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CULTURE / Film
Jun 25, 1999

Lost opportunity of the disco daze

If there were ever a high-water mark of hedonism, it would have to have been located at some New York or L.A. disco in the late '70s. In this pre-AIDS, post-Pill era of guilt-free sex, drug use was widespread and largely tolerated, gay culture was coming out of the closet and sexual mores were loosening...
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

Akashi to make visit to North Korea

Yasushi Akashi, a former United Nations undersecretary general, will make a four-day visit to North Korea beginning Tuesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

Recession not sole cause of suicide

All Daisuke Tajima could think about was ending it all. One day the 49-year-old salaried worker walked out of his office in a city in northern Japan, and for weeks his family had no clue as to his whereabouts.
LIFE / Travel
Jun 23, 1999

Vices and virtues of Pompeii exposed

Imagine if an entire town could disappear yet be preserved intact, sealed timeless in eternity. Then imagine that surprised excavators nearly 1,700 years later uncover this natural time capsule to reveal what life was really like in the ancient world.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Jun 23, 1999

Sapporo garden faces climatic challenge

Sapporo Municipal Botanic Garden, better known as Toyohira Garden, is well off the tourist trail, but highly recommended. The garden is situated in Toyohira-ku, approximately 3 km south of Sapporo Station, just across the wide Toyohira River.
JAPAN
Jun 22, 1999

Miyazawa puts official spin on BOJ dollar-buying

Monetary authorities were not trying to prop up exports in their repeated sales of yen for dollars in the past few weeks, Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 1999

Norway ambassador leaves satisfied after five-year term

John Bjornebye, who is leaving for Oslo today after nearly five years in Tokyo as the Norwegian ambassador, expressed satisfaction that the two countries' relations have become more globally oriented.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 1999

Stricter dioxin standard urged for biggest industrial emitter

The government should drop the maximum tolerable daily intake of dioxin to 4 picograms per kilogram of body weight, a government advisory panel said in a report released Monday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 1999

Fast, faster and fastest

Last week, sprinter Koji Ito, Japan's fastest man, became the first Asian to run 100 meters in less than 10 seconds. Performing at a college meet in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Mr. Ito was timed with a stopwatch at 9.90 seconds; his achievement will only be unofficial, however, since the Japan Amateur...
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 19, 1999

Exploring tropical forests of poetry

Stephen Forster has released a new volume of poetry titled "The Good Mouth." In this collection of poems, Forster takes the reader on an imaginative journey to distant lands where conquistadors in tropical forests meet their savage doom, or to places where the omniscient voice of a child uttering the...
JAPAN
Jun 18, 1999

13% of Japanese tapped into Internet in '98

More and more Japanese are using the Internet, with the number reaching about 17 million, or 13.4 percent of the population, in fiscal 1998, according to the 1999 White Paper on Communications in Japan released Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 1999

Prudential to step into Japanese pension market

Staff writer
JAPAN
Jun 17, 1999

War currency need not be honored, court rules

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday rejected reimbursement and compensation demands by 17 Hong Kong residents who had been forced during World War II to exchange their money for Japanese military currency, which became worthless when the war ended.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 1999

Offices offered for use by the out-of-work

OSAKA — It looks like a normal office — desks and chairs, personal computers and telephones, business magazines in a corner magazine rack.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 12, 1999

Restrain Japan, contain India

The main objective of China's Asia policy has always been to prevent the rise of an Asian rival or peer competitor to challenge its status as the Asia-Pacific's sole "Middle Kingdom." As an old Chinese saying goes, "'One mountain cannot accommodate two tigers."
JAPAN
Jun 10, 1999

Analysis: Lofty administrative goals not attained by bills

It has been said that the two sets of administrative reform bills moving on to the Upper House will bring about Japan's most sweeping reforms in 100 years and end the bureaucracy's dominance over the administration.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 1999

Edo freighter replica to be tested in Osaka Bay

OSAKA — A replica of an Edo Period cargo vessel is nearly complete and will be tested in Osaka Bay early next month, according to city officials.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 1999

Ready for 2000?: Line-by-line repairs not enough, expert says

Last in an occasional series on Japan's Y2K preparedness
JAPAN
Jun 9, 1999

C&W wins IDC stakes

Toyota Motor Corp. and Itochu Corp. on Wednesday announced their decisions to sell their 17.7 percent stakes in International Digital Communications Inc. to Britain's Cable and Wireless PLC.
JAPAN
Jun 7, 1999

Tokyo job fair sees 10% fewer firms

A two-day job interview fair with more than 650 companies began Monday in Tokyo in an attempt to help prospective university and junior college graduates in the metro area land work.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

Uruguay ambassador lauds ties with Japan

Surveying her nearly six years in Japan, Zulma Guelman, Uruguay's ambassador to Japan, is most pleased to see the growing economic ties between the two countries.
CULTURE / Film
Jun 4, 1999

Somewhere over the airwaves

Once upon a time, back in the '50s, there existed a "better" America, a wholesome utopia of crew cuts, unquestioning white-bread conformity and mom in the kitchen baking apple pies.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

Annual international dinghy race not enough: sailors

YOKOHAMA — A recent officially supported international friendship dinghy race held off Yokohama saw nine nations represented in a crowded field of 17 vessels.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jun 2, 1999

Found and lost

In looking through my file for information I needed for today's column, I was diverted by notes from readers that amused me, or might someday be useful. Here are a few of them:
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 2, 1999

Island life a short cut to evolution

Japan is not just an island; it is an archipelago.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jun 2, 1999

Among the ruins of the Mayan Paris

You wouldn't have wanted to watch a ball game at the close of the season in the ancient Mayan city of Copan.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 2, 1999

Wham bam, no thanks ma'am

Now it can be told. When I first came to Japan, I didn't believe in yakuza .
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 1999

A de facto treaty revision

The Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, signed in 1951, is understood to be an arrangement whereby the United States, in exchange for the use of military bases in Japan, is committed to the rescue of this nation in the event of external aggression. Japan, with its "war-renouncing" Constitution, follows a policy...
JAPAN
May 28, 1999

Kosovars take refuge in Japan

Staff writer
JAPAN
May 26, 1999

Foley defends Yokota base in meeting with Ishihara

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Foley stressed the importance of the U.S. Yokota Air Base in a meeting with Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara Wednesday, saying the base is "an essential part of U.S. forces' operations in Japan" and "a major hub of our transportation and supply services in East Asia."

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