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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 18, 2001

Meet your future friend, Mr. Roboto

One of the formative experiences of my childhood was the New York World's Fair of 1962-63, where America's great and beneficent corporations introduced consumers to the future. The memory that sticks with me most is of Bell Telephone's "picture phone," which we were told would be widely in use by the...
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2001

Opposition demands KSD probe

The Democratic Party of Japan and three other opposition parties on Wednesday asked the House of Representatives to facilitate an investigation of bribery allegations involving the Budget Committee and scandal-hit mutual aid foundation KSD and to summon three lawmakers to give sworn testimony.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2001

Machinery orders fell in November

Core machinery orders to Japanese manufacturers slipped 2.9 percent in November from the preceding month to 1.06 trillion yen after adjustment for seasonal factors, the Cabinet Office said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2001

Cabinet against using public funds to prop stocks

There was widespread opposition Tuesday in Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's Cabinet to the idea of using public funds to prop up the faltering stock market.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2001

Upper House member Koyama arrested in KSD bribe scandal

House of Councilors Takao Koyama was arrested Tuesday by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office on suspicion of accepting a 20 million yen bribe in 1996 from KSD, an insurance foundation under the purview of the former Labor Ministry.
BUSINESS
Jan 16, 2001

Snow Brand to shut four more factories

Scandal-hit Snow Band Milk Products Co. announced Monday that it will close an additional four factories by the end of March 2002 as part of its effort to regain profitability.
BUSINESS
Jan 16, 2001

Pessimism spells bargains

The Tokyo stock market began the 21st century lackluster amid concern over the stalled economic recovery and selloffs to unwind cross-shareholding ties.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 16, 2001

Three identities and one life

LIVES OF YOUNG KOREANS IN JAPAN, by Yasunori Fukuoka, translated by Tom Gill. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2000, 330 pp. It is estimated that there were 2.5 million Koreans living in Japan at the end of World War II. Although many returned home after the war, there are still approximately 600,000...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 16, 2001

A lesson for our swollen egos

SOUTHERN SILK ROAD: In the Footsteps of Sir Aurel Stein and Sven Haedin, by Christoph Baumer. Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2000, 152 pp., profusely illustrated with color plates, drawings, maps, $35 soft cover. This is the revised and expanded English edition of Baumer's "Geisterstaedte der Suedlichen Seidenstrasse...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 16, 2001

Yoshimoto's mixed-up women

ASLEEP, by Banana Yoshimoto, translated by Michael Zimmermich. Faber & Faber, 2000, 477 pp., 9.99 British pounds (paper). In these three stories the principal female characters, all young, seem as interested in their own sex as they are in men. They are impulsive and impressionable.
EDITORIALS
Jan 15, 2001

Territories in the middle

Japan and Russia have entered the new century without the major diplomatic goal they had vowed to achieve by the end of 2000: the signing of a peace treaty. As a result, the bilateral territorial problem involving the Northern Territories -- a World War II legacy that stands in the way of full normalization...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jan 14, 2001

Sandra Gamo

Sandra Gamo is just old enough to be able to say that she was "a rare species" in the late 1950s, when she was a bilingual Pan American Airways flight hostess. In those days few young women in this part of the world had achieved her level of two languages, poise and presence. Remarkably, and very early...
BUSINESS
Jan 13, 2001

Don't fret about economy: IMF chief

International Monetary Fund chief Horst Koehler told Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa on Friday that there is no need to worry about the outlook for the Japanese economy, although Japan will experience pain as its labor market goes through a transitional period.
EDITORIALS
Jan 13, 2001

Help China to help itself

China promises to become an economic superpower in the 21st century, but it faces formidable environmental problems, such as acid rain, air and water pollution, desertification and soil erosion. According to a recent report from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the world's most populous nation could...
COMMENTARY
Jan 12, 2001

Still waiting for real reform

A slimmed-down national government debuted Jan. 6, when Japan's central bureaucracy was reorganized. The realignment cut the number of ministries and agencies, under the Cabinet Office, to 12 from the previous 22.
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2001

Substitute driver services targeted for regulation

Traffic authorities plan to draw up a new law that will require insurance and licenses for the currently unregulated business of driving intoxicated clients' cars home after social functions, government officials announced Thursday.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2001

More tourists expected both at home and abroad

The tourist market expects to see more business this year, with the number of both domestic and overseas travelers projected to hit a record high, the nation's largest travel agency said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Jan 11, 2001

Mineta, Hiranuma restart auto parts talks

Visiting U.S. Commerce Secretary Norman Mineta told his Japanese counterpart Wednesday that Washington wants a new bilateral agreement to increase American auto and auto parts exports to Japan, according to a Japanese official.
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2001

Kyocera's U.S. unit to buy drill firm

Kyocera Corp., a high-tech ceramics and equipment maker, said Tuesday that its U.S. subsidiary, Kyocera International Inc., will buy precision drill maker Tycom Corp., which specializes in manufacturing drills for integrated circuit substrates.
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2001

Shigenobu served fresh warrant for passport violation

Police served a fourth arrest warrant Tuesday on Fusako Shigenobu, founder of the Japanese Red Army terrorist group, on suspicion of falsifying an official document to obtain a passport for a friend in 1974, police said.
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2001

Farm minister to discuss rice with WTO chief

Yoshio Yatsu, head of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, will go to Europe next week to discuss a plan to slow growth in mandated rice imports into Japan with the World Trade Organization chief, ministry officials said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2001

Women tackle stalking menace head-on

Exercise combining aerobics and self-defense skills is the latest craze among young women in Tokyo, where the number of reported stalking cases is also on the rise.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 10, 2001

Seibu Lions add Del Toro to staff

The Seibu Lions on Tuesday announced the acquisition of Mexican pitcher Miguel Del Toro, who played for the San Francisco Giants last season.
COMMENTARY
Jan 10, 2001

Tests loom for U.S.-China ties

How will the election of George W. Bush affect U.S.-China relations? The conventional wisdom was that a Gore administration would have been more favorable to China -- a questionable assumption based in part on the belief that Al Gore would be more inclined to continue President Bill Clinton's policies...
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2001

Evidence of exam leak destroyed

Investigators suspect an executive of Ohu University in Fukushima Prefecture instructed school officials to destroy papers related to a leaked exam immediately after the incident came to light, police sources said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jan 9, 2001

Lenders grow tighter, charge more: survey

Banks and other private financiers in Japan are becoming more selective in their lending practices and charging higher interest rates on loans to small businesses that have a greater dependence on borrowing, according to a survey unveiled Monday by a government financier.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2001

Caution and patience are key to Japan-North Korea relations

There have been earthshaking developments on the Korean Peninsula in the past six months. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il began to play a central role in Pyongyang's international relations, a year after the country started making diplomatic overtures worldwide. North Korea relaxed tense relations with...

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?