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SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 20, 2000

Kokudo's Tucker still showing kids how it's done

After a dozen years in the National Hockey League, a season playing in Italy, and now into his third campaign in Japan, one might expect John Tucker to look forward to that 9 a.m. practice about as much as John Rocker looks forward to his next trip to New York.
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 19, 2000

Visit to Toad Hall: hip-hop as a way of life

I have a friend, an exceptional naturalist, who has traveled this country widely from Iriomote-jima to Hokkaido, yet who swears that he will never visit the Ogasawara Islands.
LIFE / Travel
Jan 19, 2000

Down the Ayeyarwady River to the sea

The steamer docked at the sun-soaked Yangon pier could have just sailed in on a river of ink straight from Kipling's pen.
EDITORIALS
Jan 18, 2000

Furor over 'Frankenfoods'

Worries about genetically modified foods are on the rise. Consumers around the world are increasingly concerned about the effects such organisms have on human health and the environment. Just as troubling is their suspicion of the companies and regulatory authorities who assure the public that those...
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2000

Nations must cooperate to stop illegal drugs, Azuma says

Drug abuse is not a problem that can be solved by just one nation, Shozo Azuma, parliamentary vice minister for foreign affairs, said at the opening ceremony of "Anti-Drug Conference, Tokyo 2000" on Monday. Law enforcement and financial officials as well as researchers from about 20 Asia- Pacific nations...
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2000

Thousands hold vigil to mark quake's fifth anniversary

KOBE -- Thousands of candles were lighted under predawn skies Monday and the eternal "Light of Hope 1.17" was set aglow to mark the fifth anniversary of the Great Hanshin Earthquake. About 1,500 people gathered at Higashi Yuenchi Park in Chuo Ward to offer a minute of silent prayer at 5:46 a.m., the...
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2000

Viva Odaiba! Ishihara dreams of casinos in the bay

Cigarette smoke wafts out of noisy pachinko parlors, crowds armed with racing forms jostle one another on trains on horse racing days, and lines form in front of lottery ticket booths. You may or may not call it gambling, but playing to test your luck has grown into a huge industry in Japan.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2000

'Uncensored information' blamed for rise in truancy

The number of elementary and junior high school children who were frequently truant during the 1998-99 school year jumped by more than 20 percent from the previous year, according to a government report on juvenile problems released Friday. The report by the Management and Coordination Agency says the...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jan 12, 2000

We have a future

Another megamerger, another Internet world-eating conglomerate emerges. Apart from its size, the AOL-Time/Warner deal is a big deal: The marriage of AOL and Time Warner matters (if it goes throtwo reasons. First, it combines one of the biggest Net presences with a broadband delivery systefinally makes...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 11, 2000

End the dangerous illusions

In this final year of the 20th century, there are several key lessons we should learn from this turbulent period. First, as a Japanese I want to point out that Japan modernized with remarkable success in the first half of the century. Following its victory in the Russo-JapaneseWar (1904-05), the nation...
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2000

'Unfair' decorations system under review

The government and the Liberal Democratic Party are promoting a review of the decoration system for the first time in 36 years. At the end of last year, Shizuka Kamei, chairman of the LDP's Policy Affairs Research Council, called for reforming the system for granting prestigious decorations to civil...
CULTURE / Music
Jan 11, 2000

Ani DiFranco's hard road leads her to a higher plane

Last year, the prolific Ani DiFranco released three albums. Any record company marketing executive would tell you that's more than the market could take. But then, DiFranco doesn't have to answer to any record company. She owns her own.
EDITORIALS
Jan 10, 2000

School discipline applies to all

Media reports of the increasing number of violent incidents in the nation's public elementary and junior and senior high schools have made "classroom collapse" part of the everyday language. The reports nearly always refer to these incidents as examples of a breakdown in school discipline, but "discipline"...
CULTURE / Music
Jan 9, 2000

Tokyo's own Met settles in under new music director

Tokyo-to Kokyo Gakudan, Nov. 18, Gary Bertini conducting in Tokyo Geijutsu Gekijo -- Symphonic Suite "Printemps," Cantata "La Demoiselle Elue" with Emi Suwahata, Satomi Kano and the Shinyukai Chorus; Prelude to "The Afternoon of a Faun," Three Symphonic Sketches "La Mer" (Achille-Claude Debussy, 1862-1918)...
COMMENTARY
Jan 9, 2000

