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COMMENTARY
May 29, 2000

Old prejudices burn bright in war memoir

NEW YORK -- A new book on Iwo Jima demystifies the flag, said Richard Bernstein, reviewing it for The New York Times.
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2000

A brief reprieve for the nuclear club

NEW DELHI -- The five original nuclear powers have won a much-needed reprieve at the first review of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty since its indefinite extension five years ago. That reprieve, however, could serve as the lull before the storm.
CULTURE / Art
May 28, 2000

Reinventing the art of exhibition making

Harald Szeemann's recent visit to Japan, at the invitation of the Benesse House on Naoshima Island and Kanazawa City's museum construction office, was a rare chance to hear the freelance curator's views on exhibition creation.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 28, 2000

Only yesterday

Sometimes this column is credited with far more than it can do. It cannot turn back the calendar to long gone days and bring back the past, except to present it in the form that whatever-it-was has now assumed. Take, for example, traditional Japanese architecture, the lovely old houses we once could...
JAPAN
May 27, 2000

Oldest international school's closure leaves many questions

One of Japan’s oldest international school closes its doors today, leaving behind a 99-year legacy that started as a result of nationalist upheaval and ended under a cloud of bitter protests and suspicions of greed.
JAPAN
May 27, 2000

Rigid schools failing kids in tough times

The rigidity of Japanese schools is suffocating children and is one of the causes behind the recent rise in youth crime, according to education experts.
JAPAN
May 27, 2000

Anti-stalker insurance on market

Sumitomo Marine & Fire Insurance Co. will start selling insurance policies for women from next month that will entitle policyholders injured by stalkers to receive twice the standard benefit, the company said Friday.
JAPAN
May 27, 2000

Greenhouse gases still on the rise in some areas: MITI

An advisory panel to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry has announced that emissions of greenhouse gases such as hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons have yet to decrease in some areas.
JAPAN
May 27, 2000

European satellite slated to go on first H-IIA launch

Japan's H-IIA rocket will carry a European data-transmission satellite on its maiden launch, scheduled for next February, Science and Technology Agency chief Hirofumi Nakasone said Friday.
JAPAN
May 26, 2000

EPA in hot water for fudging GDP

The Economic Planning Agency said Thursday it will likely slice its gross domestic product data for the October-December quarter of 1999 to around minus 1.6 percent from a preliminary figure of minus 1.4 percent.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
May 26, 2000

Indie supergroup likes it fun, dumb -- and loud

Walk into any "live house" in Tokyo, and unless you are still hitting your college textbooks or just exiting puberty, you are apt to be the oldest person there.
BUSINESS
May 26, 2000

Kawasaki ups profits; other steelmakers suffer

Kawasaki Steel Corp. returned to profitability, while four other major steel makers suffered another disappointing year, according to fiscal 1999 earnings reports released Thursday.
COMMUNITY
May 25, 2000

More and more men are getting left on the shelf

"When I come home from work in the evening, my room is dark, and in winter it's cold. At these times I always wish I had a wife waiting for me, with a hot meal," says Yoshiharu Mitamura (not his real name), a 36-year-old photographer.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 25, 2000

You say Fusaichi, I say Fusaichi

Whenever a Japanese name enters the sporting world's lexicon, all sorts of problems arise. Take the Nagano Olympics for example. Is it pronounced NA-ga-no or Na-GA-no? The foreign media wrestled with this question for two straight weeks during the winter of 1998. The confusion trickled down to the masses...
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2000

Japan's national security policy ignores public sentiment

The impression that one gets when looking at the evolution of Japan's security policy in recent years is that the Japanese public has consented to steps taken by Tokyo. After all, that is the fundamental expectation that democracies nurture. Following this reasoning, Tokyo should be developing a security...
BUSINESS
May 24, 2000

JR East posts triple rise in net profit

East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) said Tuesday its group net profit in fiscal 1999 leaped threefold from the previous year, following two consecutive years of setbacks.
CULTURE / Books
May 23, 2000

The new China, from hamburgers to lonely hearts

THE CONSUMER REVOLUTION IN URBAN CHINA, edited by Deborah S. Davis. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000, 379 pp., 35 b/w photos, 21 tables, $22 (paper). McDonald's is the great equalizer. Wherever you go in the world it tastes exactly the same. The same beef, the same cheese, the same shredded...
BUSINESS
May 23, 2000

Sumitomo, Sakura back in black

Sumitomo Bank and Sakura Bank returned to the black in fiscal 1999, partly due to gains from sales of stocks and fewer bad-loan writeoffs compared to the year before, according to their earnings reports released Monday.
BUSINESS
May 22, 2000

Ishihara tax reflects paralysis caused by national tax scheme

The new size-based tax on big banks that has been introduced by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara is causing major repercussions and prompting Osaka Prefecture to consider a similar tax.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 22, 2000

Exotic pet importer confirms Japan is haven for illegal animal imports

The situation is worse than I imagined. In my last column (May 8), I wrote about smugglers carrying live primates into Japan in their luggage. Days after that column appeared, I was put in touch with an exotic pet importer who confirmed that government oversight of trade in animals is abysmal.
BUSINESS
May 22, 2000

As with risk, ranks of analysts rising

Once again the time has come for the mass-release of Japan Inc.'s annual earnings reports. While the stock market is showing signs of rumbling back to life after nearly a decade of dormancy, significant changes to Japan's financial landscape are forcing players to make rapid transitions just to keep...
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
May 21, 2000

Japanese poets write the book of love

Stroker, a publisher of chapbooks, is the distributor and copublisher of "2000 Japanese Poems for the Year 2000," a voluminous collection of chapbooks, 15 in all, translated by Howard S. Levy.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
May 21, 2000

Mohan Kumar

NEW DELHI -- "Three things are necessary for a driver: a good horn, good brakes and good luck."
CULTURE / Music
May 21, 2000

Desperately seeking maestro for a long-term relationship

Tokyo-to Kokyo Gakudan
EDITORIALS
May 19, 2000

The Fed walks the tightrope

Alarmed by signs that the U.S. economy is overheating, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board this week raised U.S. interest rates by half a percentage point. The move reflects a shift in sentiment at the U.S. central bank. While the bank's top officials appear to have accepted the idea that information technologies...
JAPAN
May 19, 2000

Bamboo buildings get support of ZERI as eco-friendly option

OTSU, Shiga Pref. -- One of the pavilions at World Expo 2000, slated to run from June to October in Hannover, Germany, is made mostly of bamboo.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2000

Will volatility mean long slump, bargains?

The Tokyo stock market has been on a roller-coaster ride in recent weeks, keeping market participants guessing on whether the volatility is the beginning of a lasting decline.
JAPAN
May 18, 2000

Ministry to enhance law covering forgery

The Justice Ministry is considering drafting a bill that would criminalize the possession of forged prepaid cards and gift certificates, according to ministry officials.
JAPAN
May 18, 2000

Diet enacts law to keep abusive parents from kids

A law banning abusive parents from meeting or corresponding with their children was enacted by the Diet on Wednesday.

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