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JAPAN
Sep 19, 2001

Rice monitors arrive in North Korea

A Japanese government mission arrived Tuesday in North Korea to monitor the distribution and use of rice donated by Tokyo since last year, Foreign Ministry officials said.
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2001

Nikkei down on European tumble

Tokyo stocks plummeted Monday morning, with the key Nikkei average dipping below 9,500 at one point, as the tumble in European stocks Friday made investors nervous ahead of the restart of U.S. trading.
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2001

Cabinet job adviser warns of worse to come

The government's newly appointed adviser on employment and labor issues said in a recent interview that people should not overreact to the nation's jobless figure, but prepare for worse to come.
BUSINESS / TAKING STOCK
Sep 18, 2001

Jitters rife prior to Wall Street reopening

Last week's terrorist attacks in the United States sent stock markets reeling around the world.
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2001

Sharp to launch 'bubble' washer

OSAKA -- Sharp Corp. said Monday it will launch on Nov. 1 what it claims to be the world's first washing machine that uses "supersonic vacuum bubbles" to remove tough stains without laundry detergent.
BUSINESS
Sep 17, 2001

Vodafone ready to make grab for Japan Telecom

British mobile phone giant Vodafone Group PLC has begun final preparations to conduct a takeover bid of Japan Telecom Co. so it can establish management control over the Japanese telecommunications firm, industry officials said Sunday.
BUSINESS
Sep 17, 2001

Mizuho changes profit forecast into 260 billion yen loss on Mycal

Mizuho Holdings Inc., the largest banking group in Japan, has announced that it will plunge deeply into the red in the first half of fiscal 2001 on losses incurred by the collapse of Mycal Corp. and losses at one of its subsidiaries.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 17, 2001

Riding the Silk Road up to the sky

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan -- Throughout the former Soviet Union, the architectural barbarities of communist civilization have inflicted a dreadful sameness on disparate lands and peoples.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2001

12 Japanese nationals flee Afghanistan

Twelve of the 15 Japanese in Afghanistan have left the country, the Foreign Ministry said Sunday, as fears mounted of an imminent U.S. military campaign in the country in retaliation for Tuesday's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2001

Japan vows full support, except military action, for any U.S. retaliation

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has pledged maximum support to the United States if it retaliates against the organizers of Tuesday's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, but ruled out Japan joining a possible multinational force against them.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Sep 16, 2001

Nothin' but the big city blues

Kiki's Pub is a tiny blues bar tucked in behind Exit 1 of Toranomon Station. For 16 years, it has hugged the edge of a small cluster of nomiya (drinking spots) stranded between big streets and surrounded by homogenous rows of office blocks. When I called for directions, I was told to find the #10 Mori...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 16, 2001

A theory in need of updating

THE ANATOMY OF SELF: The Individual Versus Society, by Takeo Doi. Translated by Mark A. Harbison. Forward by Edward Hall. Tokyo: Kodansha, Int., 2001 (1986), 168 pp., 1,800 yen. Takeo Doi, the man who made "amae" a household word, later wrote this book about "omote" and "ura" and their extensions,...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 16, 2001

Come together, right now

"East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet," Rudyard Kipling once wrote.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 16, 2001

Pick a fate, any fate: it's all in the tarot

It is often said that all human life is contained within the tarot -- from shady business prospects and secret admirers to unexpected adventures and marriage plans. But can a tarot spread really contain so much meaning, or is it pure chance?
BUSINESS
Sep 16, 2001

KDDI corporate lines linked again

KDDI Corp. said Saturday that its dedicated international lines for corporate communications and international data communications lines were restored by 12:45 p.m. Saturday, 36 hours after being suspended in the wake of Tuesday's terrorist attacks on New York.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Sep 16, 2001

Help heal the spirit with comfort food

After watching live the two towers of the World Trade Center come down — the blessing and the curse of modern technology and communications — and spending a very sleepless night filling my head with the horrific images of the aftermath, I slipped away to the otherworldliness of a quiet Zen temple...
COMMUNITY
Sep 16, 2001

Fortunetelling traditions thrive on indecision

Runes, tea leaves and chicken innards. A strange group, perhaps, but all have a place in fortunetelling tradition as aids to seeking insight and resolving indecision. Now, though, soothsaying aids are growing even more motley, with recent additions including Shinjuku Station, koalas, eggplants and squid...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Sep 16, 2001

Technology improves the old grinding stone

Over the years, every step in the brewing process has been subject to a barrage of so-called technical advances. More often than not, though, these modern technologies are not as good as the traditional methods they replace.
COMMUNITY
Sep 16, 2001

Divination business thriving, for the foreseeable future

Head bowed, eyes closed, silently intoning my birth date and a prayer-like plea for good fortune; I feel a little silly, but I'm doing as I've been told.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2001

Hansen's disease group to honor foundation chief

A union of 60 groups from 25 countries that have received financial aid to fight Hansen's disease will confer an award on Yohei Sasakawa, president of the Nippon Foundation, for his efforts in the battle against the malady.
BUSINESS
Sep 15, 2001

Draft solid reform plan, Koizumi tells Cabinet

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi instructed his Cabinet on Friday to devise concrete reform measures on priority areas such as education, urban renewal, job creation within the public sector and deregulation of health care.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2001

Koizumi offers Bush condolences, support

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has promised U.S. President George W. Bush that Japan will provide its "utmost support and cooperation" in the fight against terrorism.
BUSINESS
Sep 15, 2001

Bankruptcies decline for second month in a row

The number of corporate bankruptcies fell 5.4 percent in August from a year earlier to 1,612, private research institute Teikoku Databank Ltd. said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2001

New immigration laws to target organized crime

Legislation to galvanize immigration laws and tackle international organized crime is being prepared for submission to the extraordinary Diet session expected to begin this month, Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2001

Arthur Miller among winners of Praemium Imperiale award

Arthur Miller, the American playwright best known for "Death of a Salesman," and Lee U Fan, a South Korean painter living in Japan, have been awarded the 13th Praemium Imperiale, along with three other foreign artists, the Japan Art Association announced Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2001

Arroyo woos investors, urges continued aid flow

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo stressed on Thursday her nation's efforts to improve competitiveness in the global market and to alleviate investors' worries over safety.
BUSINESS
Sep 14, 2001

APEC nears compromise

The 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum have reached a compromise on the contentious question of revising its 1995 guideline for liberalizing trade and investment within the Pacific Rim by 2020.
COMMUNITY / THE PARENT TRIP
Sep 14, 2001

Disney domination

I should have known that Disney characters would one day take over my home.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell