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COMMUNITY
Feb 17, 2000

Helping kids follow their noses

If you ask children what they want to be when they grow up, they will typically answer with a profession they have seen, either in daily life or on television: veterinarian, pilot, ice skater, or actress. How many times, however, have you heard a child say, "I want to be a perfumer"?
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Feb 16, 2000

Real convenience

The big Net play in Japan these days is convenience stores. Name your neighborhood favorite and you can rest assured it has just rolled out some new e-commerce business scheme.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 13, 2000

Nicola Cerrone

The warmth and blue skies of Italy and the sunshine and freshness of Australia make a winning combination. These elements come together in Nicola Cerrone, young, winsome and friendly.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 10, 2000

Back streets in not-so-far towns

One of the great joys of sake tippling, especially after having searched the town for a while, is finding a new gem of a place. Just when you think you've seen just about any manifestation a sake pub could take, you stumble on something charming and warm, wondering how it could have escaped your attention...
LIFE / Travel
Feb 2, 2000

The last paradise

Special to The Japan Times In the early years of the last century, the wife of a French colonial doctor in Laos wrote in her journal, "Oh! What a delightful paradise. The fierce barrier of the stream protects this country from the progress and ambition of which it has no need. Will Luang Prabang be,...
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2000

Serial killer claims he was forced into confessing

Convicted serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki told the Tokyo High Court on Thursday he was forced into confessing to the murders of three young girls on the first day of his arrest in July 1989 although he was apprehended on molestation charges. During defense questioning, Miyazaki, 37, said he was detained...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2000

Taiwan turns table on terrible temblor

In the early hours of Sept. 21, 1999, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck Taiwan. Within 45 seconds, over 2,000 people lost their lives and property damage amounted to billions of dollars. Fortunately, the epicenter was not in a densely populated metropolitan area, for the loss of life and property would...
CULTURE / Music
Jan 22, 2000

Partying the century right on out the door

I don't know about you, but I am glad to see the 20th century out the door! And I hope all those crooks out there that made millions on the Y2K scare choke on all that cash -- taking advantage of a bad situation like that is shameful, like selling shovels to rescue workers at the site of an earthquake....
CULTURE / Art
Jan 22, 2000

Ginza's Satani Gallery closes doors with clearance sale of collection

It was immediately evident that something was very different.
COMMUNITY
Jan 20, 2000

Multifaceted legacy is rock solid

The public will never know what Ronald Winston looks like. Until he dies, that is.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2000

Police arrest cultist who loses temper at bank

Police arrested a senior member of Aum Shinrikyo on Monday for allegedly violating antiviolence laws by shouting at and threatening bank officials when they refused to let him open an account in the cult's name. According to police, Naruhito Noda, 33, who resides in a cult facility in Koshigaya, Saitama...
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Jan 16, 2000

Effective action

Now I know how we can rid our cities of crows. I have a wooded area behind my apartment where they gather to caw about their day, and all morning they have been especially raucous as they settle there for a short rest before taking off on another forage. Then suddenly, quiet. I looked up from my desk...
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2000

Aum will leave when ready, Joyu says

YOKOHAMA -- People living near a Yokohama condominium containing an Aum Shinrikyo office demanded Tuesday that former cult spokesman Fumihiro Joyu and other followers immediately leave the area. The written demand by a town council, shop owners and local residents came after the neighborhood was thrown...
COMMUNITY
Jan 6, 2000

Dynamic duo has the right vibe

Anthony Gill and Cristina Bornstein want to make your chakras vibrate.
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2000

Tax agency to probe Aum computer firms

URAWA, Saitama Pref. -- Police alerted tax authorities Thursday that two Tokyo-based personal computer industry firms allegedly linked to the Aum Shinrikyo cult are suspected of hiding income, investigation sources said Thursday. The National Tax Administration Agency is planning to launch a full-scale...
BUSINESS
Jan 1, 2000

The next loud bang could be in retailing

Just as foreign companies have accelerated reorganization of financial and automobile industries, powerful foreign chain stores are now gearing up to expand in the general merchandising market in Japan.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 1999

Complaints of shoddy new homes on rise

Staff writers Despite the colorful sofa and classy light fixtures, it's the long crack running along the ceiling and down the west wall of the living room that catches the eye. Sodden floorboards in the hallway further dampen the fresh feel that usually accompanies a newly built home. That's what one...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 1999

Happy in the Gucci nation

What kind of country will Japan be in the 21st century? The millennial forecast is in and it looks like this: Japan's cultural elite is quickly converging around the notion that Japan should be the first boutique state of the 21st century -- distinctive, well designed and expensive.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 1999

Carmakers jockey for inroads in slow-growing China market

Staff writer GUANGZHOU, China -- Browsing through glossy catalogs, a couple of men chat with dealers over the counter of a spacious car showroom. Beside them sit three brand-new cars. What appears to be an ordinary scene at any roadside dealership, however, is not run-of-the-mill; one of the cars --...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Dec 23, 1999

Sake tools you can trust

Happy Holidays to all Japan Times readers.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Dec 23, 1999

Yearend nostalgia

There is something about the holiday season that brings out nostalgia. Old times are recalled. We reach out with Christmas and New Year's cards to friends we haven't seen for years. A lot of conversations begin with, Do you remember . . . It seems that although most people anticipate the opportunities...
COMMUNITY
Dec 23, 1999

A cry to help children in need

If Joseph Lam were to take a vocational aptitude test, the results would no doubt point to a career in either politics or tele-evangelism.
LIFE / Style & Design / BEAUTY EAST AND WEST
Dec 23, 1999

Santa's bag full of health and beauty

Are you still faced with filling a lengthy Christmas wish-list and find yourself running out of time? Consider investigating the range of one-stop health-and-beauty gift options before you give up and buy those last-resort presents that lack imagination and personal suitability -- the candles, calendars...
JAPAN
Dec 22, 1999

Insanity cited in serial killer's death penalty appeal

The counsel for convicted serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki did not dispute allegations that he murdered four girls in Tokyo and Saitama prefectures in the late 1980s, but they claim he was insane at the time. The lawyers made the claim in their opening statement Wednesday of the appellant trial before...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

Alleged serial killer 'insane'

The counsel for accused serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki on Tuesday did not argue allegations that the defendant was involved in the murders of four girls in Tokyo and Saitama prefectures in the late 1980s but did claim he was insane at the time. The lawyers made the claim in their opening statement of...
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.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Dec 8, 1999

May we help you?

They say this might be the year that online Christmas sales in the U.S. actually live up to past promises of e-commerce's ascendancy. Hurrahs could be heard when it was reported that online transactions over Thanksgiving were up 10-fold (and groans could be heard as servers started overloading with the...
LIFE / Travel
Dec 8, 1999

A life less ordinary: Anne Frank's legacy

Amsterdam must be the only European city whose most popular tourist attractions occupy different ends of the sliding scale that begins with virtue and ends with vice. It is likely that many of those who wait patiently in the queues that snake daily around the canal-side block where the Anne Frank Huis...
JAPAN
Dec 7, 1999

'Knock' to take suit ruling seriously

OSAKA -- Osaka Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama told a news conference Tuesday that he would "take seriously" Monday's anticipated ruling in the sexual harassment lawsuit against him, which he did not contest. He also told the day's regular news conference that he would pay compensation if the court orders him...
CULTURE / Art / ARTS AND ARTISANS
Dec 4, 1999

Drumming up business for 300 years

The first musical instruments humans ever invented were believed to be those of percussion. The oldest drum, discovered in Moravia, dates back to 6000 B.C.

Longform

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The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan