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JAPAN
Jan 11, 2001

Adults, kids split on merits of baseball

Shunzo Nagashima recalls his wonder at seeing the New York Yankees in newsreels at a Tokyo cinema soon after World War II.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 11, 2001

Ichiro already a hit with fans in Seattle

It's great to see Major League Baseball teams and fans embrace their new Japanese signings. When I was in Seattle last summer, reliever Kazuhiro Sasaki's mug seemed to be everywhere, from the cover of the club's fan magazine to T-shirts being hawked on the streets to huge banners adorning the outside...
BUSINESS
Jan 11, 2001

Fed rate cut optimism replaced by gloom

Initial optimism regarding the effects of interest rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve has turned sour.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Jan 11, 2001

Warmth of Tsukushinoko hits close to home

Slipping under the green noren and entering Tsukushinoko is a trip. "How'd they fit this joint in here," you think. Incongruous with its surroundings, Tsukushinoko is a very small sake pub that sits in a large, very new building. But you'd never know it from the inside. Warm and cozy, it feels more akin...
BUSINESS
Jan 11, 2001

Yamaha, Ford discuss U.S. boat engine joint venture

Yamaha Motor Co. said Wednesday that it is in the final stages of discussions with Ford Motor Corp. on jointly setting up a company in the Unites States to manufacture and market stern-drive engines for large and midsize pleasure boats.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 11, 2001

China's 'democratic' option

LONDON -- The recently released details of the secret debate among China's leaders before they crushed the prodemocracy protests on Tiananmen Square in 1989 don't just tell us about China's past. They also tell us a lot about its present, and even about its likely future.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2001

Godzilla working the crowds on promotional campaign tour

Japan's long-beloved sci-fi creature, Godzilla, is currently advancing across the country in the form of various mascots making rounds to promote the giant reptile's latest movie.
EDITORIALS
Jan 10, 2001

Behind the quest for more babies

The continuing precipitous decline in Japan's birthrate -- in 1999 it was at the all-time low of 1.34 births per woman during her lifetime -- has long troubled planners in both the government and the private sector. Now Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has put himself at the center of the issue by calling...
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2001

Huge windfall seen if Japan builds its own new SDF planes

The defense industry expects the government's project to domestically develop a new generation of antisubmarine patrol and transport aircraft would generate more than 1 trillion yen in demand.
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2001

Farm minister to discuss rice with WTO chief

Yoshio Yatsu, head of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, will go to Europe next week to discuss a plan to slow growth in mandated rice imports into Japan with the World Trade Organization chief, ministry officials said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2001

Women tackle stalking menace head-on

Exercise combining aerobics and self-defense skills is the latest craze among young women in Tokyo, where the number of reported stalking cases is also on the rise.
LIFE / Digital
Jan 10, 2001

Three decades of Mario and friends

In the beginning (about 30 years ago), geeky college students in the United States stole into engineering buildings at night and turned huge and expensive mainframes into playgrounds.
COMMENTARY
Jan 10, 2001

Tests loom for U.S.-China ties

How will the election of George W. Bush affect U.S.-China relations? The conventional wisdom was that a Gore administration would have been more favorable to China -- a questionable assumption based in part on the belief that Al Gore would be more inclined to continue President Bill Clinton's policies...
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2001

Evidence of exam leak destroyed

Investigators suspect an executive of Ohu University in Fukushima Prefecture instructed school officials to destroy papers related to a leaked exam immediately after the incident came to light, police sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 9, 2001

Man stabs vendor at Tokyo station

Police arrested a 63-year-old man Monday for robbery and assault after he stabbed a male shop clerk near the Yaesu central exit of JR Tokyo Station.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 9, 2001

A peep inside the otaku cocoon

Writing about Japanese films in English, I am usually flying below the radar of the local industry -- I can skewer a director's latest triumph on this page and meet him laterat a party secure in the knowledge that he has not the foggiest idea of what I've said about his movie. Once in a while, though,...
BUSINESS
Jan 9, 2001

Hitachi, GE, Toshiba to team up on low-cost nuclear reactor

Toshiba Corp., Hitachi Ltd. and General Electric Co. of the United States have agreed to jointly develop a high-powered nuclear reactor that would require only half the development costs needed for conventional reactors, company sources said.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2001

Caution and patience are key to Japan-North Korea relations

There have been earthshaking developments on the Korean Peninsula in the past six months. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il began to play a central role in Pyongyang's international relations, a year after the country started making diplomatic overtures worldwide. North Korea relaxed tense relations with...
JAPAN
Jan 9, 2001

Kono departs for Middle East to discuss security

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono left Tokyo on Monday on a tour that will see him visit four nations in the Middle East, Sweden and Russia.

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