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COMMUNITY
Sep 19, 2000

Urban life's high cost in health

The bright lights of the city are drawing a record number of people in search of careers and excitement. But city life comes at a price. Recent studies have found that Japan's city dwellers are jeopardizing their lives and their offspring.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2000

Sky Perfect to issue 400,000 new shares

Sky Perfect Communications Inc., operator of communication satellite broadcaster Sky PerfecTV, said Monday it will issue 400,000 new shares by public offering in a bid to raise some 105.1 billion yen to boost its business.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 19, 2000

Poetry that brings countries together

THE WEATHER IN JAPAN, by Michael Longley. Jonathan Cape, 2000, 70 pp., 8 British pounds. HAY, by Paul MULDOON. Faber & Faber, 140 pp., 7.99 British pounds. A SMELL OF FISH, by Matthew Sweeney. Jonathan Cape, 2000, 64 pp., 8 British pounds. Irland and Japan: two countries at the far extremities of the...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 19, 2000

Program laying groundwork to conserve rivers and trails

John Monroe jokingly refers to himself as a "conservation venture capitalist." Unlike most investment bankers, however, Monroe is investing for the long term.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Sep 19, 2000

Rockin' without fear or favor

I'm often asked what kind of misfits bother writing to Fuzzy Logic and what they say and as I'm busy lying on a beach in Thailand -- having my toes sucked by a bunch of cherry-lipped ladyboys while sipping a sexy cocktail and sucking on a big fat exotic stoogie -- I've decided to give you a few examples...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 19, 2000

A fascinating figure of 13th-century Japan

CHARISMA AND COMMUNITY FORMATION IN MEDIEVAL JAPAN, by S.A. Thornton. Ithaca: Cornell University East Asia Series, 1999, 290 pp., unpriced. The "charisma" of the title of this carefully researched and impressively thorough work of scholarship refers, in the first instance, to the medieval Buddhist...
COMMENTARY
Sep 19, 2000

Dispute defies quick solution

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed in their recent Tokyo summit to resolve the bilateral territorial dispute over the Northern Territories, stirring mixed reactions in the two countries. Although they agreed to continue peace-treaty talks toward the yearend deadline,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 19, 2000

Laos' fractured human map

LAO HILL TRIBES: Traditions and Patterns of Existence, by Stephen Mansfield. Images of Asia: Oxford University Press, 2000. 120 pp., 21 color plates, 24 monochrome, unpriced. In a sense, Laos remains closer to a conglomeration of tribes than it does to a conventional state composed of a unified people....
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2000

Case of tanker truck blast to be handed to prosecutors

Police decided Monday to send papers to public prosecutors this week on three officials of a firm whose tanker truck exploded on a Tokyo expressway in October, injuring 25 people, investigative sources said.
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 19, 2000

Heirs toddle onstage to pass torch of Utaemon

During the month of September, the Kabukiza in Tokyo is presenting a special program comprising four well-known plays and two famous dance numbers in memory of Utaemon Nakamura V, the onnagata actor who died in 1940 at the age of 75.
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2000

Police to plant cameras at perilous intersections

Police plan to install video cameras at about 350 accident-prone intersections across Japan beginning in April to help police investigate collisions at the spots, the National Police Agency said.
EDITORIALS
Sep 18, 2000

Kinder, gentler animal farms

It's funny how McDonald's -- the much-reviled little hamburger stand that grew -- has become the world's handiest barometer of social change. It is the standard-bearer, or more often the whipping boy, for economic and cultural globalization, with progress or regress thereto measured in degrees of "McDonaldization."...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2000

North Korea drawing the right lessons

CAMBRIDGE, England -- We may never know if North Korea's Dear Leader Kim Jong Il went to Beijing in May, ahead of his historic meeting with South Korean President Kim Dae Jung in June, on his own initiative or at the insistence of Chinese President Jiang Zemin. What we do know is that, very unusually,...
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2000

Typhoon drenches east Japan again

A steadily approaching typhoon brought heavy rain and thunderstorms to the Kanto-Koshin region in eastern Japan and the Izu islands in the Pacific, the Meteorological Agency said Sunday.
OLYMPICS
Sep 18, 2000

Japan's Narazaki denied gold

SYDNEY -- Japan's dream start on the Olympic judo mat stumbled Sunday night when world champion Noriko Narazaki had to settle for the under-52 kg silver in a tightly fought rematch with the woman she defeated to become world champion last year.
COMMENTARY
Sep 18, 2000

Toward peace with Pyongyang

While North and South Korea are moving dramatically toward rapprochement as a result of the inter-Korean summit in June, Japanese and North Korean officials are set to meet again next month to discuss ways to normalize relations. Establishing diplomatic ties with Pyongyang, along with settling the territorial...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2000

Who wants an all-white world, anyway?

LONDON -- "Whites will be a minority in Britain by the end of the century. . . . It would be the first time in history that a major indigenous population has voluntarily become a minority, rather than through war, famine and disease. Whites will be a minority in London by 2010."
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2000

Ikuno pitches kimchi for World Cup

OSAKA -- While the nation is gripped by Olympic fever, Shigemitsu Nishihara in Ikuno Ward here is looking forward to the 2002 World Cup to be cohosted by Japan and South Korea as an event to boost bilateral relations and to promote his hometown.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2000

Prosecutors' involvement up as government targets youth

Prosecutor involvement in investigating serious youth crimes will increase from April in an effort to better serve victims and cope with tougher laws against offenders, government officials said Saturday.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2000

Photos present child's view of life after Turkey quake

KYOTO -- A black-and-white photograph shows a mother preparing breakfast in a tent. Another picture depicts two children playing outside a row of tents.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2000

Current 'soft' Myanmar policy was threatened by Suu Kyi's detention

Foreign-policy makers are relieved -- at least for now -- that their long-standing policy of "constructive engagement" toward Myanmar survived its biggest potential challenge with Thursday's release of prodemocracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from 12 days of effective house arrest.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2000

Drought leaves Lake Biwa low, dry

OSAKA -- A prolonged drought in western Japan that forced local authorities to order a reduction in water taken from Lake Biwa appears to have ended, but officials warn that water levels are still low.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2000

Tamura, Nomura capture gold

SYDNEY -- After eight long years, Ryoko Tamura finally has the gold medal that has always been just beyond her grasp, while Tadahiro Nomura completed a golden double for Japan on the opening day of the Sydney Olympics judo competition.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 17, 2000

Never enough thanks for living in Japan

Santi, a reader in the United States, will be moving to Japan soon. He wants to know how to prepare for living in Japan. Here are some of my suggestions for anyone who wants to acclimate quickly to life in Japan.
BUSINESS
Sep 17, 2000

Government lifts ban on hiring high school students

The government on Saturday lifted a moratorium on corporate recruiting of high school students amid a near-record low ratio of job offers to job seekers, opening the way for employers to start a series of job exams and interviews.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2000

Declassify CIA files on the 'disappeared'

NEW YORK -- U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright indicated recently in Buenos Aires, Argentina, that the United States would release files with information about the Chilean and Argentine military dictatorships as a contribution to the investigations on illegal repression in both countries. Despite...

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