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BUSINESS
Dec 15, 2000

Retail clerks, cabbies turn pessimistic

Japanese workers sensitive to economic cycles are becoming increasingly pessimistic about the economy, according to a survey released by the Economic Planning Agency on Thursday.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 15, 2000

Hopes of peace rise with dawn of the 21st century

On the last day of the 20th century, the world seemed to resonate with the mournful aftermath of tragedies perpetrated across the globe during the previous 100 years. It appeared necessary to pin one's hopes on the dawn of the new century in order to dissipate the tones of violence and death still lingering...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 14, 2000

Dining out in year-end style

With Christmas a mere 10 days away, it is unlikely that anyone has failed to make their arrangements for celebrations, either on the day itself or during the Yuletide run-up. However, just in time for the season of good cheer, overeating and loosening of purse strings, here are two places (opened in...
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2000

Victims know true justice will elude

Although the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery that ended Tuesday has no legal power, it provided victims of sexual violence by Japanese soldiers a forum where they could experience a sense of justice.
LIFE / Digital
Dec 13, 2000

Deck the halls with boughs of games

Video games used to be the No. 1 gift request of preteen boys alone, but not anymore. With the release of sophisticated hardware such as Sony's PlayStation 2 console, the audience for games has expanded to include older gamers, both male and female.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 13, 2000

Okinawa's Ota makes a case for redress

ESSAYS ON OKINAWA PROBLEMS, by Masahide Ota. Gushikawa City, Okinawa: Yui Shuppan Co., 2000, 302 pp., 1,600 yen (paper). Okinawa's history is essentially that of a poor ethnic group at Japan's southern extremity. The island has been continually exploited and abused for the interest and convenience of...
ENVIRONMENT
Dec 13, 2000

Slowing down to the pace of nature

Looking for an unusual vacation this winter? How about floating along a river deep in the jungles of Borneo?
CULTURE / Books
Dec 13, 2000

Book bites

MANGEKYO/KALEIDOSCOPE: Modern Senryu with English Versions, translated by Okada Hideo and Adrian Pinnington, boxed cards, XYLO Co. Ltd., 2000, 3,150 yen (+200 yen postage). This is a most unusual and attractive publication, consisting of four dozen short poems printed in Japanese on separate cards, with...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 13, 2000

Television as a pillar of the state

BROADCASTING POLITICS IN JAPAN: NHK and Television News, by Ellis Krauss. Cornell University Press, 2000, 278 pp., $35 (cloth). Many of us know NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai) for its film documentaries, its cultural programs -- stunning or plodding, depending on your perspective -- or its Sunday morning singalongs....
COMMUNITY
Dec 13, 2000

Stopping the biological clock

As people develop wrinkles and spots on their skin with age, invisible and subtle changes also occur deep in their bodies. Researchers now agree that the aging of women's eggs is an important factor in many reproductive problems, including infertility, miscarriage and birth defects.
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2000

Gender equality measures urged

An advisory panel to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori submitted a report Monday recommending broad measures to promote gender equality in Japan.
EDITORIALS
Dec 12, 2000

The banks' 'lost decade' continues

Japanese banks' performance for the first half of the current fiscal year delivers a disquieting message: They are still saddled with a large number of problem loans. For years, they have been saying that the worst is over -- and it is true that the danger of a financial meltdown no longer exists. But...
COMMENTARY
Dec 10, 2000

American democracy teeters on the brink

NEW YORK -- There's plenty of room for reasonable disagreement in this post-election netherworld. The Bushies are right that we need a president-elect and we needed one weeks ago; despite lackadaisical opinion polls and surprising public apathy, the legal maneuvering over recounts can't go on forever....
CULTURE / Art
Dec 9, 2000

Bringing Russia and Japan together

Permit me a brief personal anecdote if you will: Some 20 years ago, a cold December night in Toronto found me inspired to chip, using my house keys, a few raisin-sized shards of concrete from the base of that city's newly-constructed CN Tower. Friends I mailed the little gray jewels to would later remark...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 9, 2000

Nishiki-e outshine Chinese prints

"The Birth of Nishiki-e," the current exhibition at the Ota Memorial Museum of Art, claims to be an attempt to explore Chinese influence on ukiyo-e, Japanese print art.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2000

State to aid disaster-hit small firms

The government will reduce the interest rate on loans extended by its affiliated financial institutions to small and midsize companies suffering from recent natural disasters to 2 percent from 2.1 percent, effective next Wednesday, government officials said Thursday.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Dec 8, 2000

Hanayo's gift wrapped in seductive complexity

With her mix of artifice, artistic discipline and sexual promise, no traditional figure is more ambiguous than the geisha.
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2000

Priest on quest for schools in Cambodia

Fumio Goto never imagined that he would end up helping to build schools in Cambodia when he first accepted refugees from the country in 1981.
BUSINESS
Dec 7, 2000

Retail chains under siege

Conventional Japanese supermarket chains, which are suffering dwindling sales and being cold-shouldered by consumers, will be dealt another blow with the advance of foreign retail giants wielding aggressive business plans into the Japanese market.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 6, 2000

Obstacles in the road to a toxic-free future

The international community comes together in Johannesburg, South Africa this week (Dec. 4-9) under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Program to conclude the draft of an historic treaty to rid the world of its most toxic and harmful chemicals.
LIFE / Travel
Dec 6, 2000

Sick of holding your breath? Suit up for the real diving deal

I could have kicked myself -- and I might have done had I not been wearing flippers.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 5, 2000

What is the weight of a fractured atom?

ATOMIC FRAGMENTS: A Daughter's Questions, by Mary Palevsky. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000, 272 pp., $24.95 (cloth). With the benefit of hindsight and a distant or nonexistent memory of World War II, we pass moral judgment on those who were directly involved with the invention and construction...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 4, 2000

Ants find inheritance tax high

The maximum rate of inheritance tax in Japan is 70 percent, more than many people can afford to pay: If they inherit, they have to sell off land and property to pay the tax.
EDITORIALS
Dec 3, 2000

The incarnation of Hal

Just under half a biblical lifetime ago -- 32 years, to be exact -- the computer Hal was introduced to the world in the movie and novel "2001: A Space Odyssey." Offspring of the fertile brain of Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Hal came to embody the world's collective hopes and fears concerning artificial intelligence....

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