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BUSINESS
Jun 29, 2000

Cut compulsory car insurance payments: panel

An advisory council to the commissioner of the Financial Supervisory Agency on Wednesday proposed eliminating the compulsory premiums drivers must pay under the state-run automobile insurance system.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2000

2,000 Miyake islanders evacuate as fears of eruption rise

A change in sea color Tuesday suggests submarine volcanic activity has begun about 1 km off the west coast of Miyake Island, and 2,000 residents have already evacuated to shelters on its north side.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2000

China between a rock and a hard place

OXFORD, England -- There has been much discussion recently about whether China is heading for a soft landing or hard landing. My first reaction to such discussions is always to ask landing from what? In this case the answer is relatively easy, the Asian financial crisis of 1997, from which China allegedly...
COMMUNITY
Jun 25, 2000

Don't run for cover, go Zurich Insurance!

Sitting on the swishest sofa ever -- an L-shaped signature design in scarlet leather -- in the lobby of Zurich Insurance, I picked up a book from the sea-green plate-glass coffee table and began reading up on "The Swiss." What should I expect of the president of such a company? Having met any number...
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2000

Good news: a week in the tropics energizes your brain

The brain functions of several middle-aged and elderly people from north and northeastern Japan become more active after they spend a week in Okinawa in the winter, according to a study conducted by a Tohoku University research institute.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jun 25, 2000

Again and again

A part of this is from a column written in 1993 about "ijime" (bullying). It was not the first, and today I can't even recall that specific case. There have been so many. At the time I objected to the newspaper comment that ijime had been a serious problem for a decade. Brutal discrimination against...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2000

The answer is in the heavens

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is doing everything he can to discourage Japanese voters from taking tomorrow's election seriously. He is succeeding. On top of his efforts, is getting help from the media, which are already predicting a comfortable margin of victory for the current ruling coalition.
BUSINESS
Jun 22, 2000

Square Co. plans network service

Square Co., a leading video game software developer, will introduce an electronic entertainment service that will take video game players to cyberspace, where they can communicate with other gamers via an online network, according to the firm's new president.
EDITORIALS
Jun 21, 2000

A starting point for tax reform

A tax issue that would directly affect people's pocketbooks is pitting the Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition group, against other parties, especially the Liberal Democratic Party, in the current campaigning for the June 25 Lower House election. The DPJ is calling for a lowering of the...
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2000

Close digital divide: ministry

An environment better suited to the Internet and cellular phones is urgently needed for the development of the rapidly growing "new economy" in Japan, the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry said in a report released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2000

Keeping it in the Takeshita family

IZUMO, Shimane Pref. — The younger brother of the late Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, the Liberal Democratic Party kingmaker, recently addressed a crowd of some 5,000 people, pledging to carry on his brother's wish to revitalize Japan's "furusato," or hometowns.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 18, 2000

All in the Phish phamily

At first, I felt sorry for the Americans who followed Phish across the Pacific for the band's Japan tour. I live here, and even I find the prices intolerable and the infrastructure unforgiving.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 18, 2000

Fuse burning on the Mideast powder keg

LONDON -- Ignore all the empty chatter about the future of a "Middle East peace process" that died months ago, and waste no time in futile speculation about the character of Syria's new president, mild-mannered ophthalmologist Dr. Bashar Assad. The regime that was run for the past 30 years by Bashar's...
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2000

Racial storms in the South Pacific

A second coup attempt in the South Pacific has many wondering what has fouled the tropical air. The answer is simple: corruption and inefficiency. In both Fiji and the Solomon Islands, ethnic groups have used the cause of indigenous rights to shield practices that often verge on the criminal. Inept governments...
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2000

Microsoft, Hitachi tie on systems solutions

Major Japanese electronics maker Hitachi Ltd. and U.S. software giant Microsoft Corp. said Thursday they have agreed to cooperate in the systems solutions business.
COMMUNITY
Jun 16, 2000

Healing relationships bloom in 'renga'

A Japanese proverb says: Doki ai motomu (Like minds are drawn to one another).
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2000

Public 'on strike' against state

The economy has stayed in a prolonged slump because the public is "subconsciously" on strike against lawmakers for their lack of vision for the future, said Mizue Tsukushi, president of The Good Bankers asset management firm.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2000

Aum law fingered in Amnesty International report

Amnesty International referred to Japan's recently enacted legislation targeting Aum Shinrikyo and a law authorizing wiretapping by police as human-rights concerns, in its annual report released Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Jun 14, 2000

Economic news shines, but many remain in the shade

The latest batch of economic reports has given the public reason to take heart. The Finance Ministry's quarterly business survey, released last week, found busi- ness-fixed investment rose 3.3 percent in the January-March term, the first year-on-year rise in nine quarters.
COMMENTARY
Jun 11, 2000

Mori casts doubt on Japanese democracy

When Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said that Japan is a "kami no kuni" (country of the gods), it can be argued he was doing little more than expressing a personal religious belief before a group of like-minded, Shinto-supporting Diet members. U.S. media claims that he was trying revive Japanese nationalism...
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2000

Brief campaign period keeps voters out of reach: ACCJ

Japan's election campaign period is too short for candidates to develop policies and make them known to voters, according to Robert F. Grondine, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan and a longtime Japan watcher.
COMMUNITY
Jun 8, 2000

Pageants losing face with public

Mari Nishihama, 20, a native of Oshima, an island located 100 km south of Tokyo, had always lived a peaceful, if somewhat uneventful, life in the small tourist resort town. But all that suddenly changed last fall, when town celebrities voted the local bank clerk Miss Oshima 2000.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2000

Russian women turn to the Net for love and a life abroad

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- Yelena Sokolova was in a deep depression after she divorced her husband, and some friends decided to lift her spirits. They scanned a picture of her and placed it with a personal ad on an Internet site for those seeking marriage.
EDITORIALS
Jun 6, 2000

Beyond the 'divine comedy'

Election campaigning is already gathering real heat, even before the June 25 general election is officially announced on June 13. This electoral schedule had been regarded in recent weeks as a de facto political timetable, but, in the event, the opposition parties' imminent filing of a no-confidence...
COMMENTARY
Jun 5, 2000

The conservative's dilemma

Traditionally American voters have been given a choice between conservatism and liberalism. The Republican Party is labeled "conservative" and the Democratic Party "liberal." In Japan before 1993, when the Liberal Democratic Party lost its monopoly on power, the choice was between conservatism and socialism....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 4, 2000

It's the season for cool drinks and hot talk

Right now it's 28 degrees, sunny with a light breeze. It couldn't be a more perfect day on the island. Yet when I went to the post office this morning, Mr. Saito said, "It's hot!" When I stopped by the supermarket, Mrs. Amano, the store owner said, "It's hot!" When I stopped by the ferry port, Mrs. Amano,...
CULTURE / Art
Jun 4, 2000

Victorian passion, Pre-Rafaelite dreams

In postwar Britain the reputation of high Victorian art fell to an all-time low, and a Pre-Raphaelite painting of Ophelia sold in 1950 for a paltry 20 pounds. Times have changed; this summer auctioneers will sell the same painting for around 2 million pounds.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2000

Official or not, English a must for Japan leaders: symposium

The proposal to make English Japan's official second language has been hotly debated over the past few months, but panelists at a recent symposium say it is Japan's leaders — not necessarily the general public — who need to master the language.

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’