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CULTURE / Books
May 20, 2001

Fortress Japan? Blame MacArthur and his team

THE GENESIS OF THE JAPANESE FOREIGN INVESTMENT LAW OF 1950, by Richard Rabinowitz. German-Japanese Lawyers' Association Vol. 10, 1999, 11,000 yen, $ 84.50. In 1853, Commodore Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay and demanded that Japan's quasi-military government allow foreign trade. The resulting interactions...
CULTURE / Music
May 20, 2001

Is you is or is you ain't . . . ?

Stephen Malkmus, formally known as SM, formally known as that tall, skinny guy who knows more neat metal guitar riffs than anyone in Stockton, Calif., was the leader by default of Amerindie's greatest band, Pavement, which called it quits last fall after a year of waffling.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 20, 2001

Ten weddings and a quiz show

'Timeshock" was one of the original Japanese quiz shows, an uncomplicated but tense trivia contest that kept viewers glued to their screens in the '60s and made its voluble host, the late Jiro Tamiya, a superstar. The heart of the show was the intense one-minute barrage of questions that the contestants...
CULTURE / Music
May 20, 2001

You gotta fight for your right to freedom

Adam Yauch, MCA of the Beastie Boys, has come a long way since 1986's "License to Ill," the obnoxious, wildly juvenile album that launched the careers of the punk-turned-hip-hop trio from New York. And not just musically. He's become one of the voices of a worldwide political movement, one heard in Tokyo...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
May 20, 2001

A good reason to hit the sauce

When a friend of mine dragged two other friends from the States to Osaka to eat at the first restaurant I apprenticed at in Japan, they were prepared to pay 10,000 yen for the pleasure of eating the omakase, a several-course menu selected by the chef. What they were not ready for was the main dish: a...
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
May 20, 2001

Taking Tokyo by the horn

When Luis Valle first came to Tokyo four years ago, he had a hard time. At his first trumpet sessions, he was hitting those way-high notes and his solos were hard and fast, but reading the jazz charts was something else.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 20, 2001

Audrey Hepburn's neck

"I don't understand cats and I don't understand women," confessed a foreign friend, half to me and half to his mug of beer. I leaned in closer to listen.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2001

Changing Australia celebrates its centennial

SYDNEY -- A smiling, articulate Australian schoolgirl standing before an audience of 7,000 of Australia's top dignitaries . . . it was a grand sight, worthy of this young nation's first 100 years of democratic government.
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 20, 2001

Big taste treats await in Osaka's Little Korea

OSAKA -- As soon as you exit the station wickets, sometimes even before that, the aroma hits you.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
May 20, 2001

Now that's what I call internationalism

Beginning in the 1970s and continuing into the "bubble" years of the 1980s, one of the buzzwords heard often in the media and from the mouths of politicians was "internationalization." Internationalization supposedly meant that the Japanese would become confident world citizens, fluent in English and...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 20, 2001

Amid a whirlwind of change, an elegant history of Japan

JAPAN IN TRANSFORMATION: 1952-2000, by Jeffrey Kingston. Harlow, Essex, U.K.: Pearson Education/Longman, 2001; 230 pp., b/w plates XII, $12. As the British historian, the late A.J.P. Taylor, remarked: "History gets thicker as it approaches recent times." The broad outlines, the major themes, have...
COMMUNITY
May 20, 2001

Kansai dialect survives on CD

OSAKA -- The distinctions are clear, a Kansai native might tell you. To express, for example, "she's not coming" ("kanojo konai" in standard Japanese), Osaka people would say "kanojo kehen," Kyoto people "kanojo kihen" and Kobe people "kanojo kohen."
BUSINESS
May 19, 2001

MHI posts group net loss for second year in a row

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. reported Friday a consolidated net loss of 20.35 billion yen for the 2000 business year, falling into the red for the second consecutive year.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2001

Snow Brand to abolish 1,000 jobs

Due to a sharp decline in sales after a massive outbreak of food-poisoning last summer, Snow Brand Milk Products Co. said Friday that it will cut 1,000 jobs by the end of September and close an additional three factories by the end of March.
JAPAN
May 19, 2001

Trio dies after car plunges into bay

Two women and a man were killed when their car plunged into water from Shibaura Wharf in Tokyo's Minato Ward on Thursday night in what is believed to be a multiple suicide, police said Friday.
JAPAN
May 19, 2001

Hansen's ruling appeal, deal eyed

The government is considering starting negotiations with former Hansen's disease patients for an out-of-court settlement after filing an appeal against a court ruling last week ordering the state to pay them compensation, government sources said Friday.
JAPAN
May 19, 2001

16% of workers pirate their software: poll

Sixteen percent of people in Japan have copied computer software illegally while at work, according to a survey by industry groups, including the Association of Copyright for Computer Software.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2001

Urban renewal key to revival: Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Friday urban renewal is key to economic structural reform and reviving Japan.
JAPAN
May 19, 2001

MSDF base allegedly in on coverup

Toru Ishikawa, chief of staff of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, said Friday that everyone at Yokosuka Communication Station, including its commander, was involved in a drugs coverup related to a petty officer third class who was arrested last month.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2001

BOJ increases its efforts to give money to banks

The Bank of Japan said Friday that it will make two-, four-, five- and six-year government notes subject to its regular market operations staring next month.
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2001

Holes in the plan for NMD

The Bush administration is right: The existing architecture of nuclear-arms control reflects a Cold War-centered world that is gone forever. Much of the negative response to the Bush plan for a missile-defense shield is knee-jerk reaction to the fact that yesterday's strategic certainties are having...
BUSINESS
May 19, 2001

Mitsubishi Motors posted record loss of 278 billion yen during fiscal 2000

Mitsubishi Motors Corp., hit hard by the repercussions of a recall coverup scandal, suffered consolidated net losses of 278.14 billion yen for fiscal 2000 -- the biggest in the firm's history -- due to smaller sales and extraordinary losses.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2001

Internet securities accounts increase to 1.93 million

The number of securities accounts for Internet trading came to about 1.93 million at the end of March, up 610,000 from half a year earlier, according to the Japan Securities Dealers Association.
COMMENTARY
May 19, 2001

Diplomacy fails to measure up

The administration of President George W. Bush has disclosed major changes in U.S. military and diplomatic strategies. These include the stepped-up deployment of U.S. missile defense systems, the discontinuation of the "two major war" approach and the overhaul of policies toward North Korea.
JAPAN
May 19, 2001

White paper calls for foreign investment

To cope with intensifying competition with China amid a prolonged economic slump at home, Japan should actively woo foreign direct investment and become more efficient, according to the White Paper on International Trade 2001 released Friday.
JAPAN
May 19, 2001

Tokyo Metro government now testing a 'pollen-icide'

A Tokyo Metropolitan Government-affiliated institution says it may have a solution to the nation's pollen problem.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 19, 2001

Dancing with rubbish leads to dancing with rice

It is easy to pick out dancer Firak di Bello in a crowd. Slight of build and all skin and bone, his shaven head mirrors the sun. Equally distinctive are his eyes (as wary as they are warm and all-seeing), the hawklike nose (which leads the way) and a gait that bobs rather than glides.

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’