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BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2000

Mexico's stance precludes an agreement on investment pact with Japan

Japan and Mexico have run aground in their negotiations toward a pact aimed at shoring up the flow of investment across the Pacific.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Jul 13, 2000

Compulsories of sake keeps brewers in top form

Last month, I gave an overview of the Shinshu Kanpyokai, the national new-sake tasting competition held each spring, and its logistics. Here is a look at what kind of sake wins, and what the big deal is about anyway.
EDITORIALS
Jul 12, 2000

Snow Brand pays the price

All attempts so far by Snow Brand Milk Products Co. have failed to deal satisfactorily with the mass food-poisoning outbreak caused by bacterial contamination at the company's Osaka production facility. In the two weeks since the outbreak was first detected, over 13,000 people in nine prefectures in...
BUSINESS
Jul 12, 2000

Business leaders agree NTT fees too high

The Japan-U.S. Business Conference ended Tuesday, with business leaders from the two nations adopting a statement urging a "substantial and prompt reduction in interconnection rates" charged by the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. group.
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2000

Okinawans grew up with U.S. military, differ on acceptance

Staff writer
COMMUNITY
Jul 12, 2000

Going native in postage-stamp gardens

Many remember COP3. The international environmental meeting took place in the beautiful surroundings of Kyoto's International Conference Center in the early autumn of 1997.
LIFE / Travel
Jul 12, 2000

Time travel in downtown Seoul

As a resident of Japan, one might be forgiven for assuming that the South Korean film industry is nearly nonexistent, considering the scarcity of offerings here. In fact, South Korean media production is prolific, but it sometimes takes an unexpected circumstance to bring this into clear focus.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jul 12, 2000

With love, Jean

When I first arrived in Japan more than 40 years ago, one of the first words I learned was sayonara and that it meant "goodbye." As I stayed on, I began to learn that sayonara did not mean goodbye in the sense of "till we meet again" or "God watch over you" as such phrases are used in the West. The literal...
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2000

North Okinawa mixed on planned military-civilian airport

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. -- From a tiny desert island off the U.S. Marine Corps' Camp Schwab, Takuma Higashionna looks out over the coral reef amid clear water.
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2000

Boost youths' social ties: Oshima

While Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori feels educational reform is a key policy for his Cabinet, new Education Minister Tadamori Oshima wants to establish an educational program to enhance children's social participation.
BUSINESS
Jul 11, 2000

Japan, U.S. resume talks on NTT's connection fees

Japan and the United States resumed telecommunications deregulation talks Monday in Tokyo in a bid to resolve their dispute over Japan's telephone interconnection rates before the July 21-23 Group of Eight summit in Okinawa.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 11, 2000

Fathers must do their duties

The brutal crimes committed by teenagers here recently have shocked the nation. In discussing the issue of juvenile violence, however, we seem to be making a basic mistake: that only those who have the right to vote are "adults." Considering various aspects of human physiology, it is unrealistic to say...
BUSINESS
Jul 11, 2000

U.S. firm to start bid for Nissan affiliate today

U.S. auto parts maker Johnson Controls Inc. will launch a tender offer today for all outstanding shares in Ikeda Bussan Co., a major auto-seat maker affiliated with Nissan Motor Co.
EDITORIALS
Jul 9, 2000

Putting out more flags

Even this far from America, the whiff of U.S. patriotism -- a heady blend of gunpowder, barbecue smoke and hot air -- was unusually palpable last week. Tuesday was Independence Day, always an occasion for Americans to put out more flags, if only because they like the look of red, white and blue in July...
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2000

Japan, U.S. execs start annual talks

Top business executives from Japan and the United States will begin their annual meeting today in Tokyo to discuss bilateral and multilateral trade issues, electronic commerce and information technology, conference officials said Saturday.
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2000

Alternative school targets dropouts

KYOTO -- Parents whose sons or daughters stop attending school often research methods to encourage their children to return by reading books and attending lectures by experts.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 9, 2000

Opposition gives flawed economic message

According to some Western pundits, the recent Lower House election was going to be a big yawn, with little debate over real issues. In fact, from the start there was a very real debate between the coalition, which argued that the economy still needed pump priming, and the opposition, which claimed that...
COMMUNITY
Jul 9, 2000

Funding films by finding housing for foreigners

Walking with Akio Sakurai to his real estate office in Tokyo's Chuo Ward, he told the story of an Indian couple -- the husband working for a major European bank -- for whom he had found an apartment. The day before they were due to sign the contract, the landlord rang and withdrew the offer. A Japanese...
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2000

Kono talks on North Korea, the G8 summit and Russia

The government "will not simply stay idle" in its relations with North Korea, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono said Thursday, noting that Tokyo is ready to reopen stalled normalization talks with Pyongyang following its recent moves to open up to the outside world.
MORE SPORTS
Jul 8, 2000

Murata aiming high in Champagne Rugby

"I'd like to help our team get promoted to the top division next season," Japan international rugby player Wataru Murata said contentedly Wednesday in Tokyo after completing his first season with French League side Aviron Bayonnais in the so-called Champagne Rugby.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 8, 2000

Quest for Huangshan of the heart

To the south of the Yangtse River in China's Anhui Province, near the medieval city of Wuhu, rise the Huangshan mountains: a series of jagged peaks and crags, not very high, as mountains go, but intensely dramatic. The clouds and mist that swirl around their pine-crested heights, the mysterious grottoes...
BUSINESS
Jul 7, 2000

Miyazawa urged to lead G7 effort to help poor nations

The nongovernment coalition Jubilee 2000 Japan urged Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa on Thursday to take the initiative at the upcoming meeting of the Group of Seven economic powers to solve the serious debt problems of the world's poorest countries.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2000

1932 essays recall patriotism of nisei

When 31-year-old Californian Joyce Hirohata was having difficulty writing her high school valedictory speech, her father handed her a book published by her grandfather, Paul Tsunegoro Hirohata.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2000

Japan accepts U.S. demand for 41% NTT fee cut by '02

Kyodo News The government plans to cut interconnection fees charged by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. by 41.1 percent by the end of 2002, a move Tokyo hopes will resolve a bitter trade row with the United States before this month's Group of Eight summit in Okinawa.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2000

China's unruly, untrustworthy territory

TOM CLIFFORD Staff writer HONG KONG -- The Hong Kong handover three years ago provided some of the most contradictory TV images of our age. An imperial drama, a colony being returned, was played out in the dying days of the 20th century. All that was missing was the setting sun.
EDITORIALS
Jul 6, 2000

Outfoxed in Mexico

Mexico begins the 21st century with a bang. Voters last weekend rejected 71 years of one-party rule and elected Mr. Vicente Fox, a political outsider, as their president. The Mexican people have made it clear that they are ready for change. Mr. Fox, a rancher and former businessman, has vowed to do just...
BUSINESS
Jul 6, 2000

Disneyland site set to swell into kingdom

Another dream world of Disney is emerging just outside Tokyo, enticing both young and old into what appears to be a medieval European town.
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2000

Mori seeks a 'reborn Japan'

A day after the launch of his new Cabinet, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori stressed his determination Wednesday to create a "reborn Japan" by improving the economy and promoting the development of information technology.

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