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EDITORIALS
Nov 7, 2001

How to cope with 'classroom chaos'

The teacher-student relationship at elementary schools is breaking down. A nationwide survey by the National Institute for Educational Research, an affiliate of the Education Ministry, finds that 26 percent of principals and 32 percent of teachers faced "gakkyu hokai" (classroom chaos) in 2000. The figures...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2001

Former investment firm chief, 18 others arrested over fraud

OSAKA -- The former president of a failed firm here that sold mortgage-backed securities was arrested along with 18 others Tuesday on suspicion of defrauding clients of about 1.1 billion yen by misrepresenting the financial products of the firm's affiliates, police said.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 7, 2001

Just how low can they go?

Swordfish Rating: * Director: Dominic Sena Running time: 99 minutes Language: English Now showing
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2001

35.7 billion yen wasted trying to ease traffic

Metropolitan Express Public Corp. sank 35.7 billion yen into an assortment of projects to fix chronic congestion on Tokyo expressways, only to find that the money did little to remove the bottlenecks, according to a government audit report Monday.
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2001

Surname law now said out of sync

After years of debate and shifting social trends, legislation that would allow Japanese married couples to keep separate surnames may finally hit the Diet floor.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2001

Officials plead guilty in G8 limo scam

Two former Foreign Ministry officials and two former executives of a Tokyo-based limousine company pleaded guilty to fraud at the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday in the first hearing of a trial related to last year's Group of Eight summit in Okinawa.
BUSINESS
Nov 7, 2001

0.9% contraction is expected

The government looks set to revise downward its economic forecast for fiscal 2001 to negative growth of around minus 0.9 percent from its original projection of 1.7 percent growth, government sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2001

Tanaka pursues meetings as shenanigans continue

Embattled Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka said Tuesday that she has still not given up on attending U.N. General Assembly and Group of Eight foreign ministers' meetings in New York, despite her request again being turned down by the Diet.
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2001

Teenager held in fatal break-in

OSAKA -- A 17-year-old boy was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of killing a 16-year-old female, police said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2001

Imperial eyes shielded from reality of homelessness

The homeless at Ueno Park were up early Monday, with hundreds of the park dwellers quietly disassembling their tents and packing their belongings onto carts soon after dawn.
BUSINESS
Nov 7, 2001

Nagasakiya to close about 30 stores

Failed supermarket chain Nagasakiya Co. will close around 30 of its 84 outlets as part of a rehabilitation program, according to company sources.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 7, 2001

Hosoya serves up some excellent cheese

OK, let's play Guess The Filmmaker. Here's the flick: it's called "Home Sweet Hoboken," it's set in a New Jersey neighborhood, and it features two jobless young slackers who live with their grandmother while subsisting on pizza and beer. Their foul-mouthed dialogue is along the lines of "S***, I gotta...
BUSINESS
Nov 7, 2001

Bank bosses to testify about FSA lending pressure

The House of Representatives Committee on Financial Affairs will summon two bank presidents to give unsworn testimony on reports that a top Financial Services Agency official pressured the banks to favor specific borrowers, officials said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 7, 2001

Disturbing signals from distant Planet Y

All About Lily Chou ChouRating: * * * 1/2 Director: Shunji Iwai Running time: 146 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Nov 7, 2001

Between the real and the surreal

A whiff of the absurd was in the air at the closing ceremony of the 14th Tokyo International Film Festival, held Sunday at Orchard Hall in Shibuya. It wasn't necessarily the presenters' hairdos and breathless patter, nor the new formal dress code imposed on the attending filmmakers. It wasn't even the...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 7, 2001

MLB contraction: Say it ain't so, Bud

Just about the time you are reading this, officials of Major League Baseball should be discussing an issue that has never come up before in our lifetime: contraction. You know the story; MLB commissioner Bud Selig has said folding two franchises, rolling back the majors from 30 to 28 teams, may be a...
SOCCER / World cup
Nov 7, 2001

Chung wants Emperor at World Cup

South Korean World Cup Organizing Committee co-chairman Chung Mong Joon stressed the significance of a visit by Japan's Emperor to South Korea for the opening ceremony of next year's World Cup.
CULTURE / Art
Nov 7, 2001

Putting the regions back in the spotlight

There is cultural life thriving outside Kanto and Kansai. As proof of this, if proof were needed, the new Iwate Museum of Art in Morioka City opened to the public last month. Its core collection -- of 20th-century prints, paintings and sculptures by artists born, trained or resident in the region --...
CULTURE / Art
Nov 7, 2001

In search of simplicity

In turbulent times, we turn to the simple things of life with relief. But in fine art, simplicity is not easy, and it is a brave painter who spends his life depicting pots and pans, apples and pears.
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Nov 7, 2001

Here, there and everywhere

Even though you may not recognize the name Tamio Okuda, you've probably heard his music. Okuda is the Svengali behind the extraordinarily successful female duo Puffy, and his love for and deep knowledge of '60s and '70s rock comes through loud and clear with every Beatles riff and classic chord pattern...
BUSINESS
Nov 7, 2001

Lower House eases stock option law

The House of Representatives approved at a plenary session Tuesday an amendment to the Commercial Code aimed at easing regulations on granting and exercising stock options.
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2001

Nakatani instructs SDF chiefs to dispatch 700 to East Timor

Gen Nakatani, director general of the Defense Agency, told the heads of Ground, Maritime and Air Self-Defense Forces on Tuesday to send some 700 service members to East Timor in March to assist with United Nations peacekeeping operations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 7, 2001

Cato Salsa Experience: 'A Good Tip for a Good Time'

Don't be fooled by the name. The only thing Cato Salsa Experience has to do with Latin American big-band dance music is that it makes you want to throw your jacket in the corner, take your partner by the hand and cut the rug until it's a tattered and torn smoking ruin.
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2001

35.7 billion yen wasted trying to ease traffic

Metropolitan Express Public Corp. sank 35.7 billion yen into an assortment of projects to fix chronic congestion on Tokyo expressways, only to find that the money did little to remove the bottlenecks, according to a government audit report Monday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 7, 2001

Prints make an impression

"The International Print Triennial in Kanagawa 2001" is running till Nov. 25 at the Kanagawa Kenmin Hall Gallery in Yokohama's Kannai district.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 7, 2001

The boy is back in town

'Fantasma," released in 1997, was arguably the most internationally acclaimed Japanese pop record since Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Solid State Survivor." A sonic journey through musical history, from Bach to the Beach Boys, it became a fixture on critics' "best-of" lists that year its creator, Cornelius,...
EDITORIALS
Nov 6, 2001

Northern Ireland's sleight of hand

A bit of political legerdemain has pulled the Northern Ireland peace process back from the brink of collapse. The creative solution to divisions within the province's Protestant community is only a temporary response, however; all supporters of the peace process must redouble their efforts to overcome...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 6, 2001

Fighting for independence in the shadow of a Goliath

ALMATY, Kazakstan -- The phone calls started last May, after the body of an ethnic Uighur activist was found strangled and dumped in a water reservoir.
BUSINESS
Nov 6, 2001

Power utilities go overboard with water contract

Tokyo Electric Power Co. and another utility firm have signed a contract to buy industrial water from the Ibaraki Prefectural Government for use at two power plants they are building, but the actual amount supplied covers four power plants, company officials said Monday.

Longform

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