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JAPAN
Jul 23, 1999

LDP may have to walk political tightrope

Staff writers
JAPAN
Jul 23, 1999

Lower House approves M&A bill

The Lower House gave its approval Friday to a bill intended to encourage much-needed corporate realignment through mergers and acquisitions.
JAPAN
Jul 23, 1999

Tokyo-Mitsubishi in talks to repay public funds

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi is negotiating with financial authorities over the earlier-than-scheduled repayment of 100 billion yen in public funds it received in March 1998, bank officials said Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 22, 1999

Literary critic Eto, 66, commits suicide

Renowned literary critic Jun Eto was found dead Wednesday night in an apparent suicide at his home in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, police said. He was 66.
JAPAN
Jul 22, 1999

Flag, anthem march through Lower House

Breaking a long-standing political taboo, the Lower House, by a vote of 403-86, approved a bill Thursday to legally recognize the Hinomaru as the national flag and "Kimigayo" as the anthem.
JAPAN
Jul 22, 1999

No national consensus on national symbols

Staff writers
JAPAN
Jul 22, 1999

Elderly traffic fatalities up 1.9%

The first half of 1999 saw 4,190 traffic accidents deaths, 0.9 percent fewer than the same period last year. But traffic fatalities among people aged 65 and older increased by 1.9 percent to 1,425, according to a National Police Agency report released Thursday.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 22, 1999

The new alfresco hits the pavement

It was not so long ago that alfresco dining here meant choosing between a raucous, roof-top beer garden or the cosy, elbow-rubbing confines of a funky pavement yatai. And if oden or ramen and a glass of cheap sake was not quite what you had in mind for a romantic evening out, too bad.
JAPAN
Jul 22, 1999

Trade surplus shrinks 7.9% but rises 4.2% with U.S.

The nation's trade surplus in the first half of the year dropped 7.9 percent from a year earlier to 6.057 trillion yen as overall exports plunged, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jul 21, 1999

'A grotesque gap'

The United Nations Development Program's annual Human Development Report is usually a pretty grim document. Sure, life is improving for most people, but the poorest seem to get poorer and the gap between haves and have-nots is continually widening. The richest 20 percent of the world's population has...
EDITORIALS
Jul 20, 1999

Cobwebs on the lunar way station

What is this latest fuss about a landing on the moon? Don't get excited, nobody has walked on it again. For all the fun those astronauts had bouncing about up there in their moon-suits years ago, there has been nothing sufficiently interesting to lure human beings back since 1972. Remember the scene...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 20, 1999

A stunning rumination on the interconnectedness of things

GHOSTWRITTEN, by David Mitchell. London: Sceptre/Hodder & Stoughton, 1998, 436 pp. (paper). Staff writer Contemporary writers love to skate between different genres, styles and settings. And "Ghostwritten," the first novel by Englishman David Mitchell, is filled with such formal trickery. It is a...
JAPAN
Jul 20, 1999

Junior high school student held in Rolex heist

A junior high school student from Tochigi Prefecture was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of robbing a Tokyo jewelry store of Rolex watches worth about 12.6 million yen, police said.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 20, 1999

Lotus Sutra gets rhythm on Ono's 'Gyo'

As much as it is tempting to believe the adage "like father, like daughter," sometimes a person like Toshiro Ono comes along to turn the saying on its head.
EDITORIALS
Jul 19, 1999

Iran's shrewd president

There is calm again in Tehran, but the peace is likely to be only temporary. After a fearsome counterstrike by conservative forces, the students demanding more freedom in Iran have retreated to their dormitories. But if their voices have been stilled, the reform movement that they have been spearheading...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 1999

Anthem and flag just need some tweaking

The battle over whether or not to pass legislation giving the de facto national anthem "Kimigayo" and the Hinomaru flag official status has been a black-and- white, yes-or-no affair. There have been some legalistic, even occasionally Clintonesque, arguments presented in the Diet on the definition of...
JAPAN
Jul 19, 1999

Toyota's consolidation not telecom pullout, exec says

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Jul 18, 1999

Food safety has to be assured

It comes as no surprise that consumer groups here are reacting cautiously to the government's draft plan requiring some food products containing genetically modified ingredients to be clearly labeled to indicate that fact. Controversy was only to be expected from the decision by the Ministry of Agriculture,...
COMMENTARY / World / GUEST FORUM
Jul 18, 1999

How Mahathir overcame the Asian crisis

Starting in September last year, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia was strongly criticized by the Western media and some Western governments over the introduction of capital controls and the sacking of his deputy prime minister and finance minister Anwar Ibrahim, who was later tried for alleged...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jul 18, 1999

Working with the system

A reader hopes to benefit from today's recession. She has heard that because so many companies have gone bankrupt, it is easy to buy good secondhand office furniture. But where? she asks.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 1999

How globalization can undercut security

Globalization is already a fact of life in the international-missile and military-armaments "community."
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Jul 17, 1999

Chilling out with the ghosts of summer

The summer months have traditionally been a time when Tokyoites tried to avoid the urban heat either by escaping to the mountains, beaches or, if that was not possible, venturing out during the evening to sit on the riverbank, drink cool, refreshing beverages and listen to ghost stories.
EDITORIALS
Jul 15, 1999

Sierra Leone tests the world

After nine years of savage fighting, there is peace in Sierra Leone. In Togo last week, African nations mediated an agreement between the government and Revolutionary United Front guerrillas that offers the small West African nation of 4.5 million people a future. There are no guarantees, however. A...
COMMUNITY
Jul 15, 1999

Designer rewrites the jean map

They look and act like ordinary blue jeans. When they're dirty, you throw them in the washing machine. The color will fade with numerous washings, and like any other denim, they may shrink a little in the dryer.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Jul 14, 1999

Sendai garden lets it all hang out

Garden designers around the country could take a few ideas from the Sendai Yasoen (Wild Flower Garden) by using more native plants in their own designs.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jul 14, 1999

Substitutes

A woman tells us she is a vegetarian in the real sense -- no meat, fish or animal byproducts, even gelatin. In England she could buy dried mixes that could be reconstituted by adding water and then used to make sausages (Sosmix) and burgers (Veggie Burger Mix). She wonders if there are any similar products...
LIFE / Travel
Jul 14, 1999

Getting into hot water in Fukushima

The sleepy town of Kitakata in northwest Fukushima hasn't much to interest tourists. The ramen is famous, but once you've seen the lacquer museum and some of the old storehouses, you may be stuck for ideas. The locals are rather proud of their Daibutsu, an 11th-century golden Buddha, but it is hardly...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 10, 1999

India's window of opportunity in Kashmir

As the war drags on to a slow and gory conclusion on the Himalayan heights, India has an unprecedented opportunity to seize the moral high ground and take the Kashmir problem right off the international agenda.
EDITORIALS
Jul 9, 1999

New Komeito's role

New Komeito will be holding a party convention July 24 that will surely be closely watched by politicians of all stripes, as well as by the public. If the party decides to join the LDP-LP coalition, it will give a major fillip to the government's legislative capacity. Together, the three parties control...
EDITORIALS
Jul 8, 1999

Living without fear

The toll from natural disasters is increasing. Since the 1960s, the economic cost of catastrophes has increased nine times. Last year, over 700 "large loss" disasters caused nearly $100 billion in economic losses. Were that the only price to be paid. According to the International Federation of Red Cross...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’