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JAPAN
Dec 20, 1999

Prison eyed for Nichiei worker

Prosecutors on Monday demanded an 18-month prison term for a former employee of nonbank moneylender Nichiei Co. for suggesting that a customer sell body parts to repay a loan. Earlier in the hearing, at the Tokyo District Court, Eisuke Arai, 25, pleaded guilty to the charges and tearfully apologized...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 1999

Seattle art world meets on Gallery Walk

SEATTLE -- Eric Painter is a potter. Actually, he was a biologist before he quit his research job with National Marine Fisheries and bought a pottery school and gallery in downtown Seattle's historic Pioneer Square.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 1999

Art group attempts to heal those ravaged by war

Staff writer In these days of "Pokemon" mania, who wouldn't want a personal note from Pikachu? Hector Sierra, 34, a fine arts doctoral student from Colombia, might not seem like the most likely recipient. But the filmmaker and NGO coordinator was as tickled as any kid. Arriving days before Sierra was...
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1999

'Shoko' testimony goes live on TV

After a 20-year hiatus, the public eye was fully readmitted Tuesday to the drama of someone giving sworn testimony before the Diet, as the presidents of two "shoko" moneylenders under fire for heavy-handed loan collection tactics took the witness stand before the Upper House Financial Affairs Committee....
JAPAN
Dec 13, 1999

Bills to lower 'shoko' firms' interest cap pass Diet

The Diet passed a package of bills Monday to tighten restrictions on "shoko" loan lenders by revising a law to cut the interest rate ceiling from 40.004 percent to 29.2 percent starting June 1. Shoko lenders are financial institutions who specialize in making collateral-free, guarantor-required, short-term...
JAPAN
Dec 6, 1999

Construction firm files complaint against Nichiei

OSAKA -- The president of a construction supply firm based in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, and his loan guarantor filed a criminal complaint Monday against nonbank moneylender Nichiei Co. and two of its employees for allegedly using unlawful tactics to get him to repay his debt. According to the complaint...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 5, 1999

Fantasy, drama: visions of a blind artist

When Carter's, the biggest children's clothes maker in the U.S., chose to use blind artist Emu Namae's pastel drawings on their children's line, new doors opened in Namae's life.
CULTURE / Art
Dec 4, 1999

Exorcising demons of relentlessly passing time

Miyako Ishiuchi underwent an experience in her late 20s that was, if not entirely unique, certainly highly unusual: She became entranced with photography because of its smell.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Nov 24, 1999

A mountainous garden undertaking for all

Rikugien in Tokyo is the last in this series on gardens built in old Edo (modern Tokyo) by daimyo under the Tokugawa military government (bakufu) between 1603 and 1868.
COMMENTARY
Nov 24, 1999

New Luddites at the gates

LONDON -- Ned Ludd was the leader of a mob, circa 1815, who went around smashing up new textile machinery in factories. Ludd calculated, correctly, that traditional jobs would be lost and familiar ways of life destroyed for thousands, even millions of British workers if the machines prevailed.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Major banks report mostly in the black

All but one of the nation's 17 major banks scored pretax profits in the first half of fiscal 1999, according to midterm reports released by the banks Monday.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Nov 17, 1999

Journey to the land of the Exodus

As I stood in front of the bush that burned in Exodus 3:2 but was consumed not, a voice shouted loudly to make itself heard. It was the guide. And he spake unto me (and my tour group), and said, "That is the holy burning bush. It grows nowhere else on the Sinai Peninsula. All attempts to grow cuttings...
EDITORIALS
Nov 13, 1999

Ending the politics of money

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi has done the right thing in overriding objections from his own party to the ban on donations to individual politicians from firms and other interest groups. His decision, first unveiled in a meeting with opposition party heads Wednesday, paves the way for the enactment of...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Nov 13, 1999

A cynic's guide to survival

For a writer, Russia is a treasure trove. It generates the most improbable story lines, the characters it harbors make Hollywood action heroes seem anemic, and its history is a thrilling mixture of triumph and tragedy. The country has seen the apostle Andrew and Adolf Hitler, Emperor Napoleon and Mongol...
JAPAN
Nov 11, 1999

Government unveils 18 trillion yen stimulus

The government unveiled an 18 trillion yen economic stimulus package Thursday that it hopes will put the economy on a full recovery track in the second half of fiscal 2000.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 1999

Nichiei chief admits some collectors 'heavy-handed'

Nichiei Co. President Kazuo Matsuda on Thursday admitted that some employees might have been extremely heavy-handed in trying to collect on loans and apologized for causing trouble to the public.
EDITORIALS
Nov 10, 1999

Cracking down on loan sharks

Japan's continuing credit squeeze is turning the spotlight onto small-business loans from commercial moneylenders -- so-called "shoko" (commerce and industry) loans that carry extremely high interest rates because they require no collateral, only a third-party guarantee. To collect loans, the lenders...
JAPAN
Nov 10, 1999

Health Minister defends nursing-care plan

Neither the principles nor the framework of the government-proposed nursing-care insurance system have been altered, Health and Welfare Minister Yuya Niwa asserted Wednesday.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 10, 1999

Putting Japan on the psychologist's couch

POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY IN JAPAN: Behind the Nails That Sometimes Stick Out (and Get Hammered Down), edited by Ofer Feldman. Commack, N.Y.: Nova Science Publishers, 1999, 340 pp., (cloth). Political psychology is a tricky business. Plain old psychology is difficult enough, digging down as it does in the...
JAPAN
Nov 9, 1999

'Shoko' loan rates attract LDP scrutiny

The Liberal Democratic Party said Tuesday it will review the legal limits of interest rates for commercial lending in order to rein in operators of high-interest "shoko" loan businesses.
JAPAN
Nov 8, 1999

Coalition's nursing care rift on the mend

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 5, 1999

State unveils measures to slash nursing-care burden

The government formally announced a set of measures Friday aimed at reducing the financial burden on people under a planned public nursing care system to be launched in April.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

NTT pair held over suspected data leak to leftists

Two NTT employees were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of helping members of a leftist extremist group illegally obtain information on members of a rival faction, police officials said.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 2, 1999

This poetic chameleon wore khaki

SHREDDING THE TAPESTRY OF MEANING: The Poetry and Poetics of Kitasono Katsue (1902-1978), by John Solt. Harvard University Asia Center, 1999, 395 pp., $49.50. On Jan. 4, 1942, less than a month after Japan's assault on Pearl Harbor, Katsue Kitazono -- the spelling that John Solt gives the name in "Shredding...
COMMUNITY
Oct 22, 1999

Creator of offbeat manga happy to break the rules

Manga artist Sekaiichi Asakura has three types of fans: Those who enjoy his work purely for the humor; those who read philosophy and world religion into his comic strips; and those who claim that they are as weird as him.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Oct 20, 1999

The comfort of strangers

"Susunu Denpa Shonen," which airs every Sunday night on NTV, has become a bona fide phenomenon partly by tweaking noses and partly by joining hands -- call it cynicism cut with altruism
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Oct 19, 1999

The 'Moscow Blues Monster' seen rocking Tokyo's streets

For Yuji and Tatsuya it was just another night at Club Metro in Kyoto -- sinking tequila shots, fretting over the future of their jazz band and occasionally taking to the floor to shake their booty to the bouncy bossanova beats blasting from the sound system -- when in walked that girl again.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Oct 15, 1999

Tell JB to get a new bag -- this girl's got her own funk

Takako Minekawa is a sound nerd.
EDITORIALS
Oct 9, 1999

A resounding win for Mr. Vajpayee

Political stability has been a rare commodity in India of late. In the last three years, the country has had five governments and three general elections. The cycle seems to have been broken in the national elections held five weeks ago, however. As the final results come in, it looks as if Mr. Atal...
JAPAN
Sep 28, 1999

ITS systems expo opens in Ikebukuro today

The U.S. Embassy will hold ITS Japan '99, a trade seminar for promoting intelligent transportation systems, at the U.S. Trade Center in Ikebukuro in Tokyo's Toshima Ward today and Thursday.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji