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CULTURE / Film
Apr 4, 2001

Hopkins gets the job done

NEW YORK --An awed hush descends as Sir Anthony Hopkins enters the room, quickly darting to his seat like a man eager to get a job finished as quickly as possible. He sits down agitatedly and fiddles with the microphone before him. When he speaks, that unmistakable baritone stops the gathered crowd and...
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2001

Pundits reckon 15% sales tax ought to nip deflation trend

The problem of falling prices should be handled by gradually increasing the consumption tax to 15 percent over a decade from the current 5 percent, according to a proposal made in a report by Fuji Research Institute.
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2001

Temp staff rise said worrisome

Workers dispatched from temporary employment agencies make up one of the fastest-growing sectors of Japan's workforce.
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2001

Disputed history text approved

After scores of revisions, the Education Ministry on Tuesday authorized a junior high school history textbook that has been roundly criticized by Asian countries charging that it glossed over Japan's wartime history.
COMMENTARY
Apr 3, 2001

Slaves to enduring myths of the Civil War

America's Civil War is still being fought. Mississippi voters will be going to the polls in April to decide the fate of their state flag. Virginia Gov. James Gilmore recently scrapped his state's annual proclamation honoring Confederate History Month. After an emotional debate, the Georgia legislature...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2001

Homegrown IT plans are best

The government has unveiled the "e-Japan" strategy that it hopes will turn Japan into the most advanced information-technology-based nation in five years. Most mass media and IT experts are critical of the strategy. They say it lacks vision and workable plans, is late and is designed to benefit only...
COMMENTARY
Apr 2, 2001

Japan's economic 'kuroko'

For more than a decade, Japan's financial authorities have been trying to treat the growing mountain of bad loans at Japan's banks as a "kuroko" of the Japan economy.
COMMENTARY
Apr 1, 2001

Banks offer no miracle cures

LONDON -- This is a tale of two banks, combined with a large dose of blind faith and credulity.
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2001

Expert urges new approach to learning language

When Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon in July 1969, Kumiko Torikai was with them every step of the way, repeating their every word. For Japanese around the nation who witnessed the historic event, Torikai was their communication lifeline, the person who relayed...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 1, 2001

Depachika build a boom from the bottom up

Misako Kaneko, a Tokyo office worker, likes to have dinner at home while watching her favorite TV dramas. But as a single woman who works full-time, it's not easy for her to find time to prepare a healthy meal every night after work.
COMMENTARY
Mar 31, 2001

Lack of leaders is destroying the LDP

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori announced that the date for electing the next president of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party would be moved up. This was tantamount to him expressing his intention to resign.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 31, 2001

The gift from kitty that never stops giving

If you travel enough, there is going to be a day when your cat pees in your suitcase. It's something that only happens if you have gone out of town and left your cat behind so many times that the cat becomes determined to accompany you in the most odorous way. Basically, your cat's message is: I love...
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2001

New school promotes global exchange through lecture program

A private school of intercultural communication targeted at Japanese businesspeople and the staff of nongovernmental organizations will open Monday in Tokyo's Ginza business district.
BUSINESS
Mar 30, 2001

More mobile phones anticipated

Ownership of mobile phones in Japan is expected to rise to around 66.8 percent of the population in fiscal 2004 from 57.1 percent in fiscal 2001, according to a survey released Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 29, 2001

Reform out of reach for Kim Dae Jung

SEOUL -- Some weeks ago, I attended an academic conference that attempted a critical evaluation of the performance of administration of South Korea President Kim Dae Jung three years after its inception. I sat on a panel with probably the most prominent liberal political scientist in South Korea today,...
COMMUNITY
Mar 29, 2001

The bubble rises skyward again, carrying a doughnut

This balloon's gondola is 6 meters in diameter and shaped so passengers can move around freely.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Mar 29, 2001

The ABCs of Japanese sportsu

As I'll be heading back to Canada next month, this will be my last Sports Scope. I thought I'd write some sort of reflection on what covering sports in Japan has meant to me, but all I kept coming up with were buzzwords and catchphrases.
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2001

Honda prepares to build transportation system in Singapore

Honda Motor Co. said Monday that it will start research next month on a new transportation system in Singapore under which people will share environmentally friendly vehicles.
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2001

Anxiety hangs over USJ ahead of launch

By Natsumi Mizumoto Kyodo News Many Kansai residents are counting on Universal Studios Japan to help revive Osaka's stagnant economy, but the higher the expectations, the greater the looming sense of anxiety as its launch next Saturday draws closer.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2001

Group seeks vindication of convicted Nepalese

Demanding justice for a Nepalese man convicted for a 1997 murder they believe he didn't commit, about 100 citizens on Sunday inaugurated a support group to help him win vindication through a Supreme Court ruling.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Mar 26, 2001

Never say you've apologized too much

When Ursula Smith, my publisher friend up in Vermont, wrote to say, "I can't close without offering some (futile) form of apology, as one national to another, for that unfortunate accident off Hawaii," I said there was no need to apologize to me. It was an accident, and I wasn't too clear about the meaning...
EDITORIALS
Mar 25, 2001

Ghosts on the loose

You may have thought that the big story out of Hong Kong last week was the slumping Hang Seng Index or continuing pressure from Beijing to crack down on the Falun Gong. But no, something much more fascinating was going on, and it was going on right inside one of the places that break, but don't usually...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 24, 2001

NATO's weakness threatens Macedonia

LONDON -- Ethnic peace has withstood an entire week of shooting around the Macedonian city of Tetovo, despite the efforts of ethnic Albanian guerrillas based in neighboring Kosovo to topple the small Balkan republic into civil war. Another week of fighting would probably do the trick, however -- so it...
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2001

Japanese shortwave services fading out in cyberspace age

For Michiteru Takagi, 76, Sunday will signal the end of a daily ritual he has practiced for 42 years.

Longform

A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped