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JAPAN
Dec 22, 1999

New game rides in the slow lane

Staff writer After test-driving a simulation game and ramming right into a curb, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara announced Wednesday, "I guess I wasn't meant to be a bus driver." "Tokyo Bus Guide," created for Sega Enterprises Ltd.'s Dreamcast game console, focuses on an ungainly, slow-plodding mode of...
LIFE / Travel
Dec 22, 1999

Sun shines again for the city on the Neva

If it wasn't for me, the terrace of the bar would be deserted. The leaves on the plane trees are just beginning to take on their autumn colors, a breeze off the River Neva is blowing in through the massive gateway to the Peter and Paul Fortress and directly in front of me rises the almost sheer golden...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 1999

European rule comes to an end in Asia

CANBERRA -- Macau presents the last outpost of European colonial empire remaining anywhere in the Asia-Pacific region. Apart from Hawaii, now a state of the United States, and leaving aside Australia and New Zealand, no other territory in the Asia-Pacific region will be held or ruled by a European state...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 1999

Site for new capital cut to three

After three years of deliberations, a government panel on Monday handed Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi a list of three areas for further consideration as sites for the relocation of the Diet and government offices from Tokyo. The Council for Relocation of the Diet and Other Organizations identified an...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 1999

Calls for overhaul of judge system mount

First of three parts Staff writer Discontent with the judicial system among lawyers, politicians and businesspeople has prompted a Cabinet advisory panel to launch discussions aimed at giving the system its first overhaul of the postwar era. Hiroshi Saito of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 1999

Miyazawa unveils 85 trillion yen budget

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa on Monday proposed a draft general-account budget for fiscal 2000 worth 84.99 trillion yen intended as the "final push" for economic recovery. The budget, featuring massive public works spending and expanded funds to handle bank failures, is the largest-ever and 3.8...
EDITORIALS
Dec 18, 1999

The need for policing the police

It is a sad commentary on the times when the nation's police forces, which must rely on the public's trust to be effective, find themselves under a cloud of suspicion over repeated incidents of questionable, even criminal, behavior by their members. Yet that is the situation confronting Japan's law-enforcement...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 1999

Seattle art world meets on Gallery Walk

SEATTLE -- Eric Painter is a potter. Actually, he was a biologist before he quit his research job with National Marine Fisheries and bought a pottery school and gallery in downtown Seattle's historic Pioneer Square.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 1999

Air tankers refused for fiscal 2000

The government decided Friday not to allocate funds from the fiscal 2000 budget to bring air tankers into the Air Self-Defense Force, but left the door open for deployment in the future. The Security Council, which consists of relevant Cabinet members, made the decision apparently in consideration of...
JAPAN
Dec 17, 1999

Art group attempts to heal those ravaged by war

Staff writer In these days of "Pokemon" mania, who wouldn't want a personal note from Pikachu? Hector Sierra, 34, a fine arts doctoral student from Colombia, might not seem like the most likely recipient. But the filmmaker and NGO coordinator was as tickled as any kid. Arriving days before Sierra was...
JAPAN
Dec 17, 1999

Netherlands to mark 400 years with Japan

When the world ushers in the last year of the millennium on Jan. 1, the Netherlands and Japan will be celebrating another historic landmark. 2000 marks 400 years since the Dutch trading ship Liefde landed on the shores of Oita Prefecture. To mark the occasion, more than 400 events will be held in Japan...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 17, 1999

Legendary Ray Charles shines and polishes his musical gems

It's an often-seen case: A talented musician comes in demand, and begins to tour, and tour. As time goes by, the repertoire becomes more established, and the same material gets retreaded, often going stale. Once-memorable lyrics and riffs begin to lose something from the abusive, exploitative repetition....
CULTURE / Music
Dec 17, 1999

Flaming Lips dampen the fire with absurdity

Though it's sad that major labels no longer have the patience to actively develop deserving artists, they at least know who's good and seem willing to allow musicians with something interesting to say to say it. How else do you explain the career of the Flaming Lips?
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

Japan to host people-smuggling symposium

Japan will host the first international symposium exclusively focusing on ways to combat the increasingly serious problem of human smuggling in the Asia-Pacific region in mid-January, Foreign Ministry officials said Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

New subway line to be named Oedo

Tokyo's No. 12 subway line will be named the Oedo Line, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Bureau of Transportation said, dumping a misnomer selected last month amid much fanfare. The previously selected name -- Tokyo Kanjo (Loop) Line -- doesn't make any sense, said Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara on...
JAPAN
Dec 15, 1999

Regional Special: Chubu

Regional Special: Chubu>Sekigahara to mark 400th anniversary of epic battle> Staff writer SEKIGAHARA, Gifu Pref. -- For most of the world, next year is a celebration of the new millennium. For Japan, it is also the 400th anniversary of the Battle of Sekigahara -- perhaps the most famous internal battle...
JAPAN
Dec 15, 1999

106,000 police scheduled for New Year's Eve

A total of 106,000 police officers nationwide will be on duty overnight from Dec. 31 to Jan. 1 to deal with any possible problems at the turn of the millennium, the National Police Agency said Wednesday. The total is 2 1/2 times more than the usual 40,000 officers on overnight duty. A total of 105,000...
EDITORIALS
Dec 14, 1999

'Get out or die'

Russia has always talked tough. Last week, the world got a double dose of invective, however. First, residents of the Chechen capital of Grozny were told to "get out or die" before the Russian military launched an assault. A few days later, Russian President Boris Yeltsin expressed his displeasure with...
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1999

Vice finance chief to attend G20 forum

Yoshimasa Hayashi, one of the two parliamentary vice finance ministers, on Wednesday will attend the first meeting of the Group of 20, a new forum on the international financial system, to be held in Berlin through Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1999

Taiwanese tourism still paralyzed by earthquake fears

Staff writer TAIPEI -- More than two months after a deadly earthquake struck Taiwan on Sept. 21, a well-paved road running through Taroko Canyon, one of the island's more popular tourist destinations, still drew little vehicle traffic. "This area didn't suffer any damage, but the occupancy rate of our...
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1999

Lower House approves political donations bill

After lengthy negotiations between the ruling and opposition camps, a Lower House special committee gave its unanimous approval Tuesday to a bill that would ban corporate donations to individual politicians starting Jan. 1.At the same time, the special political reform committee began deliberating a...
JAPAN
Dec 13, 1999

KEDO agrees to start work on Pyongyang reactor

A multilateral consortium charged with providing North Korea with two nuclear power reactors decided Monday to proceed with the construction work, paving the way for a deal to be signed with the main contractor Wednesday. The executive board of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization agreed...
JAPAN
Dec 13, 1999

New travel agency serves Tokyo's gays

Staff writer During his trip to the west coast of Australia in January, Shigenobu Umeki, a 40-year-old magazine editor, stayed at so-called gay accommodations, run by gay owners and staffed by gay workers. "I am always conscious of my sexual orientation when talking to people out of fear that they are...
JAPAN
Dec 13, 1999

Diet enacts nuclear readiness legislation

With Monday's Upper House approval, the Diet enacted two bills aimed at preventing and better dealing with accidents at nuclear power facilities. Now that the bills, which were submitted following the Sept. 30 accident at a nuclear fuel processing plant in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, have cleared both...
JAPAN
Dec 13, 1999

Century of Change: Marriage sheds its traditional shackles

Staff writer When Kumiko Nishimura wed two years ago, she thought that registering her marriage with the city office was a natural course of things. But she postponed the registration because she felt it too burdensome to go though the process of changing names on everything -- from her driver's license,...
JAPAN
Dec 10, 1999

Obuchi, Li affirm strength of state ties

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and Li Ruihuan, a visiting senior Chinese Communist Party official, reaffirmed Friday that their two countries will further strengthen ties based on firm mutual trust, a Foreign Ministry official said. Li, the No. 4 figure in the Politburo Standing Committee, the Communist...
JAPAN
Dec 10, 1999

GM to acquire 20% stake in Fuji Heavy

In another move to enhance its Asian presence, General Motors Corp. of the United States will invest 140 billion yen to obtain a 20 percent stake in Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. as part of a strategic alliance, top officials of the two automakers announced Friday. Fuji Heavy will become the third Japanese...
JAPAN
Dec 10, 1999

Mori denies LDP wants millions

Yoshiro Mori, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, on Friday denied media reports that his party has informally asked 10 major banks to contribute political donations totaling 100 million yen. The LDP's No. 2 man said the party will continue to refrain from accepting donations from...
JAPAN
Dec 9, 1999

Light up -- ante up: New tobacco tax on the way

Staff writer The good news -- at last -- for Japan's ailing state coffers spells bad news for Japan's estimated 33.63 million smokers: The nation's most powerful policymaker announced Wednesday that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party will consider raising the tax on cigarettes by 40 yen per pack, starting...
COMMUNITY
Dec 9, 1999

How to learn more in less time

One of the great things about living in Tokyo is the opportunity to participate in the vast array of workshops that are offered every season. With Glenn Fraser's Accelerated Study Techniques Workshop, students and adult learners of all stripes will really be hitting the jackpot.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo