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EDITORIALS
Nov 9, 2000

Death from overwork still threatens

If employers in the private and public sectors are not prepared to take adequate steps to reduce the threat to life from excessive workloads, Japanese judges seem increasingly ready to remind them of their responsibility. The nation's courts are ruling with greater frequency in favor of the families...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Nov 9, 2000

More the merrier at Shinjuku's Zonbun

Shinjuku can be daunting, to say the least. Especially when you are in a group, looking for a place to hang and eat and drink. Where to begin looking can be as problematic as finding a place the whole group can fit. Add the prospect of everyone enjoying good sake, and you might as well throw in the o-shibori....
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Nov 2, 2000

Red Sox interested in bringing Ichiro to Fenway

With seven straight Pacific League batting titles and a lifetime average of .353 topping his resume, Orix BlueWave superstar Ichiro Suzuki is now preparing for life in the major leagues.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Nov 2, 2000

The closest U.S. presidential election in 40 years

WASHINGTON --The latest polls show that the U.S. presidential candidates are very close, with a slight edge for Texas Gov. George W. Bush. The Electoral College is also evenly divided, although Vice President Al Gore had maintained a small advantage for weeks. Now it is also within the statistical margins...
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2000

The rising price of knowledge

BEIJING -- It should have been party time on the bright summer day 18-year-old Li Junliang was accepted by prestigious Beijing University. Fewer than one in 10 of China's students secure places at any of the country's crowded colleges and universities, let alone the Oxford University of China. But the...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 29, 2000

Sexism remains a rampant social disease

I am fortunate to be able to count among my relatives a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Felix Frankfurter. Felix, appointed to the court by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was a cousin on my mother's side of the family and, needless to say, far removed from me in age.
LIFE / Travel
Oct 25, 2000

Bubbling with energy

If you can accept its gimmickry and brazen commercialism, the glitzy, neon-lit hot spring resort of Beppu, a melange of pachinko parlors, love hotels, sleazy bars, night clubs and hot baths visited by over 12 million tourists a year, constitutes an amazing thermal and entertainment roller-coaster.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Oct 22, 2000

David Powell

He says that although he is not Welsh, he has always been pleased to have a Welsh name. Last year David Powell strengthened a Welsh sentiment when he became executive vice president, Japan, of the Welsh Development Agency. He has very special appreciation of Wales, a small country of "charm and delight."...
MORE SPORTS
Oct 20, 2000

World Sports Awards name 75 finalists for 2000

LONDON -- The year 2000 has been good to many of the world's top athletes. For a select few, it just got even better. The World Sports Awards 2000 announced the names of 75 finalists at a press conference in London on Wednesday. Athletes such as track star Marion Jones, golfing sensation Tiger Woods...
COMMUNITY
Oct 15, 2000

Honesty is JAL president's policy

Entranced by the view from the windows of an executive meeting room on the 24th floor of the headquarters of Japan Airlines in Tokyo's Tennozu Isle, I almost missed the entrance of JAL's president, Isao Kaneko. Luckily he is not the kind of man to take offense. Slightly built, in a pale gray suit, he...
COMMUNITY
Oct 15, 2000

Here she is . . . Miss Stereotype

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Miss America Pageant may aim to represent the ideal of U.S. womanhood, but it's got its problems; it's about as internally conflicted as Al Gore trying to act like respects George W. Bush's intelligence.
JAPAN
Oct 8, 2000

Metro government targets 'illegal light oil' mix

The chances of drivers being pulled over on Tokyo's main arteries will increase in upcoming months, but drunk drivers and speed demons will not be roadside enforcers' main targets.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Oct 7, 2000

Tales of romance and bloodshed come alive in Shinnai song

Some of the performing arts of Japan are so spectacular that they grab your attention and immediately make you feel a part of the music. Taiko drumming is one; rhythm speaks directly to our bodies, and the beating of a stick on a drum has a physical appeal to all, regardless of language or culture.
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2000

Sansei make busy visit for the sake of relations

Most of them can't speak Japanese, or can't speak it very well. Some have only been to Japan a few times.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2000

