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COMMUNITY / BODY AND SOUL
Aug 21, 2000

Homocysteine a new heart attack threat

Even if your regular medical checkup shows a low cholesterol level, don't celebrate too soon: Recent medical research has revealed another bad guy in the blood.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 21, 2000

Yokohama student to champion environmental concerns of youth

Rieko Kubota, who is 20 years old and a second-year student majoring in economics at Yokohama City University, is not your average Japanese university student.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2000

Japan's missing management

The failure of the department store operator Sogo Co. is a typical case of corporate governance gone awry. It has exposed some of the old problems in Japanese-style management, relations between main creditor banks and corporate clients, and bank regulation by the Finance Ministry. The incident offers...
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2000

Bargain-hunters swamp Sogo store

More than 6,000 people lined up Saturday morning in front of Sogo's Tama store in Western Tokyo, one of the branches that ailing department store operator Sogo Co. is shutting down, to snap up bargains in its final sale.
COMMUNITY
Aug 20, 2000

You only live once

LONDON -- Virgin Group boss Sir Richard Branson is one of the world's most well-known and visible entrepreneurs. Recently knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, the word "tycoon" would normally apply to a businessman with his financial and political clout.
COMMUNITY
Aug 20, 2000

Words to remember

"I once did an IQ test in which the questions just seemed absurd. I couldn't focus on any of the, mathematical problems, and I think that I scored about zero. I worry about all the people who have been classified as stupid by these kinds of tests. Little do they know that often these IQ tests have been...
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2000

Police to probe Snow plant toxin

SAPPORO -- Hokkaido Prefectural Police have decided to launch an investigation into the discovery of toxin that can cause food poisoning in powdered skim milk produced at a Snow Brand Milk Products Co. factory in southern Hokkaido, police sources said Saturday.
COMMUNITY
Aug 20, 2000

Contestants jump at chance to net annual award for catching goldfish

YAMATO KORIYAMA, Nara Pref. -- Similar to the high school baseball championships at Koshien, it is a national championship with 2,000 participants striving to be Japan's No. 1. It could even be compared to the Olympic Games, where contestants have to go through a qualifying round before they reach the...
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2000

Appliances on 'standby' use 9% of homes' power

The amount of power used by certain household appliances while they are in so-called standby mode -- switched off but still plugged into sockets -- accounts for 9.4 percent of total power consumption in an average Japanese home, a report released by a Ministry of International Trade and Industry affiliate...
COMMUNITY
Aug 20, 2000

A decade of anecdotes to order

There are books about spending time in Japan, written in the main by Alice-in-Wonderlands who believe a short stretch makes them authoritative on all things Japanese. And there are books about Japan. Bruce McCormack's "Tokyo Notes and Anecdotes: Natsukashi" falls into this second, far more recommendable,...
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2000

Volcanic ash blankets Miyake

A volcano expert said Saturday that Mount Oyama on Miyake Island spouted several million cubic meters of volcanic ash in an eruption the previous day.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2000

Suffer the stolen children

Mahatma Gandhi, asked what he thought of European civilization, replied, "I think it's a very good idea."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Aug 20, 2000

Keiko Itoh

LONDON -- From next May to early 2002 a series of cultural and educational events together known as Japan 2001 is scheduled to take place throughout Britain. As one of the official programs of Japan 2001, a photo exhibition is to be staged by the Japanese Residents' Association (U.K.).
COMMUNITY
Aug 20, 2000

Messages from Hanshin quake survivors move to the Internet

KOBE -- Masano Goto still exchanges letters with people from other prefectures who helped her overcome difficulties in the aftermath of the devastating Great Hanshin Earthquake in January 1995, which claimed more than 6,000 lives.
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Aug 20, 2000

A wealth of autumn events to delight all Tokyo wordsmiths

The upcoming "Ueno Poetrican Jam" is being touted as the biggest poetry-reading event ever to be held in Japan. About 60 poets have been selected from volunteers to participate, and recognized poets such as Sandaime Uotake, Shigeo Hamada and Ikuo Tani will also be on the bill.
EDITORIALS
Aug 19, 2000

Who is Al Gore?

That is the single most important question that the Democratic Party candidate for the U.S. presidency must answer in the months ahead. What is most troubling for Mr. Gore and his party is that, despite his 24 years of public service as a congressman, senator, vice president and two-time presidential...
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2000

Two strong quakes hit Izu chain

Two strong earthquakes measuring lower 6 on the Japanese intensity scale to 7 struck the Izu Islands south of Tokyo on Friday, the Meteorological Agency said.
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2000

Drills planned for major earthquake

Some 25,000 people will take part and about 100 helicopters will be mobilized in an annual large-scale earthquake drill in Tokyo on Sept. 3, metropolitan government officials said Friday.
CULTURE / Art
Aug 19, 2000

Colors just the way she wants them

What we have here is a gallery whose walls are bare.
BUSINESS
Aug 19, 2000

McDonald's establishes discount trend that other shops are forced to follow

Pop into a McDonald's in Tokyo's business district on any weekday and you'll find a crowd of salaried workers.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2000

South Asia's place in Japan's agenda

DHAKA -- Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will undertake a visit to South Asia starting Sunday. His brief itinerary will take him to three capitals in the region -- Dhaka, New Delhi and Islamabad.
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2000

Life expectancy fell in 1999

The average life expectancy for Japanese fell slightly in 1999 as an outbreak of influenza in the winter boosted pneumonia-linked deaths, government statistics showed Friday.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Aug 19, 2000

Autumn wind from Tsugaru fans Tokyo's waning summer

The last weeks of summer offer many hogaku concerts, both in Tokyo and around Japan, including two spectacular outdoor events.
COMMENTARY
Aug 19, 2000

Labor challenges for Japan

Since the end of the Cold War -- symbolized by the collapse of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989 -- "globalization" has become the world's most controversial subject. But what does "globalization" mean?
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2000

Fears of deflationary pressure unfounded

The Bank of Japan's decision to abandon its "zero-interest-rate" policy has in effect marked a switch from its decade-old easy money policy.
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2000

Tanaka says no to factions, holds on to freedom

One of the questions surrounding a group of Liberal Democratic Party members trying to stand up to the old guard is who the group would support in the next LDP presidential race.
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2000

LDP reformists to take issues to voters outside Tokyo, Ishihara says

Since issuing the call for reform of the Liberal Democratic Party more than a month ago, Nobuteru Ishihara has been bombarded with questions from reporters and political observers:
EDITORIALS
Aug 18, 2000

When technology fails

Two accidents have claimed international attention this summer. A Concorde supersonic airliner crashed after takeoff in Paris last month, killing 114 people. Today, the world is riveted by the unfolding disaster involving the Russian submarine Kursk, trapped on the floor of the Barents Sea with 118 sailors...

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.