Doomsayers have it wrong

LONDON -- Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, is a deeply spiritual and thoughtful man. Again and again he brings us back to the really central question of our times -- central in all societies and all religions, and becoming more so in a globalized age. What now binds us together?...
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2000

Nursing home in China advertising for Japanese

A Tokyo-based organization is advertising on the Internet a nursing care home in China that will take in elderly Japanese suffering from senile dementia, it was learned Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2000

Take politics out of economic decisions

It is amazing how quickly conventional wisdom can shift. Just a few years ago, most people would have considered as heretical a proposal that central banks should make decisions independent of the influence of the executive and legislative branches of government. Today, central bank independence is universally...
EDITORIALS
Jan 4, 2000

A new era for Russia

Russian President Boris Yeltsin will be remembered, among other things, for his sense of drama. Last Friday's announcement that he would be stepping down as president was perfectly in character. It focused international attention on him -- at least momentarily -- as the world prepared to meet the new...
JAPAN
Jan 4, 2000

Homeless, Games key Osaka issues

OSAKA -- Osaka will try to assist the homeless and small and medium-size enterprises while continuing to attract the 2008 Olympics, Mayor Takafumi Isomura said Tuesday in his first address of the year. "The city must consider how to provide a safety net to help smaller businesses, and to ensure that...
SOCCER / J. League
Jan 4, 2000

Reds' Ono looking to recover his form before seeking new challenges abroad

For Shinji Ono, 1999 started with glory and ended in agony. In April, Ono captained Japan's under-20 team to a runnerup finish at the World Youth Championship in Nigeria and went on to boost Japan's Olympic campaign in summer.
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2000

New Year's return rush peaks

The rush of New Year's travelers returning from their hometowns reached its peak Monday, in time to return to work today -- when most companies reopen for business. However, the number of train and airplane passengers returning to Tokyo and other big cities was smaller than usual, probably because Y2K...
COMMUNITY
Jan 3, 2000

Picture-book village looks to the children

Once upon a time, sometime in 1992, there were two communities, Kijo-cho and Ishikawauchi, nestled high in the mountains of Miyazaki Prefecture. As in many such rural communities, the sound of children's voices was becoming a rarity as young families left to find their fortune in the city of Miyazaki,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2000

Japan must actively contribute to new world order from 2000

The past decade has exposed cracks in the various systems that have run this country for the 55 years since its defeat in World War II. These cracks appear to be expanding, ranging from rampant corruption and declining ethics among lawmakers, bureaucrats and businessmen to the collapse of family ties...
JAPAN
Dec 29, 1999

Writer, artist unite to portray Okinawa's problems

Staff writer OSAKA -- When artist Seitaro Kuroda was videotaping a series of war stories for children written by prize-winning author Akiyuki Nosaka, he noticed something was missing. The stories, which first appeared in a magazine in 1971, described the hardship brought upon children and animals by...
JAPAN
Dec 28, 1999

Full-time jobs still on the decline

The nation's unemployment rate improved in November to 4.5 percent from 4.6 percent in October, though the number of people holding full-time jobs fell for the 23rd consecutive month. Data released Tuesday by the Management and Coordination Agency showed the full-time picture is being obscured by the...
JAPAN
Dec 27, 1999

Illegal Iranians ask for permission to stay

Five Iranian families who have overstayed their visas visited the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau in Tokyo's Kita Ward on Monday to ask the justice minister for special permission to live in Japan. The 17 people, including seven minors, said they made the request either because they have children...
JAPAN
Dec 27, 1999

Nuclear plant jobs lure unwitting day laborers

Staff writer The death last week of a JCO Co. employee who on Sept. 30 was working at the scene of Japan's worst nuclear accident, reminded the nation of the health consequences of an atomic accident. According to Yuko Fujita, associate professor of physics at Keio University, accidents like the one...
COMMUNITY / JAPAN LITE
Dec 26, 1999

Forget this year, and the last 999 as well

At the end of the year now, Japan is in the throes of "bonenkai," or "forget the year" parties. I wonder, though -- shouldn't we be having "forget the millennium" parties?
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Dec 23, 1999

As millennium's end looms, go with the flow of timeless wine

In Japan eight is a lucky number. And in just eight days we'll be living the last day of the second millennium anno Domini.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 1999

Nishimura urges military upgrade, carrier fleet

Former Parliamentary Vice Minister of Defense Shingo Nishimura urged Japan on Wednesday to adopt a more positive role for the security of East Asia through such steps as forming its own legitimate military forces and introducing its own aircraft carriers. Nishimura, who resigned in October after suggesting...

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear