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CULTURE / Film
Mar 30, 2001

Howls of poets and poodles

Old beatniks may die, but it doesn't look like they'll fade away anytime soon. Nearly half a century since the Beat Generation's heyday, the artistic and philosophical legacy of the Beats remains a massive mother lode of countercultural inspiration. Chuck Workman's documentary "The Source" traces the...
COMMENTARY
Mar 30, 2001

Jockeying to replace Mori

Executives of the governing Liberal Democratic Party have reportedly decided to hold the party's presidential election around April 20, although Prime Minister and LDP President Yoshiro Mori claims he has never expressed his intention to resign. Mori and the LDP are totally irresponsible.
BUSINESS
Mar 30, 2001

Bridgestone president apologizes for tire recall

Bridgestone Corp. President Yoichiro Kaizaki apologized Thursday at the company's shareholders' meeting for last year's voluntary recall of millions of defective tires produced by its U.S. subsidiary.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2001

Bar president says citizens should be involved in trials

The head of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations said Thursday that opening the Japanese trial system to participation by citizens will be inevitable because society is moving toward civic authority.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2001

Economy, ecology out of sync: environmentalist

SEIKA, Kyoto Pref. -- Collapsing fisheries, shrinking farmland and rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are symptoms of severe stress put on the environment by a world whose population is spinning out of control, according to Lester Brown, chairman and founder of the prestigious Worldwatch...
COMMENTARY
Mar 29, 2001

Time to act is running out

The captain of a sinking cruise ship was trying to persuade his male passengers to let women and children board the lifeboats first. But he quickly learned he'd have to customize his pitch according to the nationalities on board. The Englishmen were easy; the captain simply appealed to their sense of...
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2001

Mori unrepentant for missing king's reception

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori came under fire Wednesday for skipping a reception the night before hosted by Norway's visiting King Harald V, only to later dine at a sushi restaurant with his LDP colleagues.
BUSINESS
Mar 29, 2001

Isuzu kicks off bus production in China

Isuzu Motors Ltd. said Wednesday it has started production of large and medium-size buses in China, the first Japanese firm to embark on a venture of this kind.
COMMUNITY
Mar 29, 2001

Relax to the sound of one door sliding

There's a sliding glass door inside Keiko Torigoe's new house in Suginami Ward, Tokyo, that rattles when opened, and it took a lot of time and energy to make it that way.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2001

Surprise ruling won't wash with the victims

Contrary to widespread expectations, the Tokyo District Court on Wednesday acquitted Takeshi Abe, former vice president of Teikyo University in Tokyo, of professional negligence resulting in the death of one of his patients.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2001

Teito workers face charges over fatal subway crash

Five Teito Rapid Transit Authority employees who were in charge of maintenance at the time of a deadly train crash last March were accused of professional negligence on Tuesday as police handed the case over to prosecutors.
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2001

Mycal to sell off credit card unit to Sanyo Shinpan

OSAKA -- Troubled retailer Mycal Corp. said Tuesday it has agreed to sell a 54.59 percent stake in its credit card subsidiary, Mycal Card Inc., to another credit card company, Sanyo Shinpan Finance Co.
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2001

Cable makers to form high-voltage venture

Hitachi Cable Ltd. and Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd., Japan's No. 1 and No. 3 power cable makers, said Tuesday they will form a 50-50 venture on Oct. 1 to integrate their high-voltage power cable businesses.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2001

Nuclear safety panel urges vigilance

The government's panel on nuclear safety issued a report Tuesday calling for continued efforts to prevent nuclear accidents, noting that the vigilance maintained since Japan's worst nuclear accident in 1999 has prevented another from occurring.
COMMENTARY
Mar 27, 2001

The limits of public opinion

LONDON -- Speaking to the House of Commons on Nov. 11, 1947, Winston Churchill said, "No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2001

Norwegian royal couple treated to banquet, tours

Norwegian King Harald V and Queen Sonja attended a dinner party hosted by the Emperor and Empress at the Imperial Palace on Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2001

5.2-magnitude aftershock rocks west; none injured

OSAKA -- A strong earthquake measuring an estimated magnitude of 5.2 jolted a wide area of western Japan on Monday morning, the largest aftershock from the powerful 6.4 magnitude quake that hit the region Saturday, the Meteorological Agency said.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2001

Ticket agencies join the digital age

Kyodo News The Internet set the scene, cellular phones followed, and now convenience stores have jumped on the bandwagon, drastically changing the way people in Japan buy tickets for concerts, plays and sports events.
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 27, 2001

Movement that weaves an otherworldly spell

It's not often that a dance production lives up to an ambitious title, but "Luminous," by Saburo Teshigawara and the dance company Karas, certainly does.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 27, 2001

States, nations and identities

ASIAN NATIONALISM, edited by Michael Leifer. Routledge, 2000, pp. 196, 17.99 British pounds (paper). In many ways, an understanding of nationalism is essential to understanding contemporary Asia. For many Asian nations, the colonial experience is only a generation away. They are still wrestling with...
CULTURE / Art
Mar 27, 2001

The Elephant Man's other side

You know the old adage about how consciousness operates? Tell a person not to think of elephants, and they won't be able to stop thinking about elephants.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Mar 26, 2001

Russians living 'la vida loca'

This semester I am teaching a Dostoevsky course. Implausible plots, stumbling dialogues, everybody in love with everybody, romantic triangles overlap like mating frogs, passions mount, money changes hands and is thrown into the fire -- the normal Dostoevsky stuff.
COMMENTARY
Mar 26, 2001

Too little too late for reform?

In a dramatic policy reversal, the Bank of Japan has shifted its priority from cutting interest rates to expanding the money supply. The shift involves changing the key target for monetary adjustment from uncollateralized call-money rates to private banks' demand-deposit balances in the central bank....
COMMENTARY
Mar 25, 2001

Campaign-finance reforms stifle free speech

WASHINGTON -- In opening the U.S. Senate debate on campaign-finance reform, Republican John McCain asked his colleagues to "take a risk for our country." But his proposals would stifle, not expand, political debate in America. Congress should instead relax election controls, thereby encouraging more...

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.