have to go through a qualifying round before they reach the...
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2000

Bon holiday road death toll saw 3.4% increase over '99

Those killed in road accidents during the 10-day Bon midsummer break through Thursday totaled 243, up eight, or 3.4 percent, from the same period last year, the National Police Agency said Friday.
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2000

Secondhand comic book firm tapping into American interest in 'manga'

Savoring his success dealing in secondhand comic books and character items in Japan, Masuzo Furukawa, president of Mandarake Inc., is now eyeing an overseas market he believes is thirsting for Japanese "manga" culture.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’