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JAPAN
May 31, 2000

Globe's population set to gray in next 50 years

The percentage of the world's population aged 65 or older will soar to 16.4 percent in 2050 from 6.9 percent in 2000, according to a white paper submitted and approved at Tuesday's Cabinet meeting.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2000

MHI, Hitachi enter alliance on steel

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Hitachi Ltd. said Tuesday that they have reached an agreement to integrate their steelmaking machinery operations, a move that would create the world's second-largest manufacturer of such equipment.
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2000

Myanmar's ethnic patchwork

In terms of sheer social complexity, it has few rivals -- perhaps Lebanon, possibly the Balkans. But Myanmar's ethnic mix is truly diverse. There are some 100 languages and dialects. Major ethnic groups like the Karen, Shan, Mon, Chin and Kachin encompass others. The Chin alone have 40 subgroups. Even...
SOCCER / J. League
May 30, 2000

S-Pulse's Endo impresses the Mechelen man

If Mechelen boss Ivan Buskens had actually seen a J. League game before signing Masahiro Endo, perhaps it would have changed his mind.
CULTURE / Books
May 30, 2000

Only atom bombs could end WWII

DOWNFALL: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire, by Richard B. Frank. New York: Random House, 1999, 484 pp., $35 (cloth). The tragic folly of the war-mongering leaders of Imperial Japan and their casual disregard for the welfare of their fellow citizens seem almost forgotten because the end of the...
COMMUNITY
May 28, 2000

Conductor says yes to noh style 'Don Giovanni'

Theaters in Nagoya were aghast when Yoko Matsuo came calling. Even though she was born in the city and is conductor and director of the Aichi Prefecture Symphony Orchestra, her plan to stage Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni" in the style of Japan's most revered and challenging dramatic form, noh, created...
MORE SPORTS
May 28, 2000

Japan nabs three Olympic berths

OSAKA -- Defending Olympic champion Kenzo Nakamura held down Askhat Shakharov of Kazakstan for the 73-kg crown at the Asian Judo Championships on Saturday as host Japan gained three more berths for the Sydney Olympic Games in September.
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...
BUSINESS
May 27, 2000

Secret four-party talks to steer toward new WTO round

Senior officials from Japan, the United States, Canada and the 15-nation European Union will hold secret talks in Ottawa next month to coordinate policy toward a new round of global trade liberalization negotiations, government sources said Friday.
SOCCER / J. League
May 26, 2000

Radchenko chips Jubilo to victory

IWATA, Shizuoka Pref. -- Dmitry Radchenko's first-half goal gave Jubilo a 1-0 win over Vissel Kobe at Jubilo Iwata Stadium on Wednesday night and helped Iwata move into third place in the J. League Division One table.
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...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
May 25, 2000

Strong traditions flow through Iwate sake

Talk about a late bloomer. From its location in the northeastern corner of Honshu, Iwate Prefecture exerts a tremendous influence on the sake world. Yet, sake was not even produced there on any real scale until well after 1678, long after Nada, Itami and Kyoto were well into their sake-brewing heyday....
COMMENTARY
May 25, 2000

One currency, 11 masters

LONDON -- Many commentators seem genuinely surprised at the miserable performance of the euro. How, they ask, can it be that the new currency for most of Western Europe, which was billed to be the rival of the dollar and the world's alternative reserve currency, is now trading against the dollar at 25...
JAPAN
May 24, 2000

Video violence begets real thing

When a 14-year-old Kobe boy shocked the nation three years ago by killing an elementary school boy and placing his severed head in front of a school gate, Masatoshi Taguchi said he was afraid similar crimes would follow.
BUSINESS
May 24, 2000

Think tanks favor Japan-South Korea free-trade bloc

State-run institutions from Japan and South Korea said Tuesday they favor forming a comprehensive mutual free-trade agreement aimed at improving competitiveness and market access.
JAPAN
May 23, 2000

200 million yen conservation grant set up

Toyota Motor Corp. and the Toyota Foundation have established a grant program to support environmental improvement and conservation activities in Japan and overseas, the nation's No. 1 automaker said Monday.
JAPAN
May 23, 2000

Sydney Olympics tours ready to wreak havoc on wallets

With the Sydney Olympics now less than four months away, many travel agents in Japan are busy selling tour packages to the Games.
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...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
May 23, 2000

Have guitars, will travel -- extensively across Europe

Hurtling toward Vienna on the German autobahns, I have two passengers. One is Okinawan, Takashi Hirayasu. The other, Bob Brozman, is American. Both are playing Bolivian charangos to pass the time, which makes for an interesting multicultural soundtrack for driving. Something like Indian Ocean rhythms...
CULTURE / Music
May 23, 2000

Steely Dan still rocks, albeit more tastefully

The first two songs Steely Dan played at their May 15 show at the Tokyo International Forum -- "The Boston Rag" and " Bodhisattva" -- come from their second record, "Countdown to Ecstasy," which happens to be their least-selling album as well as my personal favorite. I should have been giddy with appreciation,...
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...
EDITORIALS
May 20, 2000

Risky missile defense

Since the end of the Cold War, hopes for a nonnuclear world have run high. In the real world, however, moves toward disarmament have suffered one setback after another. Now there are disturbing signs of a relapse in the U.S.-Russian strategic arms reduction talks. A chief stumbling block is the U.S....
CULTURE / Art
May 20, 2000

Hanae Mori at Art Tower Mito

Mito City in Ibaraki Prefecture hardly seems the place to stage an international fashion exhibition, but Art Tower Mito (ATM), in celebration of its 10th anniversary, has done just that.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2000

The limits of peacekeeping

There is a troubling sense of deja vu in the tragedy befalling the U.N. peacekeeping effort in Sierra Leone (it is really peace enforcement, a euphemism for getting sucked into someone else's war). And more than just putting at risk future U.N. operations, recent events pose vexing questions about how...
CULTURE / Stage
May 20, 2000

Still shining after all these years

May is the month of the Dankikusai (Danjuro-Kikugoro Festival) at the Kabukiza in Tokyo's Ginza, commemorating the outstanding achievements of Danjuro Ichikawa IX and Kikugoro Onoe V, the two giants of kabuki theater in the Meiji Era.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2000

GMO-free trade opens

The Tokyo Grain Exchange launched futures trading Thursday in U.S. soybeans containing no genetically modified organisms, making it the world's pioneer in GMO-free grain futures trading.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 18, 2000

'Sports executive' a misnomer in Japan

I don't know if it's just my imagination but in recent weeks the incompetence of Japan's alleged "sports executives" seems to have reached an all-time low.
JAPAN
May 15, 2000

Business leaders hail Obuchi's achievements

Japan's business leaders on Sunday praised the efforts of late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi to revitalize the country's economy and lift it out of the worst economic downturn since World War II.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’