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BUSINESS
Jul 25, 2000

Panel drops idea of 20% consumption tax

A government advisory panel on taxation was planning to recommend in its triennial proposals unveiled July 14 that the consumption tax rate be hiked to 20 percent, only abandoning the idea out of concern over a probable public backlash, panel sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2000

NGOs eye future cooperation

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. — With the official closing of the Group of Eight summit here Sunday, some nongovernmental organizations say they have strengthened their ties and will cooperate in working toward — among other things — resolved conflicts, a healthy environment and human rights.
COMMENTARY
Jul 24, 2000

Echelon knows what you're thinking

Echelon is the code name for an exclusive club of Anglo-Saxon nations that long ago set out to spy on all global communications. Only now are some of its activities coming to light. The French are angry and want indignantly to know why Britain, their alleged EU partner, has joined with the United States...
EDITORIALS
Jul 23, 2000

As mighty as the mouse

Here is an odd thing: The more people use electronic means of communication -- PCs, Internet-linked cell phones and organizers, and the like -- the more stationery stores there seem to be and the more customers they attract. These are not all mauve-haired old ladies in kimono either, although if you...
COMMUNITY
Jul 23, 2000

I am, therefore who am I? An artist's search for self

What is the link between a 12-meter-long bronze snake slithering into the future as part of an exhibition for the physically and mentally challenged and the 20 brains (made from materials as diverse as pebbles and chili peppers), eight costumes, pieces of body armor and fragments of temple roof tile...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 23, 2000

Baffling Japanese mysteries solved at last

There are many myths about Japan. Let's look at some of them and see whether they're true or false.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 23, 2000

Something's in the air, but it isn't very deep

Vacant space is the subject -- and the content. Chie Yasuda's exhibition at Taro Nasu Gallery is a pallid, melancholic affair of photographs of empty, vacant spaces. Quite clearly some of these places -- the three largest photographs were taken inside the desolate, tiled interior of a ruin flooded with...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2000

Japan as a global environmental model

Japan's miraculous postwar recovery and spectacular economic growth earned it worldwide admiration and led many to view it as a growth model. Subsequently, however, it became clear that Japan's economic growth came at a huge cost in terms of environmental degradation and human health.
BUSINESS
Jul 22, 2000

G7 upbeat on global economy

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. — Leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized nations on Friday hailed the positive outlook for the global economy — including Japan's — but expressed concern about high oil prices that could dent economic stability.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Jul 22, 2000

When a woman tends the flame

Women potters have been on the move in recent years in Japan, which is quite a contrast to bygone days when they weren't even allowed near a kiln.
COMMENTARY
Jul 22, 2000

Korean summit: A potential 'win-win' for all

There has been considerable debate since last month's historic North-South Korea summit about the meeting's impact on the peninsula's neighbors and benefactors. The conventional wisdom seems to be that China fared best. However, I would argue that all four major powers have come out ahead and that the...
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2000

Corporate Japan needs concierges, group head says

OSAKA -- Not many Japanese know this, but the corporate concierge business is booming in the United States and Sara-ann Kasner predicts the same will soon happen in Japan.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2000

G8 summit ready to open in Okinawa

Leaders of the Group of Eight major nations began arriving in Okinawa Prefecture on Thursday to prepare for today's opening of the three-day summit.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2000

Human chain surrounds Kadena base

NAGO, Okinawa Pref.-- In a unified expression of opposition to the U.S. military's presence in Okinawa, some 27,000 citizens from Okinawa and the mainland formed a human chain around the U.S. Kadena Air Base on Thursday.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 21, 2000

Nourishing one's own inner source of joy

Just as the sun draws life from the earth, urging flowers to bloom and fruits to ripen, thus creating an earth "worthy" for humans to dwell in, so, I believe, in each person's soul an "inner sun" shines which makes human life well worth living.
COMMENTARY
Jul 21, 2000

Spotlight shines on Okinawa

A three-day Group of Eight summit opens today in Okinawa, an unusual location for such a conference. Okinawa was the last major battlefield in the Pacific War, where Japanese Imperial soldiers fought the onslaught of U.S. military forces. During the fierce fighting, an estimated 100,000 Okinawan civilians...
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2000

Stimulus policy should continue: Imai

While acknowledging that the much-anticipated economic recovery has become more evident, Takashi Imai, chairman of the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren), is emphasizing that the government should continue its current stimulus-oriented fiscal and monetary policies for the foreseeable...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2000

Few anti-base protests before summit

NAHA, Okinawa — Japanese police, whose only new equipment for the event are 23,200 pairs of sunglasses, have effectively caused anti-U.S. bases demonstrations at the Okinawa G8 Summit to flop badly.
BUSINESS
Jul 20, 2000

Regulating body recommended for NTT

To liberalize telecommunications and encourage competition through foreign direct investment here, Japan needs to develop an effective framework for regulating dominant carrier NTT Corp., according to Erkki Liikanen, European commissioner for enterprise and the information society.
BUSINESS
Jul 20, 2000

Japan, U.S. formalize cuts to NTT rate

Japan and the United States officially announced Wednesday an agreement that would reduce local connection fees charged by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. by over 20 percent in two years.
BUSINESS
Jul 20, 2000

Enron plans power-ful inroad

As business opportunities loom with the deregulation of Japan's mammoth electricity market, Enron Corp. of the United States is preparing to launch comprehensive energy services in the world's second-largest economy.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2000

T-shirts keeping traditional Miyako tattoos alive

GINOWAN, Okinawa Pref. -- "She lies with her arms folded, in peace / Where blue are the marks of fidelity"
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 20, 2000

Fears for Okinawa's unique ecosystem

Okinawa Prefecture punctuates the Japanese archipelago as the period on its southern border. Stretching westward like an island path leading to Taiwan, the island group, though small, is teeming with a diverse abundance of plant and animal life.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 20, 2000

My thoughts toward Okinawa as host

MASAHIDE OTA Former governor of Okinawa Prefecture
BUSINESS
Jul 19, 2000

Japan, EU execs urge IT promotion

In a joint recommendation at the end of their two-day meeting, business leaders from Japan and Europe on Tuesday called on officials of both sides to examine their local network-access policies in a bid to promote information technology.
BUSINESS
Jul 19, 2000

Japan, EU to skip signing of cross-border trade pact

Japan and the European Union will not be signing a mutual recognition pact designed to boost cross-border trade at today's bilateral summit, European Commissioner for Trade Pascal Lamy said Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 19, 2000

Hats on where the seabirds nest

Wheesh! Crack! Something furious hit me on the back of the head.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2000

Heo denies swindling petrol company

Heo Young Joong, a real estate developer suspected of causing financial damage to defunct trading house Itoman Corp., pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that he swindled a petroleum goods seller out of 18 billion yen in promissory notes.
COMMUNITY
Jul 19, 2000

Teachers share solutions to school concerns

People arriving in Japan in their professional capacities frequently see little more of the country than the interiors of taxis, hotel rooms and sterile offices, with the occasional tourist sight in central Tokyo thrown in.

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