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COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2000

More symbol than substance?

With U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright gearing up to visit North Korea, it is a good time to take a deep breath and assess where this political roller coaster is headed. We have barely digested the last photo opportunity: the remarkable image of North Korea's top general, Vice Marshal Cho Myong...
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2000

Business leaders to mark '51 accord

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty next year, a group of Japanese business leaders unveiled Friday a series of projects including a scholarship fund for American scholars specializing in Japanese studies.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 21, 2000

Songs and sausages in Balkan backwoods

KOPRIVSHTITSA, Bulgaria -- Bulgaria may be one of the worst places to visit in Europe if you're looking for an advanced level of economic development, but it is a great place to go if you want a music festival where you can take off your shirt.
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2000

Shirakawa urges firsthand science classes

Nobel laureate Hideki Shirakawa suggested Friday that elementary school children in Japan more firsthand experience in their science education.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Oct 21, 2000

Koto reclaims place of honor in Japanese cultural parlor

Just as every cultured Western household during the early 20th century was expected to have a piano in the parlor, almost all Japanese upper-class households, until well past World War II, had a koto. Training on this lovely 13-stringed zither, originally imported into Japan from China as part of the...
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2000

Web schoolmate-finder flourishes

If you are Japanese and want to "meet" your old schoolmates, try accessing www.yubitoma.co.jp on the Internet, a virtual alumni association Web site with more than 1.3 million members.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2000

Mourning Empress refuses to celebrate 66th birthday

The Empress turned 66 on Friday, but no celebrations are scheduled to mark her birthday as the Imperial family is still mourning the passing in June of the Empress Dowager, the Imperial Household Agency said.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2000

North Korea resort open to tourists

Mount Kumgang, a celebrated but up to now highly restricted tourist site in North Korea, will have its first Japanese visitors Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2000

11 trillion yen plan gets official nod

The government adopted a comprehensive stimulus package Thursday worth nearly 11 trillion yen in its latest bid to place the long-stagnant economy on a full-fledged recovery track.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2000

GDP forecast rises to 1.5% for fiscal 2000

The Economic Planning Agency announced Thursday it has revised upward its economic growth projection for fiscal 2000 to around 1.5 percent in real terms from the original 1 percent predicted last December.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2000

Crime victims demand rights

A group of people whose children died at the hands of juveniles submitted a written request Thursday to Justice Minister Okiharu Yasuoka, urging the state to improve the rights of crime victims and their relatives under the Juvenile Law.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2000

Cops to use paint balls to bag thieves

OSAKA -- Osaka Prefectural Police launched a campaign Thursday to crack down on bag-snatchers by marking them with paint balls.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2000

Kawaguchi justifies CO 2 effort

Environment Agency chief Yoriko Kawaguchi has praised Japan's global warming measures and hinted at the need for more action by the United States going into international climate change negotiations next month in the Netherlands.
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 20, 2000

Bloodthirsty tales of revenge

The Kabukiza's October afternoon program features Seika Mayama's 1940 masterwork "The Hama Detached Palace" and Segawa Joko's well-known 1853 sewamono (realistic play) "Genjidana." Nizaemon Kataoka takes lead roles in both plays, while Tamasaburo Bando appears as Otomi in "Genjidana."
JAPAN
Oct 19, 2000

Nakagawa refuses to resign

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa said Wednesday he will not resign over an allegedly false statement made to the Diet about his reported dubious links with a rightist figure.
JAPAN
Oct 19, 2000

Aid donors eye $5 billion for Indonesia

Indonesia's major donors on Wednesday pledged to provide $4.8 billion in new aid -- $1.585 billion of which will come from Japan -- to help finance the country's expected 2001 budget deficit.
JAPAN
Oct 19, 2000

Blackman suspect remains tight-lipped

Police have yet to make any significant progress in the Lucie Blackman case, despite the arrest last week of a company executive suspected of having had some connection with the missing Briton.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Oct 19, 2000

These World Sports Awards rated 'X'

LONDON -- In Felix Baumgartner's eyes, Mike Tyson probably looks like a wimp, Tiger Woods possesses no useful skills and David Beckham is merely the guy who married a Spice Girl. Baumgartner's world is worth following, if you can stomach it. All the Austrian does for a living is confront death as if...
LIFE / Style & Design / BEAUTY EAST AND WEST
Oct 19, 2000

Restoring health with flowers

To continue with our rather jolly theme of happiness-inducing strategies, today we take a look at the Bach Flower Remedies.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 19, 2000

Talking head Tanaka wows 'em in Nagano

Yasuo Tanaka, candidate for the governorship of Nagano Prefecture, was supposed to meet voters at 2:30 p.m. at a shopping arcade in downtown Nagano, but it was a long arcade. A campaign worker wearing a bright orange windbreaker was handing out literature in front of Ito Yokado. "I think it's been changed,"...
COMMUNITY
Oct 19, 2000

Glittering prizes on the Ginza

There's a new tenant on Ginza's shopping street, a new jewel.
COMMUNITY
Oct 19, 2000

Kyushu reaches out to Asia through education

FUKUOKA -- For years it's been said that Kyushu's economic nerve center, Fukuoka, is one of Japan's most promising areas when it comes to forging new business and cultural links overseas. The city's proximity to the East Asian continent, as well as government and business activity, have all contributed...
EDITORIALS
Oct 18, 2000

The case of Bessie's gaur

Cloning is in the news again, as it has been regularly since the birth of Dolly the cloned sheep in Scotland in 1996. The last four years have seen a flurry of Dollies -- more sheep, cattle, pigs and mice -- and numerous bulletins on their progress, which has mostly proved surprisingly normal. In the...
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2000

Japan offers $10 million in food aid to Yugoslavia

Japan will provide about $10 million in emergency food and medical aid to the new Yugoslav government set up by opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica to help ordinary Yugoslav citizens get through the winter, government sources said Tuesday.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’