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CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Dec 9, 2000

The tiny treasures of Hikaru Shimamura

The great 20th-century Japanese potter Kanjiro Kawai (1890-1966) marveled at items that were small and most people overlooked: a stone, a leaf, a box of matches. He would toss them over and over again in his hands.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2000

Monju touts safety campaign in restart bid

TSURUGA, Fukui Pref. -- Five years after a sodium leak and fire shut down the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor here, the battle over whether it should be put back into operation still rages.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2000

Red Army may launch attack to free Shigenobu: NPA

Members of the radical Japanese Red Army may launch a terrorist attack to liberate arrested leader Fusako Shigenobu, the National Police Agency warned in a report released Thursday.
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Dec 7, 2000

FRC chief firm on payoff plan

Having returned to head the Financial Reconstruction Commission, Hakuo Yanagisawa on Wednesday emphatically ruled out the possibility of an extension to a controversial payoff plan.
BUSINESS
Dec 7, 2000

LDP panel set to extend housing loan tax breaks

The tax panel of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party basically agreed Wednesday to maintain tax breaks for housing loans for two to three years, albeit on a reduced scale, sources within the party said.
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2000

Slovakia hopes for Japanese Embassy in capital

Slovakia wants Japan to establish an embassy in its capital, Bratislava, and scrap visa requirements to enhance bilateral ties, according to Jozef Migas, president of the National Council -- Slovakia's parliament.
COMMUNITY
Dec 7, 2000

Cosmic wonders in Minami Aoyama

How about closing the century with a spectacular astronomical adventure? Special planetarium shows using cutting-edge technology will be held Dec. 13-30 at Spiral Garden, Minami Aoyama.
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2000

New ministers outline their policies for the future

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's newly appointed Cabinet ministers outlined their policy programs Tuesday evening in a meeting with the press at the Prime Minister's Official Residence.
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2000

First Nordic-Japan Forum held

NAGANO -- About 950 people attended the first Nordic-Japan Forum on environmental issues held recently at a hotel in Nagano Prefecture.
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2000

Group protests GMO rice imports

A Tokyo civic group sent a letter protesting the import and sale of genetically modified rice to the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2000

Government appeals ruling on pollution

The national government on Tuesday appealed a recent court ruling ordering it to reduce emissions of so-called suspended particulate matter (SPM) to within environmentally acceptable limits in areas along National Route 23 in Nagoya.
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2000

Cabinet takes another battering in polls

The latest official poll taken by Kyodo News shows the approval rating for Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's outgoing Cabinet falling to 18.8 percent and the disapproval rating reaching 75 percent.
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2000

Cabinet lineup nearly complete

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Monday continued filling the slots of a new Cabinet that he plans to form today, deciding to retain the trade and industry minister and to appoint a new farm minister, political sources said.
COMMENTARY
Dec 5, 2000

Old guard may still deliver

As suggested in an earlier column (Nov. 16), the Liberal Democratic Party faction leader, Koichi Kato, probably deserved to fail in his recent attempt to overthrow his party's leadership. His timing and approach were flawed. His call for immediate structural reform and fiscal restraint was bad economics....
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2000

World's tallest building planned in South Korea

South Korea's Lotte Group is to construct the tallest building in the world -- nearly one-third as tall again as the highest building in Japan, the Landmark Tower in Yokohama -- at a cost of some 1.2 trillion won, over $1 billion.
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2000

Liberal Party wants SDF role spelled out in Constitution

The opposition Liberal Party has worked out a draft proposal for revising the Constitution to allow Japan's Self-Defense Forces to participate in all types of U.N. peacekeeping activities, party sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2000

Miyake islanders may have long wait

Miyake Island, which was fully evacuated in September due to the volcanic activity of Mount Oyama, may not be safe enough to return to for another three months to a year, a leading expert said Sunday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 4, 2000

Ants find inheritance tax high

The maximum rate of inheritance tax in Japan is 70 percent, more than many people can afford to pay: If they inherit, they have to sell off land and property to pay the tax.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Dec 4, 2000

Judging history's 'single most violent act'

At a midtown bar, Wolcott Wheeler, whom I call a historian without portfolio, tells me a story about Robert Oppenheimer: how the physicist, meeting President Harry Truman in the Oval Office, said, "Mr. President, I have blood on my hands."
COMMENTARY
Dec 4, 2000

Fight the spread of small arms

The United Nations General Assembly has decided to hold the U.N. Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Aspects in New York in July 2001. The trade involves a broad range of hand-carried arms from automatic rifles to portable missiles.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2000

Women's groups decry foundation's demise

A recent Tokyo Metropolitan Government announcement that it plans to abolish the Tokyo Women's Foundation to save tax money has sparked protests among citizens' groups promoting gender equality.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 3, 2000

More testing times for students of Japanese

Today, many foreigners have put on their armor and have sharpened their swords in preparation for battling through the Japanese Proficiency Test. I wish you all luck and survival. I recently spoke with the god of the Japanese Proficiency Test, who lives on Uranus and appeared on my TV screen via my satellite...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 3, 2000

The cutting edge of sound and vision

For some, myself included, the U.K. Sound Design exhibition, held Nov. 23-27 at the Ground in Harajuku, was a stroll down memory lane. Organized by the British Council in Japan, the show assembled record sleeves from seminal British designers of the last 30 years. Seeing many old records that had made...
BUSINESS
Dec 2, 2000

Sogo sale attracts hordes of shoppers

OSAKA -- The department store chain Sogo Co. began clearance sales Friday at its Osaka flagship store and eight outlets earmarked for closure later this month.
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2000

Japan pledges $4.3 million in emergency aid to Yugoslavia

Japan decided Friday to provide $4.3 million in emergency aid to Yugoslavia to help the country purchase fertilizer for its wheat crop, the Foreign Ministry said.
BUSINESS
Dec 2, 2000

Economic gap widening: consumers

Japanese consumers believe that improvements in their daily lives over the past year has been slower than that of overall economic activity in Japan, according to a survey released Friday by the Bank of Japan.
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2000

New animal protection law to target pet abuse

A revised law on the protection and control of animals went into effect on Friday. The law calls for harsher penalties for people who harm or abandon animals and imposes tougher controls on the pet industry.
BUSINESS
Dec 2, 2000

BOJ pushing 2,000 yen notes

Tellers at the Bank of Japan and its 33 branch offices will change money into 2,000 yen bills from Monday to encourage use of the neglected notes, officials said Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2000

HIV-positive lawmaker fights battle against discrimination

When he tested positive for HIV 13 years ago, Satoru Ienishi could not imagine becoming a father -- let alone living long enough to hold his healthy, smiling baby girl.
BUSINESS
Dec 1, 2000

Finance Ministry reveals 'mission'

The Finance Ministry published a position paper Thursday outlining its "mission" and "policy objectives" for the first time in its 131-year history, ahead of the government's major restructuring in January.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes