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BUSINESS
Apr 11, 2001

Nippon Life, Dai-ichi tie up to administer corporate pensions

Nippon Life Insurance Co. and Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co. said Tuesday they will jointly establish a company in October specializing in administering corporate pension fund assets.
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2001

Net-based labor union resolves disputes online

A cyberspace labor union set up two years ago to settle disputes via the Internet is expected to play a major role in the future as working conditions continue to diversify.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 11, 2001

Heartbreak at its finest moment

In the Mood for Love Rating: * * * * 1/2 Director: Wang Kar-wai Running time: 98 minutes Language: CantoneseNow playing A man and a woman sit in a coffee shop, the table between them maintaining the proper distance. Neighbors in the same cramped apartment building, they have agreed to meet away...
CULTURE / Film
Apr 11, 2001

Wong for mature audiences

It's quite a feat when an art-house director like Wong Kar-wai can fill a room at the Park Hyatt with more media than, say, Anthony Hopkins for "Hannibal." But that's exactly what he did, accompanied by his two stars, Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, and it's testament to the director's successful mix of...
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2001

Ex-Sogo chairman faces charges of hiding assets

Hiroo Mizushima, former chairman of the failed Sogo Co. department store chain, is suspected of concealing assets by illegally withdrawing some 155 million yen, investigative sources said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Apr 11, 2001

A turning point for the LDP

The result of the election to choose a new president of the Liberal Democratic Party will be announced today. This will end a domestic political vacuum that has persisted since Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori revealed his intention of stepping down, over a month ago.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 11, 2001

Comical Sturm und Drang , all in the family

Rendan Rating: * * * * Director: Naoto Takenaka Running time: 104 minutes Language: JapaneseNow playing "What does woman want?" Freud famously asked -- a question that is just as famously unanswerable. At the dawn of the modern feminist era, however, many women seemed to want what Anais Nin, in a 1974...
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2001

EU envoys urge climate teamwork

Intensified contact between countries in the runup to international climate change talks in July is needed to save the Kyoto Protocol, said a European delegation in Tokyo on Tuesday.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 11, 2001

Hara's crackling horn

Jazz has always been "retro." Outstanding jazz players develop their sound through an immersion in past innovations. The important thing, of course, is not to get stuck in them. All too many players end up as archivists, or technicians. Not trumpeter Tomonao Hara.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Apr 11, 2001

Abe's enchanted villa inspires sublime pottery

In peaceful hamlets throughout Japan, local potters work at their own pace while garnering a loyal local following. There are literally thousands of such ceramists, and the serene environment in which they work nurtures and supports their artistic endeavors in subtle ways.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 11, 2001

Hang on the Box's 'Yellow Banana'

All-girl Beijing band Hang on the Box is one of the few punk rock bands right now who literally wear their credentials on their sleeves, dressing the part as well as playing the music. They wouldn't look out of place in 1976 London. It's all a bit naff, you might think. But remarkably, Hang on the Box's...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 11, 2001

Buddhist treasures undimmed by time

Daigoji Temple has maintained its status as one of Japan's leading Buddhist temples upholding the Shingon sect since its foundation in Kyoto over 1,100 years ago. Named a World Cultural Heritage Site in 1994, the temple is a veritable treasury of Japanese Buddhist sculpture, scripture, esoteric paintings...
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2001

Miura plans to scale Everest in '03 at 70

Kyodo News Refusing to rest on his laurels, professional skier and adventurer Yuichiro Miura plans to scale the world's highest mountain in 2003 after turning 70.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 11, 2001

Signs of an artistically lived life

Living in a country where reading involves interpreting thousands of characters from four different writing systems, it is interesting to reflect on the economy of the English-language alphabet. Isn't it just a little amazing that everything from Shakespeare to the newspaper you are holding in your hands...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 11, 2001

Emmylou Harris' 'Spyboy'

Emmylou Harris left one subsidiary of Warner Bros. (Asylum) in the mid-'90s before being picked up by another (Nonesuch) last year. During those five years she released an excellent but overlooked album with Linda Ronstadt and toured the world with a three-piece band called Spyboy (named after the jester...
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Apr 11, 2001

Trans-Pacific partnership serves up universal sound

A few years back, the big news on the J-pop scene was the "independent producers boom." Following the lead of the then-ubiquitous Tetsuya Komuro, freelance producers such as Takeshi Kobayashi (Mr. Children, My Little Lover), and Hiromasa Ijichi (Speed) were supposed to usher in an era in which a new...
BUSINESS
Apr 11, 2001

Downtrend now may be in cards for dollar

The dollar has taken a breather, giving up much of its recent gains against the yen and euro.
EDITORIALS
Apr 10, 2001

Troubling times in Vietnam

Vietnam is gearing up for its next party congress, which begins April 19. The timing could not be worse for the conclave, which occurs every five years. There is unrest in the central highlands and growing discontent with the party leadership, and the economy, which is ticking along quite nicely, will...
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2001

Upgraded PlayStation2 on the way

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. on April 18 will launch an upgraded version of its PlayStation2 video game console in which a hard disk drive can be installed.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2001

Public concern rising over pollution, poll shows

An overwhelming majority of Japanese are uneasy about chemical pollution of the environment from factories, automobile exhaust and pesticides, according to a recent Environment Ministry survey released Monday.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2001

ID system keeps alcohol vending machines handy

It means an additional search through your wallet before cracking open a cold beer from the liquor vending machines most of us take for granted. But rest assured, it's for a good cause.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2001

Spy-plane incident bolsters PLA position

BEIJING -- America may translate as the "beautiful country" in Chinese, but it is also known as the arrogant superpower heir to the European invaders who carved up parts of China in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The spy-plane incident is rapidly inflating the hate element of China's love-hate relationship...
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Apr 10, 2001

Two-headed monster haunts Kawasaki

Are two heads better than one? Not, apparently, in Kawasaki.
COMMENTARY
Apr 10, 2001

Reasons to thank Mr. Mori

Since he took office a year ago, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has seen his popularity nosedive as a result of a series of gaffes he committed. Now that he is set to resign in late April, let me review the role the Mori administration has played.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2001

Bat-wielding bikers injure, rob three men

OSAKA -- Three men were injured, one seriously, by a group of about 15 young males riding scooters and wielding metal baseball bats in the city of Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture, police said.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan