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JAPAN
Sep 10, 2000

Quake of '23 gave Ikebukuro its Bohemian roots

When Ikebukuro Station opened on the Yamanote Line in 1903, the area around it was little more than pasture and vegetable fields.
COMMUNITY
Sep 10, 2000

East-West cooking talent stirs with a clipping from Chives

My first day back in London, on the Food and Drink page of The Evening Standard, a headline caught my eye: Keep Jun and Beautiful. Below, a color photograph of -- it has to be said -- a truly dishy Japanese 29-year-old clad in whiter than whites with a long striped apron.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2000

Diplomat in spy scandal leaves Japan

A Russian military attache at the Russian Embassy in Tokyo left Japan on Saturday after a senior officer of Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force was arrested early Friday for allegedly passing defense secrets to him.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 10, 2000

Cambodian art regains its youth

"It's my everyday passion," says Phloeun Prim, the 24-year-old commercial manager of Les Artisans d'Angkor, a Siem Reap-based school which is training young people in skills such as silk weaving and stone carving.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 10, 2000

Chris McDonald

To commemorate his having lived for 50 years in Japan, Chris McDonald produced an engaging book of memories. In it he wrote: "If I were asked to single out one aspect of Japan that I have found more rewarding and enjoyable than any other, I would not hesitate to answer quite simply: 'Its people.' From...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 10, 2000

High costs a barrier for foreign students

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- An editorial in The Japan Times a few weeks ago focused on the Japanese government's efforts to increase the number of foreign students in Japan. No one would disagree with the government's dual aims of assisting in the development of human resources of poorer Asian countries...
CULTURE / Art
Sep 10, 2000

A philosopher behind the video camera

Hitherto, people confronted by "video art" would mentally steel themselves to be bored by an alienating experience that excluded rather than included. This is the reason why an artist such as Pipilotta Rist, originally a rock-video director, has gained such enormous popularity for being the easy and...
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2000

Unemployment adds to Miyake Island evacuees' woes

With an end to the volcanic activity on Mount Oyama nowhere in sight, evacuees from Miyake Island are facing an uphill battle in trying to secure sources of income upon settling into temporary housing in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2000

Shibuya residents furious with graffiti seen as art

Some call it the latest art trend, but others lambaste it as an ugly symbol of present-day Japanese society.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2000

Criminal accusation filed against Mitsubishi Motors

The Transport Ministry lodged a criminal accusation Friday with police against Mitsubishi Motors Corp. for allegedly concealing approximately 1,700 user complaints last year -- a scandal that prompted MMC President Katsuhiko Kawasoe the same day to announce his intention to step down.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2000

Police inspect Snow Brand factory

OSAKA -- Osaka police on Friday inspected Snow Brand Milk Products Co.'s Taiki factory in Hokkaido that is suspected of being the source of a widespread outbreak of food poisoning in June and July in the Osaka area.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2000

NPA orders streamlining of forces, operations

The National Police Agency ordered prefectural police forces throughout the country Friday to drastically streamline operations by cutting management personnel and outsourcing work, NPA officials said.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2000

MSDF officer arrested, admits spying for Russia

The Metropolitan Police Department and Kanagawa Prefectural Police arrested Lt. Cmdr. Shigehiro Hagisaki, a researcher at the Defense Agency's National Institute for Defense Studies, on suspicion of violating the Self-Defense Forces Law, which prohibits SDF members from divulging classified security...
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2000

86% of aged in rehab sites termed senile

Nearly 86 percent of senior citizens placed in health facilities for elderly people to undergo rehabilitative treatment are senile, according to a report by the Health and Welfare Ministry.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2000

DPJ race for Upper House begins

The ultimate goal of the Democratic Party of Japan to wrest power from the current ruling triumvirate is seen to mainly hinge on whether party leader Yukio Hatoyama can steer his party to victory in next summer's House of Councilors election.
BUSINESS
Sep 9, 2000

Japan's hopes of holding new round of trade talks this year begin to fade

Although top leaders from the Group of Eight fired themselves up in late July to get a new round of global trade liberalization negotiations started by yearend, their agreement appears likely to fizzle out.
BUSINESS
Sep 9, 2000

Moody's cuts rating on state's yen bonds

Moody's Investors Service Inc. said Friday it has lowered its rating on yen-denominated domestic securities issued or guaranteed by the Japanese government to Aa2 from Aa1, given Japan's massive public-sector debt.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2000

Bird calls go high-tech for classes

The Wild Bird Society of Japan plans to bring the fowl call of the wild into the classroom.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Sep 9, 2000

Putin's obscure mind games

I know very little about judo. Actually, I know nothing about it at all. Yet I like the image of two people wearing cool outfits accentuated by stylish belts, circling the mat with stony faces, waiting for the right moment to jump at each other like two splendid bobcats. It is undoubtedly the sport of...
COMMENTARY
Sep 9, 2000

Parties plan for the 2001 vote

A new political season begins in Japan when an extraordinary Diet session starts later this month.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 9, 2000

Historical irony haunts Chinese uprising

HONG KONG -- Last March 8, the Chinese government executed a former vice governor of the southeast province of Jiangxi, in the hope that this would demonstrate its determination to act against corrupt and oppressive officials.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Sep 9, 2000

Putting no price on the beautiful

If all the pottery that I live with and use suddenly disappeared from my home, I would find myself quite blue. Those pieces, in their silent voices, spark my imagination and encourage me to live each day with grace and style; they are good friends. Someday I know I will have to part with them; that is...
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2000

China should give notice of maritime research: Kono

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono said Friday that China should give Japan about six months notice before conducting maritime research in Japan's exclusive economic waters.
BUSINESS
Sep 9, 2000

Sumitomo insurers eye policy sales cooperation

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. and casualty insurer Sumitomo Marine & Fire Insurance Co. are considering selling each other's policies and jointly developing insurance products, officials of the two firms said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 9, 2000

Nationalism before the national interest

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- If you ever chance to fly in the wintertime to the disputed Northern Territories -- a cluster of volcanic islets claimed by both Russia and Japan, and known as the southern Kuril Islands to Russians -- be prepared to be stranded.

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