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CULTURE / Art
Sep 24, 2000

Impressions made in paper take form

When the semioticist Roland Barthes came to Japan, he decided to do what many foreigners do, which is to base his impressions of Japan on exactly that, his impressions. His book "The Empire of Signs" is ostensibly about Japan, but the author acknowledged (with no shame) that it actually was a collection...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2000

Beijing's de facto currency devaluation

Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji approached Hong Kong officials to seek advice on the potential impact of greater flexibility in the valuation of the yuan and a possible devaluation. Of course, officials in Hong Kong are quite interested in the impact of changes in China's exchange-rate regime. Nonetheless,...
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2000

Otsuka goes to beat of a different drum

Playing word association with the names of the stations along the Yamanote Line is, for the most part, quite a simple task. Akihabara -- electrical goods; Ueno -- bullet train and animals; Shibuya -- teenage fashion.
SOCCER / J. League
Sep 24, 2000

Perryman to quit S-Pulse

Shimizu S-Pulse manager Steve Perryman is to leave the club at the end of the current season.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 24, 2000

Janet Thompson

Janet Thompson says that Tokyo International Players has such a sparkling reputation that people, not only those directly associated with TIP, always love to help. "It's wonderful," she said. "We needed secondhand furniture for 'Lend Me a Tenor,' and the company Kensington in Shirogane willingly supplied...
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2000

Korean to be part of college test

The government is to add Korean to the list of foreign languages that applicants can be tested in when taking entrance examinations for state-run universities, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2000

Pupils to be required to volunteer: panel

An education advisory panel to the prime minister on Friday submitted an interim report calling for drastic changes in the current education system that would nurture volunteer spirit among students by requiring them to do community service.
BUSINESS
Sep 23, 2000

Toyota ups forecast after sales kick

Toyota Motor Corp. revised its unconsolidated earnings projections for the first half of fiscal 2000 upward due to brisk sales of its vehicles in domestic and overseas markets, company officials said Friday.
BUSINESS
Sep 23, 2000

Shares of IBJ, DKB, Fuji delisted before Mizuho debut

Shares of the Industrial Bank of Japan, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and Fuji Bank were delisted from the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Friday.
OLYMPICS
Sep 23, 2000

Nakao claims bronze in 200-meter backstroke

SYDNEY -- Miki Nakao claimed a bronze medal for Japan in the women's 200-meter backstroke final at the Sydney Aquatic Center on Friday night, while the women's 4x100 medley relay team swam their way into contention for a medal in Saturday's final.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 23, 2000

Artists heed the call of the cat

"I don't feel that I decide to carve the cats," Makoto Nishi says. "The cats call on me to carve them."
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2000

Mori starts extra Diet with 'e-Japan' pitch

Employing a new catchword, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori opened the 72-day extra Diet session Thursday pledging to create an "e-Japan" that would enrich people's lives and make the nation's industries more competitive.
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 22, 2000

One-man show moves beyond the big tent

"Snowflake," a silent one-man show created and performed by Gale LaJoye, will be held at the Rikkokai Hall in Shinagawa Sept. 26-28. Centering on a homeless man called Snowflake, the show follows his life after he finds a doll abandoned in a garbage dump.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2000

Sabah -- unfinished business between Malaysia and the Philippines

SINGAPORE -- The kidnap-for-ransom hostage crisis triggered by the Abu Sayyaf rebels in a remote corner of the South China Sea has attracted worldwide attention. But of even greater significance, it has further strained ties between the Philippines and Malaysia, as each country blames the other for allowing...
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2000

Crown Princess' dad named as possible U.N. ICJ judge

The government will field former Japanese ambassador to the United Nations and the Crown Princess' father, Hisashi Owada, in an election for the post of a U.N. International Court of Justice judge, scheduled for late 2002, government sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Sep 21, 2000

Korean firms unite on software for translation

A Tokyo-based computer software joint venture set up by a pro-Pyongyang firm and a South Korean company will team up with a North Korean government agency to develop software capable of the simultaneous interpretation of mobile phone conversations between Japanese and Korean speakers, company officials...
BUSINESS
Sep 21, 2000

Panels approve outline of IT bill

Business leaders and Cabinet members Wednesday approved the framework of a government-proposed bill to set guidelines for Japan's strategy to facilitate social and economic changes in line with an IT revolution.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 21, 2000

Japan insurance market just a phone call away

For the past several years, the insurance industry has been battered on two fronts by bad publicity. On the one hand, the collapse of almost all the major life insurance companies has been blamed on poor investment choices and even poorer management, while on the other, the spate of recent murder-for-insurance...
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2000

Bill calls for advanced telecom network

A bill on information technology calls on Japan to build "the world's most sophisticated computerized telecommunications network" so that IT powers the nation's economic growth, government sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2000

Obituary: Ichiro Mikuni

Television celebrity Ichiro Mikuni died Friday of malignant lymphoma at a Tokyo hospital, his family said Tuesday. He was 79.
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2000

Firms back Windows CE in cars

Six companies, including Nevada-based Microsoft Product Development Ltd., Clarion Co., Denso Corp. and Mitsui & Co., announced Tuesday they will cooperate to develop a car information system that can be operated by voice and will automatically read e-mail messages.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 20, 2000

The night train to Nha Trang

A few minutes before dawn on the night train to Nha Trang I awake to the sound of a nonstop diesel speeding past in the opposite direction. It hurtles past just inches away from the open windows of our own side-tracked train, sending us rocking nearly out of our bunks.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Sep 20, 2000

Harry Potter, Castles and Voodoo

www.cesnur.org/recens/potter_00.htm One of the best Harry Potter sites comes from an organization that fights censorship of modern-day culture. There's chapter-by-chapter notes for "The Goblet of Fire," the latest in the series. But most of the site is dedicated to news articles (culled from all over...

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight