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JAPAN
Jan 31, 2000

Myanmar government losing all financial footing

Staff writer Nearly half of the approximately 270 billion yen in Japan's outstanding official yen loans to Myanmar have gone sour.As of March 31 last year, the final day of fiscal 1998, Japan's outstanding yen loans to developing countries totaled 9.8 trillion yen, of which 272.5 billion yen was being...
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2000

Emperors of the rag trade

"Haute couture" -- high fashion -- has long been good for a laugh. One of the best therapies for gloom in Tokyo is to stroll along the southeastern end of Omotesando, in Aoyama, where the fashion boutiques cluster. The prison-block architecture (rain-streaked cement tastefully accessorized with rust)...
COMMENTARY
Jan 30, 2000

Why Taro can't speak English

It's exam season in Japan, and once again the problem of English language education is being churned over. This time the debate threatens to turn serious, for three reasons.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 30, 2000

More Japanese baseball games on the horizon?

Japanese sports papers are saying the Central and Pacific Leagues are thinking of expanding their season schedules to 140 games in 2001, and the PL is considering re-adopting its split-season format used between 1975 and 1982. If they follow through, it will be the most games played by the teams here...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 30, 2000

Vesting the third millennium in peace

KYOTO -- Llamas grazed contentedly on the slopes surrounding Machu Picchu as John Kurtenbach spread out the kesa on the South American peak. Later it became part of a meditation held there.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 30, 2000

National orchestras bear a standard for small countries

Most advanced nations have found the need and the means to provide their citizenry regular access to the timeless, universal beauties of great symphonic music. National orchestras are found in the capitals of countries around the globe. They are standard-bearers of artistic, intellectual and spiritual...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 30, 2000

'Snow' rids author of demons

Betsy Howie doesn't want me to say that writing "Snow," her first novel, was a cathartic -- "I hate that word" -- process for her. She prefers "soothing."
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2000

Tokyo barely balances budget despite spiking haloed items

The Tokyo governor has lost 7,000 supporters for his next election, promises marathon aficionado Taeko Hara.
EDITORIALS
Jan 29, 2000

Mr. Clinton presses resolutely on

U.S. President Bill Clinton delivered his eighth, and perhaps final, State of the Union address this week. The popular perception of the president is that of a lame duck, girding for his last year in office, wounded by the scandals that have tainted his two terms in office and restrained by the distractions...
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 28, 2000

Irish dance fever comes to Japan

Lord of the Dance, an Irish dance troupe which has been seen by 7 million people in 18 countries since its 1996 debut, is finally coming to Japan to wow audiences with its world-renowned performance.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2000

Miyazawa says government spending spree must continue

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa on Friday called for swift passage of the 84.99 trillion yen fiscal 2000 state budget in an attempt to achieve a full economic recovery. In a fiscal policy speech before the House of Representatives plenary session, Miyazawa said the worst is over for the economy thanks...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2000

In defense of U Thant

VICTORIA, Australia -- Much criticism has been written about U Thant, the third secretary general of the United Nations, who died from cancer 25 years ago on Nov. 25, 1974. While some of it may be just, much of it is not.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2000

Corporate star aims to shake up UNHCR

Staff writer Despite large financial contributions made by the government to international causes, Japanese are often criticized for being invisible in the global community. Kiyoshi Murakami, who will become chief of the Career & Staff Support Service at the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 27, 2000

Wineries to complement your travel plans

In the dead of winter, what's a wine lover to do? I'm almost tempted to say "Bring back the hot, spicy wine," the body-warming concoction quaffed at stalls in town center squares all over Europe toward year's end. It's a splendid custom, but actually what I had in mind is winery visits in California....
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2000

Multitrillion yen expansion urged for Tokyo rail system

The 426-km railway network of the Tokyo metropolitan area should be extended or interlinked in a more efficient manner by 2015 to ease rush-hour congestion, according to a report submitted Thursday to Transport Minister Toshihiro Nikai. The plan, drawn up by the Transport Policy Council, recommends...
EDITORIALS
Jan 26, 2000

Russia's mystery man

Far more is asserted about Russia's acting president, Mr. Vladimir Putin, than is known. He rose through the state security apparatus, where his steely eye and no-nonsense demeanor impressed President Boris Yeltsin, who named him acting prime minister in August last year. Upon Mr. Yeltsin's surprise...
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2000

Forgeries force Takashimaya to reissue 300,000 credit cards

OSAKA -- The Takashimaya department store chain has reissued about 300,000 credit cards in the wake of reports last year of forgeries, it was learned Wednesday. More than 10 cases of fraud involving forged Takashimaya credit cards had been reported every month since last spring, and the number rose...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 26, 2000

The menu's a long fellow at Coffee House Poem

As "the new millennium" approached, there were endless arguments over whether we actually had cause to celebrate. The "Is it 2000 or 2001?" debate continues, but certainly no one would dispute that the number 100 represents a long life, a perfect score or the number of coffees available on the menu at...
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2000

Minister claims flexibility on unpopular dam project

Construction Minister Masaaki Nakayama reiterated his readiness Tuesday to be flexible in reviewing a contentious dam planned for the Yoshino River in Tokushima Prefecture following the overwhelming rejection of the project by voters in a Sunday plebiscite in the city of Tokushima. "We have been walking...
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2000

'20s Industry Club faces wrecking ball

The 80-year-old Industry Club of Japan building in Tokyo's Marunouchi district, which has served as a hub for Japan's business circles, will next month undergo reconstruction.
COMMENTARY
Jan 24, 2000

Common sense up in flames

Shizuka Kamei, policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, recently proposed a raise in the tobacco tax in the fiscal 2000 government budget. The proposal, however, was quickly quashed due to opposition in the LDP and by Japan Tobacco Inc., the nation's only cigarette manufacturer. Smokers and...
COMMENTARY
Jan 24, 2000

Homage to a mass murderer

I was shocked to see a photograph in The Japan Times last month of former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama and former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka laying a wreath at the statue of the late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang. They looked rather sheepish. They should, in fact, have looked...
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 23, 2000

Process of progress; idea to performance

There's a new wind blowing through the performing arts this month, with two companies showing the fruits of "works in progress" instead of finished productions, although any difference in quality seems to be marginal.
CULTURE / Art
Jan 22, 2000

Ginza's Satani Gallery closes doors with clearance sale of collection

It was immediately evident that something was very different.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 21, 2000

How to build a career on no satisfaction

Whining, I was once told a long time ago, will get you nowhere, but in our current "culture of complaint" everybody thinks they have the right to air their grievances. That doesn't mean everybody has to listen to them, but in such an environment some people have elevated whining to an art form.
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2000

Sofia envoy urges more business ties

Bulgarian Ambassador Petar Andonov, who has been in Tokyo since August 1998, said Friday that he wants to see Japanese Internet-based technology companies cooperating with Bulgarian firms. This is "very important" for the future development of the two countries' economic relations and will make optimal...
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2000

Papers serve notice to sexually explicit advertisers

Staff writer "Candid camera taping of TV presenters finally hits the black market!" "Confessions of 100 businessmen: Sex with Japan's top 10 bra-buster beauties -- I would do it this way!" "Real-life experience with a trendy Shibuya rape drug!" Such eye-grabbing headlines, which many Japanese find annoyingly...
LIFE
Jan 20, 2000

Living within the abundance of less

When Osamu Nakamura is not in the mountains of Nepal studying woodblock print making, he's almost always in the small farmhouse among the terraced rice fields in the interior of Shikoku that he calls home. He has no telephone, so if you want to visit, you have to stop by to see if he is in.
LIFE / Travel
Jan 19, 2000

Nagano's 'time-slip' onsen

Many hot spring resorts these days look so similar that it's sometimes hard to remember where you are. Not Bessho Onsen.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2000

Here comes Japan's e-boom

Let me make some predictions about Japan's economic performance in and after 2000. I believe that recovery in the next 12 to 18 months will be slow but robust expansion will take place after that. The boom will not benefit everyone, as did the past expansion, however. It will be accompanied by the polarization...

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