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BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2000

Bill calls for advanced telecom network

A bill on information technology calls on Japan to build "the world's most sophisticated computerized telecommunications network" so that IT powers the nation's economic growth, government sources said Tuesday.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Sep 20, 2000

I want my RTV

While on vacation in the States, I found myself watching the finale of "Survivor," the climax of a summer of reality TV. I could have turned it off. I could have returned to my book. But no. I had been (blissfully) ignorant of all that had gone on before, but that didn't matter. I watched both it and...
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2000

Tokyo Motor Show set for Oct. 31

About 130 domestic and foreign automakers and auto parts manufacturers will exhibit over 260 buses, trucks and vans and the latest components at the 34th Tokyo Motor Show, which will focus on commercial vehicles, its organizing association said Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 20, 2000

The mysterious power of the moon

Each northern autumn, the days shorten and the nights lengthen until they reach a point of balance at the autumnal equinox in late September. The full moon at this time of the year is known as the harvest moon. During these evenly matched days and nights of fall, as the sun sinks beneath the western...
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2000

Council's proposals bode well

For an inside view on how Japan Inc. really operates, take a look at the workings of the National People's Council on Education Reform, now winding up its discussions and of which I was made a member, although I am not a Japanese national.
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2000

Young Chinese Communists invited to visit

The government will invite young members of the Chinese Communist Party here for up to two weeks in an exchange program to deepen their understanding of Japan, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 20, 2000

Taiwan is worthy of a place in the U.N.

The United Nations' Millennium Summit in New York, attended by about 150 heads of state and governments earlier this month, pledged to make globalization a positive force for all the people of the world. It published a list of central values for 21st-century international relations. It also admitted...
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Sep 20, 2000

Harry Potter, Castles and Voodoo

www.cesnur.org/recens/potter_00.htm One of the best Harry Potter sites comes from an organization that fights censorship of modern-day culture. There's chapter-by-chapter notes for "The Goblet of Fire," the latest in the series. But most of the site is dedicated to news articles (culled from all over...
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Sep 20, 2000

The flawed forests of Cuc Phuong

As many Americans have no doubt already forgotten, and as some will never forget, Vietnam was visited not just by their flag's red, white and blue but also by Agents Orange, White and Blue; toxic herbicides named after the color of their containers. A total of 72 million poisonous liters were dumped...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 20, 2000

Waiting and hoping in vain for the end of a Giant headache

When in love, one learns to put up with your partner's flaws, no matter how distasteful.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2000

Radio stargazer's key to quakes

Astronomer Yoshio Kushida believes he will receive forewarning should a major earthquake hit.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2000

NEC to spend $150 million on U.S. phone technology

NEC Corp. said Monday that it will invest $150 million over the next two years in the development of next-generation mobile phone technologies to be marketed in North America.
OLYMPICS
Sep 19, 2000

No gold for Mai-chan

SYDNEY -- Mai Nakamura led the field until the last two strokes of the pool but had to settle for silver as she claimed Japan's second medal in swimming at the Sydney Olympics in the women's 100-meter backstroke Monday.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2000

Tokyo called on to protect gays' rights

Private groups are calling on the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to add homosexuals to its list of people whose basic human rights need to be protected.
EDITORIALS
Sep 19, 2000

A welcome slowdown

The biggest concern among economists in the last year has been the prospect of a "hard landing" for the high-flying U.S. economy. They feared that either because of a crisis or by design, the United States would stall and knock the wind out of the global economy. That danger seems to be abating: The...
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.

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’