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JAPAN
Jun 21, 2000

Vote with criteria in mind: Hosokawa

Voters should cast their ballots in Sunday's election by asking themselves if the government has steered Japan in a desirable direction and whether it has reinforced the people's trust in politics, former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa says.
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.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2000

Socialists basing campaigns on upholding the Constitution

The Social Democratic Party is upholding its longtime defense of the Constitution, especially war-renouncing Article 9, in its campaign for the June 25 Lower House election, SDP Chairwoman Takako Doi said.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2000

Ex-Prime Minister Takeshita, 76, dies

Former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, who wielded enormous influence over Japanese politics long after scandal forced him to resign more than a decade ago, died of respiratory failure at 12:53 a.m. Monday at Kitasato Institute Hospital in Tokyo, his aides said. He was 76.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 20, 2000

Po Chu-i's eternal pleasures

PO CHU-I: Selected Poems. Translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000, 172 pp., unpriced. When he died at the age of 75 in 846, Po Chu-i left behind a legacy of some 2,800 poems. A civil servant, he early on wrote poetry critical of authority and was consequently demoted...
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2000

Nasdaq Japan celebrates positive start for issues

OSAKA — Nasdaq Japan, Japan's version of the tech-heavy U.S. Nasdaq market, celebrated its launch Monday morning with three of its four startup issues closing above their initial public offering prices.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 20, 2000

Shallow pits and rabbit hutches

JAPANESE HOMES AND LIFESTYLES: An Illustrated Journey through History, by Kazuya Inaba and Shigenobu Nakayama. Translated by John Bester. Kodansha International, 2000, 144 pp., $32. Do you curse costly rents, cramped quarters and cluttered cupboards? Do you think tatami are terrific, futons fabulous...
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2000

Expat candidates enter the political fray

As campaigning for Sunday's Lower House election heats up, two candidates are lucky to have a guaranteed point of interest — one comes from Finland, the other from China.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2000

A portal to style and fashion

Tokyo's Harajuku district — encompassing Omotesando Boulevard, modeled on the Champs Elysees, and the countless side streets and alleys that surround it — hosts some of the nation's most fashionable cafes and restaurants.
COMMUNITY
Jun 18, 2000

So, uh, what century did you say this is?

Whisper it softly but these are bad times we live in, literally.
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.
EDITORIALS
Jun 18, 2000

Rain, rain, go away

It's that time of year again. Perpetually iron-gray skies, puddles, mud, clashing umbrellas, fogged-up train windows, damp shoes and damper spirits. It's "tsuyu": the rainy season, when nature goes into its annual wet-blanket act.
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Jun 18, 2000

Cafe's tempting literary brew

Cafe Independent, a "rattle-bag collection of poetry, art, pearls of prose . . . ," is produced by Oliver Kinghorn and Shannon Smith in Kyoto.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jun 18, 2000

The end for Kim Jong Il?

My trip to North Korea 11 years ago was one of the most depressing times in my whole life. I have never seen a sadder country. It was not simply an issue of appalling poverty: In 1989, the shelves of stores in Moscow were also barren, and Beijing still sported a maze of miniature slums -- the notorious...
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2000

Empress Dowager dies at 97; family at her side

The Empress Dowager, the widow of Emperor Showa, died Friday afternoon, two days after she began experiencing breathing difficulties, the Imperial Household Agency said. She was 97.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2000

Great changed witnessed in her life

The Empress Dowager, who died Friday afternoon aged 97, saw firsthand the sweeping changes that engulfed the Imperial system after World War II as the wife of Emperor Showa.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2000

A clash of perceptions in the Philippines

MANILA -- It so happened that I arrived at Manila airport just one day after a bomb explosion there that, fortunately, created more worries than victims and was quickly characterized as "an oversize pyrotechnic." Still, it doesn't take long for a visitor to the Philippines to realize that this "pearl...
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2000

Surveillance is unnecessary as cult poses no danger, Aum leader claims

Aum Shinrikyo chief Tatsuko Muraoka testified during the first hearing of a lawsuit filed against the Public Security Examination Commission that ongoing surveillance of the cult under the anti-Aum law is unnecessary as it no longer poses a threat to society.
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 16, 2000

20 tons of radioactive monazite apparently sold to Toba hotelier

Most of the 20-odd tons of the radioactive substance monazite that disappeared after being purchased by the former head of a trading firm was probably sold to a man in Toba, Mie Prefecture, investigative sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2000

Communists set to sacrifice policies in quest for change

The Japanese Communist Party will ask the people to help it revamp a political setup that has been completely warped by the Liberal Democratic Party's rule, according to JCP leader Tetsuzo Fuwa.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2000

Stable coalition key for economy, Kanzaki says

New Komeito will campaign for the Lower House election by promising a stable coalition government that will surely bring about a full-fledged economic recovery in Japan, said party leader Takenori Kanzaki.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 14, 2000

How Japan's JET program got off the ground

IMPORTING DIVERSITY: Inside Japan's JET Program, by David L. McConnell. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000, 328 pp. (paper). Stung by international criticism that Japan was too insular, the government decided in August of 1987 to initiate "one of the largest educational programs in the...
COMMENTARY
Jun 14, 2000

The chancy politics of weather

In less than two weeks, on Sunday, June 25, Japanese voters will cast their ballots in what will be Japan's last general election of the 20th century. This may well turn out to be the most important Japanese general election since July 18, 1993, which resulted in the inauguration, on Aug. 9 of that year,...
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2000

DPJ offers bitter medicine as poll strategy

Yukio Hatoyama, head of the Democratic Party of Japan In campaigning for the Lower House election, the Democratic Party of Japan will push policies that may seem to voters like "bitter medicine," such as lowering the minimum taxable income level, to show the party is thinking seriously about the nation's...
BASEBALL / MLB
Jun 13, 2000

Big fourth gives Dragons win over Carp

Pinch hitter Junichi Jinno doubled home a pair of runs and the Chunichi Dragons scored five times in the bottom of the fourth inning Sunday on their way to a 7-6 victory over the Hiroshima Carp at the Nagoya Dome.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 11, 2000

Haven't got the yang of Japanese gardening

I came home the other day and noticed my neighbor had cut my grass, trimmed my trees and watered my plants. This is normal. I apologized profusely, thanked Ueda-san repetitively and she said, as always, "Oh, it was nothing."
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jun 11, 2000

How to say goodbye

I have over the years researched readers' questions diligently, but never have I been quite as well prepared as for this column, on how to get married in Japan. I would like to tell you why. On May 25, William Sherman and I proceeded through the process as outlined below. Bill has had three postings...
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2000

LDP-led bloc the only way, Nonaka says

A coalition government led by the Liberal Democratic Party represents the only viable choice when voters go to the polls June 25, according to the party's No. 2 man.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes