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COMMUNITY
Mar 15, 2001

Queuing for the exclusive

Harajuku, on any given Saturday, is filled with shoppers. On the main streets, the shops see a steady stream of customers move freely through their doors. In the back streets, however, the clientele is made to wait. The young people queue up -- for the privilege of buying basic street clothing off near-empty...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Mar 15, 2001

Time for NHL to quit whining and get the red out!

The National Hockey League general managers wrapped up their annual meetings in the California desert last week. As usual, one major topic of conversation was how to speed up the game and increase the flow of play.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2001

Officials reprimanded for accepting KSD treats

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry on Wednesday reprimanded eight senior officials who were treated by scandal-tainted mutual aid organization KSD to meals and games of golf.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2001

Grad jobs set to rise again in '02

About half of 40 major Japanese companies polled by Kyodo News plan to hire more new university graduates next spring than this year, making it certain overall job offers will increase for the second year in a row.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2001

Honma chief to quit in golf club scandal

The president of Honma Golf Co. is expected to step down by the end of this month over a series of scandals involving his company, police sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 15, 2001

Soccer lottery: A tax to fund bureaucrats' whims

The worst thing about the new soccer lottery system may be its name. "Toto" is taken from the Italian word totocalcio, which is the name of a similar lottery that has been in place in Italy for more than 50 years.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 15, 2001

Let Tokyo Q be your guide

TOKYO 2001-2002: Annual Guide to the City, by the staff of Tokyo Q with Rick Kennedy. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2001, 160 pp., 130 b/w images, $9.95. Tokyo, the largest city in the world, cornucopia turned upside-down, has always required a guide book. Not only are there competing attractions,...
LIFE / Style & Design / BEAUTY EAST AND WEST
Mar 15, 2001

An audacious urge for color

Shimmer and glimmer have been around long enough for their glint and sparkle to start to seem a bit boring, don't you think?
CULTURE / Books
Mar 15, 2001

Taking the long view on history

EAST ASIA AT THE CENTER: Four Thousand Years of Engagement with the World, by Warren I. Cohen. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000, 516 pp. You don't have to believe in the Asian Century or any other form of that nonsense to admit that Western understanding of Asia is woefully inadequate. The intellectual...
EDITORIALS
Mar 14, 2001

No more secret funds

The criminal complaint filed in January by the Foreign Ministry against the former official in charge of logistics for VIP trips overseas has led to his arrest on a charge of fraud. An internal investigation has revealed that Mr. Katsutoshi Matsuo, who was fired in January for embezzlement, had swindled...
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2001

LDP policy chief calls for extra budget

Shizuka Kamei, policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Tuesday that a supplementary budget should be compiled to boost the economy.
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2001

Bank chief frets Nikkei's dive but sees no crisis

The chief of the Japanese Bankers Association on Tuesday voiced strong concern over the plunge of the key 225-issue Nikkei stock index below the 12,000 level, but dismissed fears of a potential banking crisis at the March 31 end of fiscal 2000.
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2001

Mori advances date of LDP presidential election

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori officially announced Tuesday at the Liberal Democratic Party convention that he plans to move up the date of the LDP's presidential election -- a move widely taken to mean he is ready to step down soon.
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2001

Driver let shinkansen drive itself

While shinkansen are renowned for their advanced automatic control systems, confidence in the trains may have gone too far Saturday as a driver left his cab for five minutes, Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) revealed Tuesday.
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2001

Mori sets up panel to boost TSE

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Tuesday instructed Cabinet members in charge of the economy to quickly come up with ways to rescue the free-falling stock market, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said.
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2001

Five-month Canada festival begins

The Canadian Embassy kicked off Canada's largest festival in Japan on Tuesday, aiming to increase Japanese awareness of the country.
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2001

Mitsui Construction plans 20 billion yen share issue

Financially troubled Mitsui Construction Co. decided at an extraordinary board meeting Tuesday to issue 20.4 billion yen worth of new shares late this month to 11 creditor financial institutions and its mercantile arm, Sanken Corp., the company announced.
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2001

Net-based trading threatens major brokers

With stock trading over the Internet picking up strongly, online brokerages have played an increasingly key role over the past year in determining daily stock prices.
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2001

Matsuo withdrew 10 million yen

A former Foreign Ministry official arrested Saturday for alleged embezzlement withdrew a total of 10 million yen in January from a personal bank account in which he had deposited money he pilfered from secret government funds, police sources said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2001

EC chief urges greater telecom competitiveness

The visiting head of a European Commission delegation on telecommunications issues expressed dissatisfaction Tuesday over the results of a two-day meeting with the government in Tokyo and called on Japan to establish an independent regulator to oversee the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone group.
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2001

Troubled, short-lived leaders now the norm

Japan has had nine short-lived prime ministers over the past 12 years since the late Noboru Takeshita was forced to resign in 1989, having only two serve for two years or longer.
COMMENTARY
Mar 13, 2001

Postindustrial economy calls

In the 1980s, most Japanese economists were under the illusion that the American economy would continue to decline and that Japan would surpass America as the world's largest economy. In fact, the Japanese economy was reaching the apex of its prosperity while the U.S. economy, with its different systems...
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2001

Ex-actress wins translation award

"The last profession I would recommend to anybody is translating contemporary Western plays," said actress-turned-translator Mayuko Tokizawa. The otherwise dissuasive comment is an encouragement coming from Tokizawa, cowinner of the eighth annual Yuasa Yoshiko Award, Japan's accolade for translators...
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2001

Matsuo denies charges of fraud

A former Foreign Ministry logistics chief arrested on suspicion of swindling the government out of 42 million yen in discretionary state funds has denied the fraud charge, saying officials at the Prime Minister's Official Residence tacitly approved of his conduct, police sources said Monday.

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