Singapore media monopolies break into rival's turf

SINGAPORE -- Competition in Singapore's expanding media industry is growing more intense as the two rival main players prepare to slug it out, having pumped in millions of dollars to upgrade existing projects and invest in new ones.
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2000

Mobster's 'suicide' raises questions

The official account of how a gangster died during questioning at a Yokohama police station in 1997 is being challenged in court by the victim's daughter, who says Kanagawa Prefectural Police are hiding crucial evidence that could disprove the alleged suicide.
COMMENTARY
Oct 2, 2000

Japan's ills threaten the world

Japan's Naoko Takahashi won the gold medal in the women's marathon in the Sydney Olympics Sept. 24. In winning the tough race on a difficult, up-and-down course, she established an Olympic record and became the first Japanese woman to win an Olympic marathon gold medal. She also gave Japan its first...
EDITORIALS
Sep 27, 2000

Solving problems in Prague

Economic policymakers are gathered in Prague this week to make sense of the international economy. The mood is mixed, and rightly so. While the global economy has recovered from the scare of 1998 and has registered strong growth ever since, the recovery is fragile. It could be derailed by, say, high...
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 25, 2000

Giants claim 29th Central League pennant

Yomiuri shortstop Tomohiro Nioka smashed a game-winning solo homer in the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday as the Giants came from behind to beat the Chunichi Dragons 5-4 with a "sayonara" win at the Tokyo Dome to clinch their 29th Central League pennant.
OLYMPICS
Sep 25, 2000

Japan improves record in the pool

SYDNEY -- Japan's women's 400-meter medley relay team wrapped up the Olympic swimming competition Saturday with a bronze medal in a national record time as the U.S. team smashed the world record at the Sydney Olympics on Saturday.
COMMENTARY
Sep 25, 2000

Weak unions, weak economy

The collapse of the department store operator Sogo Co. came as a shock to Japan's recovering economy. Even more shocking are reports that the company's union leader has been fired for disrupting "order" in the organization.
OLYMPICS
Sep 24, 2000

Japanese swimmers claim bronze in 400m medley

SYDNEY -- Japan's women's 400-meter medley relay team won bronze in a new national record time as the U.S. team smashed the world record in the event on the last day of the swimming competition at the Sydney Olympics on Saturday.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2000

Mystery benefactor increases Briton's reward to 77 million yen

The mystery businessman who put up a reward for information about missing British hostess Lucie Blackman has upped the ante -- increasing the reward to a cool half a million pounds, more than 77 million yen.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Sep 19, 2000

Rockin' without fear or favor

I'm often asked what kind of misfits bother writing to Fuzzy Logic and what they say and as I'm busy lying on a beach in Thailand -- having my toes sucked by a bunch of cherry-lipped ladyboys while sipping a sexy cocktail and sucking on a big fat exotic stoogie -- I've decided to give you a few examples...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 19, 2000

A fascinating figure of 13th-century Japan

CHARISMA AND COMMUNITY FORMATION IN MEDIEVAL JAPAN, by S.A. Thornton. Ithaca: Cornell University East Asia Series, 1999, 290 pp., unpriced. The "charisma" of the title of this carefully researched and impressively thorough work of scholarship refers, in the first instance, to the medieval Buddhist...
EDITORIALS
Sep 16, 2000

An equal value for every vote

In every democratic state, equality of voting rights is taken for granted, in principle, if not always in practice. There is no question that every vote should have the same value, or at least a nearly equal value, regardless of who casts it or where it is cast. In Japan's case, however, there are wide...
COMMENTARY
Sep 16, 2000

Public TV in the digital era

LONDON -- The British Broadcasting Corporation was a pioneer of public-service broadcasting when it was established in the 1920s. It built up a strong reputation in its early years under its first director, General Lord Reith, although it also earned the nick-name of "Auntie" because it was regarded...
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2000

Elderly population reaches record high of 21.9 million

The number of Japanese 65 or older stands at 21.9 million, accounting for 17.3 percent of the population, or one in 5.8 people, the Management and Coordination Agency said in a report Thursday.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear