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JAPAN
May 3, 2000

Harmonica craze hits high note

Considering he's been out of work for over seven months, you'd expect Yusuke Ozaki's harmonica playing to hit a melancholic note.
JAPAN
May 3, 2000

Constitution writer backs limited role for SDF

A former officer of the GHQ of the Allied Forces who helped draft Japan's postwar Constitution suggested Tuesday that the nation's possession of armed forces and their roles be clearly written down in the supreme law.
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 2000

Regaining the spirit of prewar Japan

The budget committees of both Houses of the Diet met April 24 and 25 to hear Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's views on various matters facing his new Cabinet. Throughout both days, he answered questions from the opposition parties. As a result, he seems to have cleared his first hurdle as the head of government....
BUSINESS
May 3, 2000

Exchange unveils new face with opening of TSE Arrows

The Tokyo Stock Exchange unveiled the TSE Arrows information center, a new face of the stock exchange designed to enhance the exchange between investors and listed companies, during a press preview Tuesday.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 3, 2000

Eyes front

It's that time again. Time to talk about time. I'll try to be brief, since there is so little time for a chat. Or for much anything else.
BUSINESS
May 3, 2000

Financial sector recovering: S&P

Japan's financial sector is gradually recovering, thanks to the progress banks have made in dealing with asset quality issues and the prospect of better economic conditions. But recovery in the industry is expected to be slow at best, Standard & Poor's said Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 3, 2000

Look to past to build in tune with nature, landscaper says

Japan has a brilliant landscaping tradition and would do well to revive it in the pursuit of ecologically sound development, according to the man recognized as the founder of ecological planning.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 3, 2000

Following old paths

Last Sunday we considered flowers -- peonies, azaleas and wisteria -- and the best places to see them during our Golden Week holidays. Here is one more outing to add to your flower calendar. The Tokyo Garden Show 2000 is being held through May 7 in the large open space in front of the picture gallery...
BUSINESS
May 3, 2000

Kyoei sounding out Prudential

Compiled from staff and wire reports Ailing Kyoei Life Insurance Co. is negotiating with Prudential Insurance Co. of the United States on a capital tieup, Kyoei Life officials said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
May 3, 2000

Toshiba eyes AOL-Time Warner tieup

Toshiba Corp. has started talks with America Online Inc., the world's largest Internet service provider, on tieup possibilities with the new firm to be created through its merger with Time Warner Inc., industry sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 2, 2000

3.7 million yen donated to charities

The 1999 Japan Times Readers' Fund last month distributed 3,724,958 yen to seven organizations, including three new ones, to help finance projects for refugees and children and other non-Japanese in need.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 2, 2000

Matsuzaka, five others named to Olympic team

Seibu pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka and Orix BlueWave outfielder So Taguchi were among six professionals formally announced by the Pacific League on Monday to take part in the baseball tournament of the Sydney Olympics.
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
May 2, 2000

Stop this madness!

I'm currently reading Ichiro Ozawa's "Blueprint for a New Japan," his manifesto for giving the government and politicians of this country the kick up the backside they badly need.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
May 2, 2000

Punkers united will never be divided

It's three in the morning at the livehouse Gig-Antic in Shibuya and as the girl band launches into the first song a skinhead leaps on stage, screams "Manchester United" into a mike and dives headfirst into the mosh pit. He's caught by a studded-leather-clad kid with a yellow mohawk, a skate-punk in baggy...
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 2, 2000

Natural genki drink fuels aerial pollinators

For most of our planet's mind-numbingly long history of around 4.6 billion years, the most complex life form on Earth was the prokaryotic cell. The ghostly signatures of these simple cells without nuclei first appear in rocks dated to about 3.75 billion years ago. The length of their nearly 2-billion-year...
JAPAN
May 2, 2000

Labor chief a no-show at May Day fete

An estimated 1.7 million people took part in May Day rallies at some 1,070 locations nationwide Monday, calling on the government to alleviate the worsening employment situation and protect workers' rights, but the labor minister was conspicuously absent from the festivities.
JAPAN
May 2, 2000

Kin connect with long-lost mariner

When 94-year-old Californian John Ramsay was asked by his daughter-in-law if there was anything he wanted to do before he died, he said yes.
BUSINESS
May 2, 2000

Norinchukin plotting 401(k) course

If farmers want to join Japan's equivalent of U.S. 401(k) pension plans, there is no reason why agricultural cooperatives should not provide related services.
CULTURE / Books
May 2, 2000

'The gooks from Gardena' go to war

FROM PEARL HARBOR TO SAIGON: Japanese-American Soldiers and the Vietnam War, by Toshio Whelchel. London & New York: Verso, 1999, 203 pp., three maps, 12 photos, 16.20 British pounds (cloth). At last, a simple but moving book about the violent soul of America that almost any educated Japanese can...
EDITORIALS
May 1, 2000

The prime minister's empty chair

Four weeks after former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi was hospitalized with a stroke on April 2, the administration headed by new Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, former secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, appears to be functioning in a business-as-usual manner. In the past month, however, government...
JAPAN
May 1, 2000

Group wants lost relatives handed back

The government should not normalize diplomatic relations with North Korea unless it hands back Japanese nationals allegedly abducted by Pyongyang agents, a group of family members of such missing people and their supporters said Sunday.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji