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BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2000

Mitsui Sumitomo plans to repay public funds

Sumitomo Bank and Sakura Bank on Tuesday said the merged entity they will form in April, Mitsui Sumitomo Banking Corp., aims to repay by the end of fiscal 2007 all the 1.501 trillion yen in public funds they have received.
COMMUNITY
Dec 27, 2000

Hard for many to fight the big chill

Winter is a painful season for Satoko Kojima (not her real name), a Tokyo office worker who says she cannot tolerate cold temperatures.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 26, 2000

A sliver of Thai history brought to life

LANNA STYLE: Photography: Ping Amranand: Text: William Warren. Asia Books, Bangkok, 1995, 235 pp., 46 baht. Lanna is a name that tourists in the north of Thailand come across, accept and do not bother to discover its origin. It means "a million rice fields," and was the name given to the kingdom founded...
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2000

NTV chief left 8.85 billion yen estate

Yosoji Kobayashi, the late former chairman of Nippon Television Network Corp. and former president of the Yomiuri Shimbun, left a taxable estate worth 8.85 billion yen to his family, tax authorities said Monday.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 26, 2000

A moral beacon in Japan's darkest days

YANAIHARA TADAO AND JAPANESE COLONIAL EMPIRE: Redeeming Empire, by Susan C. Townsend. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2000, 296 pp., 50 British pounds (cloth). Scholarship can be a dangerous vocation. The ideological witch-hunt against Tadao Yanaihara, holder of the prewar chair of colonial policy at Tokyo...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 24, 2000

Palestinian families at a scholarly remove

POLITICAL VIOLENCE AND THE PALESTINIAN FAMILY: Implications for Mental Health and Well-Being, by Vivian Khamis, Haworth Press, 144 pp., $20. The appearance of a book on the impact of political violence on Palestinian families could hardly be timelier. Deaths caused by the present unrest in Israel and...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Dec 24, 2000

Jazzchor Freiburg

Germany's award-winning, unconventional 25-member Jazzchor Freiburg recently made its second tour of Japan. The choir is characterized by unpredictability, as its founder-conductor believes it is boring for audiences to know what is coming next. He throws into a typical concert as much variety as he...
LIFE / Travel
Dec 24, 2000

Do they know it's Christmas in Xian?

In the cradle of Chinese civilization, Christmas -- in all its commercial fury -- has taken Xi'an city by storm. Today, in this one-time imperial seat now famed for its terra-cotta warriors, storefronts blink Christmas red and green, Santa Claus poses for photos in supermarkets, employees don festive...
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2000

Town's win against dam had a cost

KITO, Tokushima Pref. -- This remote village lies along the upper stream of the 125-km Naka River.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2000

Kagawa folks get to bottom of their 'udon' bowls in more ways than one

TAKAMATSU, Kagawa Pref. -- As a native of a prefecture famous for Sanuki "udon" (wheat noodles), Kazutoshi Tao thought udon was a simple component of daily life -- until he visited a place where customers whip up their own variety.
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 23, 2000

Anything but ordinary

With the title "Raj Packet -- Everything But Ravi," you can't help but be curious about the performance. "Raj" possibly indicates something to do with British sovereignty over India in the last century;"packet" could be compendium, maybe a selection box of performance chocolates; "everything" as in "everything...
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2000

Muroto taps nearby depths to get competitive edge

MUROTO, Kochi Pref. -- At first glance, it is hard to see what the following products have in common: bottled water, miso paste, bread, snacks and skin lotion.
COMMENTARY
Dec 23, 2000

Robert Downey's problem is not criminal

Drugs can exercise a powerful hold over the human person. Witness American actor Robert Downey, Jr.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2000

Volunteerism: not just a Western idea

Even before global observance of the International Year of Volunteers begins in January, Japanese are deeply involved in a search for the spirit of international volunteerism. Some insist that it is based on the wisdom of Oriental thought.
BUSINESS
Dec 22, 2000

World's stock markets battling pessimism

Pessimism abounds in stock markets worldwide. New York share prices have taken a beating amid concern over corporate earnings and economic prospects. The tumble in New York quickly spilled over to Tokyo, sending key market gauges to their year-to-date lows.
COMMENTARY
Dec 22, 2000

The EU gets ready to grow

LONDON -- The recent European Union summit at Nice seems to have been bad tempered and acrimonious. Yet it eventually, even if only after days of wrangling, ended in an agreement of sorts and the way is now open to the admission of new members from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean, leading in due...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 21, 2000

Kim, de Gaulle: visionary but vulnerable

SEOUL -- South Korean President Kim Dae Jung returns from Norway and Sweden this week with his Nobel Prize in hand, having secured his place on the world stage. But at home, he faces a nation deeply divided over his "sunshine policy," deeply troubled over its economic prospects and enveloped in a social...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 21, 2000

Mounting problems to test Cambodia's new 'stability'

PHNOM PENH -- They fought with guns and bombast during a civil war, a U.N. peacekeeping mission, an election, a coup, another election -- and every free moment in between. For most of the past two years, the followers of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Prince Norodom Ranariddh have cooperated in...
LIFE / Style & Design / BEAUTY EAST AND WEST
Dec 21, 2000

Refresh your soul with the scent of eternal rebirth

For me the special warmth, freshness and magic of this time of year is beautifully embodied in its piny scents. The pine of Christmas trees and wreaths segues nicely into the pine of Japanese New Year displays.
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2000

Men attack bank vehicle, steal sacks

Three men attacked a bank van at around 5:20 p.m. Tuesday in Tokyo's Taito Ward, shooting and wounding a security guard, police said.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 20, 2000

Jingle bills and other ghosts of Christmas past and present

There is a hereditary disease that stalks each member of my family. Even now I can feel it ticking maliciously through my bones, fully aware there is nothing I can do to stop it. Sooner or later it is going to strike.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 19, 2000

Making mush of Meadowlark

SHOPPING: A Novel, by Gavin Kramer. Soho Press, 2000, 216 pp., $22 (cloth). It's easy for a foreigner to feel like a freak in Japan -- tall, different, culturally unaware, linguistically tongue-tied. This wickedly clever novel of manners turns its lens on the foreign protagonist as spectacle, British...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2000

Eco-terrorism threatens Galapagos natural treasures, eco-tourism

The Galapagos Islands, the world's second-largest marine reserve, are under attack from fishermen spurred by Asian markets for marine products. The Ecuadorean government has done nothing to halt the eco-terrorism in what only recently was a paradise for eco-tourism.
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 18, 2000

Antlers march on

The Kashima Antlers continued their march toward an unprecedented domestic treble on Sunday, defeating Verdy Kawasaki 2-0 in Tosu to reach the last eight of the Emperor's Cup.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 18, 2000

Steelers close Three Rivers with victory over Redskins

PITTSBURGH -- Conjuring up images such as the "Steel Curtain" or "Blitzburgh," Three Rivers Stadium has been always a symbol of the Pittsburgh Steelers' strong defense throughout their 30-year history. And so it was on the last day.
COMMUNITY
Dec 17, 2000

Naturalist issues guide to Tokyo wildlife

Kevin Short leads two quite distinct lives. In California, he is a husband and father, with a home, a dog and three cars. In Japan -- based in Chiba -- he is a natural history writer and environmental consultant, involved with fieldwork, writing, botanical illustration and lectures, and leading secret...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 17, 2000

All I want for Christmas is some cud to chew

Since Japan has finally started to perform organ transplants, I can finally ask Santa for what I've always wanted -- an organ. And no, I don't mean a sex change. The organ I want happens to belong to a cow. And no, I don't mean the udder. What I'd like from a cow is something that would make my life...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 16, 2000

Walk through a cool landscape

"N.Y. Manhattan 9 Avril" by Sho Fukumoto, 1994, oil on canvas Perhaps he is a poet, this painter who can capture the promise of a Venetian morning. Or a philosopher, who can make the New York skyline a mystery in blue.

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